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and grooved up. We just went backwards from there. If we had the same tire on from practice I think we would have been a lot better. We started out with a new tire and it bit us. You live and learn. We live by our mistakes. I was just in self-defense when I started going backwards. I looked back a couple times - I knew everybody was coming. I was just struggling so badly. I was just trying everything. Everything I seemed to do didn't work. On the last lap I knew Hacker was coming. I just kind of pole-putted around the inside and he still got me on the outside. All in all I was kind of bummed out. If we would have had the tire on we had on in practice, I think we would have been fine." A slow start had Smith buried in 10th place, but he has become Mr. Consistent and he clawed his way back into contention. The last half of the race he was locked into a fierce battle with Murphree, the fight carrying them past Coolbeth - but they were well behind the top two. The duo traded third several times before Smith locked up the last podium spot. "I had a good race with Murphree and luckily got third," said Smith. "I had a sec- ond row start and got a decent jump, but I went kind of tight going around the out- side of the guys on the front row. Somebody must have messed up and pushed everybody wide so I was about in the hay bales. I lost all my momentum - I was probably at least 10th on the first lap. I started picking them off. I got up to about fifth and was pretty happy with that. I just kept charging and got Coolbeth and Murphree all at once. I kind of showed Murphree a different line. I was going in a little lower and coming out a lit- tle lower than a lot of guys. Once I did that, I think Murphree did the same thing I did and passed Coolbeth. He almost got me, he did once and I got him back. I knew once I was back there that far I needed to take a different line than every- body else, so I did. I just found a line that was working for me." "When there's room to run up high, I'm normally pretty good there," said Murphree. "I felt like tonight I could go where ever I wanted. After Bryan came by and showed me that low line on the exit there I started doing that. It was good for me. I learned from that and got back by him. Then he 'Rich Kinged' me. I'm going to go hassle him about learning that from his new teammate. That was a full 'Rich King back off' from way back - it worked. He made it work for him. It was my fault that I let it happen. I should have definitely been more defensive to that move." Coolbeth lost his top-five finish on the last lap, as local hero Hacker shoved his SuperTrapp/Doc's Harley-Davidson/Tom Norton ride by. "My bike just started working good and I was able to go around a few guys," Hacker said. "I was able to go under a few guys. My bike just started working per- fect. It felt like I could do whatever I had to do, whether I wanted to go on the out- side or on the bottom." Rookie Logan Myers (Motorcyclists Post/Bruce Transportation) finished sev- enth in his first National over American Suzuki's Jake Johnson and Memphis Shades' Rob Pearson. Once again the Halbert brothers were in the main and Custom Chrome/Zanotti Racing's Jethro Halbert filled out the top 10. Bryan Bigelow (Lima Harley-Davidson- Buell/Ideal Environmental), Paul Lynch (SJS Racing/Fredericktown Yamaha), Chris Hart (Kiesow Racing/Gutterridge Harley- Davidson), Ricky Marshall (Eaken Racing/Dick Ford/Mike Meyer), AJ Eslick (R&D Machine/SJS Racing/KK Motorcycle Supply), Carr, Dominic Beaulac (Lombardi Harley-Davidson/KK Motorcycle Supply/R&D Machine) and White's Harley-Davidson/Iron Valley Harley-Davidson's Sam Halbert rounded out the field. CN VIRGINIA MOTOR SPEEDWAY SALUDA, VIRGINIA RESULTS: JULY 15, 2006 (ROUND 6 OF 13) HEAT 1 (10 laps; 10 riders, top three transfer): 1. Chris Carr (H-D); 2. Kenny Coolbeth (H-D); 3. Mike Hacker (H-D); 4. Henry Wiles (Apr); 5. Shaun Russell (H- D); 6. Rob Pearson (Yam); 7. Tim Eades (H-D); 8. AJ Eslick (H-D); 9. Greg Tysor (Suz); 10. Chris Klinefelter (H-D). Time: 3 min., 44.644 sec. HEAT 2 (10 laps; 10 riders, top three transfer): 1. Jared Mees (H-D); 2. Bryan Smith (H-D); 3. Sam Halbert (H-D); 4. Josh Toungett (H-D); 5. Jake Johnson (Suz); 6. Joe Hartrich (H-D); 7. Brian Phillips (H-D); 8. Gary Rogers (H- D); 9. Jeremy Thompson (H-D); 10. J.R. Schnabel (H-D). Time: 3 min., 45.704 sec. HEAT 3 (10 laps; 10 riders, top three transfer): 1. Johnny Murphree (H-D); 2. Jethro Halbert (H-D); 3. Dominic Beaulac (H-D); 4. Paul Lynch (H-D); 5. Rich King (H-D); 6. Charlie Italia (H-D); 7. Garth Bastian (H-D); 8. Raun Wood (H-D); 9. Dan Stanley (Tri); 10. Nick Evans (H-D). Time: 3 min., 45.387 sec. HEAT 4 (10 laps; 10 riders, top three transfer): 1. Logan Myers (H-D); 2. Joe Kopp (H-D); 3. Bryan Bigelow (H-D); 4. Ricky Marshall (H-D); 5. Chris Hart (H-D); 6. Willie McCoy (H-D); 7. William Seyle (H-D); 8. Nicole Cheza (H-D); 9. Ken Yoder (H-D); 10. Jess Roeder (H-D). Time: 3 min., 44.232 sec. SEMI 1 (8 laps; 9 riders, top two transfer): 1. Ricky Marshall (H-D); 2. A.J. Eslick (H-D); 3. Raun Wood (H-D); 4. Shaun Russell (H-D); 5. Joe Hartrich (H-D); 6. Jeremy Thompson (H-D); 7. Jess Roeder (H-D); 8. Rich King (H-D); JULY 