VOL. 51 ISSUE 31 AUGUST 5, 2014 P51
bit, but rubbing's racing, so I ain't
complaining," Rush said. "I'm just
super happy to be up on the box
with these guys. I sat out a whole
bunch of races this season be-
sides Daytona and stuff and I'm
happy to come back and get on
the box and get a second."
From there it was all Wiles as
Rush settled back in to take sec-
ond.
"Five laps to go I was thinking
about a lot of different things,"
Wiles said. "I was thinking about
wanting to win on one of these
clay tracks, wanting to win at
Castle Rock, trying to get a little
closer to Chris Carr's all-time TT
record. All those things to me are
very much an honor."
And to show how much he ap-
preciated the long awaited victo-
ry a very ecstatic Wiles did a few
burnouts for the hard-core dirt
track fans in Washington.
Those Washington fans also
had the pleasure of seeing their
Grand National Champion Baker
get back on track and earn his
first podium for what has also
been a difficult year for the 21
year old from Eatonville, Wash-
ington on the Brothers Powers-
ports Honda.
"It feels amazing to be back
up on the podium," Baker said.
"What better way to do it than on
my own iron and my home track
in front of my friends and family."
Baker held off Mees and also
managed to stay upright after
Mikey Martin's Honda blew up
going into the short track sweep-
er and laid oil down on the track.
"It was kind of sketchy there
at the end," Baker said. "Mikey
Martin blew up going into the
sweeper… when I went through
there I stepped out big time when
I hit that oil and a lot of other rid-
ers did too. That was a little dan-
gerous; it was not kind of cool
having Mikey laying on the race-
track and having that oil on the
outside of the groove. But luck-
ily nobody had any problems and
went down and everybody came
home safe for the most part to-
day."
Although Baker's out of the
hunt to defend his title, he's tak-
ing the momentum from his home
race and looking to work his way
back up to fifth in the standings.
"I want to claw my way back
into the top five this year," Baker
said. "If I get back into the top five
I'd be pretty happy with that just
considering with all that's hap-
pened. That's my goal and I'm
going to be working hard to get
it."
Of the guys who are in the
championship fight, Mees made
the best out of Castle Rock, fin-
ishing fourth on the Roger's Rac-
ing Honda.
"We came in and got what we
were looking for which was the
points lead and we'll move on,"
Mees said. "It's a little disappoint-
ing I ended my podium string, but
we'll have to start a new one."
Mees jumped back up to the
lead, six points ahead of Bryan
Smith, who finished 10
th
, and 11
points ahead of Jake Johnson,
who finished seventh on the
Rampsur Winery Honda.
Behind Mees the battle for
fifth was fought out between last
year's winner Jeffrey Carver Jr.
on the Carvers BBQ Honda and
JD Beach on the Van's Yamaha.
The pair race together regularly
in the winter and were in intense
battle that included some contact
mid-air while Beach was chasing
Once Wiles got through (17) the
battle for third was fought between
Jared Mees (9), Brad Baker (1),
Jeffrey Carver Jr. (23) and JD Beach
(not pictured).
