VOL. 54 ISSUE 3 JANUARY 24, 2017 P43
to get the early drag into turn
one but Mees gave a little extra
to grab the holeshot and inside
line. Once in the lead, he was
never headed.
In the opening laps it was the
three previous victors of the Cup
out front with Bayliss hounding
Mees, while the inaugural win-
ner, Mick Kirkness, ran third and
was closing after a bad gate.
Bayliss ran slightly wide and
Kirkness charged through as
Herfoss continued to methodi-
cally gain ground on the pair.
With seven laps to run Herfoss
moved to second, but while this
was going on, Sammy Halbert
was closing after getting off the
line in near last position.
For a time, it appeared as
though both Herfoss and Halbert
might threaten Mees but when-
ever they appeared to gain time,
Mees would pull out another
bike-length. He would greet the
checkered flag by 0.810 sec-
onds over Herfoss and Kirkness.
"It's been another great week-
end down here in Australia,"
Mees said. "I love coming here
as the racing is so intense but
everyone is so friendly.
"I knew from the start that if I
let Troy [Bayliss] in, he was go-
ing to be extremely hard to beat
so I know I had to go for it from
the start. And after racing Kirk-
ness in the States, when I knew
it was Mick behind me, I thought
if he shows me a wheel it's going
to be tough so I rode as hard as I
could for the entire race. I knew
if there was anyone that would
get close to me it was going to
be pretty intense."
When Herfoss got through
to second it looked like he may
have an answer but he had to
settle for second yet again. The
win for Herfoss in the Americana
was scant consolation for yet
another runner-up finish in the
Bayliss Cup.
Mark Bracks
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
MARK
BRACKS
American Henry Wiles, Jared
Mees and Sammy Halbert took on
Australia's top flat trackers at the
Troy Bayliss Classic.
