Cycle News

Cycle News 2019 Issue 24 June 18

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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FLAT TRACK AMERICAN FLAT TRACK CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 7/JUNE 16, 2019 NH MOTOR SPEEDWAY/LOUDON, NEW HAMPSHIRE P76 iii My Own Race: 37 BRONSON BAUMAN 1ST AFT TWINS "I probably surprised a lot of people with the good starts I was getting tonight. I'm not the great- est at holeshots," said Bronson Bauman. "I got the holeshot four out of four times. I don't know how I did it, but I think my brother helped me out quite a bit. He passed me at one point. I felt lucky with the restart. I'm sure if there wasn't a red flag, he would have checked out on me. After the second restart, I just relaxed and went with it. I felt like I had a good line. I just calmed down and rode my race. I knew that no one was going to pass me up high unless it was coming off a corner, and I felt strong coming off. I knew it would be hard for someone to get around me. I relaxed and rode the inside line. I think I may have put a little distance on second before the third restart. The last restart, with five to go, was a struggle for me. I don't think I'm mentally strong enough to be in that position again. I didn't think I was tonight, but I was happy to pull it off." 14 BRIAR BAUMAN 2ND AFT TWINS "To land on the podium with Bronson, and at one of the roughest racetracks that I have ever been at, it's not something that I would have thought would happen," said Briar Bauman. "I would come off a corner and hit a hole, and I had to kind of just let it run its course. Unfortu- nately, I was in the wall some, but luckily everything played out okay. I was very conservative tonight. I think that we are looking at the big picture." 5 JAKE JOHNSON 3RD AFT TWINS "It was a bit of an up-and-down day," said Jake Johnson. "We came into this race trying a lot of new things with the bike with different chassis and motor stuff. We got here and saw the track and thought, huh, I wonder what we are going to learn today. I didn't really know what to expect for the main. I knew it was going to be charge and survive. I just kind of slowly started picking my way toward the front. I think that one of those last restarts helped me a bunch. I was kind of stuck in seventh behind Bryan and Sammy. I just couldn't clear them. I would get alongside but couldn't get by. I was able to get by them on one of the restarts. On the [last] restart I kind of played it conserva- tively. I was hoping for the Baumans to have a little family rivalry and take each other out or mix it up a little bit. They were calm." 20 JAROD VANDERKOOI 4TH AFT TWINS "They did all they could with the track considering the track surface. Coming from the third row, it was deteriorating fast. I just want the comeback award, coming from the third row in all these races," said Jarod Vanderkooi. "I felt that the track got one-lined. It was hold on for the rest of the race. It was a physical race. I've ridden Lima for 25 laps, and this one was a rough one. We will get to Lima in a couple weeks and think it is a cakewalk, hopefully. I took a couple shots at Jake up the inside, but with the holes we had, they had hard edges. When I would try that move, I would make a mistake. I would go off onto a line that we hadn't run before, and it was a little slicker. I thought I had him one time, but he got a good drive out of the corner. It just wasn't worth the risk of putting us both on the ground for the move." 4 BRYAN SMITH 5TH AFT TWINS "There were all sorts of chaos on the five-to-go," Bryan Smith said. "I'm just happy to get fifth. I felt like I was going to go over the bars a couple times with the holes. It was by far the roughest flat track race that I've ever ridden. It was kind of fun to pick through the ruts and holes for about five laps, but 20 or 25 was too many. It reminded me a lot of the old Daytona stadium track. It was never that bad. That was the biggest workout I have ever gotten on a flat track race. We made a bunch of changes with the bikes and suspension. We got better and better. You need to go slow to go fast, but you also need to be aggressive." 52 SHAYNA TEXTER 16TH SINGLES Beginning from row two in the Singles main, Shayna Texter (Red Bull KTM) didn't get off to the best start as she rounded the opening lap in 16th position. Racing through a clutch issue for the duration of the main event, Texter did her best to push through the adversity and ulti- mately salvaged 16th place for the night. "This was one of the gnarliest and roughest tracks around," she said. "I qualified fourth overall, so I was really excited for that given the condi- tions and how physical the racetrack was. I was feeling good and competitive heading into the main event, but unfortunately, we had a little bit of a clutch issue going on. I was able to ride through the issue, but it definitely was noticeable and a factor in our result."

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