Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 30 JULY 30, 2013 P63 Briefly... Championship points leader Brad Baker (12) actually got ahead of Smith at one point. his Rogers Racing/Blue Springs Harley-Davidson, Dodge Brothers Racing's Brad Baker and South East Harley-Davidson/Flat Track Live's Sammy Halbert had their XR 750 Harley-Davidsons in hot pursuit of the fleeing Kawasaki. Baker emerged from the fourrider cluster and locked on to Smith's rear wheel. "I was actually surprised that it was Brad. I thought it would be Mees or Halbert probably," said Smith. Fresh off his first Grand National win and full of the confidence of being the current series points leader, Baker surprisingly was challenging Smith all around the smooth oval. "On lap five or six, I ran in second and closed right up on the back of Bryan. Racing with those guys is a lot of fun," said Baker. "I felt like I had the most corner speed out of anybody, especially Bryan." The whole race took on a new light on lap 15, when Smith left just a little too much room going into turn one and Baker dived deep into the gap under Smith. Then Smith slipped up just enough to get into the marbles and the Harley herd thundered through. The unforgiving notch could have been Smiths undoing, but he soldiered on. "It was good, he [Baker] got hot into one and pushed me wide," said Smith. "It would have been no big deal if we could have diced it up a little bit, but I dropped back to fourth. Then I kind of had my work cut out for me. "When Brad went under me, it was loose. The groove looked the same, but what you thought looked sticky wasn't. You were kind of like riding blind. It looked good over here, but it feels good over there. There kind of wasn't a determined groove and it all kind of blended together and Prior to the event, Circle Bell Motorsports announced that additional contingency and a higher purse was to be paid at the Sacramento Mile presented by Miller Lite and brought to you by Greg Padilla Bail Bonds and SDI Insulation. HarleyDavidson Motor Company posted an extra $3500 in contingency payments to the Grand National Twins Class. The winning rider aboard a Harley-Davidson would earn $4500 with additional contingency payments down to 10th place (with the Kawasaki win, first-place money went uncollected). In addition to the extra contingency from HarleyDavidson, Mark and Ron Zimmerman, Rod Lake Racing, Barnett Clutches and Cables, SDI Insulation, CertainTeed, and Motion Pro provided another $12,000 to be added to the purse money. The first big surprise of the day came when local rider Mikey Martin set fast qualifying time on his strong-running Bonneville Performance/Factory Triumph-backed Triumph. His lap time of 38.661 was .002 of a second quicker than Jared Mees. Martin backed up his time by leading most of the first heat before slipping to second. In the National he ran as high as fifth, but mechanical problems sidelined him after 17 laps. The heartbreak of the day had to go to Jethro Halbert. After inching his way into the National main event, a broken brake line was discovered on his Drew Massa Transportation-backed Kawasaki and he was forced to settle for an 18th-place payday. continued on next page

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