Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

It was not the hot setup, but Farris appeared pleased anyway. '1 was havin' problems all day, but at least we were still there at the end," the amiable Virginian said. "We were fast on our old bike, bu t we had to jump to the new one and we were th ree-tenths of a second slower on it. Out here that's a lot. But it really came around at the end there." A new name reaped a fair amount of praise at Springfield as well. Mike Hack-e r broug ht his Spectre Moroney's Ha rley-Davidson-su pported XR home in fift h. Hacker im pressed the dirt track vanguard by win ning his heat race for the direct tra ns fe r, then grabbing the holeshot and leading the second lap of the National befo re slipping back in the lead draft. Bu t the frie ndly 18-yea r-old O hioan refused to give up, an d cautious rid in g netted him a solid top- five finish in only his eighth Nationa l appearance. " It was awesome out there," Hacker said . "That's the first time tha t I've been involve d in anything like tha t. It just blew my mind . It was just enough to be up in there. I just didn't want to make any mistakes and cause a crash." (Right) What loo ked to be a sure win for Will Davis (21) went up in smoke on the last lap while Carr (4), Atherton (23), Larry Pegram (72) and Mike Hacker jockeyed toward the fin ish . (Below) Pegram (right) and crew hustled to set up Steve Morehead's backup machine In lime to make the heat races after Pegram's bike grenaded In the final practice session. (sn for mer Canadian National Cha mpion a bert h in the main d esp ite his third-place finis h. 883 NATIONAL HEATS With a huge turnout of riders in both the 750 and 883cc classes, and high winds blowing potential rain clouds into the area, AMA officials attempted to speed the program along by abandoning the scratch qualifying heats and opting instead to seed all the riders into the heat races . The zso« program was expanded to four hea ts and four semis. As per usual. di rect transfers were awarded to the first- and second-place finishers in each heat. The rest would move to the four semis, which would transfer the top two in each and the thi rd-place finisher in the fastest semi to the National. Atherto n served notice that he was in the game right away as he diced with th ree- tim e Gr and Na tio nal Champion and current poin ts lead er Jay Springsteen for all 10 laps of heat one. Sp ringstee n g ra bbed the holesh ot, towi ng Atherton an d a stro ng- running Willie McCo y for th e first la p . Sprin ger and Ath er to n quickly pulled ou t front to d ecid e th e ra ce for th em selves w hile the H arleyDavidso n of Dall a s -b ack ed M cC o y drop ped off th e pa ce . Ath ert on and Sp ri ngstee n draft ed eac h other around th e track with Springer lead ing on the front stre tch w hile Atherto n led on the back stretc h. But on the last lap, Atherton d rove pa st Springsteen go ing in to three and then drove hard off of tum four to stay in front and collect the hea t win . "I was d ialed in by the second lap," Atherto n sa id . "I knew that if I pa ssed h im in t hree I co uld hol d it, because when he passed me on the front straight at the w hite flag, he didn't get by me until after the start/ finish line:' Hea t tw o belon ged to reigning GNC champio n Scott Parker, who put his Bill Werner-tuned, works Ha rley- Davidson into third off the start behind Wiebler's Harley-Davidson's Davey Carnlin and Carnlin's tea mmate Pegram, aboard one of Steve Mo rehe a d ' s backup F&S Harley-Davidson machin es (see Briefly). Ronnie Jones put the Loral Lake Racing Honda RS7S0 into fou rth place and then flexed so me m uscle at the fro nt to lead la ps three thro u gh six. Parker th en g ra bb ed the lead and tri ed to b r eak away down th e ba ck s t rai gh t on lap seven as Jon es fell off the pace and was re p laced by Farris. Camlin stayed right with Parker and led the whi te-flag lap, but the five-time Grand National Champio n wa sn't abo ut to give away a po tenti ally important s ta r ti ng s po t to the strong-running Ca rnlin, an d he po wered back around in three and four to reach the checke red flag first. "I just ge t out and go," Parker said. "The big facto r today is going to be the wi nd . We're pushin' a lot of breeze, .and it slows every body do wn and bu nches 'e m up. That's why you' ll see so many bikes in there at the end ." Moreh ead , Ca rr a n d Cra ig Rogers Racing/ Mother Flet ch er' s- sponsored