Cycle News

AMA GRAND NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP VOL. 51 ISSUE 26 JULY 1, 2014 P61 Briefly... my heat. In the semi we made some changes and it got a little bit better. I was running around fourth or fifth the whole semi. I was fourth going into turn three on the last lap. I knew I had a provisional, I knew I was in the main event either way, but I hate to use it if you don't have to. I was able to make a pass on Maguire on that last lap and squeak it in there." Mikey Martin's night came to an end when his Bonneville Performance/ Factory Triumph Bonneville suffered some sort of an electrical problem during his semi and quit running. Nichole Mees was coming off an injured ankle from a crash at the Knoxville (Iowa) race. In spite of the tender ankle she rode well and just missed putting her Harley-Davidson/ Black Hills H-D machine into the main when she finished fourth in her semi. Nichole had qualified for the Lima National twice before in her ca- reer, but always suffered mechanical problems. Shayna Texter won a semi to put her Latus Motors/Triumph/Castrol Triumph Bonneville into the National. She commented that the wobble they've been battling on the Triumph, didn't come into play at Lima. "It only shows up at tracks where we have a lot of traction," Texter explained. It marked her second time qualifying for a National. She went on to race to a 12th-place finish, her best result so far in her rookie expert campaign. This year was the 30th anniversary of the national at the Lima Half-Mile. Scott Parker won the first National held at the Allen County Fairgrounds how he can get around the top smooth and fast. I can get around the top, but wasn't as smooth or as fast as him. I thought maybe towards the end I might inch up on him and about that time his bike blew up. I was in the lead for a couple of laps, but before I knew it my line went away. I was just holding on and here comes Jared [Mees] around the inside and I tried down low and about went over the handlebars. I was kind of lost. I tried high, low, middle. I just couldn't ride through there smoothly even when I wasn't on the gas. I was in survival mode, just hanging on and Brandon [Robinson] got by me. I told the guys it felt like the rear shock wasn't working. We checked it and it must have blown a seal and all the oil was out. It was like a pogo stick." 2 KENNY COOLBETH JR. 4TH Kenny Coolbeth Jr. made it into the main in spite of losing his brakes in his heat race. He rallied to score a solid fourth in the main on his Zanotti Rac- ing/Moroneys H-D Harley-Davidson XR750. "The track was just so nasty," Coolbeth said. "I was in survival mode pretty much with five laps to go. For me it's pretty good. It's the best I've done here in a while. Granted, a lot of people broke, but hey, that's part of racing. We've got a pretty good points lead. We've got to keep doing our thing. We are sort of a quiet team and we've got to keep things going and having fun." 5 JAKE JOHNSON 5TH Jake Johnson just managed to put his Ramspur Winery/Lloyd Bros Motor- sports Ducati Hypermotard into the main, but once there he found a way to score a solid finish that keeps him second in the points. "This track was deep, nasty and rough and that's definitely not my forte," Johnson explained. "By the main event it was starting to get brushed off quite a bit. It was still rough. I started in the last starting spot, so I wasn't expecting much. I came out of the first turn maybe second to last. I dove down to the bottom and just tried to stay out of the mess. Before I knew it I was in the top 10. I was count- ing the guys in front of me and didn't seem like there was that many. I started picking my way through and was right behind [Briar] Bauman when he blew a coolant line or something. I looked up and I was right behind Kenny [Cool- beth]. He's the one I'm battling with [in the points] so I did my best to get up there with him, but every time I had a charge going I'd hit a hole or make some mistakes. But we definitely turned it around after just barely squeaking it into the main event." 80 STEVIE BONSEY 6TH Stevie Bonsey continued his strong of string of strong finishes. He's quali- fied for every National this season and has scored top-10 finishes four out of the five events. At Lima, Bonsey had a huge moment in qualifying in turn one where he got his Zanotti Racing/Classic Harley-Davidson XR750 swapping side to side bringing oohs and aahs from the crowd. He somehow stayed on two wheels in the best save of the night and actually qualified well enough to make the Dash for Cash and then he took sixth in the National, in spite of badly twisting his knee. "It was kind of brutal," Bonsey said. "I think I was in third or fourth and was pretty content. I felt like I could run that pace. I came into turn one [on lap three], slid up high and caught my knee in a hole and twisted the hell out of my knee and went up into the air fence and got freight trained there by about four of five guys. I tried to collect myself and make sure my knee wasn't torn off or a blown ACL again. I settled back in and just tried to find the smoothest line. It was hard to see out there with the roost. A couple of times I came out of turn two and couldn't see where the fence was. It was a little scary, but we made it though." continued on next page

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