Smith To Ride Kawasaki At Pomona
Cycle News Staff | October 4, 2012
The Crosley Radio/Howerton Motorsports powered by Eaken Racing Team has announced that it will expand its 2012 AMA Grand National Championship schedule and will compete in the Pomona Half Mile season finale (Octobert 13) with Bryan Smith and its Kawasakis.
“The team decided to run this one extra event to end the season,” said team owner and builder Rick Howerton in a team release. “Bryan’s been asking me since mid-summer to run some of the other events, and although we originally were just going to run the five mile events this year, we decided to go ahead and help support Bryan in his effort in the Twins Series Championship [where he currently lies tied for second with Sammy Halbert – behind Zanotti Racing’s Jake Johnson] and see what we could do on a half mile track. We have been really happy this year with the results, but know next year will only be harder. By running Pomona it will give Bryan more information for his half-mile program next year.”
One of the low points of the season was the loss of Skip Eaken, the teams engine builder and mentor.
“It was a rough time with Skip passing away last week, so we went into the Santa Rosa round wanting to win that one for him,” Howerton said. “I believe he was the second all time winningest mechanic in the sport, and we wanted to add one more for him. He could appear to most as being cold and grumpy, but once you got to know him he was just the opposite.”
