ROUND 7/AUGUST 11, 2013
PMC RACE PARK/PEORIA, ILLINOIS
FLAT TRACK
P54
AMA GRAND NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
PEORIA
TIMES NINE
HENRY WILES SETS NEW WINNING STREAK RECORD
The Peoria TT gets rolling with Shaun
Russell (28) getting the jump on Brad
Baker (12), Stevie Bonsey (80), JD Beach
(95) and Briar Bauman (14).
STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY
LARRY LAWRENCE
N
o one knew it at the time,
but when Chris Carr won
his record-setting eighth
consecutive Peoria TT National back in 1995, there was an
11-year-old kid ripping around
the family farm on a minibike in
Blanchard, Michigan, who was
destined for TT greatness. That
kid was little Hank Wiles, and
18 years later Wiles broke what
seemed at the time like a nearly
unbreakable record by winning
his ninth straight Peoria TT National on Sunday.
And Wiles won this year's edition of the grand old TT in grand
style. Forced to start from the
back row after the motor on his
bike quit in his heat race, Wiles
sliced through the 18-rider field
like a knife through warm margarine at a summer picnic.
"People have always told me
that when Nicky Hayden won this
race from the back row that was
maybe the greatest come-frombehind win ever at Peoria," Wiles
said. "Well Nicky won the race
with a last-lap pass. I passed for
the lead on lap 10."
Wiles was proud of this one.
And well he should be. Young
