Jared Mees took the win on his No. 9 Indian Motorcycle Rogers Racing Scout FTR750 in the 7th round of this year’s AFT Twins presented by Vance & Hines series at the ‘Red Mile’ at Lexington, Kentucky – extending the Indian ‘Wrecking Crew’ win streak to seven from seven since the series started at Daytona in March.
A sold-out crowd saw another exciting race with, this time, Sammy Halbert (No. 69 Estenson Logistics Yamaha FZ-07) taking second, ahead of Brad Baker third, on his No. 6 Indian Motorcycle Racing backed by Allstate Scout FTR750, with reigning champion Bryan Smith fourth on his No. 1 plate FTR750.
It was the fourth Mile victory of Mees’ career, his first in almost a full year, and ended Smith’s four-win streak, the last three of which had been at the first Mile races of the season at Phoenix, Sacramento and Springfield, Illinois.
Mees is quoted as saying: “It feels so good to get one of these Mile wins. Bryan has been beating up so bad on us lately, so to get one of these Mile wins and move forward is awesome.”
Halbert’s second place was his third podium of the season on his Yamaha; in addition to taking all seven wins so far, Indian have now taken 17 of the 21 available podium spots with Harley’s best showings so far being two fourth spots in the first two races of the season.
At Lexington Harley’s XG750Rs were fifth (Brandon Robinson), 10th (Keeny Coolbeth Jr) and 11th (Jake Johnson). Smith’s fourth-place finish at the Red Mile leaves Mees as the only rider in the series with a perfect podium record intact on the season. The two title rivals are now tied atop the points standings at 152 apiece, although Smith holds the tiebreaker with four wins to Mees’ three.
Next up, American Flat Track will complete its run of five Miles in six weeks with a stop at the OKC Mile presented by Indian Motorcycle, in Oklahoma City, Okla., on Saturday, June 17.
www.americanflattrack.com