AMA GRAND NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
VOL. 51 ISSUE 26 JULY 1, 2014 P59
lead the first lap. But then came
Halbert, who'd been dominant
all day, running way up near the
outer fences. Halbert took over
on lap two and began stretch-
ing it out. He got as much as a
2.4-second lead before his bike
began losing power. Then it start-
ed blowing out a thick stream of
blue smoke. He was out after
leading nearly the entire way.
"Everything was going my
way, I love this place, but it bit
me," said Halbert, who'd won
the previous two Lima Nationals.
"The motor went on us. I don't
know what happened exactly.
Briefly...
perhaps the best ride of the night. In
his heat race Bauman started near
the back of the pack, but methodi-
cally made his way to the front on
his Bill Werner-tuned Kawasaki.
"I was fortunate and found a good
line and it came in really well," said
the 2012 Rookie of the Year. "The
bike's handling awesome and I can't
thank Bill [Werner] enough for that.
I felt like I was coming on stronger
at the end of the heat race. That's a
good sign. Lima's the gnarliest track
on the circuit and if you can put in
your last lap as fast as you started
the race you know you'll be good at
the end."
Lima 2014 was Sammy Halbert's to
lose. He set the fastest time in quali-
fying, won his heat race and domi-
nated the four-lap George Roeder
Memorial Dash for Cash. Unfortu-
nately for Halbert his night went up
in smoke when his South East H-D/
White's H-D Harley-Davidson XR750
blew a motor. "It just slowed down
on me," Halbert explained. "I was
going to run it to the bitter end. I've
got to pay the bill on it, so that stings
a little. It [the engine] was letting go
and I just kept on it. It wasn't making
any funny noises so I was hoping it
was something stupid, like dirt in the
carb or something, but it wasn't so
that was all she wrote."
Jake Johnson just barely made it
into the main by passing Wyatt Ma-
guire on the last turn of the semi to
finish third. "I was struggling anyway
and then my heat race was like the
main event with Halbert, Wiles, Smith
and Coolbeth, you know, three-
quarters of the front row were single-
digits," Johnson said. "I struggled in
(Left) Sammy Halbert (7) dominated
the Dash For Cash and was leading
the National when his bike blew up.
(Bottom left) Jared Mees (9) leads
Jeffrey Carver (23) in one of the heat
races at the Lima Half Mile.
(Below) Shayna Texter won her semi
to make it into the main event. She
finished 12
th
, the best thus far in her
rookie season.
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