Lima Half-Mile

Get over to Fanschoice.tv to watch one of the most exciting races on the AMA Pro calendar. This year the Lima Half-Mile is being promoted by Jared and Nichole Mees, that means they've put up the money to make this race happen. And, I think, it's a sell-out.
Mees is in blistering form, he'll take some beating. If Brad Baker's factory Harley can actually finish a race, he's a good bet too. G

Mees buys rights to Lima Half-Mile

This is such a great story. Two of the highest profile riders in flat track have bought the rights to one of the favourite races, the Lima Half-Mile. It's great to see riders like Jared and Nichole (both pictured above) moving into running and promoting races, while still being in their prime (though Nichole has recently retired from the GNC).

This from the website - Lima Half-Mile

2015 AMA Pro Flat Track Grand National Champion Jared Mees and wife Nichole entered the race promotion business for the first time today, buying rights to the historic Lima, Ohio Half-mile. Lima, which runs on the last Saturday in June each year, is one of the most highly attended and historic races on the AMA Pro Flat Track circuit, dating back to 1984. The venue has sentimental value to Mees, who won his first AMA Pro Flat Track GNC1 race at Lima in 2005. Mees also won Lima in 2007 and again in 2014, on the way to his 3rd Grand National Championship. 

“I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to buy rights to Lima,” said twenty-nine year old Mees who lives in Clio, Michigan. “It’s an old school fairgrounds cushion half-mile with a passionate, loyal fan base just a few hours from our house. Nichole and I couldn’t be more excited to take this on. Nichole is retiring from racing after this season and I don’t plan on racing forever. Promoting Lima is a business venture that will keep us involved in flat track for many years.”

“Lima is such a great event, I wanted to make sure I found the right people to hand the torch to now that I’m retiring,” said longtime Lima promoter Dean Gallup. “Jared and Nichole Mees are the perfect people to take over. They’re hard working and have a vested interest in the sport. I can now retire knowing the event is in good hands."

The next Lima Half-Mile is 25 June.

Thanks to Roger F for the lead.

Sideburn 5 BACK IN STOCK

We have found a few copies that we sidelined because the clear, matt laminate we pay to have on covers or the special purple foil logo we chose for this issue might be VERY slightly damaged during packing at the printers, but these have been sold out a long time, so if you want one it's worth it.
No returns.
Sold at the ORIGINAL cover price of £4.50 (plus postage)

100 quality A5 pages including:
Shayna Texter, Nichole Cheza
C and J Rotax
Dave Aldana
Jake Johnson
Harley WR racer
Roland Sands, Drake McElroy, Thor Drake: The Smoking Seagulls and their Super Singles
Cay's BSA B40
Graziano Rossi and the Zaeta DT Mk1
GSX-Rs on ice
Chopper Dave's street tracker
Alan Bellham's Speedway Service shop
Fay Taylour (amazing story of lady speedway rider and nazi sympathiser)
The first appearance of Dimitri and his Parisian TR6C street tracker
Don Emde's Trophy Queen
And more....

Get it at sideburn.bigcartel.com

Offers like this and limited edition found artefacts appear on the blog first, so remember to check back on a daily basis (or more often). G

Springfield Mile: This Weekend

After what seems like six months since the season opener at the Daytona double-header in March, the AMA Grand National Championship gets back under way at Springfield, Illinois this weekend. Here are some of the keys changes for 2015:

• Former #1 Jake Johnson has moved from Ramspur Lloyd Brothers to Hart Racing Kawasaki.
• Troy Bayliss and Johnny Lewis are on the Lloyd Brothers Ducati Scrambler 1000.
• Mikey Martin has moved from Triumph to Weirbach Kawasaki.
• Brandon Robinson is on the Bonneville Performance Castrol Triumph.
• 2013 Rookie of the Year Jake Shoemaker on the Bonneville Performance Triumph.
• Cory Texter is racing the new Yamaha USA 'factory' FZ-07-powered parallel twin.
• Two-time Daytona 200 winner (and winner of the 2015 race) Danny Eslick is racing an XR750 at Springfield.
• Nichole Mees (nee Cheza) has announced this will be her last full twins season.
• Sammy Halbert has teamed up with legendary tuner Johnny Goad. 
• Henry Wiles is with Zanotti (Coolbeth's teammate).
• Top contenders Mees, Coolbeth, Brad Baker and Smith all stay with the same teams.

Plus the AMA will still work with Fanschoice.tv to deliver live feeds of all the races and now they have Chris Carr giving expert analysis. The presenting team have back-up from Dani Medin, a former snowmobile racer with FHM-cover-friendly looks. At first I thought, come on, really? Then she started asking questions from a complete novice's perspective that made Chris Carr explain just why things happen the way they happen. Even if I knew some (not all) of the answers, Carr puts so much meat on the bones of what could be simple answers, it made it a great section in what could easily have been a boring wait for the racing to start. 

