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Former MotoGP racer McWil- liams and AMA veteran Rapp were the men to beat all week- end. McWilliams put his Harley- Davidson Bloomington XR1200 on pole and Rapp was just be- hind him on the Suburban Motors Harley-Davidson. And in a race where tire longevity was a major concern with the new surface at Indy, you'd expect the veterans to have an edge. But McWilliams said going in that the competi- tion in the class was such that it was anyone's race. "It could've been anybody's honestly, pick a name out of the hat as I said earlier on," McWil- liams said. "Anybody can win this race. That's why it's such a big relief to get the win." Those in the hunt for the name drawing in race one were: Rapp, Rapp's teammate Carl- son and the youngster Rosli. Al- though McWilliams led the most laps of the race, the lap chart was a bit misleading because the order in that lead four did a fair bit of shuffling. Towards the end of the race they had anoth- er as team owner/racer Wyman fought his way back from sev- enth to join that lead group. "I just showed up a little late to the party," Wyman said. "I got a good start, but I was on the third row, bad qualifying spot didn't do me any favors. I knew that we had a little bit better tire life on our bike because of our Nitron shocks and that was kind of the key for me at the end of the race. I knew if I just kept consistent and tried to stay, just put down fast laps every single lap and not make any mistakes that eventually the tire life would play in my favor." And it did. Wyman was able to capitalize on Rapp's error of getting a little too aggressive for his waning tires, allowing Wyman to take the third podium spot ahead of Rosli. In the meantime the battle for the win was down to Carlson VOL. 51 ISSUE 32 AUGUST 12, 2014 P79 Briefly... Indianapolis Motor Speedway listened to the complaints of riders from the previous years and made changes to its road course. For the riders it was a great improvement. "They've just cut all the little Mickey Mouse corners off and made it flow much better. It feels like a proper racetrack," Jeremy McWilliams said. "It had elements of being a great race track last year, but I suppose when you come to Indy you expect it to be perfect. But it's a small area to make a GP track in. I think they've done a great job. They've taken on board a lot of what riders have been saying and I know Kenny Roberts was involved in some way; I spoke to him a little bit about it. It really flows; it flows for me so much better now." In addition to the new layout the track also got resurfaced. And a new green surface means hard on tires. On the first day the Harley's were seeing a sudden drop off after five laps, which had many concerned about manag- ing a tire for a 10-lap race. But for Kyle Wyman, his shocks gave him a little extra edge. "Dunlop even told us all the bikes that had Nitron shocks on them, the tires looked better," Wyman said. "They all got better feedback. We just had a little bit more life out of them." As the weekend went on with more bikes on track the conditions improved. "With a little bit more rub- ber down it definitely helped the life a little bit," Wyman said. "It dropped off probably six or seven laps yester- day [Friday], I'd say mine dropped off on lap eight today. So a little bit but it makes a difference." For championship leader Danny Eslick race two's start was a little continued on next page Jeremy McWilliams (99) and Steve Rapp (1) came out on top of the draft-fest at Indy, beating youngsters Danny Eslick (69), Benny Carlson (hidden) and Kyle Wyman (33).

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