Cycle News

ond on his Ruthless Rac- ing entry. Ex-AMA Supermoto star Ben Carlson contin- ues to show that he's be- come an excellent road racer. He led on his Sub- urban Motors bike at the white flag, but got drafted on the back straight and ended up a tantalizingly close third. Carlson could only shake his head in frustration. He has been so close so many times, but is still looking for that first road race victory. Road America winner Kyle Wyman was another rider in that lead pack. It was a roller-coaster ride for the Millennium Tech- nologies rider, who went from fourth to first and back to fourth again at the end of the 11-lap final. Meanwhile Steve Rapp's chances of defending his 2013 V&H Harley XR1200 title took a big hit. He was in the group of five battling for the win on the final lap, but found himself odd-man out when push came to shove in the set of turns following Mid-Ohio's back straight. He and Eslick got into a bit of a shoulder- to-shoulder skirmish and Rapp got pushed wide and was shuf- fled to the back of the deck. After disastrous outings in the opening two rounds of the year, Rapp pretty much needed to win out to have any chance of stay- ing in the title picture. He leaves Mid-Ohio ranked fifth in the se- ries and 47 points out of the lead. A lot can happen in three races, but Rapp no longer controls his own destiny in this year's title chase. As it often happens with the evenly matched Harley-Davidson XR1200s it was difficult for any one rider to make a breakaway. In a short 11-lap race there were five leaders and countless pass- es among the top five. If you were to point to one rider who looked in control more than the others it would be Rapp. He led for the middle six laps of the race, but realistically any one of the top five had a real shot at winning, even on the final lap. It was a swap-fest all race, but on the white flag all bets were off as the leading quintet got seri- ous. Carlson said he felt he rode a nearly flawless race the entire way, but even that wasn't enough. "On these Harley's when you've got five or six guys going for the lead anything can hap- pen," Carlson said. "Maybe I just didn't go deep enough into that back straightaway, but it is what it is. We're up and safe and put- ting the bike back in the truck straight. We've been having some good battles this year. It's been really fun and maybe I've been at the end of that group on the podium, but I feel good I can ride with guys like Danny Eslick and O'Hara. It's a pleasure." Even though he finished sec- ond Eslick said it was a good race and he felt his pass on Rapp was clean. "That was a lot of fun," Eslick said. "That was close there be- tween me and Steve. I don't think I touched him at all, but just kind of startled him there on the last lap. I didn't have anything for these guys [O'Hara and his team] they got away from me. The bike was kind of jumping out of gear a couple of times on me. I want to thank Darren James, Glen [Ve- atch], Billy [Veatch] and Thomas [Morin] for all their hard work." Going into the final lap O'Hara didn't think he was the one who would carry the checkered flag. "I thought Benny was going to win his first race," O'Hara admit- ted. "I got a good draft off Rapp and then they kind of fanned out to the left going into five [the end of the back straight] and I've always been strong there. I knew if I could get in there deeper than them I could probably lead the rest of the race. From five on out I just tried to keep my head down and stay relaxed and get a win." CN HARLEY FINAL 1. Tyler O'Hara 2. Danny Eslick 3. Ben Carlson 4. Kyle Wyman 5. Steve Rapp 6. Ryan Kerr 7. Gage McAllister 8. Nick Hansen 9. Hayden Schultz 10. Josh Chisum VOL. 51 ISSUE 29 JULY 22, 2014 P93

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