Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Graham rac ed aw ay with an easy win ovt!\" Springsteen and a d istant Roeder. ~ three required a couple starts to firuiW¥ ge~E;anly underway, as first Rob Majeski, then Jess Roeder, crashed on the opening laps. On the second restart, Poo vey jumped into the lead and held on for the win over a hard-charging Ken ny Coo lbethand a distant Davis, who held off the charges of Fletcher. For the first time in several Nationals, Fletcher found himself shut out of the main, but wowed th e crowd with a huge wheelie across the finish line. HARLEY-DAVIDSO N 883 NATIONAL The Harl ey-Da vid son 883 class continues to lose populari ty amongst both the riders and the crowd, evident this week as 'only 16 ride rs showed up to do battle aboard the modified street bikes. Scott Stump rolled on in his imp res- the course was noticeably dusty during practice and the scratch heats. The first of four 10-lap heat races saw A&R Racing's Will Davis jump the gun and s tart the race on the penalty lin e. When the light finally did flash green, it was Rodney Farris who rocket ed into the lead and on to a commanding win aboard his Eddie Adkins-tuned HarleyDavidson . M&M Racing's Scott Stump held second thr oughout the race, barely fen di ng off th e advanc es of th e hardcharging d uo of Jones and Graham. Farris and Stump head ed for the National, while Jones, Graham , Davis and the rest would ha ve to try again. " We' re ho o kin g u p prett y good to n ig ht, " said Farris, w ho had also topped the fastest scratch heat ear lier in th e ni ght. "The clutch was starting to dr ag pretty bad towards the end of the heat - we'll pu t a new one in before the ma in ." Farris' w inning hea t race time wou ld p re va il as th e fas test o f th e evening. USC Racing's Terry Poovey had the rocket reflexes in the seco nd hea t and led Sa cram ento H arl e y-Da vid son ' s Aaron Hill, George Roeder II, Kev in Varnes and Carr through tum one . Carr blitzed through the first two comers and began lap two in third, and it only took the forme r champion four more laps to motor into the lead. Carr scored a convi ncing win over Hill and a distant Poovey, w ho seemed to drop off the pace as the race wore on . "The track is pretty slick," said Carr. "You can actually spin your tires all the way down the straights. You really have to roll the throttle on - you can hardly ever be wide open." Moroney's Harley-David son rider Jason Fletcher led the way earl y in heat three, but the re would be no denying Parker of the win a nd a s u bseq uen t fron t-row starting position in the main. Parker na bbed th e lead on lap three with a spectacular low-line pass in tum three and looked well on his wa y to a runaway win, but the red flag came out on lap fou r when Dan Butler crashed in tum two and suffered a broken collarbone. Parker picked up where he left off on the restart, but his chances of earning the pole with the fastest time were gone. Team Undo's Brett Landes turned in an impressive ride to earn the second direct transfer. Landes sa t fourth in line on the single-file restart, and blasted past Kris Kiser and Fletcher with relative ease in the remaining five laps to earn a spot in the National. J The fourth and final heat race provid- (Above) Chris Carr (4) fin ished a distant th ird and rega ined the series point lead. Ronnie Jones (16) turned In a come-from-behlnd ride for fou rth . (Right) Scott Parker stru ggl ed to get hi s factory HarleyDavidson turned, and fi nished fifth. Parker trail s Carr by one In the po ints race. ed many thrills, courtesy of Morehead and the always-spectacular Kevin Atherton. Thanks to a scratch heat race crash, Morehead sat on the back row at th e start, but somehow managed to emerge from tum two in second behind threetime G rand National Champion Jay Springsteen. Morehead con tinued to thrill the crowd as he blasted past Springsteen high in turns three and four, and took the lead before a singl e lap was in the record books. Though he had suffered a poor start, Atherton spied Morehead's high-line technique and promptly went to the top of the track. With three laps remaining, Morehead and Springsteen enjoyed 'a IS-bike-Iength lead over Atherton, but the. youngster proceeded to reel them in at a rapid rate. Atherton di splaced Springer on lap eight, and with the crowd behind him - went on to overtake Morehead high in turns one and two on the final lap. Not to be outdone, however, Morehead dove low in the final two turns and put the younger Atherton in his place with a block pass that would make even the roughest motocrosser proud. Morehead raced on to the win, while Atherton sta yed upright for second and earned the "Save of the Night" award. "1 found the high line on the first lap and it worked great," said Morehead. " Bu t once I go t into the fro n t I went back down low so that Parker and Carr wouldn't see the line in case they were watching from the pits . 1 guess Atherton saw me do it, though, and he used it to reel me in. He just left me a little space in the last f::l1rn, and when he slipped up a bit, I took it." Atherton appeared a bit miffed by the contact, but simply said, "I got a little out of contro l in the last turn, and Steve went for it. The ass end of his bike hit my bars and pushed my clutch lever in, then wh en it released, it spun the tire and almost sent me into the wall. But that 's racing ." SEMIS Brenny' s Cycle-s p o ns o red Davey Camlin raced awa y with the win in the first eight-lap semi, though he was pressured the entire way by Jones. Rich King held down third throughou t the race aboard his TLC Racing Harley-Davidson, and would earn the third and final ticket to the National. Springsteen led the way at the start · of the second semi, but Graham came to life and nabbed the lead as they raced ou t of turn four for the first time. With that, the race finishing order was set, as sive 1993 "Less weight eq u a ls more speed " campaign, as the now-svelte racer led the IS-lap National from start to finish aboa rd his Wimer' s HarleyDavidson/M&M Racing/Bieffe/Motion Pro /Tsubaki/Slatz/KK/Hogwash/F&S H-D /Marion Trotters/Cal Lamb/Henry Black-sponsored 883. Series points leader Flet cher shadowed Stump throughout the race, but was never able to find the extra edge needed to steal the lead. Fletcher's Moroney's Harley-Davidson teammate, Georgie Price, rounded out the top three with a start-to-finish ride in third. Several previous disqualifications of the top riders are still being appealed, but w ith nine of the 15 rounds in the record books, Fletcher leads Stump, 144109, in the tentative point stan din gs. NATIONA L Fast heat winner Farris felt his heart drop when the green light flashed at the start of the 25-lap National. Though his crew had installed a new clutch after his heat race, Farris' Harl ey refused to go, and he watched helplessly as th e 16 other riders zoomed pa st him and into turn one . Morehead emerged from the tum one frenz y with the lead, with Carr, Ather- 19

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