The Fan's Choice coverage is still not what you'd call high budget, but this year is a massive leap forward. It's stripped down and informative and the best blanket coverage the sport has ever had.

And because it's America you can hardly notice the subliminal advertising they have Chris Carr doing in some of the links (see above). But this is a buyer's market and flat track needs the coverage, so if Chris comes on dressed as Colonel Sanders and talks about a finger-lickin' move Stevie Bonsey put on Chad Cose, I'll still lap it up. G

UPDATE: Chris Carr will be selling Sideburn current and back issues in the pits at Peoria's All Star race and the All-Star race at Springfield on Sunday. Go buy a few.

Harley-Davidson: Roll Your Own

Harley have recently pushed out new, exciting primetime TV ads. The 60-second spot features lots of names familiar to Sideburn: the Speed Merchant Street 500 from Sideburn 19; Chris Wiggins who rode the Speed Merchant Thresher for the Biltwell special edition cover of Sideburn 19; The Rusty Butcher who has just entered Dirt Quake USA; Aaron from Suicide Machine Co, who has written for the next issue, plus perennial favourite Nichole Mees (nee Cheza) riding on ice. Oh yeah, and Harley-Davidson are sponsoring this summer's Dirt Quake USA.

Advertising industry trade website say, 'There's a lot of text going on in both the print and broadcast work, with Twitter handles, brief and sometimes cryptic headlines, the #RollYourOwn hashtag and the DarkCustom.com URL. "The new creative is about each rider defining their independence and attitude, whether kicking up dirt on the track or sliding through the curves on ice," says Dino Bernacchi, U.S. marketing director at Harley-Davidson.

AMA Season Starts Today!

The season kicks off in Daytona tonight. With the second night of the double-header tomorrow. You can watch live on fanschoice.tv

Moving in line with the MotoGP world, the Expert class is now called GNC1 and the Pro (support) class is GNC2. Here's all the info from the AMA... (ET is Eastern time (New York time) if you're trying to work it out from anywhere else in the world)

On-track action begins both days with practice sessions at 3:30 p.m. ET (12:30 p.m. PT). The pre-race show is slated for 6:15 p.m. ET (3:15 p.m PT) to 7:15 p.m. ET (4:15 p.m. PT) and opening ceremonies are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET (4:30 p.m. PT). The GNC2 main is set for a 9:40 p.m. ET (6:40 p.m. PT) start with the Bruce Rossmeyer's Daytona Harley-Davidson GNC1 main slated to see the green flag at 10:10 p.m. ET (7:10 p.m. PT).

Every session from the "World Center of Racing" will be streamed live for fans around the world at FansChoice.tv. 

Jared Mees will begin his GNC1 title defense, sporting the No. 1 plate for the third time in his career, but he'll be facing off against the likes of Bryan Smith - last year's runner-up for the GNC1 title - Brad Baker, Kenny Coolbeth, Jr., Jake Johnson and the rest of the star-studded field. 

In 2014, Briar Bauman and Coolbeth kicked their seasons off on the right note. Bauman took the first checkered flag on opening night with Coolbeth putting on a clinic in Round 2 to earn the victory. 

In the GNC2 class, Ryan Wells and Brandon Wilhelm left Daytona Beach with victories to start the season. 

Kyle Johnson, the 2014 GNC2 champion, and Jarod Vanderkooi, winner of four GNC2 races last year, highlight a rookie class moving up the elite ranks to challenge Mees, Smith, Johnson and the others. 

The GNC1 lineup is full of potential winners. Sammy Halbert, Johnny Lewis, Mikey Rush and Brandon Robinson have all won main events at DAYTONA Flat Track since the new circuit debuted in 2010, and none can be counted out in 2015. 

DAYTONA Flat Track will also play host to, for the first time in AMA Pro Flat Track in history, a brother and sister racing with National Numbers. Shayna Texter will debut her new No. 52 and join her brother, Cory Texter, owner of No. 65. 

Baker, the 2013 Grand National Champion, will be back in the saddle after suffering a shoulder injury at the Superprestigio exhibition race in Barcelona, Spain, in December. His status has been the subject of speculation recently, but the Factory Harley-Davidson rider has confirmed he'll be in the field Thursday. 

Jared Mees' wife, Nichole Mees, will not be in the field at Daytona, but plans to run other races in 2015, which she said will be her final season. 

The entry list also has plenty of international flair with Doug Lawrence and Michael LaBella representing Canada in the GNC1 ranks and Italian Vittorio Marzotto and England's [the DTRA's!] Alan Birtwistle racing in GNC2.

Pomona Half-Mile Round-up

Brad Baker won't be carrying that number next year. the 20-year-old won the Expert Twins and Expert Singles.

There are lots of rumours about Kenny Coolbeth's future. He came sixth at Pomona and fifth in the final twins standings, sixth in the combined.

Wyatt Maguire, who is from the same town of Mead, Washington as Brad Baker, won the Pro Singles class by one point from Ryan Wells.

