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The battle for American Flat Track's Grand National Championship has come down to two guys in recent memory: Bryan Smith and Jared Mees. This year is no exception, even though they are on the same machinery.
Momentum swings like a pendulum between the Indian Motorcycle riders, and on Saturday that pendulum swung back in Mees’ favor. The Indian Motorcycle Rogers Racing rider took a key victory in front of a sold-out crowd at the inaugural Red Mile in Lexington, Kentucky to even the score in the title chase with his rival Smith.
Although at the Red Mile, the battle on track was hard-fought between Mees and Sammy Halbert on the Estenson Logistics Yamaha FZ-07; a battle that wasn’t hard to predict as Mees and Halbert were on top form that day. But in that final showdown, top honors went to Mees who crossed the line by a mere .013 of a second ahead of Halbert. Adding to the heroics of that win was that Mees was stuck in one gear (thankfully for the former champ, a high one) for most of the race.
The battle for that last spot on the podium was fought between Indian Motorcycle Racing backed by All State teammates Smith and Brad Baker, with Baker getting the “Mile Master” near the end of the race. And at the end, although both Baker and Smith were hoping for more, Baker was happy to return to the podium and Smith was happy to make it through Kentucky. The defending champ had a glimpse of how things could go horribly wrong in the Semi after he came off the groove. So ultimately, fourth-place was not a complete disaster for Smith.
In the AFT Singles class, Ben Evans Honda’s Kevin Stollings ran away with the win, but was disqualified for failing to pass tech for violating the noise regulation. A gutting end result for the 17 year old, but ultimately a glimpse at the kid’s potential for being a rising star in the sport.
Ron Ayers Honda’s Tristan Avery’s hard fought battle for second ultimately turned into his first win of the season, followed by Richie Morris Racing’s Shayna Texter and Parkinson Brothers Racing’s Kolby Carlile.
