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FLAT TRACK AMA PRO FLAT TRACK SERIES ROUND 7/JULY 11, 2015 INDIANA STATE FAIRGROUNDS/INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA P98 Later Jeffrey Carver, Jr. and Henry Wiles crashed, each time bringing out the red flag. Carver was able to make the restart on his Don's Kawasaki. Wiles' Za- notti Racing Harley-Davidson was too badly damaged to restart. The race program was modified and shortened due to weather closing in on the India- napolis area. BAKER'S NIGHT Baker showed good speed all night. Vance & Hines has helped Harley-Davidson with some mo- tor work on the factory XR750s and perhaps for the first time a team has found the speed to match the factory-backed Cro- sley Brands/Howerton Motors- port Kawasaki ridden by Smith. Baker was the fastest in timed qualifying and won the fastest heat race of the night as well. In the main it was clear fairly early on that the race would come down to Baker, Smith or Mees. Mees made a spectacular charge through the field after be- ing forced to take a provisional start and start from the back. By lap five he was already into the lead. Mees seemed to control My Own Race: 6 BRAD BAKER 1ST Brad Baker broke through to earn his first win on a mile after having all his previous Grand National wins coming on half-miles. Baker found his own line around Indy that no one else was using. "It was a picture perfect last lap," Baker said. "It went just the way I wanted it to. I was taking a pretty wide entrance into the corner and then I could carry a lot of momentum from that point on towards the center. It allowed me a good run up on Jared [Mees] or whoever else was in front of me. I combined momentum and speed with the draft and as soon as I'd get to them I'd blow the doors off them. That's a move I've been trying to perfect on Miles for a long time. It just happened to work perfect for me. I knew I had it coming out of turn four. I did that move four or five times leading up to the last time and I didn't know if Bryan [Smith] wasn't showing all his cards or couldn't pass me. It turns out he couldn't pass me. You never know with him, sometimes he won't show what he can do until the end. Today was the day for factory Harley- Davidson and myself to end his winning streak. My hat's off though to Bryan and Jared. They are both great guys to race with." 42 BRYAN SMITH 2ND Bryan Smith's three-race winning streak on the miles in 2015 came to an end. Smith spent nearly the entire race on the groove, while his rivals Jared Mees and Brad Baker spent a lot of time racing in the cushion. Smith said a mistake going into turn three cost him. "I just got sucked in the draft off Mees going into three just a little bit too much, and I blew the groove," he explained. "I was gath- ering it back up it getting back down on the groove and I still almost won from third." Smith came back to win the Dash for Cash and an important championship point. He's now just seven points behind Mees in the standings. 91 MIKEY MARTIN 4TH Mikey Martin earned his best ever Grand National finish, taking fourth on his Weirbach Kawasaki. Martin said the track came around for him by the end of the day. "I'm not too fond of a cushion," he explained. "But I got through qualifying I think in 13th or something. I started on the third row in the main. I knew the groove was coming, so I just kept my line that I usually run here and it worked more and more. On the restarts I could come in take a breath and put new tear-offs on. I just got out and passed one guy at a time and at the end I was fourth, my best GNC finish, so I couldn't be happier." 10 JOHNNY LEWIS 5TH Johnny Lewis continued to show good speed on the miles on his Lloyd Brothers Ducati. His fifth-place finish at Indy jumped him from 12th to into ninth in the series standings. "I changed my gearing and it totally helped," Lewis said. "When Shawn Baer crashed I think his steel shoe hit my elbow. When I saw it happen I just kind of dropped my head and got on the gas. My arm started tightening up on that last restart, but to finish fifth is good. We're progress- ing. It shows the Ducati is getting consistent at different tracks. We only have two races left on our schedule. We're going to do Charlotte and Springfield so hopefully we can get the thing on the box." 1 JARED MEES 3RD Jared Mees continued his string of podium finishes and continues to lead the standings, but he's still looking for his first win of 2015. Mees had to take a provisional after his bike broke in his heat race, then he came from the back row to lead the most laps of the race, before getting drafted by both Brad Baker and Bryan Smith at the line. "Another podium, but not a win," said a frustrated looking Mees. "I had a little bit of bad luck and had to use the provisional, but I made the best of it. I saw Baker going up on the high line and he'd only gotten me once at the line, so I figured I was doing the right thing by holding my line. Now maybe I wish I would have gone up and done the line he was doing."

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