AMA Flat Track: Kawasaki Racing Reviews Henry Wiles' 5th Win at the Springfield Short Track

During one of the early practice sessions at round 15 of the 2011 AMA Pro Flat Track Harley-Davidson Insurance Grand National Championship Series, Henry Wiles on his #17 Monster Energy/Jones Bros/Don's Kawasaki/Arai-sponsored Kawasaki KX450F leads a duo of riders coming out of the fourth turn onto the front straight at the annual Labor Day Weekend stop at the Illinois State Fairgrounds. 

The Springfield Short Track historically hosts a great turn-out in terms of riders--this year over 60 Experts AND Pro Singles riders signed up for duty on the Springfield Rodeo/Multipurpose Arena.  Do the math, and that's over 120 riders vying for 48 spots in the National qualifying field, and 32 for the Pro Singles main event.  To put this into real terms, the top 30 in the Expert Singles Series class qualified within .531 seconds of one another, and the 48-rider cut-off was .652 seconds from fast qualifier Jake Johnson to 48th qualifier Jon Goodwin. 

Which makes Henry Wiles' 5th win in a row at Springfield that much more amazing, considering the level of competition, and the fact that in spite of winning at the Peoria TT two weeks earlier (after returning from his knee surgery in late April) there were still doubts that The Hammer could do it again on the little Springfield track.  I doubt after this too many people will be doubting him anymore.

Following Wiles during the practice session are '07 AMA Pro Flat Track Singles Champion Kenny Coolbeth, Jr. on his #2 Chaplin Kawasaki/Spectro Oils/Wiseco/Fox-backed Kawasaki KX450F, with '09 AMA Pro Flat Track Pro Singles Champion Brad Baker keeping things close on his #12 Brother Powersports/MVR/Schenk Racing/Major League Moto-sponsored Honda CRF450R.  Baker had the best outing of the night behind Wiles, finishing 4h, with The King of Cool coming home 6th after a great battle in the National main event with Sammy Halbert.
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I (obviously) missed this Kawasaki Racing news report from a couple of weeks ago, that reviews Henry Wiles' 5th win at the Springfield Short Track on Saturday, September 3 at round 15 of the 2011 AMA Pro Flat Track Harley-Davidson Insurance Grand National Championship Series.  Held since the early '00s, the annual Labor Day Weekend stop at the Springfield Rodeo/Multipurpose Arena, the event has become one of THE domain's of Hammerin Hank's romps in the State of Illinois (and for those of you who just woke up from Slumber Landville, the other would be Peoria.)

Read on and thanks to Kawasaki Racing for going all out in presenting the news from the AMA Pro Flat Track Series scene and taking the time to spotlight not only the series itself, but one of it's fine and fast racers in Henry Wiles!

http://www.kawasaki.com/Racing_News/Article.aspx?id=1689
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