Tuesday, July 17, 2012

AMA Pro Flat Track Hagerstown Speedway Half-Mile Round 6 Review













Round 5 of the 2012 AMA Pro Flat Track Harley-Davidson Insurance Grand National Championship presented by Motorcycle-Superstore.com saw the teams, riders and fans return to the Allen County Fairgrounds on June 30 for the 29th Annual Lima Half-Mile cushion, as heat #3 roars off the line.

Brad Baker on the #12 Columbia Avionics/Mark Cheza/K&K Motorcycle Supply/D&D Exhaust-sponsored XR750 (partially hidden behind Jared Mees #9) had a rough ending for his first time out on a new machine, after his previously announced split from Kenny Tolbert Racing, ending the night in the 17th spot after suffering from a broken swing arm pivot bolt.  After qualifying 3rd-fastest on the night, The Bullet brought his new ride home in 3rd-place in heat 3 to make the main. 

After Kenny Coolbeth's injury at Lima that will put him out until at least the Lucas Oil Indy Mile on August 18, it was announced that Baker would fill-in for the former 3-Time AMA Grand National Twins Champion on the Harley-Davidson Motor Co. factory XR750.  Baker had a strong outing the next week at the Hub City Classic in Hagerstown, MD. and brought the last-remaining factory effort in the series home to a solid 7th-place finish.  Baker is also scheduled to ride the Milwaukee-based machine at round 7 at the Sacramento Mile on July 28.

Jared Mees followed up his 4th-place finish at Lima by taking the #9 Rogers Racing/Blue-Springs H-D/Saddlemen Seats/National Cycle-backed XR750 to his first win of the season at the Hagerstown Half-Mile, and adding to his points lead over Jake Johnson (121-106.)  Last year's runner-up in the overall standings is ready to move up a spot in the 2012 season, and his strong finishes in the last two events have made the Michigan-resident the lead contender to add to his '09 and '11 Twins Series Championships.

Former Australian Flat Track Champion Luke Gough had two rough outings in round 5 & 6 of the series' stops.  Gough missed the National main in both rounds on the #62 Dick Ford/Skip Eaken Racing/Johnson Cams/KK Motorcycle Supply-sponsored XR, but not for want of trying and hard work.  Look for the likeable Aussie to rebound nicely in round 7 on July 28 when he should return to riding the Eaken Racing Kawasaki, which he had a good showing on at the Springfield Mile I event before suffering a mechanical with 3 laps to go in the main.

Johnny Lewis on the #10 Scott Powersports/Saddlemen Seats/Wallace Trucking/AXO-backed Kawasaki 650R-based parallel twin put in two great efforts at Lima (5th-place) and again at Hagerstown (4th-place) to show he is really coming to grips with the machine in his 3rd-full season in the series.  However, it looks like JL10 will be skipping both the Sacramento Mile and Castle Rock TT (August 4) rounds due to lack of funding, which will drop him out of his currently 3rd-place spot in the overall championship standings.

Defending and 2-Time AMA Grand National Champion Jake Johnson continues his early-season surge in his quest for a 3rd championship on the #1 Zanotti Racing/Schaeffer's H-D/Boughner Racing/Arai-backed XR750.  Johnson backed up his 3rd-place finish at Lima with a move up on the box with a 2nd-place finish at Hagerstown, and winning the Dash for Cash along the way.  Sitting only 15 points in arrears of title-leader Mees, Jersey Jake is showing once again why he is a constant threat for the title and it shouldn't be long before he bags his first win of the 2012 season the way he is riding.

Jethro Halbert on the #69 Goodwin Racing/Drew Massa Trans/SHR/Arai-sponsored XR750 had to win semi #1 at Lima in order to make his way into the main event, where he brought it home to an 11th-place finish.  At Hagerstown, Jethro dropped a few spots to end the evening in 15th-place. 

Sorry for the delay in getting this out, as I was away on a short vacaction with the family and just now getting caught back up!

The series is now off until Sacramento on July 28 and then returns to the Castle Rock TT on August 4, and you can read the Hagerstown Half-Mile review below thanks to AMA Pro Flat Track.









AMA Pro Flat Track Event Recap: Hagerstown Speedway

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AMA Pro Harley-Davidson Grand National Championship presented by Motorcycle-Superstore.com and Lucas Oil

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (July 10, 2012) - The July heat wave that has gripped the entire country was in full force for the 31st running of the Hagerstown Half-Mile, but the temperatures were outdone by hot action on the banked red-clay half mile of the Hagerstown Speedway.  Round six of the AMA Pro Harley-Davidson Insurance Grand National Championship presented by Motorcycle-Superstore.com and Lucas Oil was held with triple digit temperatures, high humidity and the threat of thunderstorms. In other words, typical Hagerstown weather.  The wide, slick groove oval was technical, but fast. When all was said and done it was current series points leader Jared Mees dominating the 25-lap Grand National.

