INTERVIEW
BRYAN SMITH
P64
Who do you think is going to
be your biggest competition
on the miles this year?
There's been a little bit of mov-
ing around with teams and riders.
[Brandon] Robinson pretty much
handed it to us at Springfield last
fall, so he's obviously number
one on my list and he's on a Ka-
wasaki. On the Harley side of it
I see [Kenny] Coolbeth doing re-
ally good on the Zanotti team with
[Dave] Atherton tuning the bikes.
With [Brad] Baker I'm kind of curi-
ous to see how that goes with him
on a new team. Coolbeth kind of
struggled at Springfield the last
couple of years on the factory
Harley, so I don't really know how
Baker will do. Now Coolbeth has
Baker's old mechanic, Atherton,
so it'll be interesting to see how
that works out. And there's Jared
Mees with [Kenny] Tolbert who's
always good. I've got my work cut
out for me, let's put it that way.
And how about Shayna Tex-
ter finally moving up to the
Grand National class with Tri-
umph?
I think she'll definitely sur-
prise some people at a couple
of tracks, Springfield being one.
If there's a track that's catered
to her and her style it's definitely
Springfield. Obviously, that's the
first one up so we'll know real
quick. When we get to a couple
of the more physical tracks like
a Santa Rosa, or Indy where
you've really got to kind of mus-
cle the bike around per se, she'll
have a harder time. Or at the
smaller, rougher half-miles, she'll
have her hands full because that
Triumph is the heaviest bike out
there and she's the smallest
rider, so it's just physics. But I
think she is going to turn heads
at some of the bigger, smoother
tracks for sure. It'll be cool to
see how she does. CN
Shayna Texter is hoping to make
her first Grand National Main at
the Springfield Mile. She'll be
riding a factory-backed Triumph.
Smith thinks Texter will be a factor
on the big tracks in the Grand
Nationals this year.
