AMA GRAND NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Crosley Radio Kawasaki EX650
to take over the point. He then
held off relentless pressure by
Jared Mees for nearly the rest of
the race to score his first win at
Hagerstown. Smith's margin of
victory over Mees was .832 of a
second.
It was also a great night for
Jake Shoemaker. The Pennsyl-
vanian scored his second-career
podium (his first coming at Hag-
erstown last year) in a come-
from-behind surge to third.
Not only did the race make his-
tory, the Hagerstown finish also
VOL. 51 ISSUE 27 JULY 8, 2014 P65
Briefly...
Bryan Smith's win broke a string of
Hagerstown wins by Harley-David-
son riders that dated back to 1996.
Kevin Varnes was the previous last
non-Harley rider to win Hagerstown
when he raced a Honda to victory in
the 1995 race.
The victory was the 14th-career
Grand National win for Bryan Smith.
He's now tied with Kevin Atherton
and Jared Mees for 25th on the all-
time Grand National wins list.
This year was the 50th anniversary
of the very first AMA Grand National
held at Hagerstown Speedway.
Bart Markel raced a Harley-Davidson
to victory when the championship
first visited the track in 1964. Who
could have dreamed when Markel
won that first race in '64, that 19
years later another kid would be born
in Flint who would win the very same
race 50 years later?
Fifty years of flat track racing ma-
chinery development was worth
over five-and-a-half seconds per lap.
When Bart Markel won this race in
1964 his average lap time during the
final was 29.557 seconds. Bryan
Smith's average lap time in his win
was 23.944 seconds.
Jake Johnson parked his Ducati
and switched to the Ramspur Win-
ery/Lloyd Bros Motorsports Harley-
Davidson XR750 for Hagerstown
explaining that the Harley hooked up
better on the hard-packed, but slip-
pery surface of Hagerstown Speed-
way.
Hagerstown was reported by the rid-
ers to be bumpy and very slick dur-
ing the day's qualifying rounds. Most
continued on next page
Kenny Coolbeth (2)
leads the start of the
Hagerstown National.
Coolbeth built up a big
lead before his Zanotti
Harley-Davidson broke
nine laps into the 25-
lap National.
