SUPERPRESTIGIO OF THE AMERICAS
Briefly...
Briar Bauman dedicated his Friday
night national victory to the late Je-
thro Halbert. "He was an awesome
friend," Bauman said, "and you
could bet all the money you've got
that he would be out there running
with all of us at the front. This was
his type of race track. He would have
been glass-smooth. I rode with him
all night. This one is for Jethro." Bau-
man had nothing but praise for the
two more veteran riders he shared
the podium with in Vegas. "That stuff
has taken me a while to learn," he
said. "whereas Joe and Jared have
done it for quite a few years. My goal
is to someday be like Joe and Jared,
holding the number one, and make a
name for myself."
Short Track specialist Mikey Rush
clocked the fastest lap in timed quali-
fying Friday night. Rush, 28, turned
a 10.230-second lap on his No. 54
Honda CRF450R. That just bested
second-place qualifier Henry Wiles'
10.276 and Briar Bauman's 10.332,
who rounded out the top three. In
spite of Rush's blazing run in GNC1
qualifying, he was over having the
valving on his front fork changed at
Rach Tech Suspension. "There's al-
ways room for improvement," Rush
smiled. "I have a lot of time on these
types of tracks for sure. I'm confi-
dent—it's a short track 450 National
and I've won two of these." Among
the three championship contend-
ers it was series leader Jared Mees
coming home ahead qualifying sixth
at 10.391. Bryan Smith and Kenny
Coolbeth Jr. were 21st and 22
nd
, re-
spectively.
Bryan Smith was understandably
disappointed with not being able to
VOL. 52 ISSUE 47 NOVEMBER 24, 2015 P61
continued on next page
Briar Bauman
(14) leads the
12-rider field
in the Grand
National main.
STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY
LARRY LAWRENCE
T
here were three big story-
lines after the dust settled
on the Orleans Arena
floor Friday night in Las Vegas.
There was Briar Bauman break-
ing through with a dominating
performance to win the Grand
National main event on his Rod
Lake Racing Honda and there
was the letdown of having the
championship decided before
the final after two of the champi-
onship contenders, Bryan Smith
and Kenny Coolbeth Jr., both
failed to transfer into the main.
But perhaps the key element
of the night was the rider glid-
ing high above the fray all night,
Jared Mees.
