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/847300
VOL. 54 ISSUE 27 JULY 11, 2017 P109 My Own Race: 69 SAMMY HALBERT 2ND AFT TWINS Sammy Halbert matched his best finish of the year with a very solid second- place finish. "The front end was pushing really bad, we just missed the setup with that. The bike was great, just chasing the front end a little bit," said Hal- bert. "It took me a few laps to figure out how to ride around that. Once I did, I got some solid laps and hung with him [Mees] for a bit. Then I made a couple mistakes. I went out wide and hit the dust. I looked back and saw I had a huge gap and brought it home. The bike was revving really, really hard so we could have probably dropped a tooth. At some point I just started going easy on it just to make sure that old XR got to the finish. I'm happy to get back on the podium. On these car tracks it's easy to lose time, but hard to make up time. With any mistake you would definitely lose a lot of time. They did a great job with the track, especially for the weather we had. It made for a good track, it was a lot faster than last year." 6 BRAD BAKER 3RD AFT TWINS Brad Baker has settled his season down and is posting strong finishes with his seventh podium finish this year. "I had been like a tenth or two off all night long on those two [Mees and Halbert]. I pretty much just settled into third," said Baker. "They were slowly, slowly pulling away. I just knew I had to hit my marks and not make any mistakes so I didn't let anybody else catch up to me. On the last four laps or so, I began to hear somebody there. I didn't want to look behind me to see who it was. Jeffrey Carver gave me a run for my money there on the last couple laps. I was able to bring it home in third. On a track like this, it is a good accomplishment. This is not necessarily one of my stronger types of tracks. To get third was good." 23 JEFFREY CARVER 4TH AFT TWINS Jeffrey Carver is another rider making his presence felt, working his way through the field to almost take the last podium position. "On the last lap I got around Brad going into three. He heard me a lap before," said Carver. "He ran low getting into three, so I thought, 'There's my shot.' I ran around the outside of him. By that point he saw me and started moving up the racetrack. He got about an inch from my handlebar and we both started moving togeth- er. I ended up hitting whatever was up there, some marbles or the wetness. I got off the groove and it was just enough. At that point I was in Brad's hands. To be able to get close like that and to come from 50 yards back, it felt good. I've just got to get a better start next week." 44 BRANDON ROBINSON 5TH AFT TWINS In a year that has been a struggle at best, Brandon Robinson matched his best finish on the Harley-Davidson XG750R. Robinson was able to run as high as third for a few laps, then fell back into a battle with Briar Bauman for fifth, and that almost slipped away on the last lap. "Briar got by me in the middle of three and four coming to the white flag, then he kind of messed up coming off turn two on the last lap and I just pinned it," said Robinson. "I wasn't stopping until I got back by him. The brake was glowing from the first lap in. It seems like the only way I can get the bike to track and do what I want it to do is just stomp on the brake. It's the only way it's working for me. I'll do it all day long if that's what it takes to run up front. I've been feeling more comfortable on the bike for sure. We're still learning. Every race is a test for us right now. We're still developing and finding little things here and there. We're adding every single race. Hopefully we continue to get better, so that by the end of the year we'll be contending."