Heavy rains continued to follow the AMA Ford Quality Checked Flat Track Championship, but they didn’t prevent the field from taking the green flag at I-96 Speedway in Lake Odessa, Michigan. And three starts and 27 laps later it was Harley-Davidson/Screamin’ Eagle’s Kenny Coolbeth scoring his fourth straight Twins victory.
With the results seemingly settled after 23 laps with Coolbeth out front, his young teammate Jared Mees second, and Bryan Smith third, Nick Cummings crashed in turn four and the red flag was brought out – negating Coolbeth’s big lead. As per AMA rules, the race would be condensed into a five-lap shootout.
When the green light flashed for the restart, Coolbeth nailed the holeshot, but several riders crashed in turn four with Ricky Marshall getting the worst of it.
The last restart was closer, as Mees stayed close to Coolbeth, and Chris Carr made the most of the restart as he moved from seventh to third, earning just his second podium finish of the 2007 season.
Smith, Joe Kopp, Shaun Russell, and JR Schnabel followed Carr across the line.
Coolbeth holds a six point lead, 164 to 158, over Mees with five races remaining.
Bad news came early in the night with Mike Hacker suffering a broken leg in a heat race crash.
Results
1. Kenny Coolbeth (H-D)
2. Jared Mees (H-D)
3. Chris Carr (H-D)
4. Bryan Smith (H-D)
5. Joe Kopp (H-D)
6. Shaun Russell (H-D)
7. JR Schnabel (Suz)
8. Jethro Halbert (H-D)
9. Rich King (H-D)
10. Bryan Bigelow (H-D)
