VOL. 51 ISSUE 20 MAY 20, 2014 P63
There will be a couple of them
that might be a little stronger and
will make my job a little harder,
but I think the Kawi will still have
its advantages on the big tracks.
The one thing I think a lot of guys
haven't taken into consideration,
and that kind of worries me, is that
the Harley's are such fragile en-
gines, you know, they're antiques
- everybody knows that. And now
they're adding about an average
of five horsepower to these al-
ready weak parts; I just hope they
can hold together. There might
be some of the Harleys that are
faster than the Kawi for the first
10 laps, but then they can't make
it the last 15 (laps) of the main. It
will be an interesting season for
sure with everything unrestricted
and the already stressed Harleys
getting even more stressed and
the Kawis getting even more de-
veloped. It's going to be really in-
teresting at Springfield.
The futuristic looking Cro-
sley Radio Kawasaki he rode
for the last couple of sea-
sons is retired and now
Smith is riding a new,
more conventional look-
ing Kawasaki this sea-
son. How does he think
the new Villa Esparza/
Crosley Radio Kawa-
saki will compare to last
year's machine?
A lot of the bike is the
same; essentially the frame
is different. [Rick] How-
erton built his own frames
with last year's bike and
now we're using a C&J
frame, which a lot of the
other teams already use.
This year's bike with the
geometry, the round-tubing
frame and the old-school
dirt track look, it's definitely
more that style. It's the same
frame [Brandon] Robinson used
to win both Springfields [Miles]
in the fall. Besides that the
bike's the same from last year –
same engine, same forks, same
shocks, same wheels, same
triple clamps. It's basically as if
we went into Howerton's shop,
stripped his bike and threw the
frame and swingarm away and
bolted everything on this C&J
frame. It's been reworked a little,
but that's the best way to put it.
The same, but different.
The rivalry between Brad
Baker (12) and Kenny Coolbeth
(2) should be fun to watch
this season. Baker took over
Coolbeth's old seat on the
factory Harley-Davidson and
Coolbeth got Baker's old
mechanic in Dave Atherton.
