Round 5 of the 2012 AMA Pro Flat Track Harley-Davidson Insurance Grand National Championship presented by Motorcycle-Superstore.com season saw the series hit the limestone & pea gravel-laden half-mile surface at the Allen County Fairgrounds in Lima. One of the teams on-hand that was looking to jump start their season after a slow start to their 2012 efforts at the first Twins Series race of the year at the Springfield Mile I just one month earlier was the Lloyd Brothers Motorsports team based out of the Columbus, Ohio area.
After making the PR rounds in the Columbus area the previous week leading up to the event billed as the Ohio Grand National Championship, team co-owner Mike Lloyd had been busy showing off the team's wares in and around to help drum-up more interest in the June 30 event. And his efforts paid-off in terms of crowd count, because as always the event packed them in as it has for almost three decades.
Team rider Henry Wiles took to the track with the team's #17 LBM/Foremost Insurance Group/Ramspur Winery/ENI USA-sponsored Italian 'L' twin and pulled off the Dash for Cash win to start the evening off strong and went on to score the team's first top-10 of the season, with a superb ride off of the penalty line (for jumping the start) to come back and almost catch event-winner Sammy Halbert at the line.
Hammerin' Hank's ride that night was the stuff that AMA Pro Flat Track legends are made of, giving the team the boost they needed while getting into the meat of the 2012 schedule and keeping the large crowd in the stands on their feet for the 25-lap red flag delayed National main as Wiles and Halbert fought tooth-and-nail for the final 5-lap dash to the checkers.
In what has been an off-season for the long-tenured team, it surprisingly took almost six weeks before their efforts were rewarded again at the Lucas Oil Indy Mile on August 18 at round 10 of the 2012 season, where The Hammer brought the Big Red LBM mount home in the 4th-place spot for another top-5 for the team's efforts.
Last Sunday at the Santa Rosa Mile in Sonoma County, California, Wiles and the team shone again as Henry flat ran away with his heat race to win by over 6.5 seconds over runner-up Mikey Avila, another almost 1.3 seconds back to Kenny Coolbeth, Jr. and almost another 1.9 seconds back to 4th-place finisher and Rookie of the Year runaway Briar Bauman. Wiles also scored another three points on the season by bringing it home in the 3rd-place spot in the Dash behind Sammy Halbert and rocket-mounted Bryan Smith. Working it throughout the 25-lap main, the #17 held strong to gain the team's third top-10 of the season with a 6th-place finish in round 14 of the season with just the Tucson and Pomona rounds left to go for the year.
Although top results have been fleeting for the team this season with handling, set-up and engine issues holding them back at several events, the efforts at Lima, Indy and last weekend at Santa Rosa show that they won't let anything hold them back, and when they are all dialed in, they are hard to run with, so you better not count them out!
You can check out their press release below, and while you are planning your season-ending event calendar to hit the last two rounds of the 2012 AMA Pro Flat Track Harley-Davidson Insurance Grand National Championship presented by Motorcycle-Superstore.com season, don't forget to get your raffle ticket from the great guys at the LBM team in order to help out the flat track Air Fence Fund and get a chance to win a '09 Buell for your $20 donation. You can't help a better cause then to give back to the riders in terms of safety and Mike & Dave Lloyd, Henry, crew chief Dave Gamble and the rest of the crew have worked their tails off not only on their racing efforts, but in helping to raise funds for the Air Fence fund. So be sure to get on board while you can and get a chance to win one of the AMA Pro Road Racing pace bikes.
Press release courtesy of the Lloyd Brothers Motorsports team and Henry Wiles, National #17 & 2-Time AMA Pro Flat Track Singles Champion
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