Cycle News

ROUND 9/AUGUST 24, 2013 COLONIAL DOWNS/NEW KENT, VIRGINIA FLAT TRACK P124 AMA J&P CYCLES GRAND NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP And what of Smith, the rider who utterly dominated at the Mega Mile until nine laps in? Unknown electrical gremlins were the suspected cause for his bike to suddenly start missing and his big two-and-ahalf second lead went away all at once and he was gobbled up and passed by the pack. His bike started running again and he was able to salvage 12th – gaining ground on Baker in the standings. Speaking of the standings, the Mega Mile had major championship implications. With Baker finishing last and Smith struggling to When Bryan Smith and Brad Baker ran into mechanical woes, Jared Mees (1) was there to pick up the pieces in winning his first National of the season. My Own Race: 44 BRANDON ROBINSON 17 3RD Brandon Robinson is experiencing a resurgence after a bad mid-season slump. He scored his fourth podium finish of the season on his TJ Burnett/USC Kawasaki and moved back in championship contention, this after suffering a crash in his heat race. Robinson was pleased with his podium performance and hopes to use it as a springboard to finish 2013 strong. "Another mile, another podium," Robinson said. "We keep finding ourselves in a great position at the end. Today was a little luck with Bryan [Smith] and Brad [Baker] breaking. I didn't get the greatest start and with the whole heat-race crash it put me behind the eight ball. My mechanics, James and Billy worked their butts off to get me back in contention today. I kind of figured when the groove came in I was going to get a little faster towards the end of the race. I found myself in third and saw Jared [Mees] and Henry [Wiles] out there quite a ways. There was no way I was going to catch them so I just wanted to ride smart and smooth and bring it home on the box again and that's what we did." 2 KENNY COOLBETH JR. 5TH Kenny Coolbeth, Jr. earned his best result of the season with a fifth at Colonial Downs on the factory Harley-Davidson. Coolbeth managed that result on his backup machine. "Our main bike that we were focusing on just didn't have it," Coolbeth explained. "It put us in the semi and we had to go to our backup bike and it was better, but it still wasn't great. In the main event we started last and picked our way up. It's kind of a shame when you're so fast and you can make your way through traffic so easy. I think we had the potential to win had we started on the front row." HENRY WILES 2ND 14 BRIAR BAUMAN 4TH Henry Wiles thought his race was over before it started. His Lloyd Brothers Motorsports Ducati was only running on one cylinder as riders lined up for the main. His crew frantically went to work changing out sparkplugs, but it still ran rough. "I was thinking, 'Oh, no,'" Wiles said. "It didn't sound like it was running on both cylinders, but then when you got it up in the high rpms I could tell it was revving out. I started from the fourth row just to be safe because I wasn't sure if the thing would get off the line. I was going down the back straight and got a big old draft and went right into third. I was thinking, 'Holy cow, a half a lap ago I was behind all these guys.' With about five laps to go I wasn't really gaining on Jared [Mees] so I thought I'd try something different so I went up high in the cushion. You had to be careful though because there were ruts and at the speed we were going you don't want the bike going in a direction it wants to go when you hit one of those things. We're coming along on developing this bike, so I am happy with the direction we're going." Briar Bauman has had tough luck on the Twins in recent years, but he came through to score his best-ever result on the big bikes at Colonial Downs. "I just wanted to have a nice solid race and finish in the top 10," said Bauman, who rode the Monster Energy/Werner-Springsteen Kawasaki. "I just rode my own race and didn't really know where I was. Brandon [Robinson] was up ahead of me and we were just even. When we came through the checkers I was counting the guys ahead of me and I only saw three others and thought, 'No, that can't be.' I'm really excited with a fourth since I haven't had the best results on Twins the last few years."

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