Cycle News

VOL. 51 ISSUE 39 SEPTEMBER 30, 2014 P97 good felt like we had a good shot at winning it. Just things kind of didn't really unfold in our favor. But we made up some points. It's a long shot, but going into Po- mona we still got a shot. Anything can happen." Halbert finished fourth. And at the end of the day he was more concerned about his injured brother, Jethro. "I got a good start in the main event and was right on Jared [Mees] for awhile," Halbert said. "Eventually guys started working the high line and I did too. I was right there and competitive, but didn't have it quite at the end. Not sure why. The oil on my shield didn't help matters, but I just didn't get it done. My thoughts are with my brother. I hope he's okay." Sixth went to Doug Lawrence on the Lawrence Racing Harley- Davidson followed by USC Kawa- saki's Jake Shoemaker. Privateer Jeffrey Carver Jr. put his Harley- Davidson in eighth ahead of TJ Burnett Farms Kawasaki's Bran- don Robinson. Don's Kawasaki's Henry Wiles had a mechanical problem on the warm-up lap and had to switch to his backup bike and start from the back row. From there Wiles was able to re- bound and work his way through the pack to finish in the top 10. Coolbeth's Highs & Lows If you were a betting man, you would've put your money on Ken- ny Coolbeth Jr. after watching the heat races. The man on the Zanotti Racing/Moroney's Har- ley-Davidson was on fire. He won his heat rather convincingly and looked in good form until a crash in the Dash for Cash after com- ing together with Sammy Halbert beat him up pretty bad. His right hand was more than twice it's normal size and he wasn't sure if he could even race the main. Coolbeth suited up, his team added some wrap to the grip to accommodate his injured hand, and he went on to finish an im- pressive fifth. "I kind of didn't even know if I was going to ride, really," Cool- beth said. "I just wanted to go out and try and feel it out. My hand is just killing me. My back… I'm just pretty banged up right now. I'm a racer. So I went out there. I didn't even put in 70 percent out there and still ended up fifth. That's pretty good I guess. It's just one of those things. Seems like when we're good we always have bad luck. We had everybody covered tonight, I guarantee it. It is what it is. It's racing." Coolbeth wasn't happy about the Dash for Cash incident and called out Halbert for being re- sponsible for the incident and made a plea for something to be done about it. "I got a pretty good start and going through one and two, just got cleaned out pretty much," Coolbeth said. "Typical Sammy Halbert. It's just... it's getting pretty bad. He's done it to a lot of guys. We're here to race. We're not here to hurt each other. It needs to be addressed. Even in the main event he was in front of me with Bryan [Smith] and all of them. He just… he rides like an idiot. But it is what it is. He's going to really hurt somebody someday." After the race, Coolbeth was hoping that he wouldn't need any work done – even though all signs pointed to a broken hand - and was hopeful to be at Pomona in two weeks time. According to an update on his facebook, he checked into the hospital later that night after coughing up blood. Fortunately, everything checked okay except for the broken hand and a se- verely bruised back. He awaits word from his doctor when he gets home. All In! While Mees goes into the Pomo- na finale on October 11 as a virtu- al shoo-in for the 2014 Grand Na- tional Championship, nothing is guaranteed, not even 13 points. So Smith and Johnson (16 points down) are heading into Pomona with the all-in mentality – go for the win and hope for some luck. "Whether the protest goes my way or not," Smith said. "It's just nerve-wracking pretty much. All we can do is just go into Pomo- na, however, it went tonight and just go there to win. That's all we can do." Johnson echoed the same sentiments. And after all he's won the race and the championship at Pomona. But Johnson pointed

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