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Tuesday Conversation: Danny Eslick
October 6, 2009 by Jesse Cecil
Filed under Tuesday Conversation
Broken Arrow, Oklahoma’s Danny Eslick wrapped up the inaugural AMA Pro Daytona SportBike Championship at New Jersery Motorsports Park, the series’ final round, via six race victories and four additional podium finishes. Photo by Riles/Nelson
Three weeks before the start of the 2009 AMA Pro Road Racing series, Danny Eslick didn’t have a ride; when the smoke cleared after the final round of the ’09 AMA Pro series, he was the inaugural AMA Pro Daytona SportBike Champion. (To mark the occasion, Danny immediately melted the rear tire off his No. 9 GEICO Powersports/RMR Buell 1125R via celebratory burn-outs.) We tracked down the newly crowned champion in his home state of Oklahoma to talk about the season.
RRX: Now that you’ve had some time for it to sink in, what are your thoughts on the season?
Danny Eslick: It was way more than I could have hoped or asked for going into it. I didn’t have a ride three weeks before the season, and to come out of it with race wins and the championship, it’s beyond my expectations for the season, for sure. It still really hasn’t set in.
You seemed to gel with the Buell almost immediately. How does it compare to riding a four-cylinder, and what kinds of adjustments did you find yourself making?
It builds power a little differently being a V-twin—it’s got a lot more torque down low—but to me it’s just another motorcycle with two wheels, brakes, and a throttle, you know. That’s kind of the way I went into it as soon as I jumped on the bike, but you still have to keep up your corner speed. It’s not like it’s all point-and-shoot like a super hot-rod big bike, but I guess it takes a little bit of a different style. I don’t really know how to describe it; I just kind of do it [laughs]!
Before breaking his hand at the penultimate V.I.R. round, M4 Suzuki’s Martin Cardenas was Danny’s toughest competitor (and co-points leader). Photo by Riles/Nelson
Throughout the season, you had a few finishes that looked a little sub-par when compared to your six wins and four podiums. Was that because the Buell wasn’t as well suited to some tracks, or was it more of a rider issue?
I guess I’ll take those bad weekends [laughs]. I think my worst finish was eleventh or twelve, if I’m not mistaken, but I’ll take that over crashing out of a points-paying race any day. Some of it was tracks, some of it was just struggles, you know, with getting the bike set up and getting up to speed. Some of it might not have been us struggling so much as other guys having their kind of weekend. There were weekends that Martin [Cardenas] was just dominant, and nobody could touch him. There were a couple of weekends where I was dominant, and nobody could really touch me. When they have their bikes set up and everything is going good and they’re riding good, there are ten guys in that class who are hard to beat on their day.
What were your impressions of the new tracks, Heartland Park Topeka and New Jersey Motorsports Park?
Awesome! Any time we get to go to a new racetrack is always fun. Whether it’s going and riding my dirt bike at a new track or at the AMA level, it’s always cool. Especially Heartland Park; that was a cool one for me because it’s three-and-a-half hours from the house, and I got to race in front of a lot of my hometown people, which usually doesn’t happen because the closest track before that was like a ten-hour drive. So, it was nice to have some of those people at the races and all that. Also, New Jersey was a killer, awesome, top-notch facility, as [were] the people who run the racetrack. I had a lot of fun at both places.
In addition to race wins and wheelies, the Bruce Rossmeyer’s Daytona Racing/RMR/GEICO Powersports rider also shows some ability in the category of post-race burnouts. Photo by Riles/Nelson
Were you satisfied with the rules package and class structure that AMA Pro put into play for ‘09?
You know, it is the same guys who are racing Daytona SportBike this year that were racing Supersport last year, and pretty much the same guys in Superbikes. So, everything changed hands with promoters and the DMG and everything, but it’s all the same guys and the same teams, pretty much, all racing each other. Yeah, there are some different class structures, but it’s more or less the same thing, in my eyes.
What do you have lined up for the off-season?
Normally, I do a lot of indoor dirt track stuff in the winter-time and beating up on my brother if I can. I do a lot of trail riding and dirt bike riding, kind of goofing off, and riding my street bike a little bit.
Are you planning to stay put for next season, or do you have other plans?
Nothing is finalized yet, and I don’t really know. Even with the championship, everything is pretty quiet right now.
