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FLAT TRACK 2017 AMERICAN FLAT TRACK CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 17 / SEPTEMBER 23, 2017 TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY / FORT WORTH, TEXAS P72 My Own Race: 9 JARED MEES 2ND AFT TWIN "He [Carver] got a good start and he had two or three quick faster laps than me and he just pulled away," said Mees. "I finally was able to stalemate him and just kind of match his pace. I would push a little hard and then I would make some little mistakes and he would gap me. Then he would make some mistakes and I would inch in. I needed him to make three or four mistakes in a row. Every time he would make a mistake I felt like I needed to push harder to get to him. At the end I was just trying to search around to see if there was anything up there. Hats off to Jeffrey, he earned it. He deserved it. He was the fastest guy. We were second place tonight." 10 JOHNNY LEWIS 3RD AFT TWINS Team Nila/John Wise just took delivery of their Indian Scout FTR750 and pilot for the day, Johnny Lewis sat on the privateer Indian for the first time in practice. "It was pretty good. The track conditions kind of played in our favor," said Lewis. "I think anyone on it probably would have gone fast. It was surprising that the bike just continued to stay that way." Lewis set fast time in qualifying the only ride in the 20-sec- ond range at 20.878. "We made some changes and just continued to progress with the track. Jon Cornwell from Ohlins helped all day. That was a big benefit. Charlie and Lou Gerencer were helping me through- out the whole day along with Dave Atherton. John Wise has been a personal sponsor of Charlie's for years. It's been a while since I've been on the podium. I can't tell you how happy I am. It feels good." 1 BRYAN SMITH 4TH AFT TWINS "Lewis is good at stuffing his nose in there and making room. That's kind of what he did," said Smith. "I was slow enough and left him enough room to basically take the line away from me. He did it in one and two and I still thought I could get him and hold him off in three and four. I just slipped up the track enough that he damned near took my handlebar out. I had no choice but to stand it up. It sucks, but you can't blame him. He was going for it. He was excited for a third; I was pissed the whole time I was in third. I was just off all day. I don't know if it was me or the bike. I couldn't get a grasp on the track. It looked like there was some- thing above the groove, but you would go up there and it was slick as hell. That was the hardest thing for me out there. You couldn't see the line or where the marbles were or where the greasy spots were. It just all kind of blended in. You were riding like with braille." 14 BRIAR BAUMAN 5TH AFT TWINS "It was a tough race track with a real narrow groove. It was real rough," said Bauman. "It wasn't ideal circumstances for our motorcy- cle, but we made the best of it. We were right there knocking on the door. I think this is like my 27th fifth this year. We are showing that we are always the guy that's right there. We'll keep chipping away. We have one more race left and hopefully we can make something hap- pen there. I was thinking this track was a lot like Charlotte when we got here. It narrowed up quick once you got out there. There wasn't the banking or anything like Charlotte. It was a different race track. Hopefully next year, the groove is a little bit wider."

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