Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

"Th a t hea t was a regular d og-and, p ony sh ow," Morehead said . "On th e . . last lap I lost it on the groove and go t a bit of a push. Scotty just skid de d aro und on the outside ." Heat thr ee was all Davis. The No rth Carolinan pu t his new Honda into the lead right off the start and was never really challenged. Behind him, though, a rather intense ba ttle developed between TCR Racing-backed Kevin Atherton and mu lti-time Canadian Nationa l Cham pion Steve Beattie, who was one of the few riders who stayed married to th e high line all night. Beattie all bu t used up the cushion in h is pursuit of Atherton and managed 'to latch on to Atherton's rear fender as the heat drew to a close . But Beattie came up short as Atherton crossed the line behind winner Davis to earn the transfer. "That' s how I learned to ride when I was younger, " Beattie said. "All th e tracks in Canada have a cushion, and I wasn't really happy with the groove." USC Racing 's young sensation Kevin Varnes closed out the heats with a dominant victory in heat four . But unlike his peers , Varnes had the groove figured out, and his Johnny Goad-tuned setup was wo rking to perfection. "The track changed a lor when the groove started coming up ," Varnes said. "1 like th e groove a lot better than the cushion." Varnes sto le the start and then proceeded to build a comfortable lead, leaving USC stablemate Terry Poovey to battle with a hard -charging Rogers for the final hea t transfer position as the field sp read out. Rogers fancied the cushion while Poovey, w ho won the last AMA Grand National Ch ampionship race at H a rrington in 1984, re ma in ed on the groove. After an int ense two -lap ba ttle, Poovey surrendered second place to the Bob Norfleet Racing-supported Rogers. Poovey dogged Rogers all the way home, but Rogers had a lock on second place. "1 w an te d th a t one," Rogers said . "We needed a goo d heat. It seemed like every time Var nes ma d e a mistake, I woul d too. That kept us the sa me d istance apart ." SEMIS The first semi played host to the second of two bad crashes that plagued this . year's Harrington event as Butler, Les Was hbo n and Jam es Hart were involved in a horrendous mid-pack skirmish that left all th ree riders down hard in the first tu rn. "I was going to take it around the top," Bu tler sai d. "Those guys were somewhe re d o w n low, a nd it just Seemed like a whole p ile of riders moved up in front of me. I ran over sornebody's bike and then ski p ped over someone. I was lucky to crash in the part of the turn where there was no wa ll." Hart got the wo rst of it, and the rider from Illinois was rushed to the nearby Milfo rd Me moria l . Hos pital to b e checked out (see Briefly). On the re st art, Ric h King pu t t he Garvis Honda entry into the lead bu t was then forced to take a back seat to a motivated Butler for the first six laps of eight laps. King, h owever, kept his cool and repassed Butler off turn two on the sixth lap to reclaim the lead . Butler held off Springst een for secon d . Both riders we re in the show. Semi tw o featured a radical role revers al, as Geo Roeder and Chris Carr ba ttled for the lead . Carr, who normally rides th e groove, tes ted h is wares u p high, while Roed er us ed the groove to successfu lly hold off Carr for the win. "We made a couple of ch an ges and we could n' t seem to hook up," said the (Opposite page) Team Harley-Davidson's Scott Parker (1) Whippedthe field by . almost five seconds en route to his 61st National win at the Harrington HalfMile. Steve Morehead (42)finished second for the second time in as many events. (Right) Rodney Farris (92) debuted his new s ingle-shocked frame and put In a consistent ride for third place. (Below right) For the second race in a row, Will D .avis started strong but fell back to fourth at the finish aboard a brand new, unlettered Honda RS750. Roe der 's Harley-Davidson / Mike's Harley-Davidson-backed Roeder . "So we put the wide rim on and ran around the bottom. It was different, but it was fun ." Poovey "grooved" his wa y into the feature w ith a third-place finish. Beattie was still addicted to the high line in the third semi , and this time there was no one to challenge him as he led all eight laps and took the win over a very quiet Ronnie Jones and Price. 