energy of his anger and spun it
into a positive on the track, at-
tacking the mile with controlled
aggression on his Dave Atherton-
tuned Zanotti Racing/Moroney's
Harley-Davidson XR750, break-
ing the draft and pulling away to
a 2.470 second margin of victory
over the sparring Bryan Smith
and Jared Mees.
The victory not only pulled
Coolbeth back into the champi-
onship picture with five rounds
remaining, but it broke the recent
VOL. 51 ISSUE 32 AUGUST 12, 2014 P69
Briefly...
The win for Kenny Coolbeth Jr. was
his 32nd-career AMA Pro Flat Track
Grand National Championship vic-
tory. That moved him past Will Davis
to sole possession of seventh on the
all-time Grand National wins list. It
also marked his second win at the
Indy Mile, his first coming in 2009.
Coolbeth is the winningest active
rider in the championship.
The mix of machines in the Indy
Mile main was eight Harley-David-
sons, eight Kawasakis, a Ducati and
Triumph.
MotoGP Champion Marc Marquez
was the Grand Marshal for the event,
and M3 Racing put together a Honda
RS750 with Marquez's number 93
on it. Fans were a bit disappointed
the factory Honda rider didn't take a
run on the bike during opening cer-
emonies, but with a perfect MotoGP
season on the line, there was no way
he was going to take the risk. Mar-
quez was incredibly gracious with
his comments to the crowd, saying
he was a huge fan of AMA Grand
National racing. He said he greatly
admired the riders in the series and
joked he didn't want to look bad by
comparison by running laps on the
Honda.
As usual a big contingent of the GP
riders and team members were on
hand for the Mile. The much be-
loved Nicky Hayden received a big
ovation when he was brought to the
stage. He talked about wishing he
could be racing and mentioned his
dad Earl had a new book out, which
he was selling and signing in the in-
field. Earl's portion of the proceeds
from the sales of the book are going
to St. Joseph's Peace Mission for
continued on next page
Kenny Coolbeth
Jr. (2) goes to
the front in the
Indy Mile after
battling with
early leaders
Jake Johnson
(5) and Bryan
Smith (42).
