Wiles Back On Top at Springfield TT

Larry Lawrence | May 26, 2012

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (May 26, 2012) – Missing last year’s Springfield TT due to injury stopped the winning streak of Henry Wiles at three straight. Saturday night Wiles picked up where he left off in 2010 by scoring a flag to flag victory on his Don’s Kawasaki/DPC Racing Kawasaki KX450F. It marked his fourth win on Springfield’s perfectly prepped Multi-Purpose Arena TT circuit. Defending race winner and No. 1 plate holder Jake Johnson took second after a race-long battle with Jared Mees, who finished third.

Mees’ runner-up finish put him into a tie with Matt Weidman for the series lead. Each has 60 points going into Sunday’s Springfield Mile.

Starting from the second spot on the line, Wiles nailed the start and gradually pulled away from the torrid battle between Johnson and Mees. With about seven laps to go in the 25-lap main, Wiles was temporarily slowed when he started hitting lapped traffic. That gave Johnson and Mees their only opportunity of the night to close in on the leader, but Wiles made quick work of the lapped riders and opened the gap again in the closing laps. The margin of victory at the checkered flag was 3.693 seconds.

It was a typical Wiles TT performance.

“I knew starting next to Jake [Johnson] that I would have my hands full at the start,” Wiles said. “Fortunately I was able to get a good launch and got into the first turn in a good position. From there I just focused on turning laps as fast as I could. It feels great to get back on top of the box here. Springfield is one of our big events and it’s always great to get a win in front of these fans.”

South Dakotan Gerit Callies earned his second victory of the season in the Pro Single class racing his Fun Mart Cycles/ Rod Lake Honda. Callies led every lap, but Eric Stump kept him honest, running right with Callies the entire way. In the end the gap between the two was just 0.422 seconds. Californian Dominic Colindres took third.

Callies extended his lead in the Pro Singles Series to 13 points over Hayden Gillim, who missed Springfield, road racing in Utah instead.