FLAT TRACK
2017 AMERICAN FLAT TRACK CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 7 / MAY 27-28, 2017
ILLINOIS STATE FAIRGROUND / SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS
P88
Bryan's crafty. Man I want to win
one of these miles and snap his
streak for sure.
"We ran him down and then
on the restart here came Sam-
my. It was fun," added Mees. "It
was a good race. We were slow-
ing the pace down before the
red flag. That's something that
Bryan and I seem to do lately is
just slow it all down, conserve
the tires and get some players
up in there. I think he's trying to
think the same thing I'm thinking.
When we get more people in
there it kind of jumbles things up
and makes each one of us think
more. I want the same thing that
he wants. Maybe we are better
off just checking out and taking
run into the back of Jared and
blow us off the groove. It was
like threading a needle on the
last lap."
Smith was perfect again and
won by a margin of .005 of a
second over Mees with Halbert
just .045 back and Baker .129
and Fisher at .311. Also finishing
less than a second behind were
Jeffrey Carver (Ben Evans Rac-
ing/Carver's BBQ Kawasaki) and
Jake Shoemaker (Weirbach Rac-
ing/Kawasaki USA Kawasaki).
"That's got to be one of the
closest miles I've ever lost," said
Mees. "Losing it by that much,
you're more disappointed. I did
everything I felt like was right. It
was just so close. He got me.
ously should have done some-
thing different, because they did
something different. It is what
it is, but I was at least happy to
break up the little Indian party
and get up on the box.
The large crowd was on its
feet, as the drag race from turn
four would decide the winner.
"I just barely squeaked around
Sammy, that was really where
the race was, getting into turn
three on the last lap," said
Smith. "I had to go hard to get
around him, but not too hard to
Kenny Coolbeth lost coolant on
the track that took out his H-D
teammates, forcing a restart.
Starting last on the restart, Coolbeth
got his bike fixed and ended up 12th.