"Finally, finally, finally, finally! I won Hagerstown," said Mees after his first win of 2012 and his first ever win at the venerable facility. "This has been a race that I have been dreaming of winning since I came here when I was a kid on 60's and 80's and watched the pros go around here. I won an 883 race here and always wanted to win a Grand National here in front of my family and finally did it."  Mees led all but the first lap on his Rogers Racing / Blue Springs Harley-Davidson-backed XR750. "I just had a great motorcycle from the word go. I didn't look back," said Mees. "I couldn't tell you what kind of lead I had. When I came across the start finish line it felt amazing. These wins just feel like the first one every time."
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Jake Johnson, Jared Mees and Jeffrey Carver, Jr. made it the 'triple J' attack on the podium at Hagerstown Speedway after their 2-1-3 finish at the Hub City Classic in round 6 of the 2012 season.  AMA Pro Flat Track photo by Dave Hoenig.
 
Defending race winner and three time Hagerstown champion, Kenny Coolbeth (Harley-Davidson Motor Company) is on the shelf after breaking his leg last week in Lima. "I don't know about Coolbeth being out, if that helped with our chances a little bit, because he has always been the man here," said Mees. "This red clay is just my kind of race track. I grew up on this and I had a lot of confidence coming in here. This is a mark on the calendar that my whole family tries to make. It is very special to do it in front of them. This is the first win of the year. I was just telling somebody, we have the points lead but we are just doing it by consistency. I at least want to win a couple races this year. I finally got that off my back."

2011 AMA Pro Harley-Davidson Insurance Grand National Champion Jake Johnson led the 25-lap national into turn one on his Zanotti Racing / Schaeffer's Harley-Davidson mount, but he could not hold back the charging Mees. "Jared was just a few ticks faster all day, through qualifying and looking at lap times in the heat race," said Johnson. "I thought that maybe in the main event I had something for him.  I got out front and I made a couple mistakes and Mees ended up getting by. For a lap or two I thought I was going to be able to maybe hang and it was going to be a race," added Johnson. "I made a big mistake down in two and just about spun around backwards and he got a big gap on me. I finally got it gathered up. Even in the middle of the race when I thought I was putting my best laps in, he was still just kind of slowly inching away."

Lap after lap, Mees' consistency was paying off as he pulled to a four second lead over perhaps the best race of the night that was going on about two seconds behind Johnson. Sammy Halbert (South East Harley-Davidson), Jeffrey Carver (Kiesow Racing) and Johnny Lewis (Scott Powersports) were using the whole track in their dispute over the last podium spot.  Each took their turn with Lewis' screaming Kawasaki breaking up the Harley-Davidson parade. "My line was beating the crap out of me," said Lewis. "I saw Carver and Sammy going at it side by side and not making anything up and I thought that I've got to try something. I went back to riding the bottom and tried to make up time."  That worked until lap 22 when Carver reclaimed third. "I needed to get the run coming off the turns on them. I just kept trying to finesse it in," said Carver. "Johnny and I kept going at it and he kept going up. He kind of pushed me up into a little bit better line."

"I tried running it a little higher, but my bike just wasn't working that way, so I went back to being a bottom feeder and just rode that way," said Lewis. "It was fun with me and Jeffrey because I could trust him. I haven't been able to race him much, but Jeffrey and I had a nice smooth race. I was happy for him to get his first twins podium, I got mine here last year too."  After running in the third spot early, Halbert faded to fifth. "I was shooting for a podium. Maybe I didn't make the right adjustments to the motorcycle," said Halbert. "Congrats to Carver on his podium. He was riding really well. I was trying to pace with him and trying to make something happen. Towards the end there it just didn't work out for me. Everything I tried just didn't really work on the track."

Canadian Doug Lawrence nailed down his best GNC finish ever (sixth) with a solid ride on his R&J Racing / CVC Communications-backed Harley-Davidson. "I rode around in sixth the whole race," said Lawrence. "I was sort of catching fifth and fourth a little past halfway. Those guys were searching for lines and I had committed to my line. I was just watching those guys, but I just couldn't get to them."

The temporary replacement of the injured Coolbeth on the Harley-Davidson Motor Company / Screamin' Eagle Harley-Davidson, Brad Baker, worked his way up to seventh after a slow start. Baker just nipped Moroney's Harley-Davidson's Bryan Smith after exchanging the position several times.  "It was a pretty good night considering it was my first time on the motorcycle. I got off to a pretty shaky start in the main event," said Baker. "I got shuffled back, I was kind of cut off. I think I was 13th or 14th to start with. I just started moving my way forward. The bike was working quite a bit better in the main event. We just kind of made baby steps all night long, trying to get it more to the way I like it. In the main event it was really good. I worked well with the team. I just wish I could have started a little bit closer to the front. This track is hard to make up ground on. I feel that where we started and where we ended, and since it is the first time with the team, we had a pretty solid finish."

