The Law Tigers Arizona Mile at Turf Paradise is Neutral Ground for AMA Pro Flat Track Riders

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The Law Tigers Arizona Mile at Turf Paradise is Neutral Ground for AMA Pro Flat Track Riders

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The Law Tigers #Arizona Mile at Turf Paradise is Neutral Ground for @AMA Pro Flat Track #Riders





PHOENIX, Ariz. (April 28, 2016) - The Turf Paradise mile oval is new territory and neutral ground for the nation's top motorcycle riders. They will be racing side-by-side and wheel-to-wheel, at over 130 miles an hour on a track that none have even seen before today. The riders are the best in the business. Even so, they know there is one rider they all will have to beat if they want to win the Arizona Mile.

Bryan Smith is widely known as "The Mile Master." The rider from Flint, Michigan, has a reputation---and a record to back it up---of being the odds-on favorite on the big ovals.

"Bryan is a great mile racer, it's what he excels at and it seems to come to him naturally," said Sammy Halbert, from Graham, Wash. "He has a power advantage and is faster on the straightaways but we can go through the corners faster than he can so we can stay close to him. Plus, he's small and compact and has a sense of where he wants to be in the draft."

Even so, Halbert isn't coming into the Arizona Mile as the national championship points leader because he sits back and watches other riders.

"I pretty much attack the track," continued Halbert, who will choose between a Harley-Davidson and a Kawasaki race machine after testing them both in warm-ups. "Definitely winning at Daytona (the season opening race) and being on the box (top 3 on the podium) every week through the first three races gives me a ton of confidence for Arizona."

But if confidence alone could win a race, we would already have a three-way photo finish today. Multi-time and defending AMA Pro Flat Track champion Jared Mees has already tasted victory champagne once this year and is thirsty for more.

"We've never had a Grand National win this early in the season before," said Mees, who claimed the AMA Pro race in Texas in mid-April. "Anytime you get a win it helps your confidence, but Sammy Halbert has had a great start so far this year."

Halbert has his own list that will have him looking over his shoulder.

"Brad Baker, Kenny Coolbeth and Jake Johnson are heavy hitters and they are all at the top of their game," Halbert said. "Right now, the level of competition is higher than when I started racing professionally."

While racing on the quarter miles is a scramble, racing on a mile oval has a super-speedway feel to it.

"The speeds are higher so you have to be patient and more precise," Mees said. "The bikes have 40 more horsepower than the production bikes we run on the shorter tracks and we hit more than 100 miles an hour while we might be lucky to hit 60 mph on a short track."

Halbert puts it more succinctly: "It's a high speed, high risk game."

Racing on the mile tracks is not as physically demanding as the shorter tracks according to Halbert, who has a multi-sport training routine that includes bike rides, gym time and snow-boarding to stay in physical shape.

"It's more about finesse, but you definitely need the strength to handle the weight of the bike in the corners," Halbert said. "You also need stamina so you can think clearly after your heart rate has been up for 25 laps."

Racing on the mile is also more like chess than checkers, making strategy important to winning.

"You have to put yourself in the position you want to be every lap and that's not necessarily in the lead," Halbert said. "Sometimes, you want to be in second or third spot to take advantage of the draft, but it's hard to do because everybody else is doing the same thing."
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