FLAT TRACK
AMA GRAND NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 8/JULY 26, 2014
CAL EXPO FAIR/SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA
P62
pack—Kenny Coolbeth, Henry
Wiles and Brandon Robinson to
name a few. In the end, it came
down to just three: Smith, Ramp-
sur Winery's Jake Johnson and
Rogers Racing's Jared Mees.
"It was a scrap," Smith said.
"We were less than an inch a
couple of times passing each oth-
er. So it was a dog fight. Couldn't
ask for a cleaner race from them
two. So that was really nice when
you could race that close and that
hard, and it's a complete fight the
whole time, but it's clean. That
doesn't happen very much these
days, it doesn't seem like. So my
hat's off to them guys. It was a
nail-biter on my end for sure."
With all three guys also in a
tight race for the championship,
the results shifted the order a bit,
with moving Smith into the point's
lead. Smith now leads Mees by
two points, and Johnson stays in
third, eight points behind Mees.
Johnson got a good start on
his Kawasaki and was in the hunt
the whole way. He had a few
goes at Smith but had to settle
for second.
"Bryan seemed to have con-
trol of the race," Johnson said.
"Kind of was the strongest, so I
just tried to stay latched on to him
and was able to get by him a few
times, but he was able to get me
right back. So five [laps] to go, I
just knew I had to keep Jared be-
hind me and take the best run at
Bryan I could. I waited till the last
lap, went through three, kind of
gave him a little bit of a lead and
got a good run on him, just came
up about a half a bike short."
Mees put it to Smith in the
Dash for Cash and gained a
championship point but was un-
able to repeat in the main.
"Bryan was in the catbird seat
and I couldn't get by Jake, really,
to get into second," Mees said
about those final laps. "Just the
way the cookie crumbled, right?
Came up a little short, really.
It was a good race. It was a lot
of fun. Finally we get to uncork
them Harleys and I could draft
them Kawis. I had a problem with
my clutch slipping coming off the
Brandon Robinson
(44) takes off in
the Dash for Cash,
but unfortunately
didn't finish it as he
crashed out after
making contact with
Sammy Halbert.
