FLAT TRACK
2017 AMERICAN FLAT TRACK CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 8 / JUNE 3, 2017
THE RED MILE / LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY
P76
two a couple times and I had a
decent size gap a couple times."
After the halfway point, things
settled down with Halbert in the
lead, but Mees was always in
his shadow. "Obviously there
was a lot of strategy with the
draft," said Halbert. "His strat-
egy seemed to be to follow and
I wasn't sure if that was good or
not. I thought I would just keep
my head down and see if I can
break him. It's so easy to make
a mistake out there so I figured
it would be better to be out front
and hope he made a mistake
versus me making a mistake."
was faster than me. I wasn't
shifting in that corner so he was
going to be faster than me any-
way," said Mees. "That's where
he kept passing me on the first
couple laps."
"Turns one and two were
easier for me to get through.
Turns three and four were a lot
slicker," said Halbert. "It was a
little harder for me to get off of
there. I couldn't tell what was
going on behind me too much.
I would look back coming off of
lever, (much like the problem he
had in Phoenix). "I lost the shifter
again, two laps in. I was shifting
in three and four, but not one
and two," said Mees. "I couldn't
rail off four like I wanted to. Man,
it was unfortunate because I was
really looking to put a whoop-
ing on them. I don't know if I
could have done it, but I felt a
lot better when I could shift that
thing in three and four. When I
couldn't do it, I just had to go to
old-school racing. I had to pull
that tall gear and roll through that
corner.
"In turns one and two Sammy
Halbert (69) led much of the
race but couldn't quite hold off
Mees at the end.
