Cycle News

FLAT TRACK AMERICAN FLAT TRACK CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 16 / SEPTEMBER 8, 2018 WILLIAMS GROVE SPEEDWAY / MECHANICSVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA P76 iii My Own Race: 14 BRIAR BAUMAN 1ST AFT TWINS "I don't know what my reasoning was, but I decided to go to the top on the track in the main event. I just knew that was going to be my spot based off the heat races," said Briar Bauman. "Dave Zanotti said, 'Do you really think so?' I went into turn three in about fifth off the first start. I came out in second and thought, 'oh man, we're in a good spot. I found the honey hole.' I was freaking out a little bit on the restart. I was confident in my setup when I went by Jared, but at the same time I had some insecuri- ties. I kept asking Dave, 'How'd it look?' We had a good lead, but still with a red flag you never know what can happen. If Jared gets the holeshot, then I would need to race with him a little bit. Bronson picked up my line quick, too. Once I got to five-to-go I coasted the last three laps. I looked back at two-to-go, and someone was a pretty good distance back. I didn't know it was Bronson. I just put a heater in for the white flag lap." 37 BRONSON BAUMAN 2ND PLACE AFT TWINS "It was an amazing night," said Bronson Bauman. "Johnny Lewis went bombarding in and cleaned out half the field. I was kind of mad about it, but I gathered myself back up and got another good start. I was amazed that I caught the champ. I had an oppor- tunity where my line was working better than his and I snuck by him. I was anticipating that he would come back by me. I figured he would take my line and work it better than me as Jared is known to do. I just kept hitting my marks. It paid off. To be honest I think Briar and I were close in pace. Towards the end I'm sure he realized that he had a decent gap. He started rolling out of it and I was gung ho hoping that he would give up a little too much. He was quick right out of the gate. It took me a little bit to start rolling with it. I didn't realize that I had gapped Jared. I made a couple mistakes, I was surprised that no one capitalized on it. I did take a glance back and saw I had a small gap on him late in the race. I think it was about five to go when I did that. I figured, 'just hit your marks, play it cool and ride your ride.'" 1 JARED MEES 3RD PLACE AFT TWINS "Hats off to those guys. They rode so good, especially Briar," said Jared Mees. "When we got the red flag, I thought, here's my little chance; I knew I didn't really have the speed. I changed up my line after the red flag trying to put something together. Really, I was just going to try to hold them up. It wasn't meant to be tonight. With the fast pace there was something we maybe wanted to try, but as soon as we came in from our semi they were calling first call to be in staging for the main event. Basically, we just gassed it up and went. We just did the best we could; we didn't really have the time to do what we wanted to do. I'm not sure if that would have made or broke us. I couldn't get off turn four at all, like Briar could. He would pull off turn four so well. Hats off to those guys for the win and second place for Bronson. That's awesome." 5 JAKE JOHNSON 4TH PLACE AFT TWINS "I wasn't sure where I wanted to be riding on the track. I knew in the semi that every- where there was rubber; it was super slick. Going into the corners it was like ice," said Jake Johnson. "When I saw Briar up there I thought, 'well, he is leading the thing going away,' so I tried it. I don't know if it was any faster for me. I rode both lines and made some passes. I played a little defense on the last lap to keep Vanderkooi from going around me." 20 JAROD VANDERKOOI 5TH PLACE AFT TWINS "Jake Johnson got me at the end. Carver dropped out with probably five to go. That's a bummer for him," said Jarod Vanderkooi. "I thought, 'ok cool, I'm fourth.' Next thing I know, here comes Jake. You can never count that guy out. It was still a fun race. I got a bad start. I just messed up on the light on the first start. I got behind early, but there were people colliding with the air fence on that first start. Ended up regrouping and coming home fifth. I'm happy with that."

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