Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 30 JULY 30, 2013 The battle behind the pack of five at the front was some 8 seconds behind and consisted of Kenny Coolbeth (2), Rob Pearson (27), Jake Johnson (5) and Mikey Martin (91). there were some ripples. It was a kind of technical track, but technical where you couldn't see it. It was totally by feel, which is what makes dirt track unique." Baker's time at the point was short-lived, however. "I still couldn't make that pass happen down the straightaway," said Baker. "I stuffed it underneath him once going into turn one and I was surprised that the next people that passed me were Jared and Sammy. I thought we had a pretty good lead for a little while." While wearing a brace on his healing broken arm, Mees took the lead over Halbert for a lap before Baker moved back into second. "It was a lot of fun coming back after the injury," said Mees. "I was so hungry to go racing." As Mees and Baker dueled, Smith gathered himself up and, after a couple of laps, began his charge to the front. "The Harleys are real good through the corners, we all know that," said Smith. "We were close to them but they still had a little bit on me. They had just enough on me that I couldn't really catch the draft until about halfway down the straightaway. There were a couple times that I could have really bombed it in there and tried to run those guys off the groove before P65 Briefly... Despite the change in rules for mile races by AMA Pro Racing (giving the XR 750 Harley-Davidson's 1mm back in their restrictor plates for mile events and applying the minimum weight rule to all motorcycles) the 650 Kawasaki remains the talk of the pits. "Our bikes run better with the new restrictors, but still it is definitely not good enough," said Kenny Coolbeth. "I was just trying to make a pass anywhere in the heat races, I was racing with Dan [Ingram]. He would just kill me down the straightaway with that Kawasaki. He was riding well, but you just can't get away from the things. You can put a really good corner in and think they are quite a ways back and then all of a sudden you just feel them blow your doors in. I'm not looking forward to all the miles left with those bikes, but my bike is really running good. I just need a little luck." "We still have to get something figured out to have the straightaway speed that the Kawasaki's have. You've got to give or take a little bit," said Brad Baker. "The Kawasaki's are faster down the straightaway and the Harleys are faster in the corner. The race is won on the straightaway, not in the corner. It has to get a little different so we can pass on the straightaways. It should come down to strategy, not who has the fastest bike. There were a couple kind of sketchy moments; the Kawasakis kind of slow down a little more coming into the corners than the Harleys do. One time I literally just had to straighten the thing up and blow the groove, or I would have hit Bryan [Smith], laid it down or highsided. Another time was kind of the same deal, when I came back in and passed Sammy [Halbert] and Brandon [Robinson] back. It just got a little hairy a couple of times coming into the corners." Jared Mees also had an opinion on the Kawasakis. "I don't want to sound like a whiner, but we are still racing restricted 750s against unrestricted 750s is what it comes down to," said Jared Mees. "Bryan's [Smith] Kawasaki does seem like it runs better than anyone else's Kawasaki out there, so hat's off to those guys because they are doing the homework. His Kawasaki definitely runs better than anyone else's, because I can draft with the other ones. Their team is working really hard and it is showing. I feel like I've got the best and strongest running Harley-Davidson XR 750 in the world, and we can't do anymore to it. I know that." The five mile races left on the schedule leave Bryan Smith full of confidence. "I feel good about the miles coming up," he added. "This track has probably been the slickest that we have been to. Santa Rosa is probably going to be tough, too. The rest of them we should have something for them. I ran the Formula USA race at Virginia and never even thought about shutting off on the 450. I am planning on doing the same with the Kawi and running it wide open. I think it will be good." Brad Baker remains the leader of the AMA Pro Racing Grand National Championship, but Brandon Robinson did close the gap slightly. continued on next page

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