26, 2006 • C Y C L E N E W S 32 MY OWN RACE 67 Mike Hacker 5th Place "I'm a little bit disappointed, I strug- gled all day," said Mike Hacker after his fifth-place ride. "I just really could- n't get the bike working - mainly because I kept messing with it. For the main event, we went back to the way we pulled it out of the truck. You know how these guys are. You can't give them a little bit of a head start. I didn't get a good start in the main off the second row. I tried to go around [Dominic] Beaulac once and slipped up high and dropped a few positions. It was a good night because I ran 25 hard laps. My goal, with my shoulder being hurt, was by the end of this year to go 25 laps. I also wanted to do a fast time on the first lap and a fast time on the last lap. I've already achieved my goal and I won one last week. I'm still just a little rusty. If I would have just left it alone, maybe I would have been on the front row and had a whole different story. I have to just keep dig- ging. 14X Logan Myers 7th Place "It could have been a little better," said Logan Myers of his first-ever Grand National main event appearance. "I think I rode pretty good. I made a few mistakes in the beginning, but got away with them. I got passed by a few guys, but luckily we got them all back. I was hoping to get it back up into the top three but I was too far back by then. I went from around fourth to around 10th in the first couple laps, but I battled back as hard as I could. I started running different lines. When I did that, it was defi- nitely working a lot better." 14 Jake Johnson 8th Place "I realized I still remember how to ride," said Jake Johnson after finishing eighth. "I've been struggling the last couple weeks. I was kind of down a lit- tle bit. When we went out for the main, I figured I was going to have my work cut out for me from the third row. I ended up getting an awesome start. I went around the whole second row going into one. I came out of the first corner in sixth or seventh. I ended up getting by Chris [Carr] and I felt really fast. I thought I had a good shot at getting up there into the top five or so. It seemed like as the track started to dry out a bit I started to struggle. I started searching trying to go low to find some moisture. I tried to go high to find some moisture, I kind of lost a little bit of time." 27 Rob Pearson 9th Place Babe DeMay and Tryce Welch have been working on the Memphis Shades/Yamaha/Parts Unlimited-backed Yamaha project for several years and it finally paid off as Rob Pearson put the bike into its first National main event. "We're pretty excited," Pearson said. "I've been working with this thing for a year now. Finally getting into a main event was a relief. Then to get up to finishing ninth from a poor start... we can't say enough. It's kind of a big relief off my shoulders. I've been hearing it from a lot of guys about struggling with the Yamaha, but we finally got it in there and did well with it. We'll see what happens. Halfway down the straightaways, this thing picks up so much speed. I could get in the corner good and get it stopped. The biggest issue right now is getting it to turn and getting it off the corner. It's getting better, it's getting a lot better. If it gets any better getting it to turn and getting off the corner, they might have a prob- lem with it because it has so much motor going down the straight- aways. We're starting to get it to the ground and that was a big bang on why we did well tonight. I think the tight corners were kind of an advantage to us tonight. This thing accelerates pretty quick so we could zap a bunch of teeth off and accelerate off the corner and run strong all the way down the straightaways. There was just an issue with getting it turned. I really like these clay stock-car tracks. The more of these we go to, the better." 1 Chris Carr 16th Place Defending Grand National Champion Chris Carr got a great start, but was unable to keep his Quality Checked Certified Pre-Owned Ford backed Harley in the hunt. A very "un-Carr like" performance saw the points leader slide deep into the pack as one after another rider stormed around. "I sucked in the beginning and got worse," Carr said. "We just totally missed the setup tonight. From the second lap on I had absolutely no forward bite. We were proba- bly off on the gearing. I think being in the first heat race hurt us to a certain extent because the track changed a lot. We learned some- thing - we'll be better next year when we come back. Turns three and four weren't as banked as much. You could run into one pretty deep and the banking would hold you down. The thing that I found was that even when it was wet earlier on, unless somebody made a mistake, it was a tough track to pass on because we were riding so high up. We were using the banking to hold us down. Finding a way to pass was difficult. Obviously 15 guys passed me pretty easy in the main event, but when you're not going forward off the corner that's going to happen. I got my tire too hot too early. It was cooked. It didn't wear out or anything it just got too hot and wouldn't go for- ward." Virginia Motor Speedway Saluda, VA Round 6 July 15, 2006 AMA Ford Quality Checked Flat Track Championship