Coolbeth Takes New York

Paul Carruthers | September 16, 2007
Red flags, restarts and the rest of the competition couldn’t stop Harley-Davidson Motor Company/Screamin’ Eagle’s Kenny Coolbeth from winning the 10th round of the AMA Ford Quality Checked Twins Flat Track Championship in Monticello, New York on Saturday night.

It took three tries to get the 25-lap National underway. On the second start, it was Nick Cummings in the lead and doing everything he could to nail down the first National win of his career. But on the 13th lap, Coolbeth took over with Blue Springs Screamin’ Eagle’s Jared Mees and Rogers Lake Racing/Bartels’ Harley-Davidson’s Shaun Russell also moving around Cummings.

Then Russell moved to second, only to slip off the groove and drop to fifth. Once in front, Coolbeth took off, with Cummings working his way back to second with Moroney’s Harley-Davidson/Screamin Eagle’s Bryan Smith slipping into third.

With the laps winding down, things appeared to be pretty well set when American Suzuki/Parts Unlimited’s Jake Johnson crashed in turn two, bringing out yet another red flag.

The race was restarted from lap 18 and Coolbeth led the field into turn one, only to see Smith’s poor restart go from bad to worse. Transmission problems slowed Smith and his Screamin Eagle teammate Joe Kopp was unable to miss him, sending Smith to the ground – and another red flag.

Mees made the most of the next start and took second from Cummings. Russell had climbed back to fourth with Quality Checked Certified Pre Owned Ford’s Chris Carr challenging at every opportunity. Carr briefly grabbed fourth, then just as quickly gave it back.

All eyes were on the leaders however as Mees was all over Coolbeth, but Coolbeth was not about to give his main challenger in the point standings an opening.

Coolbeth came away with his sixth win and a 19-point lead over Mees with two rounds remaining. Cummings grabbed the last podium spot with Russelll and Carr filling out the top five.

Paul Carruthers | Editor

Paul Carruthers took over as the editor of Cycle News in 1993 after serving as associate editor since starting his career at the publication in 1985. Carruthers has covered every facet of the sport in his near-28-year tenure at America's Daily Motorcycle News Source.