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MY OWN RACE 17 Henry Wiles 4th Place "I got a third in my heat race and that put me on the sec- ond row for the main event," said Henry Wiles after his ride to fourth in the National. "Overall, it wasn't too bad of a night. I picked up a few things with the bike and the track and everything. I think Kyle Ragsdale was starting to get tired, and he faded. I knew as long as I could get by him, I figured I could get away from those guys. I figured out some lines. With a track that you've never been to before, sometimes it takes you 25 laps around the thing to figure things out. I started clicking about halfway through the race. It was a lot of fun. I think I could have got by Jared [Mees] with another lap or two; we sucked up to him in a lap or two. For sure, I think I could have got by him with a few more laps. I think the track probably came around to the DTX's a little bit more. There were a few spots that were chunked up and got a little rough. Jared did a really good job early on in the race to build up the lead that he did. I just think, with being a new track and on a DTX bike and a slip- pery track, it just took a little while to figure it all out." 33 J.R. Schnabel 5th Place "I didn't think there would be much passing, but I was like a ping-pong ball out there," said J.R. Schnabel. "I was third for a while, then I was all the back to sixth and we ended up getting fifth out of it. I felt like I had a good race. If I would have been out there by myself, I would have felt like I was lighting the world on fire. A few guys were doing just a little bit better. I was just having a little trouble hooking up. It was all traction. A lot of times on these tracks, that's it with me, my wrist doesn't quite work right. I was snapping the gas a little too hard again tonight and spinning out. We got out of here with a top five and we'll just have to build on that. Kyle Ragsdale was very impressive tonight. He ran very strong in the main. I don't think he's used to going 25 laps. He was third or fourth the whole time, then all of sudden after about 15 laps, he kind of shut down. That was good for us. We ended up getting by him and pulling off a top five. It wasn't bad - it was a good night." 31 Kenny Coolbeth 6th Place "I got off the line pretty good and I just kind of put my head down," said Kenny Coolbeth after riding to a sixth-place finish. "I tried to stay out of trouble. I knew everybody was going to be everywhere. I just stayed out of trouble and ended up sixth. If I would have been two more spots ahead I would have been real happy. It's all right and tomorrow is another day. You really couldn't pass anywhere unless you stuffed them or really caught them off guard. I think I made two passes the whole race. Fourth-fastest time was pretty good for me on a TT. It was slick. The track pretty much stayed the same all day, at least for me it did. I just stayed on that black notch. I made it as far as I could." 43 Sam Halbert 7th Place "It was a fun day," said Sam Halbert. "I tried moving up on the track a little bit and I lost a few positions. I had to just kind of stay below the groove and play follow-the-leader and make a few passes here and there. I did the best I could and got a top 10. It was kind of strange - you had to stay below the groove. It was kind of follow the leader and hard to pass. You had to wait for a mistake kind of deal today. It's really great riding a National here. Hopefully, we are going to keep doing this, because I really liked it." 3 Joe Kopp 9th Place "It was kind of hard. I just wasn't getting very good starts all night," said Joe Kopp after his ride to ninth. "That was kind of the key to it really. It was pretty hard to pass out there. I qualified second fastest and had the pole in my heat. I saw Chris [Carr] didn't get a very good start off the bottom in his heat race. I was debating on whether to take the top or the bottom in my heat race. I took the bottom, thinking that maybe he just messed up a little bit on his start, but all night long, nobody was getting off the bottom. In the semi, I ended up picking the outside for my starting spot. I kind of hate to pick the outside on a little short-track entrance like this, but I had to. I got pushed out a little bit there. I got through on that deal and got second. The third row on a short track or TT is no place to be, for sure. We came up through the pack pretty good. Made some passes. I just needed to be a little bit further up on the starting line. Once I got into Schnabel, Coolbeth, Halbert and Ragsdale, there was no place to go. I finally got by a couple of them. If you would see a guy two in front of you move up, the guy