VOL. 52 ISSUE 28 JULY 14, 2015 P101
would be the only thing that
might keep me from winning, if
someone messed up my line on
that last lap."
Fortunately for Baker the line
was there for him on the final
lap and he got a stellar drive
out of turn four on his factory
Harley giving him the momen-
tum he needed to get by Mees.
You could see the frustration of
Mees as he forcefully whacked
the throttle on his Las Vegas
H-D/Rogers Racing Harley-
Davidson as Baker went by.
Smith powered by him too, just
at the line. It's been the pattern
for Mees leading out of four in
several races only to be passed.
"The restarts killed me," Mees
said. "They said twice I had
really good leads on the second-
place guy, but the restarts cost
me. Unfortunately we didn't get
the win, but it could have been
worse."
Oddly, Mees' points lead did
not change much after Indy. He
came in leading by eight points
and leaves leading by seven
Briefly...
ship point that comes with it. Smith
edged out Brad Baker and Briar
Bauman in the Dash, which, due to a
revised schedule, was held after the
national as the last race of the night.
Brad Baker was the fastest rider
in timed qualifying. He turned a lap
of 37.582-seconds on the factory
Harley-Davidson. That compared
to a best time of 38.371 turned last
year by Bryan Smith on his Kawa-
saki. Baker, Bryan Smith and Kenny
Coolbeth, Jr. won the Indy Mile heat
races. Baker's heat race number
one was the fastest.
This was the hometown race for
the Indianapolis-based Crosley
Brands/Howerton Motorsports
Kawasaki team and they were fea-
tured on local news leading up to
the race and on the pre-race show
on Fan's Choice TV. "Indy is the big-
gest race for our team," said team
co-owner Ricky Howerton. "In 1974
my dad [Jackie Howerton] beat
Mario Andretti and Al Unser on this
track at the Hoosier Hundred. When
we stood on top of the podium with
Bryan [Smith], when we won here in
2013, it was really something spe-
cial." Howerton's dad went on to be-
come one of the most respected fab-
ricators in Indianapolis, and at one
point was building parts for Honda's
factory flat track team in the 1980s.
That's when Rick, as a 13-year-old
kid, started hanging out with Ricky
Graham and Bubba Shobert at the
shop and going to races with Shob-
ert. Howerton's love of the sport
from those years eventually led him
back to building flat track machines.
Veteran builder Bill Werner says
something needs to be done with
number 27U Roy
Built Kawasaki pi-
lot Jamison Minor,
finished fourth and
fifth, respectively.
Nick
Armstrong
earned his
second win
of the season
in the GNC2
class.
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