VOL. 54 ISSUE 32 AUGUST 15, 2017 P95
1 BRYAN SMITH 4TH AFT TWINS
"It was a pretty good day for me here. My best finish here has been fifth a couple times,
so fourth was better. Definitely better than last year when I didn't know my name at this
point," said Smith. "I would have liked to get on the box. I was kind of reeling Bauman in
the last part getting through the lappers. It would have been cool to get up there. It would
have been a better day if I got fourth and Jared got eighteenth. I felt comfortable here for
a change. When I hit the lapped traffic there were four or five guys racing together. The
flagman would give the blue flag to the leader and then we just had to deal with them. I was
waving my hand to tell the flagman to wave the blue flag one more time. It's almost like on
a track like this, they need a blue flag guy off of each corner. That way the guys can make a move to get out of the way. I
passed a guy on the outside on the right-hander and I just about crashed because I clipped him and just about ran into the
creek. That would have ruined my day in a heartbeat."
6 BRAD BAKER 5TH AFT TWINS
Considering breaking in the heat race and having to start in the back in the main event, get-
ting a top five was good," said Baker. "I was pretty fast early on, I caught up to Bryan and he
was in fourth. Jared and Briar weren't too far in front of him. As soon as we got into lapped
traffic, I broke my toe piece off the brake lever on the right and that's when both Bryan and I
kind of lost Jared and Briar. They both got through the lappers a little cleaner than we did. I
just got mentally fatigued as we went on, trying to work the brake and going over the jump.
I would get a run up on Bryan, but to be able to pass somebody over the jump was kind of
ballsy. The last ten laps I just kind of hung in there in fifth. Hats off to Henry to win his thirteenth consecutive here.
That's pretty amazing. We all just have to keep working hard. Eventually one of us is going to get him, we have to."
This incident cost Sammy Halbert his
shift lever. Look closely, and you can see
it departing Halbert's Yamaha.