883 NAT IONA L Considering what Matt Wait had been through earlier in the day, it was a wonder that he could muster up the enthusiasm to compete in the Harley-Davidson 883 National at all. The 18-year-old Northern Californian had .been involved in a horrendous accident during one of the 883 qualifying heats earlier in the day that saw fellow competitor and friend Randy Texter rushed to the hospital (see Briefly). Wait was tryin g to catch Texter through turns two and three in the qualifier when Texter apparently go t on the gas too soon and went down. Wait had nowhere to go and struck the fallen Texter squa rely in the head. "It sca red me ," Wait said after the incident. "I h ad flashbacks of Daytona when I hit Morehead's bike . He (Texter) was jus t laying in front of me and. I had no p lace to go . I just ran right u p the mid dle of him. "It' s hard seeing one of your competitors h ur t and knowing that you were in volved, even though there was 'noth ing tha t I cou ld do about it," Wait said . "It jus t makes me feel sick." A ligh t field of 883s guaranteed that all en tra nts wo ul d make the Na tional, an d when the 16-man, 12-lapper rolled to the line, reigning 883 Na tional Champion Scott Stu mp and Springsteen had to be cons idered the favorites for the win as both riders had taken a heat race win . The evenly m at ch ed p ow er. of the 883s combined with the slick racing surface made the h o les h o t cr ucia l, and when the green light flashed, Spring steen and Stump we re so preoccu pie d with beating each other to the first turn tha t th ey b umped each other rig ht off the groove. That was all the opportunity tha t Wait needed as he rocketed from his perch on th e front row and knifed un d er both Springsteen and Stump to grab the lead with Robert Miller in tow. Miller quick ly passed Wait down the back stretch and h el d a narrow lea d over th e charging youngster for tw o lap s before bobbli ng in turn one an d reli nquishing the lead . Further back, Springstee n, Stump and Doug Beattie jockeyed for third throu gh fifth place. Wai t was looki ng good unti l the halfway poi n t when h e los t the lead thro ugh no fault of his own. Miller and Beattie tan gled while fighti ng fo r the second spo t and Miller wen t d ow n, caus ing the race to be red-flagged. The rest ar t w ou ld allow both St ump a n d Springsteen a second chance. "Tha t resta rt rea ll y bu m m ed me ou t," Wait said . "1 jus t h ad to pu t my head down an d tell myself I could do it." Fortunately for the Mitchell's Modes to Ha rley-Davidson/Tucker Rocky /Nempco-backed Wait, he was able to make a clean getaway on the resta rt and lead the second-half of the race to bring home the win. In the mea ntime, Moroney's HarleyDavidson teammates Mike Hacker and Georgie Price moved up to finish second and th ird, res pectively. Stump hel d off Springsteen for fourth place. "I just wanted to win it really bad, not only for me, bu t for Randy," Wait said. "That's p robably wha t drove me the most." Jason's back' or oney' s H arley-Davi dson -backed Jason Fletcher return ed t o action at the Ha rrington H alf Mile after su ffering what was th ough t to be a career-ending head injury in a cra sh at the 1994 Oklahom a City Half Mile. In doing so, Warren, Connecticut-based rid er fulfilled a goal that he h as bee n trying to achieve almost sin ce the day after suffering a stroke that came about due to complications from the crash. "I' m back and I'm ready," the 24-year-old said with a smi le. "But I'm just going to take my time ." • Fletcher's fam ily has fully suppo rted his decision to return to racing, but Gary Fletcher, Jason's father, said that he did feel some apprehens ion at see ing his son take to the track again. "I'm real nervous to be here," the elder Fletcher said . "But it' s good to have him back. He's been trying real hard to get ready, I'm behind him 100 percent. If I wasn't, I wouldn't be here: ' While Fletcher said that he has been going to school and working some, most of his recovery time has been sp ent on tw o wheels. "I've been riding mountain bikes and motorcycles," Fletcher said . "I just want to make the National:' Fletcher appeared a bit conservative in the scratch heat, but he was quickly up to speed and though he missed making the show after a seventh-place finish in the semis, he did indeed appear to be back to his old self. M

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