AMA Flat Track: Sammy Halbert Completes the Sweep at Daytona Short Track

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Willy Halbert puts the finishing touches on his son Sammy Halbert's #7 Fredericktown Yamaha/Woody Kyle Racing/Kings Kustoms/Nelson Racing-sponsored YZF450 at the Gas City Short Track round of the AMA Pro Flat Track K&N Filters presented by Motorcycle Superstore.com Grand National Championship Series in June 2010. Jethro Halbert's like-sponsored #69 sits between Slammin' Sammy's mounts in the pit area. Jethro would go on to finish 5th on the evening, while Sammy would follow him home in 6th at the bullring short track in North Central Indiana.

Sammy stole the show again last evening at round two of the 2011 AMA Pro Flat Track Harley-Davison Insurance Grand National Championship Series at the Daytona Short Track, passing the early leaders on lap four, and sailing to an over 5 second win on second place man Johnny Lewis on the #10 Scott Powersports Honda after 25 grueling laps on the limestone track. Third place on the evening went to first full-year Expert Brad Baker on the #12 Honda. Rounding out the top five were #1 Jake Johnson on the Zanotti Racing Honda and #2 Kenny Coolbeth, Jr. on the Chaplin Kawasaki.
Racing luck was a hard pill to swallow at the second Daytona round, as #3 Joe Kopp (after a brilliant ride to third earlier in the day on the DIS road course in the XR1200 Series), #42 Bryan Smith, last year's Calistoga winner #80 Steve Bonsey, and #15 Nicole Cheza failed to make the 48 rider cut-off for the evening's event. Slammin' Sammy stole the whole pie last night in setting fast time, winning the fastest heat of the evening, winning the Dash for Cash and romping to the main event win over an 18 rider main event field filled with some of the best The Rolling Thunder Show has to offer.

The series takes a short break and resumes action in DuQuoin, IL. on April 16 at the Southern Illinois Center on the grounds of the DuQuoin State Fair.
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In what will undoubtedly go down as one of the all-time great race season opening triumphs in the history of the AMA Pro Flat Track Grand National Championship Series, Sammy Halbert on the #7 Fredericktown Yamaha/Woody Kyle Racing YZF450 took the sweep at the Daytona Short Track for his second race win in two nights just outside the infamous Daytona International Speedway oval and road course. Making quick dispatch of the leaders, Slammin' Sammy set sail on lap four and went on to win the main event over a stacked field by over five seconds. Johnny Lewis made it two-for-two in the season opener on his #10 Scott Powersports Honda, with first full-year Expert Brad Baker (the '09 AMA Pro Singles Flat Track Champion) coming home third on his #12 Honda.

Top ten from last night at Daytona:

1. Sammy Halbert #7
2. Johnny Lewis #10
3. Brad Baker #12
4. Jake Johnson #1
5. Kenny Coolbeth, Jr. #2
6. Matt Weidman #20
7. Jared Mees #9
8. Chad Cose #49
9. Henry Wiles #17
10. Jeffrey Carver, Jr. #23

With a short five week break before the series resumes at the Southern Illinois Center in DuQuoin, IL. on April 16, teams will have a chance to regroup for the 2011 season in the AMA Pro Flat Track Harley-Davidson Insurance Grand National Championship Series.

Congrats go out to Slammin' Sammy and his Fredericktown Yamaha/Woody Kyle Racing team in kicking off the 2011 season on such a high note. #7 leaves Daytona with a 16 point lead in the championship standings, and there's no reason to believe that this hard charging young man won't be ready for more once the series hits Southern Illinois.
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AMA Pro Flat Track posted this report on Sammy's win at the Daytona Short Track from last night:

http://amaproracing.com/ft/news/index.cfm?cid=41703

Paul Carruthers was on hand again at DIS to file this report on the race for Cycle News.com:

http://www.cyclenews.com/articles/flat-track/2011/03/11/halbert-does-it-again

Larry Lawrence filed this race press report on last night's action at Daytona on his The Rider Files.com site:

http://www.theriderfiles.com/?p=9436

Bryan Harley was on hand for Motorcycle-USA.com to file this report on the race last night in Daytona:

http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/504/9459/Motorcycle-Article/2011-Daytona-Flat-Track-II-Results.aspx

The Daytona News-Journal had a reporter on site for this story of the evening's events at the Daytona Short Track:

http://www.news-journalonline.com/racing/motorcycle/2011/03/12/halbert-wins-sweeps-nationals.html
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From AMA Pro Flat Track, here are the full results from last night's great event:

http://amaproracing.com/ft/events/results.cfm?year=2011&eid=2011021106
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Dave Hoenig's Flat Trak Fotos.com will have the full results as well as photos from the race posted soon here:

http://www.flattrakfotos.com/2011%20Results/RESULTS%2003-11-11.html

Here's a sampling of Dave's photos from the AMA Pro Flat Track gallery from last night:

http://amaproracing.com/ft/multimedia/gallery.cfm?gid=6112

And the boys across the pond from the GREAT Sideburn Magazine filed this report on the race as well:

http://sideburnmag.blogspot.com/2011/03/daytona-sammys-on-fire.html
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You can follow Sammy and Halbert Brothers Racing via Facebook, as well as catch up on videos and interviews and stories from the last couple of days here:

http://www.facebook.com/HalbertBrosRacing

And big thanks go out again to the great Miriam Deitcher for her on-the-spot coverage of the action the last couple of days from the World Center of Speed in Daytona. Miriam used to cover all of the AMA Flat Track races for the AMA several years ago, and started up her own page here on Facebook to keep the fans at home up to date on the on and off track action:

http://www.facebook.com/FlatTrackLive
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