Cycle News

VOL. 51 ISSUE 34 AUGUST 26, 2014 P77 In the closing laps he battled Baker for second and took over the position with two laps to go. He finished runner up, matching his best career finish and mark- ing his first podium result on a mile. Johnson was another rider making an improbably run to the podium. Two bikes were broken and he was down to his third op- tion, the Lloyd Bros. Kawasaki that hadn't been touched in four races. "I hadn't sat on that thing since Sacramento," Johnson said. "Luckily the gearing was close Briefly... Bryan Smith actually backed it down in the closing laps of the main. He ran as fast as 44.870 and built a 4.8-second lead on lap eight, but backed off to 46 and 47-second lap times in the closing stages to win by 2.559 seconds. Riders taped cardboard and other protective material under their leathers to try to keep from getting pelted by the powerful roost. A lot of riders had welts on unprotected parts of their torsos and a number of riders had bruised and cut fingers and hands with the sand blast pen- etrating their gloves. Matt Weidman made a return to racing at Colonial Downs. It was his first race since Daytona and he said he hasn't even been on a bike since then. He made the main on the Scott Powersports Kawasaki and finished 11th. MEGA MILE = MEGA CRAZY? The Mega Mile, aka Colonial Downs, in New Kent, Virginia, is by far the most spectacular venue to watch AMA Grand National mo- torcycles compete. Machines are wide open the entire way around the massive mile and a quarter track, bikes in triple-digit speed full lock slides through the turns – a spectacle to behold for certain, but is it worth it? This track simply eats machines. More motorcycles blew up than you could count. Jake Johnson (pictured) had three Lloyd Bros. motorcycles. They were down to one last bike by race time; the other two succumbed to the brutal circuit. Five bikes broke in the final, which was reduced to only 15 laps due to impending weather. And while the toll on machines is high, the potential toll on riders is an even higher concern. More than a few riders basically called racing at Colonial Downs "crazy." The biggest issue is vision, or lack thereof. The powerful roost kicked up by the bikes (power- ful enough by the way to knock a rider's boot off his pegs) can blind a rider. Not a great scenario when you're in a pack of 18 bikes charg- ing around a turn at top speed. "I went through my tear-offs in three laps," Brandon Robinson said. "If you go through somebody's roost you can't see. And there's re- ally no way to avoid it." And unlike almost any other Grand National Mile, there's no drafting on the straights at Colonial Downs because of the roost. The other issue is the ruts that form on the deep cushion track. Riders get kicked out of their saddles multiple times per lap - again all while never letting off the gas – once the track is rutted after a couple of laps no matter how well it's groomed beforehand. Briar Bauman suffered a nasty high-speed crash coming through turn two when he hit one of the ruts and had to be taken to the hospital for a possible head injury. Some riders have suggested blading off the cushion to help form a groove as a possible solution. Multi-time national champ Kenny Coolbeth Jr. said of the track, "It's a place you just want to survive. I'm definitely not going to hang it out here. If you ask me what I think of us racing here, with the way they prep this track with a foot-deep cushion, I'd say it's crazy."

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