especially when you throw in the
fact that it was a track that was
not so flat (the rear wheels were
bouncing more than a hyperac-
tive kid with a sugar rush in a
bouncy house).
While it wasn't optimum condi-
tions for a flat track race; it was
riveting. And in the end it still
highlighted the best parts about
the sport—close racing and a
group of talented racers not
afraid to hang it all out.
It also was a display of the
classic roller coaster drama of
racing. Las Vegas Harley-David-
son's Jared Mees—the reigning
AMA Grand National Cham-
pion—had a perfect race until a
half a lap left in the race when
disaster struck and a mechani-
cal had him going from a shoe-
VOL. 52 ISSUE 23 JUNE 9, 2015 P67
Briefly...
Back-to-back Daytona 200 winner
Danny Eslick made his second flat
track appearance this year (Spring-
field Mile being his first). The road
racer has returned to his dirt track
roots for some select races and is
starting to feel right at home, qualify-
ing 10
th
. Unfortunately for Eslick, he
ended up on the ground in his heat,
forcing him to try and make it through
in the LCQ and ultimately was unable
to transfer to the main. "Coming from
the starting gate it's quite dusty and
just dry marbles and that gets all drug
up across the groove," Eslick said.
"So everybody was kind of skating
it off and running wide. I had every-
thing slowed down and was turned
and I'm not sure who it was—some-
body T-boned me and kind of spun
the thing around. Went from prob-
ably making it I would say fairly easy
out of the heat race to ending up in
the dirt and having to come from the
last chance. Definitely not the way
you wanted to come and spend the
X Games but we're here. I qualified
10th fastest and that just makes me
want to come out and do a few more
and maybe get a little payback out
there." For Eslick two races are not
enough, he's hoping to get out there
for some more. So has he caught the
dirt track bug again? "I never lost it,"
he said. "My priorities were on the
asphalt and just the way things are
now it will kind of work out for me to
go play in the dirt a little bit."
Initially the thought was that Jared
Mees' mechanical misfortune was
a broken chain, but that wasn't the
case. "I came across the white flag
and went into turn one and tried to
come out of turn two and there was
continued on next page
AMA PRO FLAT TRACK STARS MADE THEIR
X GAMES DEBUT IN SPECTACULAR FASHION
WITH CLOSE RACING AND PLENTY OF DRAMA
The fans were on
their feet as AMA Pro
Flat Track regulars
put on a fantastic
display of racing in
rough conditions at
the inaugural X Games
Harley-Davidson Flat
Track event.