VOL. 53 ISSUE 30 AUGUST 2, 2016 P57
was dislodged and was flapping in the
breeze. Unable to attack the corners
Smith started a slow drop in the stand-
ings and would bottom out with an
11th-place finish.
After a strong run to the front Baker
was also having brake issues. "I didn't
lose my brakes; they were just really
grabby. They did fade a little bit in the
middle," said Baker. "They just didn't
have a very good feel to them at all.
Everything floats in the brakes and
they start to cock and they wear weird.
It gets to a certain point and it starts
rubbing and glowing. I started just lay-
ing off the brakes and just rolling."
Compounding Baker's problems
was an arm fatigue problem. "The
throttle got super stiff. I would come
off the corner and let off and give my
arms a break and just let things roll,"
said Baker.
Coolbeth had overcome a second-row
start and was holding third over Baker,
Johnson and current points leader
Bryan Smith and his Crosley Brands/
T&T Construction backed Kawasaki.
"We kind of got lucky with whatever
happened to Sammy. It's racing," said
Coolbeth. "I got a really good start, for
me, from the second row. I kept those
guys in sight. With seven or five laps to
go, I don't know what happened to my
front tire. I thought there was actually
oil on the track. It was plowing like
crazy, so I kind of just backed it down.
Nobody was by me so I just kind of
chilled out. I wasn't going to catch the
guys in front of me; they were pretty
much gone."
It was just about this time that
Smith's race began to unravel. As if
the loss of his brake wasn't enough,
with about 10 laps to go his steel shoe
