Cycle News

FLAT TRACK AMERICAN FLAT TRACK SERIES ROUND 6 / MAY 19, 2018 CAL EXPO FAIRGROUNDS / SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA P94 iii My Own Race: 1 JARED MEES 1ST AFT TWINS "Coolbeth got me one time. When he passed me, I looked back and we had a pretty good lead on whoever was back there," said Mees. "He was stalking and stalking me. I was think- ing that this guy is probably just setting me up here. I looked back again, and Bryan was in the picture. I figured he was going to push by. Usually later in the race, someone will just try a couple little things. I figured he just can't, or he is going to try something ballsy on the last lap. We got it done and it feels good." 2 KENNY COOLBETH 2NS AFT TWINS "We came up a little bit short, but it's alright," said Coolbeth. "Actually, I should have raced him a little more, because I didn't know where I stood. I passed him down the front straight one time, but he got me right back. I saw Bryan inching up. I knew if we started racing each other, Bryan would catch up quicker and maybe even pass us and take off, so I just followed him [Mees]. I was getting pretty good runs off the corner. On the last lap, I should have pulled out a little sooner. He turned late and it kind of caught me off guard a little. I darted to the outside and just came up a little short. I'm happy with it. I'm having fun; these Indian motorcycles are awesome. This is a showroom floor bike. We didn't do much to it other than suspension. I'm sure the other guys have been in the motors and tweaked here and there. Our bike is right there. That's how good these things are." 4 BRYAN SMITH 3RD AFT TWINS "I got a horrible start which was not good. I was about eighth or 10th," said Smith. "I couldn't get the tire to hook up. It finally started to get warm or wear down. I picked off a couple guys and then I was stuck behind Cose and Wiles for a while. I really couldn't do anything. All of a sudden, the tire came in or my brain started working or something. As soon as I got past them I was waving for them to just stay behind me. I figured that I might be good enough to bridge the gap, but if they start racing with you, then you are all done. The only place I could make up time was getting into the corners. I was by myself every lap and was making up a little time every lap, but I think everybody was on eggshells getting out. I just about ran off the groove in turn three. I had a double draft getting in with those two guys [Mees and Coolbeth]. Kenny's inside and Jared's inside and all of a sudden, it feels like your brakes fell off. It was like a vacuum cleaner sucking me in there. Unfortunately, I could never get up in there to draft Kenny. If I could have got by Kenny just once, I would have sat on Jared's bumper and I think I would have had something coming to the flag. I was going as hard as I possibly could to catch them. Maybe the tire got a little hot there at the end." 6 BRAD BAKER 4TH AFT TWINS Brad Baker opted to start on the second row outside instead of inside the front row. "Usually if you start on the outside, second row is better than starting on the inside front row. I pretty much got off the line where I started in seventh," said Baker. "The guys in front of me were going all right, but they were just kind of stacking us up coming into the corner. I was able to pick off Davis, Wiles and Cose, and Bryan was right in front of me. He had been held up by Cose and Wiles for a while, too. Right around halfway, going into three, Cose shut down quick and Smith had a little bit of a draft, so he went shooting by both Wiles and Cose. I was out in the back and just had to shut down so I would not get into the back of one of them going into three. After another four of five laps of messing around with Cose and Wiles, I finally got by. Smith did a good job of running them down. If I would have been able to latch onto the back of Bryan, I believe I would have been able to run them down. When we are that even with everybody, you need to start up front. With competitors like Jared and Kenny, you've got to start off racing with them. To run them down is a hard feat." 49 CHAD COSE 7TH AFT TWINS "That was the first mile National that I've led," said Chad Cose. "Jared got by me and I latched on to him for a few laps. I ran second for a while and eventually Kenny got around me. I ran third for a little while and then Bryan came by. All of a sudden, I was just losing those guys and I was getting frustrated with myself. I felt like I was going backwards pretty bad. Come to find out, when I pulled into the pits, I had a flat tire. Somehow, we got a flat. Obviously, that was not ideal, because we were running well. It made me feel better to know what happened. We'll take it and move on to Springfield. If we can run with them here, we can run with them there."

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