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FLAT TRACK AMA PRO FLAT TRACK SERIES ROUND 12/SEPTEMBER 19, 2015 DELAWARE INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY/DELMAR, DELAWARE P114 My Own Race: 2 KENNY COOLBETH, JR. 1ST Kenny Coolbeth, Jr. finally scored his second national victory of the season, his first coming on the short track at Daytona. It was a near perfect day for the three-time champ as he also claimed victory in the Dash for Cash. The win moved Coolbeth to third in the standings, giving him an outside chance at this year's championship. He said the red flag and resulting staggered restart caused him a bit of heartburn. "Man, I was stressing out there at the restart," Coolbeth admitted. "I didn't start the whole day down at the bottom and I kind of gambled. We made it work. Jake [Johnson] almost got around us going into one. I kind of scuffed him out of there a little bit, nothing dirty, just racing. It feels so good. All these guys on the team work so dang hard. We've been having some terrible luck, but all the work pays off and I feel great. I didn't just get the start, but I was faster than them too. When the red flag came out I was like 'Why, why?' It always comes out that way and I get shafted, but today we didn't, we were the guys to beat. Dave Zanotti and Dave Atherton are amazing people and that's why we're up here tonight." 23 JEFFREY CARVER, JR. 2ND Jeffrey Carver, Jr. was back on the podium on his Don's Kawasaki for the first time in 2015. The runner-up finish moved him into a tie with Stevie Bonsey for ninth in the standings. "This is my best Twins finish," Carver beamed. "I was third at Hagerstown in 2012." He described his race. "I got a good start out there behind Kenny [Cool- beth, Jr.]. We were kind of seesawing back and forth—I'd gain a little bit and he'd gain. I was following him around and watching his line. There's only a couple of feet out there (of a groove), but there was definitely a significantly different line and he was running it and running it fast. I started figuring it out there towards the end." 5 JAKE JOHNSON 3RD Jake Johnson was on the podium for the second straight race aboard the factory Harley-Davidson in his duties as a fill-in rider for the injured Brad Baker. Johnson was the fastest in timed qualifying, so with that potential in mind he was left wanting more after his third in the national. "It went well for as bad as I struggled in that main event com- pared to earlier," Johnson said. "I guess it was the cooling down, the moisture coming out, it got a little greasy, at least for me. I was running a lone third there before the red flag. Sammy [Halbert] was catching me a little bit and I guess he threw it down between three and four. I thought the restart would help me out. I knew my only shot was to try to get those guys on the start. I got by them going into turn one, but just didn't get it tucked in time. Just as I started to come down I saw Kenny's [Coolbeth, Jr.] front wheel there and I knew I was going to be on the losing end of that. I checked up and tried to get tucked back in before I got freight trained. I got right back in third. I tried getting around Jeffrey [Carver, Jr.] there at first, but made a few mistakes and fell back." 69 SAMMY HALBERT 18TH Sammy Halbert had a solid run going before his crash in the main. Finishing 18th dropped him a spot in the standings and pretty much put his title hopes on the ropes. He said he spun up his Briggs Auto Harley-Davidson on the start and dropped back. "This track was hard to pass on and I made quite a few," he said. "I got up to fourth finally and was pushing hard to catch Jake [Johnson] and was reeling him in. I was making up time by going hard into the corner entries. It was working until it wasn't. I tucked the front and crashed and it broke the handlebars. It was a tough pill to swallow, especially since I was running ahead of the other championship contenders. Kenny [Coolbeth, Jr.] was going good, but I think I had the speed to finish second." 1 JARED MEES 8TH Jared Mees jumped the start and was forced to start on the penalty line. He managed to work his way up to eighth by the end, not a bad night of racing considering how tough it was to pass on the narrow-grooved track. He said this event was, "A bummer all around for everyone in our camp. I was getting great starts all night. Coolbeth kind of jumped, but didn't cross the line. The light held yellow for a longtime and I just went. I don't know what I was think- ing. I go to the back row and I saw Smith back there and I was like, 'What the heck?' With our setup we went the wrong way. I think we were only good for about fourth or fifth. I don't think we could have been on the podium." 42 BRYAN SMITH 14TH Bryan Smith lost a few points after a series of bad luck happenings caused him to finish 14th. "It was a train wreck tonight and I was the engineer of the train," Smith said. "That's all I can do is make a joke out of it. We were trying stuff all day and we decided to go back to the Charlotte bike. I knew we could beat anybody on that. I take off for the warm-up lap and it's popping and missing. It wouldn't clear out, so there was something electrical again. We switched to the back-up bike. It had a brand new tire, pressure wasn't set. I was kind of cruising around and got around a couple of guys. On the restart I saw [Jared] Mees was only four or five guys ahead of me, so I thought if I could just nail the start I could get close to him. I race in third gear and when I shifted to second the shift lever broke off—the linkage broke. I was stuck in second gear for the first couple of laps and everybody passed me, I was running last. There's a little knob on the shift linkage and I finally kicked that and it finally went into third. I about ran into the wall while I was toe-tapping the shifter. It's one of those nights you'd rather forget about."

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