Cycle News

INTERVIEW P68 AMA GRAND NATIONAL CHAMPION BRAD BAKER BAKER… ON THIS AND THAT Ripping The Restrictors Out "I think it will have a big impact as far as making the mile racing a little bit more exciting. When you think of the Springfield or Sacramento Mile or back to the San Jose Mile, you think of 40-42 lead changes. There were races this year where a Kawasaki got out front, held up the pace a little bit in the corners because they can't get as hooked up as a Harley, and then they used their legs down the straightaway. They had more acceleration and more horsepower than a Harley and they just controlled the race. Let's face it, there's not much passing going on in the corners on a mile and it's mainly setting up your strategy for drafting down the straightaway. If you can't draft on the straightaway and they are making themselves wide in the corners, there's not very much passing. I don't think that made the racing very exciting. I think taking the restrictors out and giving the opportunity for Harleys and [Aprilias] to be able to make another five horsepower and a little bit more torque will get it back a little bit closer to the Kawasaki. It will make the racing closer." mom so with Valerie keeping a watchful eye, the boys were able to ride during the day while Kip was at work. Valerie was also in charge of paying the bills – for both the logging business and the racing. And mom still does the bookkeeping for her championship-winning son. "She has done as much for me as anyone," Baker says of his mom. "She drove $1000 cars when I raced several $10,000 motorcycles." It was never easy and the travel was intense, with Brad oftentimes The Season Finale At Pomona "That was the best race I'd be in the whole year. That track's pretty intense because it has such tight corners and long straightaways. It's got a nice cushion, wet, hooked-up dirt and it usually gets pretty rough, so for the riders to be crossing lines and passing each other two or three times a lap, it made it pretty interesting. Of course, with the championship being on the line it brought the excitement to the race and with Bryan Smith and myself being up front and battling back and forth… there were quite a few people who came up to me and said it was the best race they'd ever seen or the best race they'd seen in a long time. It definitely capped off the year very well for AMA Pro flat track." Second Was Never An Option "I never really thought about getting second. I had gotten second in that race the two years prior and I really wasn't ready to get second at it again. There was one pretty big moment in that race where I hooked a hole between one and two and it sent me on a big flying W and straight toward the air fence. We had two red flags and they were from that exact spot right there. I was basically doing a Superman and the thing was swapped traveling the country alone in a box van during the summers. But it paid off and it paid off quickly. After numerous titles - on bikes ranging from PW50s to 450cc singles – Baker's Amateur career culminated with an AMA Horizon Award (the top honor for amateur flat trackers). Then he turned professional. And in 2009, he won the inaugural AMA Pro Singles Championship. In 2010, he made two Expert Twin main events while also finishing second in the Pro Singles Series. In 2011 he earned Rookie of the out all the way left, swapped out all the way to the right. I somehow kept hold of the handlebars, grabbed a big handful and got the thing straightened out. That's part of racing. You're going to have times when you have a man-don't-do-that-again moment or sometimes you fall, but you can't keep that in your mind. You have to push on with the task at hand." Next Year's Program "I will be based from here and Harley will be in Milwaukee. The team I will be riding for on my 450s will be Fun Mart Cycle Center out of Moline, Illinois. I spend a lot of time around the Peoria central Illinois area just because there are a lot of races around there. I also have some good friends in Iowa, the Georges. Matt George makes my leathers and he has a really nice three-eighths mile, gumbo blackdirt track so I think I might spend some time there during the summer and get these KTMs more dialed in." The Move To The Schenks In Eatonville "My brother started racing for Ben [Schenk] and his son Carl back in 2004 2005 and that was pretty much when the relationship started. They were supporters of Bakers Boys Racing and when I turned Expert I took it Year honors by finishing sixth in the AMA Grand National Championship on a Lloyd Brothers Racing Ducati. And in 2012 he went one better, finishing fifth when the final points were tallied. Then came the magical season of 2013. Riding a Dodge Brothers XR750, Baker won his first AMA Grand National Twins race at the Hagerstown Half Mile and parlayed that into winning the AMA Grand National Championship in a series that went down to the very last race at Pomona – a race that Baker won after a

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