Cycle News

VOL. 52 ISSUE 32 AUGUST 11, 2015 P119 Briefly... good friend, down eighteen points with six races to go. Sammy Halbert is anoth- er five points down and Kenny Coolbeth four behind Halbert. The now injured Brad Baker sits in fifth, 37 behind Mees. Even with his disappointing results, Bryan Smith was upbeat. "I am bummed that I got sixth and the guy I need to beat won," said Smith. "Not good in that aspect, but good because we went forward and ev- erything felt good. This track is fun. My hat's off to them for how it started off being a little pole putter and went to being able to race around the top. Even though I got sixth it was pretty fun because it was the closest track that I've been able to race at that you feel like a sprint car driver." Prior to the evening's program, Vance & Hines' Terry Vance and Harley-Davidson's Chris Schoonover presented Nichole Mees with a framed poster honoring her as she rides her farewell tour. With Mees' long time sponsor Black Hills Harley-Da- vidson as the promoter of the race, her expectations were high. The Black Hills Harley-Davidson/Jerry Kennedy Racing- backed Mees started strong, posting the sixth-fastest qualifying time just a tick behind husband Jared. While battling for the lead in her heat, her XR 750 Harley- Davidson expired, forcing her into a semi. This is where a bad night got worse. A large rock knocked a hole in the cases of one of the bikes midway through the race, resulting in a large oil spill going into turn three. In what would be the biggest crash of the night, Mees hit the oil, slid into Jake Shoemaker and took them both into the air fence. Ryan Foster could not avoid the mess and also took a hard fall. Mees and Shoemaker were able to straighten their mounts enough to make the restart. Mees came all the way from the back of the sin- gle-file restart to finish fourth, one position out of a transfer to the GNC 1 National. come out on top of that. This was one of my first rides on the Briggs- auto.com Harleys. We will build on that and come back stronger." 42 BRYAN SMITH 6TH After a third-place finish in his heat, Bryan Smith had to scratch and claw his way through the pack to garner his sixth-place finish. A solid finish, but well off what he needed in his quest to capture his first Grand National Championship. "Sixth is better than I thought. I thought I was seventh," said Smith. "The race was all right, I went forward. When you start on the second row you let other people dictate your race. There is no way to get a holeshot from the second row. Coming off turn two, the first lap, somebody clipped my bars and I about bounced off the wall. That probably let about 10 guys go by me. I made up a couple spots the first lap then was stuck in 10th, then ninth, then eighth. You get to racing people then everybody just gets away from you. We were really getting through the corners fast and could get a bunch of momentum going. I just screwed up by getting third in the heat, basically." shows that we can dig down deep when we really want it. I looked back with about two laps to go and saw Kenny was right there; I was like 'come on, come on.' I thought for sure I would look back and have a big lead because when there is somebody that is faster than you, they get you quicker than that. Thank goodness I was able to pull it off. It just feels so good." While Mees and Coolbeth were pulling away from the crowd, Briar Bauman pushed his USC/Hart Racing/Stevens Racing backed Kawasaki into third. Cliff Racing/ Dodge Brothers/Classic Harley-Davidson's Stevie Bonsey followed his Salinas, Califor- nia neighbor through the pack into fourth. "This has been such an up and down year, we have really struggled to get things sorted out," said Bauman. "It has been a struggle for myself and James [Hart], so to get a finish like this on a track like this is awesome. We had a podium finish at Lima too, but that is a completely different racetrack. I never looked back and I didn't know Stevie [Bonsey] was so close. I finally looked back with about five [laps] to go and had a pretty good lead. It looks like I had a small oil leak, that may have helped me get away a little."

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