For the first time the Grand National Series, now American Flat Track, featured twin-cylinder machines for their premier class on a “short track” at the high-banked, red clay oval of the Dixie Speedway in Woodstock, Georgia. Even more impressive is the fact that Indian Motorcyle Company’s wrecking crew swept the podium. Indian has never swept a GNC podium since AMA Nationals restarted after WWII in 1946.
All of the hype associated with the Indian Scout FTR750 seems to be coming to fruition with their blockbuster team of current and former GNC champions. Currently Jared Mees is the hottest rider in the series, and his Kenny Tolbert-tuned ride is the bike to beat.He proved it the season-opening Daytona TT, and he proved it again at Dixie Speedway.
Mees’ Woodstock win and the Indian sweep didn’t come without controversy, however, as Estenson Logistics’ Sammy Halbert appeared to have the Indians at bay after grabbing the lead from Mees on the second lap. Halbert’s Harley-Davidson XR750 was able to post the fastest lap in the race, but as the leaders caught some lapped traffic Mees was able take advantage and the battle was on.
“I think that maybe some lappers made me run a lower line and made me lose some momentum and he might have closed the gap,” said Halbert. “He passed me and I passed him back. We got relatively aggressive, no contact, then I ran it in and passed him going into turn three. Coming off of turn four I looked down to see where he was at and as soon as I looked down the next thing I know my handlebars got clipped. I was on the ground and sliding down the front straight away. It was so unfortunate.”
Mees offered his take on the incident.
“Sammy had a little bit of a lead and then I started running him back down,” said Mees. “We started just kind of slide jobbing each other because we couldn’t really pass. His line and my line were the same so I couldn’t just run right into him. The only thing we could do was slide job each other. When you slide job each other, it’s the slower way of going, but you’re trying to knock a guy off his line. He did it to me, I did it to him. He did it to me back and he was exiting so high on the race track and I was so low. I was coming up the race track and he was trying to come back down. We just kind of got caught up and he went down. It wasn’t by any means intentional, our lines just crossed.”
Halbert quickly jumped over the wall to safety, but his bike was laying on the groove and the race was stopped. Halbert’s bike was quickly repaired and he restarted in last place for the five-lap dash to the finish.
The flash of green on the restart saw Mees smoothly pulling away while his Indian teammates, Brad Baker and Bryan Smith, fought over second. Zanotti Racing’s Briar Bauman had another Harley-Davidson XR750 in the hunt as he closed to Baker and Smith.
“This was my second national on a Harley,” Bauman said. “I did one with Tony Dodge. I’m still getting used to the Harley. When I hit two laps to go, I had just gotten to Bryan and Brad. I was thinking I could use about 10 more of these.”
RMR / McElroy Packaging’s Jarod Vanderkooi was the first Kawasaki home on the Woodstock track, in fifth, while Halbert worked his way back from last place to sixth place in just five laps.
Estenson Racing’s Dalton Gauthier also repeated his Daytona finish at Woodstock, this time in a dominating wire-to-wire performance on his Yamaha YZ4540F. Gauthier had over a three second lead when second place rider Brandon Price fell in turn one also forcing a restart and a five lap race to the end.
Gauthier was well up to the task and once again pulled away. “The bike was working really well today. I’ve just got to thank my dad,” said Gauthier. “I’m super stoked on how everything went. I qualified first in pretty much every round. I knew I had a really good bike to win the main event. My equipment this year is awesome. I don’t have to worry about breaking or anything.”
Kevin Stollings brought his Honda home second as crowd favorite RMR / McElroy Packaging’s Shayna Texter passed Cameron Smith with two laps to go for third.
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