Baer Racing Products' Shawn Baer continued his recent string of good GNC finishes, besting Memphis Shades / Bumpus Harley-Davidson's Rob Pearson for ninth by just two tenths of a second. Pearson did end the night with a plus by earning the MotoBatt "Hard Charger" Award. The cash award goes to the rider who advances the most positions during each expert main event.

The brand wars are heating up. For many years the Grand National Half-Miles and Miles have been dominated by the venerable Harley-Davidson XR750, many times being the only brand represented. In the Expert class, the 18 rider main event featured nine Harley-Davidsons, seven Kawasakis, one Suzuki and one KTM. On the other hand, the AMA Pro Motorcycle-Superstore.com Pro Singles main was dominated by Honda in numbers, but it was KTM pulling off the win over 15 Hondas, one Yamaha and one Suzuki.

AMA Pro Racing is allowing Pro Single riders who finished in the top 20 in points last year to ride in the AMA Pro Harley-Davidson Insurance GNC Expert Twins class with a provisional license. Pro Singles rider Jake Shoemaker took full advantage as he put his Montgomeryville Cycle Center-backed Kawasaki into the Harley-Davidson Insurance GNC main and his Honda into the Motorcycle-Superstore.com Pro Singles main event. Shoemaker finished 16th in the GNC Twins and sixth with his single.  Evan Baer (Baer Racing Products / KB5) made his first Grand National main event aboard his Kawasaki and finished a creditable 12th, just ahead of Saddlemen Rookie of the Year leader Briar Bauman (Rod Lake Racing / USC Kawasaki).

The all important four-lap Dash for Cash provided a quick preview to the national as Mees and Johnson dominated the action. Only in the Dash, it was Johnson that prevailed. "In the Dash, I got out in front of him (Mees)," said Johnson. "I was just able to kind of hold him off. He was breathing down my neck the whole time." The win netted Johnson five points and $1000. Mees gained four points and Halbert three points.  With Mees taking the win, there is yet to be a repeat winner in the first six rounds of the AMA Pro Harley-Davidson Insurance Grand National Championship presented by Motorcycle-Superstore.com and Lucas Oil.  Mees picked up four points on defending Grand National Champion Johnson as the margin now stands at 15, 121 - 106. Lewis and Halbert sit at 97 and 94 and need to make a major move when the Series moves west at the end of July for the mile in Sacramento, CA and a TT in Castle Rock, WA.  "We will take this. We haven't been off the podium since Daytona," said Johnson. "We are still not winning, but consistency is what has won us championships before. I am just going to keep plugging along."
 
GNC Race Results
  1. Jared Mees, 25 Laps
  2. Jake Johnson, +4.199
  3. Jeffrey Carver Jr., +6.463
  4. Johnny Lewis, +6.799
  5. Sammy Halbert, +7.810
  6. Doug Lawrence, +8.657
  7. Brad Baker, +10.135
  8. Bryan Smith, +10.472
  9. Shawn Baer, +12.422
  10. Robert Pearson, +12.649
  11. JD Beach, +13.024
  12. Evan Baer, +14.145
  13. Briar Bauman, +16.719
  14. Brandon Robinson, +17.729
  15. Jethro Halbert, +17.902
  16. Jake Shoemaker, +19.164
  17. Aaron King, +19.370
  18. Steve Murray, +20.922

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:

AMA Pro Racing Communications, (386) 492-1014,
GNC Expert Point Standings
  1. Jared Mees, 121
  2. Jake Johnson, 106
  3. Johnny Lewis, 97
  4. Sammy Halbert, 94
  5. Bryan Smith, 73
  6. Matt Weidman, 64
  7. Henry Wiles, 64
  8. Brad Baker, 59
  9. Jeffrey Carver Jr., 58
  10. Kenny Coolbeth, Jr., 57

Sunoco "Go the Distance" Award
  1. Jeffrey Carver Jr. - 102.88 mi.
  2. Shawn Baer - 98.96 mi.
  3. Jake Johnson - 98.88 mi.
 
AMAProNew Class Sponsor
Presenting Sponsors
 
Photos
 
Photos from Hagerstown Speedway

Videos
Johnny Lewis - Hagerstown Track Walk - AMA Pro Flat Track
Johnny Lewis - Hagerstown Track Walk - AMA Pro Flat Track

Next Up
 
 


Sacramento Mile

July 28, 2012

Event Info | Tickets

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