Ducati leathers on a Harley. Henry Wiles was dropped by the Lloyd Brothers team, but rustled up an XR750 and made the main.

Bryan Smith could've pipped Baker to the title, if the younger rider slipped up, but he didn't put a wheel wrong.

Out-going champion, Jared Mees came fourth at Pomona and fourth in the title after an early season injury screwed his season.

Briar Bauman came in third in the main on a Suzuki SV1000!

Nichole Cheza wiping out.

Ducati v Triumph. Jake Johnson #5 would come out on top at the end of, but both he and Mikey Martin #91 made the main.
There were 11 Harleys (one was a Buell, I think), 4 Kawasakis, 2 Triumphs, 1 Ducati and 1 Suzuki in the 19-man Main.
Here are more stats from Tyler Porter's Inslide Line. Incidentally, Tyler has written for the next Sideburn, out next Month.

The unofficial dirt track statistical expert, Bert Sumner sent me an email this week that was just chocked FULL of awesome stats from the year. For instance, Brad Baker is the 4th youngest ever Grand National Champion. However, that is pretty widely known. Check out the rest of the facts that he sent along. For instance, this year we had 3 different OEM's on a mile podium for the first time since April 30th 1972 and we had 3 different OEM's on a half-mile podium since October 9th, 1976. We had the most first time winners this year since 2002 when a whopping 6 different riders won their first national. The last fact that I thought I would include was that for the first time since May 3rd 1987, we had a Grand National Mile without a Harley Davidson on the podium. Pretty neat stuff about our 2013 season. Thank you for sending that along Bert!!

The Dash. All those mentioned so far plus Sammy Halbert #7 who didn't finish the main.

A happy team.

All photos courtesy of AMA Pro Racing.

Mr And Mrs Mees

I got it wrong in the post below (I've now changed it). Jared Mees and Nichole Cheza tied the knot on Sunday, not Saturday. They did do it at the track, then went and both qualified for the main (in matching helmets. Mr came 6th, Mrs finished 13th. Amazing. G

Springfield Mile 1 Round-Up

Because of the rain-off earlier in the year, there were two Springfield Miles back-to-back over the Labor Day weekend. Brandon Robinson, #44, picked up his second national of the year with a runaway win, a clear 5.2 second winning margin from #42 Bryan Smith.

Willie McCoy was top Harley, in fourth. This means it's the first ever (I'm pretty sure) Kawasaki 1-2-3 in a GNC race. When was the last time an XR750 wasn't on the podium in a GNC twins race? Has it ever happened in the life of that bike? 

History was also made with the inaugural running on the new Basic twins class. Shayna Texter dominated the day.

49 riders tried to make the 18-man main for the GNC Expert race. 85P, Ben knight looked sharp in these leather, but didn't make it.

Jared Mees #1 got married in the paddock on Sunday afternoon, to fellow racer, Nichole Cheza (below). The groom came 7th in the main, the bride missed out.

Henry Wiles looking stylish. Came 9th in the main losing points to all his nearest rivals.

Jake Shoemaker #55A and Briar Bauman #14, both young guns on Kawasakis. Briar's Werner-Springsteen Kawasaki was on the cover of (and inside) Sideburn 7, back when Bryan Smith was on it. 

Series leader Brad Baker, #12, had a solid 5th, but lost points to Bryan Smith and Brandon Robinson (who moved into second place in the title race). 

JD Beach #95 got another podium, his second of the year.

The Burnett Farms Kawasaki 650: ugly but fast.

Brandon won the Dash for Cash too.

1. Robinson 2. Smith 3. Beach

Springfield 2 photos soon.
All photos courtesy of AMA Pro Racing.

Indy Mile Round-Up

Bryan Smith (42) and Shayna Texter (25A) backed up their Sacramento Mile class wins by triumphing at last weekend's Indy Mile.

Brad Baker continued his fantastic run of results with a third, though Smith chewed into his points lead. It now stands at Baker 155, Smith 122.

Mikey Martin qualified for the main on the Bonneville Performance Triumph (featured in Sideburn 11).
Of the 19 bikes that made the main (one rider must have used their Provisional) only 10 were Harley XR750s. Six were Kawasaki 650s. Two were Triumphs and one was Jake Johnson's Ducati.
Kawasaki were first and second.

After a great result at Peoria, Shaun Russell, #28, failed to make the main.

 Pro Singles racer Zakk Palmer styling.

JD Beach, fifth in the Main on a Kawasaki.

Nichole Cheza, 14th in the main.

Henry Wiles came in 7th on the Lloyd Brothers XR750. His new team-mate, Jake Johnson was 11th on the team's Ducati. Stevie Bonsey came in 8th for the Zanotti Harley team that Jake Johnson had recently walked away from.

 Baker and Mees.

1. Smith. 2. Brandon Robinson. 3. Baker.

Next race is the 1.25-mile race at Colonial Downs, Virginia, this weekend.

All photos courtesy of AMA Pro Racing.