right between you was taking the other line. It was pretty tough racing out there. It was a good track; it was a fun track to ride. I loved riding it. It was fun to ride, but hard to pass." Motorsports' Rob Pearson rounded out the top 10. The remainder of the field included SJS Racing/Tramontin Racing's Paul Lynch, the South Sound Honda/Hlebo Brothers Suspensions brother team of Scooter and Christian Vernon, Jethro Halbert, Wierbach-Zumbrun Racing/Steel Dreams' Dan Stanley, Waters Technical Forestry's Eric Beers, Coziahr Harley-Davidson/ National Cycles' Johnny Murphree and Bartels Harley-Davidson/TNTHarley.com's Shaun Russell. Both Murphree and Russell fell during the race. Murphree in the right-hander on lap 19 and Russell in the final turn. Murphree remounted, but Russell's race ended with his crash. CN CASTLE ROCK RACE PARK CASTLE ROCK, WASHINGTON RESULTS: AUGUST 12, 2006 (ROUND 4 OF 7) HEAT 1 (10 laps; 10 riders, top three transfer): 1. J.R. Schnabel (Yam); 2. Eric Beers (Yam); 3. Chris Carr (KTM); 4. Bryan Smith (Hon); 5. Rob Pearson (Suz); 6. Brandan Bergen (Hon); 7. Paul Lynch (Yam); 8. Rick Warmbo (Hon); 9. Dennis Cameron (Hon); 10. Kevin Varnes (Suz). Time: 3 min., 59.573 sec. HEAT 2 (10 laps; 10 riders, top three transfer): 1. Kyle Ragsdale (Hon); 2. Christian Vernon (Hon); 3. Johnny Murphree (Hon); 4. Joe Kopp (Hon); 5. Scooter Vernon (Hon); 6. Mike Rush (Hon); 7. Raun Wood (Hon); 8. Eric Rickman (Suz); 9. Ken Yoder (Suz); 10. Jeremy Deruyter (Hon). Time: 3 min., 58.234 sec. HEAT 3 (10 laps; 10 riders, top three transfer): 1. Jake Johnson (Suz); 2. Jethro Halbert (Hon); 3. Henry Wiles (Hon); 4. Ryan Anderson (KTM); 5. Dan Stanley (Hon); 6. Luke Gough (Hon); 7. Tim Eades (Hon); 8. Shawn Raggio (Hon); 9. John Olmstead (Hon); 10. Josh Toungett (Hon). Time: 3 min., 58.069 sec. HEAT 4 (10 laps; 10 riders, top three transfer): 1. Jared Mees (Hon); 2. Sam Halbert (Hon); 3. Kenny Coolbeth (Hon); 4. Shaun Russell (Hon); 5. Aaron King (Hon); 6. Rich King (KTM); 7. A.J. Eslick (Hon); 8. Jeff Hiatt (Hon); 9. Beau Brown (Yam); 10. Alex Wood (Kaw). Time: 4 min., 02.080 sec. SEMI 1 (8 laps; 9 riders, top two transfer): 1. Scooter Vernon (Hon); 2. Rob Pearson (Suz); 3. Ryan Anderson (KTM); 4. Rich King (KTM); 5. Eric Rickman (Suz); 6. Josh Toungett (Hon); 7. Beau Brown (Yam); 8. Tim Eades (Hon); 9. Rick Warmbo (Hon). Time: 3 min., 14.490 sec. SEMI 2 (8 laps; 12 riders, top two transfer): 1. Dan Stanley (Hon); 2. Joe Kopp (Hon); 3. Raun Wood (Hon); 4. Aaron King (Hon); 5. Jeff Hiatt (Hon); 6. Shawn Raggio (Hon); 7. Jeremy Deruyter (Hon); 8. Brandan Bergen (Hon); 9. Dennis Cameron (Hon). Time: 3 min., 15.282 sec. SEMI 3 (8 laps; 10 riders, top two transfer): 1. Shaun Russell (Hon); 2. Paul Lynch (yam); 3. Bryan Smith (Hon); 4. A.J. Eslick (Hon); 5. Mike Rush (Hon); 6. Kevin Varnes (Suz); 7. Ken Yoder (Suz); 8. John Olmstead (Hon); 9. Alex Wood (Kaw); 10. Luke Gough (Hon). Time: 3 min., 14.771 sec. GRAND NATIONAL (25 laps, 18 riders): 1. Jake Johnson (Suz); 2. Chris Carr (KTM); 3. Jared Mees (Hon); 4. Henry Wiles (Hon); 5. JR Schnabel (Yam); 6. Kenny Coolbeth (Hon); 7. Sam Halbert (Rot); 8. Kyle Ragsdale (Hon); 9. Joe Kopp (Hon); 10. Rob Pearson (Suz); 11. Paul Lynch (Yam); 12. Scooter Vernon (Hon); 13. Christian Vernon (Hon); 14. Jethro Halbert (Hon); 15. Dan Stanley (Hon); 16. Eric Beers (Yam); 17. Johnny Murphree (Hon); 18. Shaun Russell (Hon). Time: 10 min., 02.904 sec. AMA FORD QUALITY CHECKED FLAT TRACK SIN- GLES CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS STANDINGS (After 4 of 7 rounds): 1. Jake Johnson (69/1 win); 2. Joe Kopp (58); 3. J.R. Schnabel (57/1 win); 4. Sam Halbert (45); 5. Henry Wiles (44); 6. Shaun Russell (41); 7. Bryan Smith (40/1 win); 8. Kevin Varnes (37/1 win); 9. Kenny Coolbeth (36); 10. (TIE) Chris Carr/Johnny Murphree (32); 12. Rob Pearson (30); 13. Jared Mees (22); 14. Bryan Bigelow (16); 15. (TIE) Dan Stanley/Jethro Halbert (13); 17. (TIE) Kyle Ragsdale/Nick Daniels/Greg Tysor (11); 20. Raun Wood (10). 450 PRO SPORT MAIN (12 laps: 12 riders): 1. Joe Hernandez (Hon); 2. Rodney Spencer (Hon); 3. Cory Texter (Hon); 4. Scott Baker (Hon); 5. Elliot Oquist (Hon); 6. Derick Oquist (Hon); 7. Keith Anderson (Hon); 8. Dustin Pruczinski (Yam); 9. Kenny Malaguarnero (Hon); 10. Doug Reinert (Suz); 11. Austin Helwig (Hon); 12. Jermaine Bacosa (Hon). Time: 4 min., 52.540 sec. UPCOMING ROUNDS Peoria, Illinois August 20 Bridgeport, New Jersey August 26 Castle Rock Race Park Castle Rock, WA Round 4 August 12, 2006 AUGUST 23, 2006 • C Y C L E N E W S 38 AMA Grand National Singles Championship Jake Johnson celebrates his first victory of the season. (Below) Kenny Coolbeth (31), Sam Halbert (43) and Joe Kopp (3) do battle in the National.