VOL. 52 ISSUE 26 JUNE 30, 2015 P129
Briefly...
at 25.464-seconds on his factory
Harley-Davidson. That compares to
a 25.522-second timed turned by
Sammy Halbert in timed qualifying in
last year's event.
Brad Baker won the first GNC1 heat
race over Jared Mees and Briar
Bauman. Sammy Halbert won the
second heat over Henry Wiles and
Dustin Crown. Baker's was the faster
of the heats by six seconds (4:28.251
to 4:34.358) earning Baker the pole
for the national. Baker chose the out-
side lane for the start of the main.
Harley-Davidson continues to be the
dominant machine at the Lima Half-
Mile. Harley riders have won every
Lima National since the race began
in 1984, with the exception of Ronnie
Jones in 1986 and Ricky Graham in
1993, who both won on Hondas.
BAKER'S
ROAD BACK
It was a silly little nothing
training crash at Colin Edwards'
Texas Tornado Boot Camp
in April of 2014 that left Brad
Baker with a badly broken left
elbow. It was the start of a
nearly year-long ordeal that saw
the 22-year-old factory Harley-
Davidson rider from Eatonville,
Washington, trying to regain the
form that earned him the 2013 AMA Pro Grand National
Championship. It ultimately took two reconstructive sur-
geries and months of rehab, but Baker looks to finally be
100-percent healthy.
After winning at Lima, Baker suddenly finds himself
in a very close fourth-place in the standings, just nine
points out of the series lead. With his confidence grow-
ing daily it appears that Baker may be the biggest threat
to Jared Mees' quest to defend his 2014 GNC number-
one plate.
"Five months ago I had
surgery to replace my elbow
for the second time in a year,"
Baker explained. "Coming back
after the injury the first time was
hard, but then getting opened
up a second time and having
a bunch of complications with my surgery and having a
dislocated shoulder on top of it, it's probably one of the
most difficult things I've been through."
The amazing part when you look back on Baker's past
year, was the fact that he somehow managed to finish
fifth in the series and win a national (at Calistoga) in spite
of being far from being 100 percent because of contin-
ued problems with his elbow. Now that's he's back to full
speed health-wise you can see the confidence is back in
his riding.
Brad Baker says he's finally a
hundred-percent after having
two surgeries to repair his
elbow from last year's crash at
the Texas Tornado Boot Camp.
