Cycle News

VOL. 51 ISSUE 41 OCTOBER 14, 2014 P61 around when he scored his first win of the season at the previous round at Calistoga. The young champion has his swagger back. "Big congrats to Jared [Mees] for winning the championship," Baker said. "He [Mees] said he was going to take it from me last year and he did. So it was my turn to give him a plate and say that I was going to take it from him in 2015." Always the sportsman, Baker also gave Smith his due for his performance at Pomona. "And Bryan… tough luck for him, but he did an amazing job finishing off the season with a win," Baker said. Also quite at home on the Po- mona Half Mile, Baker was look- ing to challenge Smith, but unfor- tunately brake issues – i.e. not really having any – meant that the My Own Race: 5 JAKE JOHNSON 2 ND Jake Johnson may have gotten off to a slow start, but he charged his way back up to end the day second and finish the year a solid third in the championship. "Started off a little slow was probably fifth or sixth from the start," Johnson said. "And just kind of stuck with that lower line all race. I knew it was going to come to me. Kind of gave up a little too much early on to Bryan [Smith]. But once it kind of came around was able to get up there, got by Henry [Wiles], got by Jared [Mees], got by Brad [Baker]. By that time Bryan was pretty much checked out. I could see I was inching up on him a little bit here and there. But I knew he knew he had a big lead and I'm sure he was in cruise control a little bit." 7 SAMMY HALBERT 6 TH Sammy Halbert struggled to find his groove (no pun intended), but once he found it he made a charge towards the front. Unfortunately, it was a bit too late and he had to settle for sixth in what has been a very difficult season for the younger Halbert. "The track was pretty good," Halbert said. "It was real racy, it had some cushion on the outside. I just sucked at the beginning of the race and was going backwards. And then eventually I figured something out and started going forwards. It would've been nice if I would've figured something out sooner. "Eventually when I found my line that was working for me I reeled in Mike Rush and was able to pass him and that Suzuki 1000 would come blowing past me on the straightaway and we went back and forth passing each other every corner for awhile. So that was fun, had a good time with that. And eventually cleared him and started reeling in Henry [Wiles] and Jared [Mees], but just too little too late." 1 BRAD BAKER 3 RD Brad Baker may not have been able to put on the performance he desired, but he was able to valiantly soldier on to finish third with brake trouble. "The sucky deal was that even before the main event started that warm-up lap I went into turn three and went to get on the brakes and I had no brakes," Baker said. "So I was like alright that's cool. I pumped them back up and it wasn't like they were not there, they were vibrating loose and the pucks were vibrating out and I had to pump them up every time. So I knew that I didn't have anything to… two minutes wasn't like I was going to be able to fix it so I just rolled with it and hoped that it was going to get better. Unfortunately it didn't and it just messed up my whole lap having to pump them down the straightaway and then pumping them into the corner and then sometimes they weren't there at all because I wouldn't pump them. Just wasn't able to ride the way I should. I kind of caught Bryan [Smith] for a little while then I had a couple of sketchy moments trying to send it off in there that hard with no brakes. Then I started feeling a little pressure from Jake [Johnson] and Jake and I rode for probably five laps - riding side by side having fun. And eventually that just kind of wore me out too. It's just like man I can't keep doing this and not doing it very comfortably. With no brakes, it's a big thing."

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