Briefly...
The two leaders were pushing each
other hard in the national and the
pace Henry Wiles and Jared Mees
set was so much faster than the
rest of the field they were nearly 15
seconds ahead of third place at the
checkered flag. Of the 18 riders in
the field, Wiles lapped all the way up
to seventh place.
Three-time AMA Pro Grand National
Champion Kenny Coolbeth, Jr.
continued his nearly annual struggle
at Peoria. The fourth-ranked rider
in the series failed to qualify for the
race. He's already used a provisional
start earlier in the season at Lima,
so Coolbeth had to watch from the
sidelines as his championship hopes
nearly vanished. Coolbeth is now 46
points out of the series lead.
Road race regulars JD Beach and
Hayden Gillim showed up on brand
new, largely stock motorcycles to
race Peoria. "Me and Hayden went
and bought brand new bikes and
threw suspension on them and kept
them stock and we've just been rid-
ing them at the house," Beach said.
"And to come out here and get fourth
is just awesome." Gillim also turned
in a good performance on his stock-
er in the GNC2 class taking fifth.
There were fisticuffs between Rob-
ert Pearson and Justin Hittle and
members of Hittle's camp after a
practice session at Peoria. Accord-
ing to Pearson the two had a run in
at a regional race a couple of nights
earlier and there was bad blood. "I
came off the track and Hittle chucked
a beer at me," Pearson said. "Next
thing I know a couple of his buddies
jump the fence and started punching
STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY LARRY LAWRENCE
A
nother Peoria TT, another Henry Wiles win, ho hum. But
that's not quite how it went down in the 2015 edition of
the historic event. At the TT this year Wiles was running as
hard as he could in timed qualifying, and when the timing sheets
arrived, there it was in black and white: Defending AMA Grand
National Champ and current series leader Jared Mees was head-
ing the list and Wiles was second.
VOL. 52 ISSUE 33 AUGUST 18, 2015 P105
Wiles (17) and
Mees sky it over
Peoria's famous
jump. Mees was
lofting it to 140ft
in practice!
continued on next page
