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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9. William Seyle (H-D). Time: 3 min., 01.032 sec. SEMI 2 (8 laps; 9 riders, top two transfer): 1. Jake Johnson (Suz); 2. Chris Hart (H-D); 3. Charlie Italia (H-D); 4. Henry Wiles (Apr); 5. Tim Eades (H-D); 6. Nicole Cheza (H-D); 7. Dan Stanley (Tri); 8. Gary Rogers (H-D); 9. Chris Klinefelter (H-D). Time: 2 min., 59.451 sec. SEMI 3 (8 laps; 10 riders, top two transfer): 1. Paul Lynch (H-D); 2. Rob Pearson (Yam); 3. Willie McCoy (H-D); 4. Garth Bastian (H-D); 5. Josh Toungett (H-D); 6. Ken Yoder (H-D); 7. Greg Tysor (Suz); 8. Brian Phillips (H-D); 9. J.R. Schnabel (Yam); 10. Nick Evans (H-D). Time: 3 min., 01.294 sec. GRAND NATIONAL (25 laps, 18 riders): 1. Jared Mees (H-D); 2. Joe Kopp (H-D); 3. Bryan Smith (H-D); 4. Johnny Murphree (H-D); 5. Mike Hacker (H-D); 6. Kenny Coolbeth (H-D); 7. Logan Myers (H-D); 8. Jake Johnson (Suz); 9. Rob Pearson (Yam); 10. Jethro Halbert (H-D); 11. Bryan Bigelow (H-D); 12. Paul Lynch (H-D); 13. Chris Hart (H-D); 14. Ricky Marshall (H-D); 15. A.J. Eslick (H-D); 16. Chris Carr (H-D); 17. Dominic Beaulac (H-D); 18. Sam Halbert (H-D). Time: 9 min., 13.911 sec. AMA FORD QUALITY CHECKED FLAT TRACK CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS STANDINGS (After 6 of 13 rounds): 1. (TIE) Chris Carr (70/1 win)/Bryan Smith (70); 3. Kenny Coolbeth (65/1 win); 4. Rich King (60); 5. Jared Mees (59/1 win); 6. Mike Hacker (51/1 win); 7. Joe Kopp (48); 8. J.R. Schnabel (46); 9. Johnny Murphree (39); 10. Jake Johnson (32); 11. (TIE) Dominic Beaulac (31/1 win)/Shaun Russell (31); 13. Paul Lynch (27); 14. Sam Halbert (23); 15. Jethro Halbert (23); 16. Jay Springsteen (22); 17. Nick Cummings (20); 18. Rob Pearson (19); 19. (TIE) Tim Eades/Chris Hart (17). C Y C L E N E W S • JULY 26, 2006 33 year. It's the same sort of deal. The same tricks to going fast on this track are identical to Hagerstown, I think. It's just a little bit dif- ferent bike setup that's it. It was a good race, I'm happy. It's going to make this next traveling week much better." The points race for the AMA Grand National Twins Championship couldn't get any tighter as Bryan Smith has pulled into a tie with Chris Carr, both with 70 points. "It's [podi- ums] what we've got to do. We've got to keep getting on the podium and keep beat- ing that number-one guy," said Smith. "We're tied for the points lead now and that was kind of our goal coming in here. We had a bad heat race, but I knew once I got racing that I could race with them. I think I had something for Jared, but coming from the back you just can't make something happen. We've just got to stay up there. We've been doing it so far. One of these times I'm going to have to win one, I guess. Then I would really jump up there." Smith was another fan of the facility. "I thought the track was awesome. We had a lot of spectators and are already planning to come back next year. I can only see the thing being even bigger next year. The facility is awesome. The track is awesome. They had a lot of people, so why not come back - the racing was good. There was a lot of passing. I personally passed a lot of guys. I don't know about everybody else. That's what we've got to do, just keep charging all year." Johnny Murphree had his best twins race in some time. "We're headed in the right direction," said Murphree. "It's been so frus- trating for two years nearly, 18 months, something crazy like that. I don't really know when it started going down hill, but there was a lot of times when a fourth place wouldn't make me happy at all, but I'm pumped. I feel like we're the whole deal, we're rolling in the right direction. The thing was just hooked up. I made an executive decision on the tire cut before we got out there on that greasy wet surface after the rain. It was just glued down. I went with that same setup for the main event. I think we could have gone with a sharper edge because we were running up on the edges of the rubber, but it worked out fine. I was hoping for a podium, after all the bad times, a podium would have felt real good right now. It'll just feel that much better next time. We're heading in the right direction. It's were you're headed, not where you're at. I'm going to keep working my butt off. Wheeler is hustling his butt off. We'll be there all in good time. It's been a long time since I've raced towards the front of the main event and been this competitive. We'll just take it as it comes and keep working our butts off." Racing close to home is good, but pulling out a top-five finish is great. "I put in another top five," said Mike Hacker. "I love this place. I knew there were going to be a lot of fans here. The fans have been great. There are a lot of people here. Everybody in Virginia loves dirt track, we just didn't have any- where to run. I think it's great. I hope the promoters liked it, and they did a great job. I can't say enough for the guys that promoted this race and the way they prepped the track. This is a top-notch deal. This is what we need on our circuit - is races like this." Jared Mees' win moved him into fifth place in the points race picture, now 11 points out of first and just one behind Rich King (mechanical problems in his semi kept King out of the main). "It [the win] felt great, it felt like the first one," said Mees. "I had bad luck over the past couple weekends. It felt great to get that third win and first one of the season. Now we just have to keep going. I'm looking at the points and if I would have had three more laps at I-96, with that tire, I'd have an eight-point lead right about now in the championship. Oh well, we moved up to fifth and we are 11 points out. Hey, a lot can happen between now and the end. We're just going to do every weekend the best we can do. I got a good start in the heat race. I was slow in the heat race compared to all the other times. I went out there scared, thinking I'm not going to back this thing off and rode to a victory. Before I was thinking that if I didn't have bad luck, I'd have no luck, but I hope we're all over it now. We're going into Greenville next weekend and it's going to be good. You're going to have Dominic Beaulac and George Roeder running up next to the bales wide open. I hope we can pull out a good showing next weekend. It'd be nice to get closer to that championship. We're going to just take one race at a time and see where we go." Briefly... (From left to right ) Joe Kopp, Jared Mees and Bryan Smith celebrate after the National. Jake Johnson (14) rode his Suzuki to eighth place. Robert Pearson (27) put his Yamaha into the National for the first time and he ended up finishing ninth. Continued from page 31