A historic American Flat Track win streak remained in play following another win for Bryan Smith aboard his Indian Motorcycle Racing backed by Allstate Scout FTR750 in the 6th round of this year’s 18-race series over the Memorial Day Weekend.
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| Photo credit - American Flat Track/Brian J. Nelson |
A packed house witnessed another close contest in the AFT Twins presented by Vance & Hines as Smith edged out the No. 9 Indian Motorcycle Rogers Racing Scout FTR750 of ‘Wrecking Crew’ team mate Jared Mees, with the Yamaha FZ-07 of Sammy Halbert third (who posted a 34.571 fastest lap with six to go) in the Harley-Davidson Springfield Mile I at the Illinois State Fairgrounds.
This was the first of the two mile-long races that will be staged at Springfield this year (the series returns there for the Springfield Mile II on September 3rd) and saw Smith take a third successive Mile win for the defending Grand National Champion's fourth race win in a row overall, making him just the fifth rider in series history to accomplish that feat.
The Harley-Davidson XG750R riders looked to have closed the performance gap on their Indian FTR750 rivals after a disappointing start to the season so far. Kenny Coolbeth (No. 2 Harley-Davidson Factory Flat Track Team XG750R), Jake Johnson (No. 5) and Brandon Robinson (No. 44) were all battling in strong positions before a freak incident saw the hopes of all three brought to a premature end - just as the race was shaping up to be a significant uptick in form for the entire Harley-Davidson team.
The third member of the Indian ‘Wrecking Crew’, Brad Baker on the No. 6 Indian Motorcycle Racing backed by Allstate Scout FTR750, came in 4th behind a photo-finish that saw Smith given the nod by 0.005 of a second over Mees, with Halbert in third position, 0.039 seconds behind Mees to prevent another ‘Wrecking Crew’ podium sweep.
Next up will be the fourth straight AFT Twins presented by Vance & Hines Mile race with the Red Mile at Lexington, Kentucky, on June 3.