VOL. 51 ISSUE 39 SEPTEMBER 30, 2014 P93
For championship leader Bry-
an Smith on the Villa-Esparza/
Crosley Radios–backed Kawa-
saki, seeing his 2014 title run go
pear-shaped with a costly dis-
qualification for failing to adhere
to a black flag that was shown to
him because his bike was leaking
oil, it was a night of lows.
However, in racing there is no
greater low than getting injured,
and the night of great racing was
marred by accidents that put Je-
thro Halbert, Pro Singles points
leader Kyle Johnson and Molly
Terry in the hospital. There are
no official updates on the three,
but according to family sources
Halbert has suffered a head in-
jury, but is in stable condition and
making progress.
Return of a Champion
If you've been around racing for
a while weathering highs and
lows is something you're fairly
used to. For Baker, that pretty
much summarized his season.
Injuries, mechanical woes all
while trying to get sorted with his
new team has made for a rough
season and it took him out of
title contention early on. There
were always flashes of the Brad
Baker who everyone had come
to know, but something would al-
ways go wrong. But not this time.
Although Baker got off to a shaky
start, once he took the lead from
Jake Johnson on lap 12 he kept
on rolling, didn't have any prob-
lems and took the checkered flag
with a 1.634-second gap.
"It feels amazing," Baker said.
"This was definitely a time to get
it done. The year was winding
down. And it just felt great to get
that win out of the way for the
year. You can't have the number-
one plate and not at least get
one win. Like I said, not just to-
night but the whole year just got
off to a shaky start, breaking my
arm, bikes failing on us… this all
panned out and it was good.
And although it was a tough
year for Baker, the mantra no mat-
ter the disappointment was on to
better for the next race and look-
ing for a positive. Which is what
Champions do, but also as Baker
puts it himself, it's what racers do
something.' So I went even higher
and about highsided gave it a little
bit too much gas. But hat's off to
Fisher and the whole crew. They've
been waiting the whole season for
this and first race back from his
injury so it's pretty cool."
Third place went to Thresher
Communications' Honda with Josh
Chisum-backed Ryan Kearns and
Rod Lake Racing's Bronson Bauman
rounding out the top five.
Davis Fisher
(center)
got his first
Pro Singles
victory,
joining him on
the podium
was Jarod
Vanederkooi
(left) and
Ryan Foster
(right).
