Motorcycles in the
Springtime!
Warm weather, friendly faces, great action, lots of it, all! Sundays
races after Saturdays' all day practice were just what the Dr ordered.
The total Vintage Bike weekend at the Willow Springs Intl Racepark
hosted tons of old roadracers whizzing around the "Streets" on the
pavement side and spectacular skidding around the perfectly prepped 3/8
mile cushion on the Dirt Track side. "The track was the best I've ever
had it!" Mulder grinned. "I was proud to put my name on it this
weekend. The rider turnout was really good." There were 154 entries.
The pro
races were super exciting with the top names duking it out for lots of
big bucks! Eddie raised over $2500 in added money for the Specialty
Fabrications $1,000 Dash-4-Cash totalling over $3,500. Briar Bauman #10
Won his first dash Sunday and scored 2nd in the Digger Open Pro main to
take home the biggest share of the purses.
By Jodi Mulder
Photos by vft
Specialty Fabrications
Dash 4 Cash
Specialty Fabrications D-4-C
1.
10 Briar Bauman
2.
7 Sam Halbert
3.
9 Jared Mees
4.
54 Mike Rush
5.
98 Kayl Kolkman
6.
26 Brandan Bergen
The first business of the
finals was the Specialty Fabrications Inc. $1,000 Dash-4-Cash which,
with many generous contributions, grew to over $3,500 for the top two
finishers in the three Digger Open Pro heats. The 6 Dash qualifiers
lined up were #9 Jared Mees riding his Honda 450 on pole with the
fastest heat win, 10z Briar Bauman on a Kawasaki 650, Sam Halbert #7,
new Nat’l #98 Kayl Kolkman on the Simi Valley Kawasaki Rotax 600, #54
Mike Rush on Ron Woods’ 600 Rotax and #26 Brandan Bergen on a 450. At
the green flag, Mees grabbed the hole shot with Halbert and Bauman
close behind. Young Bauman was on a mission and after a few laps
passed both #7 and #9 to get to the front. Pulling away with a two bike
length lead, at the stripe Bauman convincingly cashed in on the
majority of the hefty purse. Halbert came home second, Mees third and
Rush took the final paycheck position fourth. Kolkman and Bergen
finished fifth and sixth respectively. This was Bauman’s first Dash win. Story by Joe Dean
Digger Open Pro
 
 
Digger Open Pro
1.
9 Jared Mees
2.
10 Briar Bauman
3.
98 Kayl Kolkman
4.
38 Jethro Halbert
5.
54 Mike Rush
6.
30 Bronson Bauman
7.
26 Brandan Bergen
8.
67 Davis Fisher
9. 77v Mikey
Avila
10.
4 Brandon Rothell
11. 88e David
Bush
12.
43 Ajay Hateley
13.
42 Bryan Smith dnf
14.
7 Sam Halbert dnf
15. 28z Zach
Lenhof dns
The final race of the day is the one for all the
bananas. The Digger Open Pro finale had $12,000 as added
incentive for the top 10 finishers. Former Nat’l #57 Digger Helm
has sponsored this class for the last 8 or 9 years, increasing the
prize money generously every year for these young pros, struggling,
racing for a living. Round #1 had 14 entrants lined up according
to their heat race finishes. The front row six were the same as in the
Dash, #9 Mees, #10z Briar Bauman, #7 Sam Halbert, #98 Kolkman, #54 Rush
and #26 Bergen. Row #2 held #30 Bronson Bauman, the younger of the
Baumans, #42 Bryan Smith from Flushing, Mi., #67 Davis Fisher, who won
his 250 Open main event, from Warren, Or. #77v Mikey Avila on Jason
Cravens 600 Rotax, #88e David Bush, #4 Brandon Rothell, #43 Ajay
Hateley and #38 Jethro Halbert on Lloyd McGregor’s Honda
650. When the green flag dropped, Mees shot to the point,
grabbing the hole shot. Bauman on his heels in 2nd with Kolkman edging
out Sammy for 3rd going into turn one. Halbert, on Donnie
Howard’s 600 Rotax, was riding his mount hard in third place when,
almost halfway to the finish, it started smoking. On lap 11
Halbert’s ride expired putting Kolkman back in third to stay with Rush
and Smith battling it out in fourth and fifth. Smith pulled off on lap
18 advancing Rush to fourth, Jethro Halbert to fifth and Bronson Bauman
to 6th. With 2 to go, Jethro got by Rush to take the fourth position.
At the checkers it was Mees, winning wire-to-wire on his H-D 750 with
Briar Bauman 2nd, Kolkman 3rd, J. Halbert 4th and Rush
5th. Story by Joe Dean
 
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