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AMA GRAND NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP VOL. 51 ISSUE 27 JULY 8, 2014 P69 go into the corners and started picking up the throttle it would kind of spitter and sputter. It kept getting louder and louder. Then down the back straightaway it just ate itself. It was pretty bad." Smith couldn't believe his good fortune. "Kenny was gone," Smith said. "He had us covered, but unfortunately his bike let him down." With Coolbeth sidelined the race came down to a two-rider duel between Smith and Mees. Smith had the power to gain an advantage on the short Hager- stown straights, but Mees was gathering him up in the turns and pulled alongside several times looking for a way to make a pass. Smith said he was getting a little too excited and was maybe a bit rattled at the prospect of fi- nally winning at this track, but he gathered himself in the closing few laps and pulled out enough of an advantage that Mees was no longer threatening. Mees ex- plained his tires started to go on the final laps and he felt that's why he lost touch with just a couple to go. The rider really making the charge late in the race was second-year expert Shoemak- er. Qualifying ninth on the grid, Shoemaker ran as far back as 10th on the first lap before pick- ing his way through the field. Briefly... that a rock hit his bike's petcock and knocked off the fuel line. Bonsey qualified eighth and that's where he was running when he had had the problem. He was credited with 18th and scored one point. As a result Bonsey dropped one spot in the standings from seventh to eighth. The blue-grooved red clay of Hag- erstown tends to gloss up the side of the Dunlop race tires, so many of the mechanics spent time with steel files or rasps roughing up the inside edges of the tires to help give their riders a little more traction on the slippery surface. There was a solid field of 46 Grand National riders entered for Hager- stown. Shayna Texter reported that the headshake her factory Latus Mo- tors/Castrol Triumph experienced earlier in the season was improved a bit at Hagerstown by way of extra gusseting of the bike's frame, but the team still has some work to do to give her a stable platform. "Hag- erstown has always been a little bit of a struggle for me," Texter admit- ted. "We're having some of the same handling issues. We're well aware of it, but unfortunately changes don't happen overnight. The team has come to terms that we need to get new frames, but right now we're mid- season so we need to do what we SLAYING THE HAGERSTOWN DRAGON Bryan Smith has a lot of history with Hagerstown Speedway. It was the track where he qualified for his very first AMA Grand National main back in 2001, but a year later the track bit him big time when he got caught up in a turn-four crash in an 883 race. He was seriously injured in the crash and had to be airlifted to the hospital. Since then Smith has always wanted to conquer the track that could have cost him his career and after 12 years he finally did it. "This track almost ate me alive and now to come back to win here, it's a pretty special moment for me," Smith said. "When I got airlifted out of there in '02 I wasn't responding, so that track owed me one and I'm glad I finally kicked its ass." The win also might start to change the view that Smith is exclu- sively a mile specialist. The Hager- stown win was Smith's second on a half-mile. He won Lima in 2009 on a Harley. "It was big for me, not just because of my history at this track," Smith concluded. "I gave Kawasaki its first win on a mile and I wanted to be the guy who gave them the first on a half mile as well. I've been close a couple of times and [Brandon] Robinson's been close a couple of times and I was happy I was the one who was able to do it." (Left) Jake Shoemaker, shown here during the day qualifying session, scored his second-career Grand National podium at Hagerstown. (Bottom Left) Bryan Smith leads Sammy Halbert (hidden), Jake Johnson (5) and Brandon Robinson (44) into turn one at the start of the Dash for Cash. continued on next page

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