Cycle News

VOL. 51 ISSUE 32 AUGUST 12, 2014 P81 pretty much the same players - except with the addition of Eslick - and the player who came out on top was Rapp, the full-time pilot and part-time racer finally getting his first win at IMS after six tries. "I had a lot of years to prac- tice where not to be," Rapp said. "Going down the back, Danny [Eslick] sat up, but I didn't want anything to do with it either so I sat up. Ben [Carlson] went by and I was like, 'cool, that works.' We got back in line and I wasn't sure if I was going to pass them, but it worked out pretty good. They got next to each other and built a little draft there. It went great." As it was for McWilliams, the win at Indy was special for Rapp. "To win at Indy finally… I want- ed to check that off my list," Rapp said. "I'm running out of time and I finally got it, so that was cool. Mentally as a racer you have these things you want to do and this was definitely one of them I missed it every year. I've come so far. So it was nice." Eslick and his proper tire setup was in the hunt this time, but the first part of race two was a bit hairy for the championship leader. "I had a couple-hundred yard tank slappers and it seemed like that about put me on my head; that was a definite eye-opener being in the lead of the cham- pionship," Eslick said. "I tried to just calm down and settle in and then there was the red flag and restart. Everybody had their strong sections of the track and it was figuring out who wants to be where for the run to the fin- ish line. I was leading down the back straightaway and I wanted no part leading through that last section before the front straight." Eslick's plan worked out great, except that it worked out even better for Rapp, who drafted past both Eslick and Carlson for the win. For Carlson it was sort of déjà vu all over again. "The second day coming onto the front stretch in first and it end- ed up not working out so well," Carlson said. "I thought if they [Eslick and Rapp] sit up I'll just take the lead for the simple fact if Wyman or McWilliams comes in there and maybe knocks them around a little bit I'll get a run on the front straight away and maybe break the draft. That's the sec- ond time I thought that." "I thought that about six times," Rapp interjected and made ev- eryone laugh. And while Carlson didn't get his much sought after win, the end result for the championship picture made it not so bad with Carlson moving up to second in Briefly... too close for comfort as he and Wyman came together, which al- most put Eslick on the ground. "I've had a lot of moments on the Harley this weekend," Eslick said. "More than I've had in the couple of years I've raced them all put together in this one weekend. I don't know... it was a little bit uncalled for the start of the race especially on these Har- leys. Those handlebars stick way out there and it's easy to clip somebody. It's racing. I don't think it was a su- per intentional deal, but it definitely didn't put a smile on my face that's for sure." As for Wyman he agreed that it was racing. "When you go to the brakes on these Harleys you kind of got to stand the bike up and I was on the outside of him," Wyman said. "I don't know if he saw me or not. He actually ran over my left foot. We got together pretty good and I guess he bobbled pretty good, but it's close racing. We all want to win really bad and some- times you've got to stick your neck out there a little bit and I'm not usu- ally one of the guys that does that. But I'm going to have to if the com- petition's like this. That's what I plan on doing at New Jersey, try and get a race win."

• Cover