VOL. 52 ISSUE 22 JUNE 2, 2015 P107
Briefly...
sChoice.tv, but he did a lot of promo-
tional work for the race in addition to
participating in "Clash of the Titans
II."
Mikey Martin picked up an instant
sponsor at Sacramento. Just before
he was to go on camera with a local
TV station, race sponsor Topo Padil-
la offered to sponsor Martin. Martin
agreed and donned a Greg Padilla
Bail Bonds hat just in time for the TV
interview.
With the drought in California, Den-
nis Pearson, of Dirt Productions,
who built and maintained the track,
did everything he could to cut back
on water use. Pearson estimated
they used as much as 30 percent
less water this year than in 2014.
Pearson said having the race in May
instead of July cut back dramatically
on water usage because of the cool-
er nights, which helped keep mois-
ture content in the dirt longer. Pear-
son and his crew also shifted much
of the track prep work to night, in an
effort to reduce the amount of water
typically used during track prepara-
tions done during daytime hours.
And finally prep on the infield parking
area was cut back to the bare mini-
mum needed to keep dust down.
Nichole Mees turned heads by quali-
fying fast in the first timed qualifying
session on her Black Hill's Harley
Davidson. Jarod Vanderkooi ended
up the fastest in the combined timed
qualifying, turning a lap at 36.224 sec-
onds on his Don's Kawasaki EX650.
Lap times in the national were in the
mid-to-high 37s. The fastest lap of the
final was turned by factory Harley-
Davidson's Brad Baker with a 37.493.
laps, but coming out of four for
the last time it was Smith pulling
out of the draft timed perfectly
to nip Robinson at the line.
That's how the 50th Sacramen-
to Mile was won.
Five wins straight at the 50th
running of one of the most pres-
tigious events of the American
motorcycle-racing calendar—not
bad for a veteran racer from
Flint. CN
Smith (42)
gets Brandon
Robinson (44)
across the line,
beating the
Triumph rider by
.020 of a second.
continued on next page
