VOL. 52 ISSUE 11 MARCH 17, 2015 P51
"The track was a little greasier
and it was still hard to pass, but
my bike just works so good,"
said Coolbeth. "We were just in
the right spot at the right times. It
was great. We have a great team
behind us, great bikes. All I have
to do is ride the things. I have to
do my job and it's all good."
Coolbeth's consistency over
the two nights of racing leaves
him with a big mark on his back
heading into the next round in
Springfield, Illinois, on May 24
th
.
"It's huge to get points; every
point counts," said Coolbeth.
"I just put my head down and
just looked to the front. I knew
those guys were all up high
quite a bit and I just stuck to the
bottom like I did all day. I don't
know why they were all going
up there, but it benefited me so
it's all good. It's just awesome.
Great start of the year."
Robertson held onto his sec-
ond place position, although he
was getting heavy pressure from
Halbert, who was late to the
party and only caught up during
the final few laps.
"Kenny [Coolbeth Jr.] was
just on a rail," said Robinson.
"There was nothing I could do.
He just slid right past me and
just kept pulling away lap after
lap. I'm like, man, this is tough.
I kind of matched him for a little
bit there and just kind of settled
in. I knew I wasn't going to catch
him unless he made a terrible
big mistake. It's just good to be
on the podium for sure. It sucks
that he pulled away so much,
but otherwise great night, awe-
some."
Halbert was happy to be on
the podium after finishing sixth
the night before.
"I really wanted to get up on
the podium," said Halbert. "Un-
fortunately we didn't do that well
the beginning of the race, I kind
of worked my way backwards
then got my groove and I started
picking them off and was finally
able to get myself into third so
that felt good."
Like his teammate Coolbeth,
Henry Wiles started from the
second row, and in the end
edged out Bauman by a half-
second for fourth after a close
battle for most of the race.
"I started off slow," said Wiles.
Briefly...
ride with her new national number
52. Shayna has been number 25
her entire career, but settled on 52
when 25 wasn't available. "It was
really hard trying to decide what
number I was going to go with," said
Shayna. "It was between 50 and 52,
which was my number backwards. I
just started playing with them a little
bit and at the end of the day I real-
ized there was a cross between the
middle of my two numbers and that
really just said it all for me. I've been
running with it ever since."
(Far left) Friday night was a
different story… As soon as
Coolbeth Jr. (2) got past Robinson
(44) he was untouchable, crossing
the line with nearly a 6.5-second
gap on Robinson in second.
(Left) Sammy Halbert (7) ended
Friday night on the podium in third,
while fellow Washington rider
Brad Baker (6) was toughing it out
after a recent elbow surgery and
finished 14th.
