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GRINDERFEST XPORTS ENDORSES BRADY MUELLER PRO FLAT TRACK RACER.Grand National, 5/8 Mile, Pomona, CA, 10-24-09 For a long time, I have anticipated the excitement of traveling to southern California for the final race of the Grand National Circuit. This trip, I was fortunate to have my good friend, Wayne Cooley, of D&W Racing help me out in my travels by loading up his motor home and hauling on down. It was also nice to have my parents, other family members, a few friends as well as George Latus and Bob Lanphere, here supporting me. I knew tonight's program was going to be pretty interesting and maybe a little hectic because of running Gene Romero's final round of the West Coast Flat Track Series in conjunction with an AMA Grand National. This allowed me to ride the Open class as well as the Expert Twins. The track got dry and marbly but I held my own in practice and qualifying. I struggled finding the fast way around the track and played around with some different lines. At the end of qualifying, I sat 11th fast in the Open class and 29th in the Expert Twins. Not at the front but I knew when the moisture came up and the sun set, I was going to be right in there! I lined up in the middle of the second row for my first heat race in the Twins class. After getting a great start going into turns one and two, the red flag came out as a rider had gone down. I made my way back to the starting line and was off again, this time coming off the line in the 5th spot. I held my position but soon had riders #62, Luke Gough, as well as #65, Cory Texter, in hot pursuit. We three riders had a good battle going on! I was running it in deep above the rough stuff and getting some good drives off the bottom coming out but could not hang with the two of them down the straights. I was extremely frustrated as I felt I was really riding hard and gained on them in the corners. I crossed the finish line 8th. The Harley surely has some time on it and is tired but there was no reason to be pulled 6-10 bike lengths, down the straights, so I decided to take a gear off to see if that would help in the Open class heat. I held my own in the Open class, finishing 4th, to take the last transfer into the main event! The gearing seemed to help! This was my last shot at getting into the Expert Twins main event. I was very excited to have a front row, outside starting spot. Just before the light went green, I got my hand up in time because the bike did not want to go in gear! Some riders had already jumped on the light and took off. I took a lap around the track and the bike seemed to shift fine. After lining up again and making sure the bike was going to go into gear plenty early, I was off. The bike launched off the first twenty feet only to hit a false neutral and fall to the back of the pack. Managing to salvage the start, I looked for a way to make it through the crowd. I sat in 7th most of the race. The track was really starting to fall apart, which made things a little tricky. On the last lap and corner, #25, Brian Phillips went down right in front of me and I had no other choice but to lay the bike down. The bike and I were fortunately ok. I again had transmission shifting problems coming off the line in the Open class main event. By now, the track was very rough and there did not seem to be a smooth way around. I rode this one out cautiously and took the checkered 13th. Pomona was a bit of a tough one but I had fun. Nobody said all races were going to be easy! I am excited to be back at home so I can ride a lot this winter and regroup. My next race will be November 7th and 8th at the Spokane indoor short track and TT. Thanks to all my sponsors that have supported me this year in 2009. WWW.RACINGBRADY.COM