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VOL. 51 ISSUE 42 OCTOBER 21, 2014 P123 Grand National Championship half mile for Kawa- saki. His dominating victory in the season finale at Pomona only confirmed the notion that Smith and the Kawasaki are now potential winners at every GNC Twins race. That bodes very well for Smith being a leading contender, if not the outright favor- ite for next season. Kawasaki's threat to Harley-Davidson's domi- nance of AMA Grand National racing represents the first real challenge to Milwaukee since the fac- tory Honda entry of 30 years ago (not forgetting the amazing 1993 season by Ricky Graham on a privateer Honda). While the fan base of Grand Na- tional racing is still firmly Harley, most pundits feel that having multiple brands contending in the se- ries is healthy. Kawasakis now are almost equal in number to Harleys on the big tracks. In fact, Kawa- saki won the manufacturers' championship. The major stats for the season read like this: There were six different Grand National winners this year. Smith led the way with five victories; Kenny Coolbeth had four, followed by two each for Henry Wiles and Jared Mees. Brad Baker and Briar Bauman scored a win apiece. In terms of podium finishers there were an even dozen. Mees and Smith led the way with nine each. Jake Johnson scored eight, Coolbeth five. Then came Baker with three, Sammy Halbert, Henry Wiles, Jake Shoemaker, Brandon Robinson with two each and Mikey Rush, Briar Bauman and Stevie Bonsey with one apiece. There were 15 races completed this year, with just one rainout, the Sturgis Half-Mile. Kawasaki won the most races with seven. Harley-Davidson scored six wins and Honda two. There were 364 total laps in the Grand National mains this year. Ten riders led Nationals this year. Smith led an amazing 36 percent of the time, lead- ing 131 laps on the season. Kenny Coolbeth was second with 78 laps up front. Then came Henry Wiles in third with 37 laps led. Champ Mees sur- prisingly only came in fourth on the year's lap leader charts with 26 laps led. Briar Bauman led 25, Sammy Halbert with 18, Jake Johnson and Mikey Rush with 17 laps each, then Brad Baker with 13 and Joe Kopp 2. The future of the series looks solid if not spec- tacular. Talent-wise the series hasn't looked as strong in years. Next season you'll certainly have Mees and Smith battling for the title along with Kenny Coolbeth, Jr., Jake Johnson, Brad Baker, Brandon Robinson and Sammy Halbert. Stevie Bonsey is starting to look more and more like a contender and if Briar Bauman and the Werner Kawasaki team can figure out the handling is- sues of their bike he's sure to continue an upward trend. Jeffrey Carver bounced around and put six different bikes in mains so, if he can land a solid ride you'd have to consider him a rider to deal with. Jake Shoemaker scored a couple of podiums this year and is gaining in confidence. It will be interesting to see what Triumph comes back with for Shayna Texter next season. They will be looking to provide her a lighter platform that doesn't get into high-speed wobbles. If she can get a good handling bike she'll be tough on the miles. Wyatt Maguire made enough mains this season to earn Rookie of the Year honors. And then you have a slew of up-and-comers in Pro Singles. No word yet on if any of them will be making a move to Grand Nationals next year. As far as machinery, unrestricting the bikes seemed to work well in making the Harley XR750s more competitive with Kawasaki on the miles. That battle will continue. Triumph hopes to improve and the Lloyd Brothers Ducati is a major factor on big tracks. Rumors persist of a new Ya- maha in the testing stages and Harley-Davidson might be working on developing its Street 750 into a replacement for the 44-year-old XR750. CN REVIEW Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives