Joe Kopp Takes Latus Motors XR to Win at AMA Flat Track Lake Odessa Round 8

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Joe Kopp, '00 AMA Flat Track Grand National Champion, sits behind his Latus Motors/Moto Concepts/American Agip/Lloyd Brothers XR while signing autographs for the fans during a break in the action at Lima two weeks ago. Kopp parked the Ducati and jumped on the #3 H-D XR750 to lead combined practice, win his heat and the National Final at Lake Odessa last night.
The AMA Pro Flat Track K&N Filters presented by Motorcycle Superstore.com series made it's stop at I-96 Raceway for round 8 of the schedule. Kopp led all 25 laps of the final and was able to keep it up front in spite of a two restarts, the first on lap 2 and the second on lap 11.
As a result of winning his second main on a different make of motorcycle this year, and put together with his two other podiums this season, Smokin' Joe took over the number one spot atop the overall point standings by 13 points over second place man Jake Johnson. Henry Wiles dropped to third after a 9th place finish last night, two more points back of JJ.
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Jake Johnson helps out his Zanotti Racing/Leo Vince/Tucker Rocky crew on the #5 H-D XR machine in the pits at Lima at the end of June. Johnson hounded eventual winner Kopp for the whole race and even with the benefit of the red flags could get no closer then .215 seconds at the completion of 25 laps last night at Lake Odessa's half mile track.
Johnson moved up in the overall points from the last round at Lima as a result of his second place finish and his fourth podium of the year as well. The series returns on July 31 at Calistoga, CA. for round nine.
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The H-D XR's of #5 Zanotti Racing's Jake Johnson and the #2 of H-D Motor Corp./Screamin' Eagle's Kenny Coolbeth, Jr. flank the #40 Aprilia of Lloyd Bros./American Agip's Aaron King in the pits at Lima last month. King didn't make the main last night at Lake O, but H-D's Kenny Coolbeth did on the #2 factory machine to round out the podium in third place last night, finishing .281 seconds back of winner Kopp. The King of Cool and multi-time champ remains in the sixth spot in the overall standings 35 points adrift of leader Kopp. And the season is just getting rolling!
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The #7 H-D XR of Sammy Halbert, sponsored by Kings Kustoms/KK Motorcycle Supply/Nelson Racing sits in his pit area at Lima in June. Sammy kept it in fourth for the final last night at Lake O finishing .636 seconds back from Kopp. He now sits 19 points back from point leader Smokin' Joe in fourth overall. It was Slammin' Sammy's fourth podium of the year after winning the season opening round on the new Daytona Short Track.
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Reigning twins champ, Jared Mees, on the #1 Rogers Lake/Blue Springs H-D/Rockysonline.com XR finished 5th last night on the Lake Odessa half mile, just .822 seconds adrift of winner Kopp. Jared stays in the fifth spot in the championship run 25 points back of Kopp. His bike is shown in the pits at Lima last month.
Notice a pattern? Yep, 15 of the 17 starters last night were the tried and true H-D XR's and only the two Kawasakis , one of which was Werner Springsteen's Bryan Smith on the #42 machine (finishing 17th after dropping out 7 laps into the final and dropping to eighth in the series standings 80 points adrift of the lead) and the Scott Powersports/Cycle Dynamics/K&N Filters-sponsored Kawasaki of #10 Johnny Lewis. Lewis finished seventh on the evening and the only non-XR in the top 10.

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The AMA Pro Flat Track K&N Filters presented by Motorcycle Superstore.com series made it's stop at I-96 Raceway yesterday in Lake Odessa, MI., and Joe Kopp came away with the big win on his Latus H-D XR this time instead of his Lloyd Brothers Ducati mount. Jake Johnson brought his Zanotti Racing XR home in second to extend his top five performances this season to five and his seventh top six position on the year. Kenny Coolbeth, Jr., on the H-D Motor Corp. #2 machine rounded out the podium in third.

Of note, Pro Singles Champ Brad Baker #17M rode one of Mark Cheza's XR's to a semi win last night to put it into the twins main for the first time in his career where he finished a very respectable 13th on the evening. As per info out on the web AMA Flat Track is giving some of the Pro Singles riders chances to run some GNC events this year to get them ready for the new big bikes. Per notations on Dave Hoenig's Flat Trak Fotos results, no points will be awarded and these are being considered as provisional starts and finishes. Sounds like a great idea. Several other singles riders including James Rispoli also tried to qualify for the evening's events at Lake Odessa but fell short of making the field. Good luck to Brad and better luck to the others in the future in being able to put it in to the field for the rolling thunder show and the best show on wheels!

The AMA Flat Track series now takes a three week break before reconvening for one of the west coast rounds in Calistoga, CA. on July 31 for round nine. The season is just heating up so stay tuned to Stu's Shots for the remainder of the season's schedule. We didn't make it to Lake O yesterday but are trying to make several of the remaining races that are close to Indy that will be coming up in August and September. And as always we will bring you the racing news for today with some of the pictures of yesterday to cover this exciting series through the end of the year.
Hats/helmets off to Mike Kidd, Steve Morehead and the AMA Flat Track team for helping to guide this series down the road. With 50+ riders trying to time their way into the last two twins events, the numbers are up and the series is looking stronger then ever. And the level of competiton is as strong as ever in AMA Flat Track. Like we've said before and will probably wear you out with, this is the best racing series going on wheels, bar none! You owe yourself a favor to check out at least one round this year as the racing is primetime, and so is the running of the show.

Here's the abbreviated version of the rundown at Lake Odessa from last night from the always excellent Dave Hoenig from Cycle News and Flat Trak Fotos:
http://www.cyclenews.com/articles/flat-track/2010/07/11/kopp-has-good-night-on-i-96

AMA Pro Flat Track Official results and points can be found here:
http://amaproracing.com/ft/events/results.cfm?eid=2010021035
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