Cycle News

VOL. 51 ISSUE 35 SEPTEMBER 3, 2014 P71 into turn three. He dove in close to the rail to protect the inside line. Coolbeth anticipated that, so he stayed hard on the gas and swept around the outside to take the lead. Smith tried to get on the gas to respond, but throt- tled up too much on his powerful Kawasaki and spun up the rear tire. That not only cost him drive coming into turn four, but made him slip off the low line giving Mees the opening he was look- ing for and he nosed his way in. Jake Shoemaker was right there in the group as well, but his USC Kawasaki didn't quite have the juice to draft by the three lead- ers so he tucked in and watched the show, hoping for an open- ing. Smith recovered coming out of four and slammed the door on Mees and his Rogers Rac- ing/Las Vegas H-D XR750, but Coolbeth had built a solid gap. Smith poured on the power, and caught the draft at the last sec- ond and tried moving around the outside of Coolbeth, but it was too late. Coolbeth's turn-three strategy proved perfect and he crossed the line just inches ahead of Smith. The official margin of victory was .010 of a second. Mees and Shoemaker zoomed home a close third and fourth. The top four were cov- ered by just a little over .3 of a second. "Springfield is tough," Cool- beth said. "Everybody goes fast Briefly... agreement for him to ride the bike at Springfield on the Monday before the race. "I raced the bike last year in Virginia when my main bike broke and thought it was pretty racy," Pear- son said. "The Weirbach Racing Kawasakis I was on before were still early in their development and we just didn't have enough track time on them to get them handling where we needed to." Pearson rode a Suzuki TL1000 last week in Virginia owned by Tim Goeken and Chip Chism. Briar Bauman was on hand at Springfield wearing a cast on his right hand. Bauman suffered a bad crash at the Virginian Mega Mile last week, suffering a broken thumb. Bauman said he's expecting to be back racing by the Calistoga round on September 27. Sammy Halbert was back in action at Springfield after missing Virginia due to lingering injuries from a bad crash at the Peoria TT that saw him crash into the spectator fence off turn two. "I feel alright even though my leg is a little stiff," Halbert said at Springfield. "Hopefully I'll be able to hold on for 25 laps. I think a fence- post caught my left thigh, so it got re- ally swollen and I just couldn't bend my leg. It's just now kind of coming back." Halbert had problems with his main South East/Whites Harley-Da- vidson and had to go to a backup Ka- wasaki for the main. In the race the bike had possible electrical issues and started cutting out and Halbert finished 13th. Jake Johnson ran both the Rams- pur Winery/Lloyd Bros. Motorsports Ducati and Kawasaki in practice and they decided on running the Ka- in the wrong spot. When I tried to go around the outside Kenny went real wide and ran out of room. So when I went to come back on the inside I was too far behind." 55 JAKE SHOEMAKER 4TH Jake Shoemaker continues to impress with strong finishes this season. Racing this week for Hot Shot Motors/USC Kawasaki, Shoemaker made a strong surge late in the race to finish fourth, just 0.363 seconds out of the lead. "It was tough those last couple of laps," Shoemaker said. "I had to pull back into the lead draft. I lost it when [Henry] Wiles spun up. Once I reeled them back in it was real tough draft past them guys. I mean it was the best three bikes in the main event I was trying to get past, so it was a tough one. I thought I had a good drive coming off of four, but it just wasn't enough to put me on the podium. I really wanted a podium today and to come up one short it's unfortunate, but fourth is nothing to be ashamed of, especially in my first ride with a new team. All around I'm happy with the way the team worked and it was a really good day." 59 WILLIE MCCOY 7TH The 44-year-old veteran, semi-retired Texan Willie McCoy made his semi- annual trek to the Springfield Mile, where he's won twice, and managed a solid finish in spite of challenges he faced during the day. "Today was tough," he said. "I had a transmission break in the heat race. I was rebuild- ing the transmission from just after the heat race to five minutes before the main, so it kind of wore me out. The bike was good in the main event, but I wasn't good. I just got tired and was making little mistakes and lost touch with the draft. From then on I was just trying to survive and finish." continued on next page

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