Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/717711
but that was short lived as Mees blasted by on lap two. "I got by Carver and I got out to a lead early," said Mees. "When I was watching all the races I noticed that everything happened the first three or four laps. I noticed that the guys that were riding in second were overriding and trying to catch the leader. I knew I just needed to get out and click my own laps. It was such a treacherous, tedious track. You had to be so smooth and so easy on the gas. It was a perfect track for me, honestly." Carver was able to stay right with Mees early on, but slowly the gap grew. "I kind of ran out of my brakes," said Carver. "I was riding them getting in and riding them through the center and getting off of them, they started going away real quick. Each time I reached down it was a quarter-inch farther down on each lap on each corner. I ended up just staying off of them. I was trying to relearn how to ride the race track." While Carver was fighting his brake problems, Crosley Brands/Howerton Motorsports' Bryan Smith was working his way through the field after a slow start. On lap fourteen, Smith grabbed second, but was almost a full second behind. Smith had been fast qualifier and easily won his heat, but the main was a different story. "I thought we had something for anybody today," said Smith. "The track got really black in the final. I was just struggling getting off two; I couldn't figure it out. I matched Jared's pace but I was coming from the back. By the time I got into second he had a gap on me. I might close it up an inch and then I would lose a foot. It sucks, I needed to beat him." Carver had regrouped and was chasing Smith back down. "After he (Smith) got by me I didn't have the pressure and my brakes started coming back in," said Carver. "A lot of it was just learning to ride without them and keep my momentum up and picking the throttle up really, re- ally early. That's when we started closing back up on Bryan. I noticed he started settling there on the last three or four laps and I knew I had a chance at getting by him. I got a good run off of four and I almost snuck under- neath him. I was side by side with him, but I spun up a little bit. The Kawi just kind of powered by me. I was pretty happy with it. I haven't been on the podium since last year when we came out to Delaware. It was really cool to be up there with the two championship contenders." With the win, Mees' points lead has grown to sixteen over Smith with just two rounds remaining. "I was running in low and drifting real wide and made it happen," said Mees. "As far as the points chase goes, it would have been awesome if Carver could have gotten in there, but we will take what we can get. I knew Bryan was going to be tough, he has been all year, but we did what we had to." "No excuses besides the rider on that one," said Smith. "I needed a little more room above the groove to get the Kawi hooked up and to turn. I thought I could get underneath (Mees) on one lap and that didn't hap- pen. This track was just really tight. Off of four we were bounc- ing off the walls, it was sketchy. I went from being really consistent all day to really inconsistent in PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVE HOENIG VOL. 53 ISSUE 33 AUGUST 23, 2016 P45