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/830616
VOL. 54 ISSUE 21 MAY 31, 2017 P93 The weekend saw one of the best turnout of riders, as there were 50 AFT Twins entries for the Sunday's mile and 49 AFT Singles for Satur- day night's TT. Spectator turnout was also impressive as Memorial Day Weekend has been notorious for bad weather. The ominous fore- cast didn't seem to deter people this year and they were treated to a great weekend of racing. Bryan Smith's win keeps him in line to tie the late Ricky Graham's record of six consecutive wins and 12 total wins, set in 1993. With the season one quarter of the way over, Smith would have to maintain his torrid pace to tie Graham's total wins in a single season. There are three more mile races left on the schedule for the "Mile Master." "Half miles should be okay. Charlotte was good to us, I won there," said Smith. "Any of the clay half miles, I think will be the same story, me or Jared. Lima will be interesting; Brad is so strong there. Sammy will probably ride his XR there and go fast. There will be a couple others guys that will get in the mix there too, that will be a fun one. It will be a real level playing field, between the Indians, Harleys, Yamahas, ev- erything. I'm ready for the half miles, I think I can win them." The AFT Singles points race tight- ened up considerably as points leader coming in, Shayna Texter, failed to get out of the Last Chance Qualifier. By way of his third-place finish, Kolby Carlile has taken over the lead, by one point, over Texter. "I've never been in the points lead before, so this is pretty cool," Carlile said. "That race was long. I kept seeing shadows, and I kept push- ing. We do a lot of training down in Kentucky with the Team 95 crew, and if it wasn't for that, there's no way I would have been able to stick through that main." Despite the fact Bryan Smith has been rolling up the wins, his points lead is just 10 over Jared Mees as the season sits one third of the way over. Both riders have been on the podium at every race. "It's tough be- cause right now in the points chase we've just got to go out there and win. It seems like the second-place guy is either me or Bryan right now," said Mees. "We're trying to get more people up in there between me and Bryan to get the points. Right now Bryan is doing really well. Obviously we're not doing too bad. We're just losing." Saturday night's TT race had the unique format of the AFT Singles race running the same night as the traditional Steve Nace AMA All Star Series. Jared Mees picked up some extra money for their new baby by winning the Expert Singles race on his Montgomeryville Cycle Honda over Briar Bauman (Zanotti Racing Honda) and Dan Bromley (Bromley Cycles KTM). In the Amateur por- tion of the program, Australia's Max Whale won the Open Singles, Rich King (Senior 40+), Kolton Feather- ston (450cc), Josh Lowder (Vintage) and Kash Schnowske (250cc) won their main events. Rob Pearson returned to action for the first time at the mile since his hand injury in Daytona. Pearson made it into the semis where a 17th- place finish ended his day. Ryan Varnes earned his 2018 Na- tional number when he edged Chad Cose in their semi thus making his first national main. Varnes finished 15th. Briefly...