Cycle News

AMA GRAND NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP VOL. 51 ISSUE 27 JULY 8, 2014 P67 Briefly... went on to say that after track crews put a lot of work in the intermission, it improved greatly for the evening program. Kenny Coolbeth Jr., Jake Johnson and Bryan Smith won the night's qualifying heat races. Coolbeth won the pole by virtue of the fastest heat race. His heat one winning race time was 3:42.012 compared to heat two's Johnson (3:44.480) and heat three's Smith (3:45.093). Cory Tex- ter (Racing Unlimited/McElroy Pack- ing Kawasaki) and Robert Pearson (Weirbach Racing Kawasaki) won the semis. When his bike broke in the main, it cost Kenny Coolbeth Jr. big time. Had he won the race, as he looked early on like he would do, Coolbeth would have cushioned his points lead to perhaps as high as 20 points. Instead he leaves Hagerstown tied for third in the championship, five points down from series leader Jared Mees. "It sucks that I was leading the points and we could have cushioned that a little more, but that's racing," Cool- beth said. "It's tough to swallow, but it's not because we aren't trying that's for sure. I'm not giving up. I came into this year to win this championship and that's what I'm going to try to do until the last race." Kenny Coolbeth's points loss was diminished somewhat by the fact he scored five points by way of his vic- tory in the Dash for Cash. It was not a good night for the Za- notti Racing Harleys. In addition to Coolbeth's machine having an engine failure, teammate Stevie Bon- sey dropped out and then reported David Fisher was a close third on his TJ Burnett Farms Honda. Kyle Johnson (77J) got around Ryan Wells (94B) on the final lap of the Pro Singles final to earn his third straight series victory and the lead in the standings. blue-grooved, hard-packed red clay half-mile a week after win- ning on a deep cushion track, shows the versatility of Mees and his excellent crew. "At this place you've just got to be really smooth and just get on the gas as early as you can," Mees explained. "You just ride the motorcycle with the race- track. The track is pretty rough for Hagerstown and super slick. You're going to have to get good starts and be smooth." Hard work by the grounds crew made the track better for the evening program and an in- dication that things had changed a bit came during the Dash for Cash for the fastest six riders (the top two from each heat race). In that race Smith and Jake Johnson pulled away from the other four riders and Smith won it. Smith's victory proved that the way the track was com- ing in his Kawasaki might be ca- pable of beating the Harleys in the main. Coolbeth had been solid in qualifying during the day, but he and his Zanotti Racing Harley really came around during the evening program. In an indica- tion of things to come in the fi- nal, Coolbeth won the first heat race of the night by a massive two seconds over fast qualifier Mees. Also Coolbeth's time was over two seconds faster than the next fastest heat race. In the 25-lap National it was Coolbeth nailing the holeshot and gradually pulling away from the field. Mees held down second for a lap before being passed by Smith. Brandon Rob- inson was holding off Johnson and defending champ Brad Bak- er in the early laps. It was all going Coolbeth's way. He increased his lead ev- ery lap, and had almost a sec- ond-and-a-half in hand when it all went wrong nine laps in. Cool- beth knew he had a problem. "It was rattling pretty good," he said. "I thought it was the ig- nition at first because when I'd continued on next page (left) Bryan Smith (42) said he had to tiptoe through the turns, but he had enough motor on the straights to power to the win. It marked the first AMA Grand Na- tional Half-Mile win for Kawasaki.

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