Jared Mees towels off during the red flag-delayed Lima Half-Mile, round 5 of the 2012 AMA Pro Flat Track Harley-Davidson Insurance Grand National Championship presented by Motorcycle-Superstore.com season on June 30. Mees and the #9 Rogers Racing/Blue Springs H-D/Saddlemen Seats/National Cycle-sponsored XR750 put in a strong 4th-place finish at the 29th Annual Ohio National Championship to get a strong grip on the overall championship heading into the Hub City Classic Half-Mile in Hagerstown, MD. on July 7.
Also pictured with Mees is team owner Craig Rogers (back to camera) and crew chief Brent Armbruster getting the team's H-D XR750 ready for the five-lap dash to complete the National main.
Mees put it on cruise control last night at the Hagerstown Speedway round of the series to take the win over 2nd-place Jake Johnson, who also held onto 2nd-place in the overall point standings. Jeffrey Carver, Jr. made it the 'triple J' attack on the podium to take 3rd-place, his first-ever Twins Series podium in his second year of Expert-ranked competition. Johnny Lewis and Sammy Halbert rounded out the top-5.
Of note, Canadian racer Doug Lawrence #73 came home in 6th-place, which I believe is his best-ever result in the Grand National Twins Series, and Gerit Callies won the AMA Pro Motorcycle-Superstore.com Pro Singles National main event aboard his #76L Fun Mart KTM, which I also believe is a first-ever win for the KTM-brand in AMA Pro Flat Track Pro Singles competition.
Mees, who finished second in the 2011 version of the championship, won five total events throughout '11 the season (Springfield Mile I, Hartford, Lake Odessa, Knoxville, Brainerd) to Jake and Sammy Halbert's four wins on the year and was most likely only thwarted to take the championship by his 19th-place finish at the penultimate round at Calistoga.
With his dominating performance last night in Maryland he made a pretty good case for the championship title hunt with 14 rounds to go in the 2012 AMA Pro Flat Track Harley-Davidson Insurance Grand National Championship presented by Motorcycle-Superstore.com season. Round 7 hits the track at the Sacramento Mile on Saturday, July 28.
Check out the official press release below thanks to AMA Pro Flat Track!
Mees
Extends AMA Pro Harley-Davidson Insurance Grand National Championship Points
Lead with Dominant Performance at Hagerstown
Callies
takes Third AMA Pro Motorcycle-Superstore.com Pro Singles Main of 2012
Season
| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |      |
HAGERSTOWN, Md. (July 7, 2012) - Saturday's AMA Pro Harley-Davidson Insurance Grand
National Championship presented by Motorcycle-Superstore.com proved to be a wild
and entertaining showdown between several prominent riders. It was a sweltering
night under the lights at Hagerstown Speedway for the 31st Annual Hub
City Classic but the heat had no effect on Jared Mees (Rogers Racing/ Blue Springs Harley-Davidson)
as he stole the show and claimed his first victory of the year, increasing his points lead to 15 in the
standings.
"My
motorcycle was phenomenal, hats off to my
team," Mees said. "We didn't change a thing
the whole time other than to put gas in it. I just had an all-around brilliant
bike."
Mees paced the field most of the day, leading practice
and the first qualifying session before dominating the field in Heat 1. Starting
from pole position in the night's main event, Mees quickly ran away from the 18-rider field, winning the race in
convincing fashion with a 4.200 second margin. He made it clear
that he was getting his first win of the season tonight and wasn't going to be denied.
"I
got off to a decent start; I knew in the dash that Johnson would be my main competition," Mees
continued."I think it's going
to be him and I, neck and neck the rest of the way. I want it real bad and so does he. This is definitely
one of my dream races to win, my family comes down here every time, it just
feels great."
Jared Mees #9 and Jake Johnson #1 are shown battling at the Hagerstown Half-Mile round of the 2012 AMA Pro Flat Track season last night at Hagerstown Speedway in Maryland. Mees won the main by just over 4 seconds to runner-up and second-place in the points Johnson. AMA Pro Flat Track photo by Yve Assad/The Fast and Dirty.com.
Jake Johnson
(Zanotti Racing/ Schaeffer`s Harley-Davidson), who topped Mees to win the Dash for
Cash earlier in the night, was the clear cut second-place finisher and looked sharp the entire way. The best
race on the track was the battle for third,
with Jeffery Carver, Jr. (Kiesow Racing/ Hall's Cycles Harley-Davidson), Johnny
Lewis(Scott Powersports Kawasaki)
and Sammy Halbert
(South East Harley-Davidson) all trading positions almost every lap. With two laps
remaining, Carver got the edge over Lewis by a fingernail and
sealed his first ever trip to the podium on
the twin engine.
"We
got down to the last five laps and I just said don't give up, just kept running that line," Carver said."Lewis and I had a
great battle. Awesome to get my first podium here, it's just really great to be
up here on the podium." Lewis and Halbert rounded out the top five
of the main event.
Mees now leads Johnson
121-106 in the Harley-Davidson Insurance Grand National Championship point
standings.
AMA Pro Motorcycle-Superstore.com Pro
Singles
As
electrifying as the twin engines ran, the AMA Pro Motorcycle-Superstore.com Pro
Singles proved to be nothing short of solid performances by promising young
talent. Stephen Vanderkuur (Parkinson Brothers Racing Honda) took the lead early
before the field was forced to restart following a red flag situation on lap
three. On the restart, young gun Gerit Callies (Fun Mart Cycles/ Rod Lake KTM)
took the lead and never looked back. With two laps to go and after additional
restarts, Callies seemed to press the turbo button to run away from the pack,
showing no mercy and pumping his fist as he took the uncontested checkered flag
to claim his third main event win of the year.
"Restart after restart will kill you but my team put
together a great bike and really gave me a great chance to win," Callies said.
"I can't thank my team enough."
Adam Bushman (Midwest CNC Powerbar Honda) ran a
consistent race to close out the podium. Ryan Wells (Weirbach Racing Honda),
Jason Isennock (Highs Dairy Stores Foard Racing Honda) and Vanderkuur rounded
out the top five in what proved to be a very sharp field of riders.
Callies now leads the Motorcycle-Superstore.com Pro
Singles point standings by 10 points over Wells, 79-69.
Next Up
The
stars of AMA Pro Flat Track will return to the Sacramento Mile on July 28, 2012.
For tickets and information, please visit http://www.sacramentoflattrack.com/.
|
AMA Pro Racing is the premier professional motorcycle racing
organization in North America, operating a full schedule of events and
championships for a variety of motorcycle disciplines. Learn more about AMA Pro
Racing at www.amaproracing.com.
For additional information contact:
Thanks to AMA Pro Flat Track for the complete results from the Hub City Classic Half-Mile in Hagerstown, MD., round 6 of the 2012 AMA Pro Flat Track Harley-Davidson Insurance Grand National Championship presented by Motorcycle-Superstore.com season:
|
Also a big thanks to Cycle News for this story on last night's Hagerstown Half-Mile:
http://www.cyclenews.com/articles/flat-track/2012/07/07/mees-wins-hagerstown-half-mile/
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