Cycle News

FLAT TRACK AMA GRAND NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 10/AUGUST 8, 2014 INDIANA STATE FAIRGROUND/INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA P74 saw Johnson, Mees, Smith and Baker making all kinds of moves on each other that effectively slowed the group's pace, allow- ing Coolbeth to slip away. Smith temporarily fell off of that group in one harrowing mo- ment early in the race when he got sucked in the draft and nearly ran into the back of Mees' bike going into turn one. He ran all the way up to the wall before finally getting it turned and gradually working his way back to the bat- tle. Johnson, Baker, Mees and Smith each shared time running second as they swapped back and forth multiple times per lap. My Own Race: 2 KENNY COOLBETH JR. 1ST Kenny Coolbeth Jr. broke the draft to score his second vic- tory at the Indy Mile. He still has a steep climb, but the win at least put him back in the championship picture and he's now 25 points out of the series lead. Coolbeth was happy to be the one to break the streak of Smith and Kawasaki on the miles. "It's good to finally beat Bryan Smith on the mile; that's the biggest thing," Coolbeth said. "This is his forte and he's got a great bike and he rides it well. He's got the whole package, but tonight we did and it feels good. I was just trying to regroup from the last couple races." When asked if his team had done anything special to his bike to make it run so well Coolbeth replied, "I don't really ask. I just jump on the motorcycle and twist the grip. They do a helluva job, Dave Atherton and Dave Zanotti and the whole crew. They're all behind me. On the last five laps I was thinking, 'Man, should I look back to just kind of see where they are?' I did a couple of times and just kind of rode around the last few laps. I didn't want to make any crazy mistakes. It worked out good. I'm happy. We're just going to keep winning races and hope that we're there. I'm kind of in a hole right now with points. I'm sure we gained a few tonight and we're just going to keep doing what we're doing." 42 BRYAN SMITH 2ND Bryan Smith has definitely been the rider to beat on the miles this year. He was in the hunt again tonight, but one major error might have cost him his chance to score a third win in thee mile events so far this season. "It was a scrap," Smith said of the race. "The first few laps me and Jake [Johnson] were going back and forth and I thought if we could have kept that going we'd be good. Jake's bike began wobbling a little bit and next thing you know here comes the gang. I got sucked in big in the draft and near- ly went into the back of Jared [Mees, in turn one]. That's when I fell back to sixth. I went to the hay bales and was luckily able to gather it back up. Jared stuffed me on the last lap there and left me about two hairs worth of room. I set him up to go by him on the back straightaway and lead him off of four. At that point it was just a race for second. My hat's off to Kenny. He did exactly what I did last year. When you get out front and everybody starts a shit show for second it allowed him to just creep away." 9 JARED MEES 3RD Jared Mees just keeps plugging away on his Rogers Rac- ing/Las Vegas H-D/Blue Springs H-D Harley-Davidson XR750 tuned by the legendary Kenny Tolbert. He's been on the podium six times this season, including two wins and that's put him atop the standings going into Peoria next weekend. "It was good," Mees said. "Coolbeth checked out. Every time I thought I might reel him in Jake [Johnson] or [Brad] Baker would come in and screw up my line. I tried to get by Bryan on the last lap, but I couldn't do it." 5 JAKE JOHNSON 4TH Jake Johnson recovered from a break-in of his van that morning, which put him late to the track. He shook that off and turned in another typically solid performance. He's been in the top 10 at every race and mainly inside the top five, which has kept him squarely in the battle for the cham- pionship. He led the race early on his Ducati, before ex- periencing tire issues. "My tire was bald when I came off," Johnson explained. "I won the Dash and felt really good. The main event I was leading and feeling good, but I don't know what happened. I must have just smoked the rear tire. I slipped off the groove once and let Kenny [Coolbeth] get a gap on me. I just rode as hard as I could to catch him and I think I burned my tire up doing that. I just kind of hung on. We were having some headshake problems the more and more it got hooked up. I was kind of hanging on for dear life. Brad [Baker] slipped off the groove and allowed me to get by him." 1 BRAD BAKER 5TH After a shaky start to the season Baker has righted the ship of late and scored a couple of strong results, including run- ning as high as second in Indy before slipping back to fifth at the end. "I blew turn three on the first lap," Baker said. "I was able to work my way up and eventually ended up in second. I thought I might have something to run down Kenny, but it seemed like I couldn't go as fast when I got out by myself. It was hard to push my own air and make up ground. Jared and Bryan and I swapped back and forth there for six or seven laps, but something would always happen that I couldn't get off the corner with them. I settled into a distant fourth and by the end of the race I had no tire left and slipped it off the groove coming into three and that let Jake Johnson get back by me."

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