VOL. 54 ISSUE 32 AUGUST 15, 2017 P101
Just after the first round of qualify-
ing a brief rain squall moved across
the speedway. Following a short
delay, the second round of timed
qualifying resumed with virtually ev-
eryone turning faster times in round
two. Jared Mees posted the fast
time with a 22.402-second lap, over
half a second faster than his first
session time. Jeffrey Carver was
second quickest at 22.510, over a
second faster than his first round.
Kevin Stollings was the quickest
single at 22.841, the only single in
the 22-second range.
During opening ceremonies, a
Strider Bike race was held for
youngsters aged three to five years
old. The 15 little "Striders" had their
race cheered on by the large crowd
and many of the night's competi-
tors and teams. Danny Eslick, Chad
Cose, Charlie Roberts-Class of '79
among others contributed prizes for
the youngsters to go with the med-
als all the participants won.
Bryan Smith had his best result in
a few races, but still lost ground in
the Grand National points race. "It's
nice to know you can get second
or are as fast as the leader, but I've
got to beat Jared," said Smith. "I've
got to beat Jared in the champion-
ship and he's getting further away."
Mees' lead has now grown to 36
with just five races left in the 2017
AFT Championship. Baker is now
third, 40 points behind Smith and
eight ahead of Halbert.
The AFT Singles points race is a
little more unsettled. Shayna Tex-
ter continues to be on top. Bran-
don Price is just 16 points back
with Kolby Carlile another six back.
So far this year, Texter has failed to
earn points in any of the TT races
and the fabled Peoria TT is next
on the schedule. The AFT Singles
finish the year with a short track and
three half miles so it is still anyone's
title to win.
During the second AFT Singles
semi, Cody Kent spun down exiting
turn two. He was hit by a following
rider in a nasty looking crash. Kent
suffered a broken leg and following
surgery is home in Illinois healing up.
Even though the fastest way around
the Black Hills Speedway was at
the very top, there were multiple
lines used all night long. "Last year
this was our best prepped race
track. This year it's up there too,"
said Mees. "I'm going to be biased
and say Lima was really good, but
this was another good race track
for us."
The only rider to break the Indian
stranglehold all year, Briar Bau-
man, has to be considered a dark
horse going into the Peoria TT.
"We're trying, we're right there,"
said Bauman. "We're knocking
at the door. We don't want to get
beat by anyone. The Indians are
incredible; the guys riding them are
incredible. We're trying different
things to try and get ahead of them
like we did at Sturgis."
Briefly...
