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M4 Suzuki>> OPPORTUNITY FOR VICTORY SLIPS AWAY FROM DISALVO AT VIR

August 19 2009

 
Team M4 Suzuki's Jason DiSalvo was robbed of a chance to fight for the AMA Pro Daytona SportBike victory on Sunday at Virginia International Raceway when a fluke incident dropped him from contention while battling for the lead.

Just as he did on Saturday, the New Yorker quickly charged up through the pack aboard his Suzuki GSX-R600 from his ninth-place starting position to join the dogfight for the win.

But while sitting a close third behind Roger Hayden and Josh Herrin on lap 9 of 23, DiSalvo's right knee impacted the inside of the curbing and wrenched his leg back. He rode off the track and dismounted his machine in pain, ending his promising ride early.

A disappointed DiSalvo explained, "I had the pace, I had the bike, the settings were perfect, and I was just biding my time. I was going to try to get them both at once and get a clean break. The pace was incredible at the beginning but right around when I went out Roger started to struggle with grip.

"When my knee hit there was so much pain I couldn't even focus. Everything went blurry and I just rode it off into the grass. I had a pretty good idea I wasn't in an impact area. I was going to try to get it over to a wall or something but the pain was just too intense. I put it down and just laid there. I lifted up my thigh and my knee just bent to a 90-degree angle to the side. They told me in the medical center the trauma just turned my knee into jelly for a few moments.

"The leathers were just torn open completely by the impact, but fortunately the knee is intact and there were no major injuries."

Daytona SportBike title hopeful Martin Cardenas registered another heroic ride to finish in eleventh position despite breaking his right hand on Friday. However, title rival Danny Eslick improved from Saturday, picking up second on Sunday and opening up a 17-point championship gap with just the New Jersey Motorsports Park doubleheader remaining on the schedule.

"It was really tough like yesterday," the former Spanish Supersport champ said. "We weren't so lucky today, however, and Danny finished second today. I did what I could and we'll try to be fit in New Jersey and win both races and hope for the best.

"I'm going to go home and get an operation and get a pin put in my hand so that it will heal up quicker. We'll see how I'll be in New Jersey, but I think I'll be ready to go. I need to win; that's all I can do."

Team M4 Suzuki will head to the 2009 AMA Pro Road Racing season finale at New Jersey Motorsports Park in Millville, NJ, on September 4-6.

M4 Suzuki is sponsored by Hotbodies Racing and uses our windscreens and bodywork on all of their bikes. Hotbodies Racing specializes in manufacturing high-performance parts for high-performance sportbikes, and is the North American distribution of KR Tuned performance parts. Hotbodies Racing is the market leader in Undertails, Huggers, Windscreens, Flush-Mount Signals, Megaphone Exhausts and full-race Bodywork. Hotbodies Racing supports the sport with sponsorship around the world and encourages dealer and distributor inquiries. For more information visit: www.HOTBODIESRACING.com.