HINES
VOL. 53 ISSUE 20 MAY 24, 2016 P97
unseen problem. "Everything
was good, I knew I was kind of
towing Coolbeth around. I fig-
ured he would wait for a couple
laps to go to do something,"
said Smith. "With two laps to go,
coming into turn one, my brakes
were gone. I was leaning over
and hoped I could keep it on
the groove. If I would've blown
the groove that late in the race I
would have lost so much time, it
would've been over. It's amaz-
ing when you don't have brakes
you realize how much you really
use them. Not necessarily to
slow you down, but through the
corner and off the corner, just
to keep the tire spin down and
keep it going forward. It made
it difficult for the last couple
laps. I had to change my style
with where I would let off and
how hard I got on the throttle. I
had to figure it out really quick,
because Coolbeth was right
there. Even on the last lap I was
thinking I couldn't get into turn
three hard and Coolbeth is good
at getting into the corners hard.
I went in there as hard as I could
and blocked the inside. Luckily
he didn't try to go up the inside
of me, but damn he was still
close at the finish line."
"I was going to do the outside
move in turn three because he
was entering a little slow," said
Coolbeth. "I was going to bonsai
around the outside of him, but
then after the couple of week-
ends that I've had, I thought I'll
take second. I thought I would
just draft him like normal down
got spooked and had to split out.
I think if Brad could have stuck
in there it would have been a lot
more interesting. Brad's a ballsy
rider and he's not afraid to stick
it in there, safely, not out of con-
trol. It would have made things
interesting."
With the race drawing to a
close, Smith was weathering an
a man on a mission until his bike
went south on lap 13. CR Motor-
sports' Stevie Bonsey filled the
void and it became a three-rider
war over first.
"The four of us were in a tight
group with Brad. We were right
next to each other," said Bonsey.
"It was close enough that when
Brad's bike broke we all kind of
