July 27, 2009

J. Johnson Wins At Hagerstown Grand National

Sourced from Cycle News, By: Larry Lawrence

After a three week layoff, the stars of the AMA Pro Grand National Twins Championship were back in action on the Hagerstown Speedway half mile. Fans camped by the hundreds Friday night, and thousands more poured into the half-mile dirt speedway Saturday to see the 27th annual Hub City Classic.

16 Lap Sprint - Rain Shorten Race

D&D Performance Enterprises mounted Chris Carr took 6th in the shorten and soggy race.

Recap
Jake Johnson rode his SuperTrapp/F&S/Saddlemen Harley-Davidson to victory Saturday night in the rain-shortened AMA Grand National on the Hagerstown (Md.) Speedway Half-Mile.

Halbert and Johnson established a small lead over what quickly became a war over third between Mees, Kenny Coolbeth (No.1 Harley-Davidson Motor Company), Chris Carr (No. 4 Chris Carr Racing / Lancaster Harley-Davidson) Ricky Marshall (No. 41 Eric Snedeker Racing) and the No. 20 of Matt's Racing / Silkolene backed Harley of Matt Weidman.

Johnson passed early leader Sammy Halbert on lap 11 of the scheduled for 25-laps main and immediately began pulling out a gap on the battle for second between Halbert and defending champ Kenny Coolbeth. As Johnson's lead grew, Halbert came under attack from Coolbeth. The defending Grand National Champion had pulled clear of a Mees / Weidman war and was giving Halbert fits.

The two exchanged second several times, but Halbert prevailed every time at the line. On Lap 17, Coolbeth had the spot and it couldn't have come at a better time. The intermittent sprinkles picked up and Brandon Robinson's No. 44 Harley-Davidson had engine failure, leaving oil between Turns 1 and 2. Due to the confluence of events the decision was made to throw a red and checkered flag to indicate that the race was being stopped with no intention to restart.

The scoring was backed up one lap making the race a 15-lap affair. But that made no difference to Johnson, who was a solid 1.622-seconds ahead of Halbert.

Jared Mees (Blue Springs/Screamin' Eagle Harley-Davidson) and Matt Weidman (Matt's Racing/Silkolene/Shoei/Moose Racing Harley-Davidson) rounded out the top five.

"It feels great to finally get back on top of the podium," said Johnson, who moved from ninth to fifth in the series standings with the victory. "I was concentrating so hard that I didn't even notice it was raining until they threw the red and checkered flag together."

AMA Pro Racing Grand National Twins Championship: (19 riders / 17 laps) 1. Jake Johnson (H-D); 2. Kenny Coolbeth (H-D); 3. Sammy Halbert (H-D); 4. Jared Mees (H-D); 5. Matt Weidman (H-D); 6. Chris Carr (H-D); 7. Ricky Marshall (H-D); 8. Bryan Smith (H-D); 9. JR Schnabel (H-D); 10. Mick Kirkness (Suz); 11. Joe Kopp (H-D); 12. Shaun Russell (H-D); 13. Brandan Bergen (H-D); 14. Jake Mataya (H-D); 15. Cory Texter (H-D); 16. Adam Carpinello (H-D); 17.Luke Gough (Suz); 18. Don Taylor (H-D); DQ. Brandon Robinson (H-D).
Time: 7 min, 08.501 sec. (RED FLAG--race called complete)

The series now moves to Black Hills Speedway in Rapid City, South Dakota for special mid-week race on Tuesday, Aug. 4, during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

August Racing Action

4 - Billings, MT - MetraPark Raceway
15 - Grove City, OH - Beulah Park
23 - Peoria, IL - Peoria Race Park
29 - Indianapolis, IN - Indiana State Fairgrounds

July 27, 2009 10:21 AM | send page