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FLAT TRACK AMA GRAND NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 4/JUNE 15, 2014 KNOXVILLE RACEWAY/KNOXVILLE, IOWA P86 clash, knocking his rival from fifth to sixth as the two negotiated the race's final two turns and pow- ered to the checkered flag. "I waited for the last lap to get under him," Bonsey said. "I bumped him up a little bit but nothing too aggressive. After the last race in Springfield, it's fair game I guess - he clipped my bars. And it's racing - that stuff happens. No harm, no foul. Top five… we'll take that." Defending champ Baker said that his bike just wouldn't allow him to compete at the level he had hoped and he realized he was a sitting duck for Bonsey at the end. "I just didn't have the steam down the straightaway to be able to make all the set-ups I had go- ing on in the corners and make my cornerspeed really count," Baker said. "Jared [Mees] got into me pretty hard in turn one. It wasn't really his fault, it was just a tricky place to pass. He hooked a rut and almost went over the bars and went up into me and both went up to the air fence. After that, I just couldn't make up the ground. "I could feel [Bonsey] behind me the last three laps. The bike was starting to get slower and slower and I knew he was waiting to get that position and was go- ing to take a dive-bomb attempt in one of those corners. He slid up underneath going into turn three. It was a classic slide-move pass even though we went all the way up to the air fence. I had to just give him some room. It was a good move on his part to get inside the top five." Smith was unable to break up the H-D freight train and led a flock of Kawis in seventh, as EX650s took the final four po- sitions in the top 10. Smith was followed by USC Racing's Bran- don Robinson, Dons Kawasaki's Henry Wiles, and Weirbach Rac- ing's Robert Pearson to round out the top 10. Following Round Four Of A Heavyweight Title Fight… Knoxville winner Coolbeth now holds an eight-point advantage over Johnson, 80-72, with the series set to head to Lima, Ohio at the end of the month. Sunday's third and fourth-place finishers, Halbert and Mees, sit in those same positions in the Grand National Championship chase as well, with Halbert third at 64 and Mees fourth with 58. Defending champ Baker is just 10th with 36 points. CN Final 1. Kenny Coolbeth, Jr. (Harley- Davidson) 2. Jake Johnson (Harley-Davidson) 3. Sammy Halbert (Harley-Davidson) 4. Jared Mees (Harley-Davidson) 5. Stevie Bonsey (Harley-Davidson) 6. Brad Baker (Harley-Davidson) 7. Bryan Smith (Kawasaki) 8. Brandon Robinson (Kawasaki) 9. Henry Wiles (Kawasaki) 10. Robert Pearson (Kawasaki) Briefly... her in that decisive semi and actually took the win. After the semi he said, "All I could think of coming up to the line was, 'Man, I better get the hole- shot… if she hits me it's going to be a long ride home." The Triumph's headshake issue that caught Texter out at Springfield weren't completely erased at Knox- ville although there was considerable improvement. "We seem to only get the headshake when we get a lot of traction to the rear," she said. "After getting some rubber down it seemed to come back a little bit, but the team made a lot of improvements and it's come a long way. Hopefully when we get back to Springfield in the fall, there will be no issues at all." Former Grand National Champion and Texter's Latus Motors Racing's Castrol Triumph team manager, Joe Kopp, is scheduled to make his sea- son racing debut next time out at the Lima Half-Mile. Also looking forward to Lima is Knox- ville third-place finisher and Dash for Cash winner Sammy Halbert. "[Knoxville] is not the kind of track that comes naturally to me. At the be- ginning of the day I was off, but it just got better every time I went out. This is the type of track I have to run hard to be good at. But we'll go to Lima next and we'll kick all their asses." Stevie Bonsey expects a fight in Ohio: "Lima is going to be a tough one. You've got to be an animal to ride there for 25 laps. I'm going to go home and do my pushups and come back swinging."

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