It’s a cold and cloudy day at the Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California. The Daytona Sportbike riders will be taking to the track soon for the first race of the weekend.
Jason DiSalvo will lead the pack off the grid. DiSalvo claimed the pole position with a 1’39.257 lap time, beating out Josh Herrin by a half second. Herrin and Disalvo will be joined by Jake Holden and Danny Eslick on the front row.
Tommy Aquino, who will lead the second row on the grid, was the final rider to finish within a second of DiSalvo’s pace.
The Grid
Row 1: DiSalvo / Herrin / Holden / Eslick
Row 2: Aquino / West / Knapp / Jacobsen
Row 3: Beabier / Westby / Odom O’Hara
The Daytona Sportbike riders have just taken off on the warm up lap. They'll be lining up on the grid shortly.
And they're off.
DiSalvo, Herrin, and Holden jump off the line and narrowly avoid a crash.
Dane Westby had a mechanical mistake at the start of the race. He had to push his bike back to the pits.
DiSalvo leads after lap 1, followed by Holden, Eslick, and West.
Holden drafting off of DiSalvo, but can not find the space to pass.
DiSalvo and Holden are already seperating from the rest of the pack.
Holden is still sticking to DiSalvo's tail, but can't find his way by just yet.
Lap 3: DiSalvo, Holden, Eslick, West.
DiSalvo and Holden are two seconds ahead of the rest of the pack.
Santiago Villa has crashed. Villa is up and ok.
Holden goes into top four and nearly clips DiSalvo. Holden runs off the track and drops back about 8 positions.
Lap 6: DiSalvo now has a big lead up front. DiSalvo currently leads the pack by 5 seconds.
Holden has climbed back up to fifth place and now has his eyes on passing Aquino.
Lap 7: DiSalvo has extended his lead to 6 seconds Danny Eslick is sitting comfortable in second, close to two seconds ahead of Jacobsen.
Holden is now in third. Holden has been whipping around the track in an effort to get back toward the front. DiSalvo may be too far in front, but Eslick should watch his back.
Lap 9: DiSalvo, Eslick, Holden, Jacobsen, Aquino, West, Beaubier
Holden moves around the outside to pass Eslick.
Eslick slips back infront of Holden.
DiSalvo has the fastest lap of the day so far with a 1'39.275 lap. DiSalvo may have gone into preserve mode, as his last few laps have been in the high 1'40s.
Lap 11: Holden passes up Eslick, crosses the line .5 seconds ahead.
With 10 laps to go, Holden starts edging his way toward DiSalvo. Holden cut a second off of DiSalvo's lead on the last lap.
Lap 13: Holden cuts another second off of DiSalvo's lead. DiSalvo now leads by 6 seconds as he starts encountering traffic from slower riders.
Lap 14: 8 more laps to go. Holden drops another second. Holden is lapping in the low 1'39s and keeps bringing himself closer to the leader.
Lap 15: DiSalvo picks up the speed and brings his lap time back down below 1'40.
Lap 16: DiSalvo holds the lead by 4.6 seconds.
Lap 17: DiSalvo, Holden, Eslick, Jacobsen, Aquino.
DiSalvo nearly goes down. It looks like DiSalvo has some serious wear on his tires. He keeps the bike upright but lost some speed.
Lap 19: Holden cuts the lead down to four seconds, but with just three laps to go, it could be too late.
Lap 20: DiSalvo brings the gap back to 5 seconds. If DiSalvo can keep hi bike upright for the next few laps he'll win the first Daytona Sportbike race of the weekend.
DiSalvo wins the 1st AMA Daytona Sportbike race at Infineon!
On the podium: DiSalvo / Holden / Eslick.
Full Race Report to Follow.
