INTERVIEW
2016 AMA PRO FLAT TRACK CHAMPION BRYAN SMITH
P116
Santa Rosa leading Mees by a small margin,
his history of bad luck still clung to the back of
his mind.
"No doubt about it," he said about that dark
cloud that seems to hang over his head. "This
year, going into Santa Rosa, I was still think-
ing, 'it's mine to lose,' and just waiting for the
bad luck to show up like it always does. It's kind
of been the story of my pro career. I get so close
and have the rug yanked out from underneath
me. If something completely off-the-wall would
have happened at Santa Rosa, it would not have
surprised me, but I would have been 100 percent
pissed, no doubt."
Smith still kept fighting and kept the
faith that they would win their appeal.
"Once I knew the appeal board would
be made up of outside interest, and that
they could see all the facts, I knew they
would see that we were in the right and
everything we were using on my bike, that
my wheel was approved," he said. "I just wish that
whole mess would not have happened. I'm thank-
ful it worked out, because that would have been
another part of the drama, that if it would have
gone the wrong way, that would have been where
our championship was lost, for sure."
Although it was righted and Smith went into
Smith (42)
doing what
he does best
- leading the
Springfield
Mile.