Will Da vis all fig u re d p romin ently in heat three. Hall's H-D/ MPM-backed Ted Tay lor stole the start and led the first two laps before falli ng back to fou rth p lace behind Carr , Davis and Morehead, and los ing th e draft. T he to p th r ee th e n moved out on the field and battled it ou t, wi th Davis absolutely controlling the tu rns but givi ng away far too mu ch on the s traightaways . W he n t he last lap rolled around, Davis was off the pace. Carr se t u p Mo re head for a fina l d raft down the fro nt straight, and he apppeared to be successful in ma kin g the pass as the two crossed the stripe in a photo finish. But afte r reviewing a videotape of the finish, AMA officials awarded Morehead the victory. "I th ou g ht h e (Ca rr) beat me. I couldn't tell," said the F&S/KK Motorcycle Su pply-backed Morehea d. "Will Davis was killin' US both throug h the corne rs , b ut he ai n't going down the straig htaways." "I didn't kn ow if I had won it or not," Carr added. "It seems like I've go t a really good mot or, bu t I' m having a little tro uble ge tting th rou gh the apexes. We haven't figur ed it ou t yet." Garv is Ho n da rid er Ri ch King grabbed the holesh ot to sta rt heat fo ur, but it was short-lived as USC-Racing' s ve tera n rider Terry Poovey, Bob Norfleet Racing-back ed Rust y Rogers and Hacke r ga the red a ro u n d . Poovey led laps one throu gh four, but Kin g was righ t th ere, an d he resurfa ced on la p five to ta ke the poin t. Rogers, mea n while, fell off the groove in tum one and allowed Hacker to slip by. It was just the oppo rtunity tha t the exubera nt teen was looking for, and he was soo n trading the lead wi th Poovey and King. Hac ker was ge tting stronger with each lap , a nd as the field took the w hite flag, he bolt ed into tum two and stretched the throttl e cab le down the back stra ight to gai n an advantage that Poovey could no t overcome a t th e line . It was Hacker's fir st d ir ect tra nsfer t o an AMA G ra nd National. "This is my kind of track," Hacker said. '1 just tried to keep calm. I'm still learning, but I was ho ping tha t I could get a drive out there somewhere to get by 'em ." SEMIS Not unlike Bubble Day at Indianapolis, the four eight-la p semis gave those riders who had failed to qualify earlier one last chance at making the 17-rider field, and the first semi produced a rather unlikely hero. Suburban Mo tors Ha rleyDavidson-backed Jim Sumner gave a still-struggling Farris all that he could handle en route to a stout victory in semi number one. USC-Racing's young charger Kevi n Varnes, who has been a direct transfer at the la st tw o GNC Na tiona ls, top p ed Pegram in semi two . Taylor rocketed his way into the National in semi three with a two-second victo ry over Rich Kin g, w ho narr owly d efeated Undo Racin g' s Brett Landes to ad van ce. An d Davis finall y fou nd his Honda's m issin g s peed in se m i fo u r as h e un cork ed seve ra l bull et -fa st laps, incl u di ng a sco rch ing l OS-m p h lap on the final circ uit to tak e th e win so me three seconds ahead of Chance Darling and Steve Beattie, making the fina l semi the fastes t, and thus gua ra nteeing the The 17-man, 12-lap Harley-Davidson 883 National was marred by a serious crash involving reigning Harley-Davidson 883 National Champion Scott Stump, who looked to be right in the thick of things after battling with arch-rivals Matt Wait and Springsteen, as well as Hacker for the first six laps. But on the seventh lap, Stump appeared to lose the front end well past the apex of turns three and four, and the KK Supply/ Alisyn Oil-supported rider barreled into the wall at almost top speed. Stump was conscious when reached by medical personnel and was transported to St. John's Hospital. Stump suffered a broken neck, broken femur and a shattered hip - although apparently no paralysis (see Briefly). . When the race resumed, Springsteen battled back and forth for the lead with Moroney's H-D teammates Hacker and Jaso n Fletcher. Springsteen appeared to be head ed for an easy win, bu t Hacker was relen tless, and he began to get the measure of Springsteen in the final few laps. Hacker's mo torcycle was clearly faster off tum fou r, and he was able to d raf t Sp rin gsteen almost at will, prac tically assuring a win for Team Moron ey' s. But Springsteen played it cagey during the Iast lap. iand he waited on Hacker going into tum three, forcing the youngster to lead coming off tum four. Hacker obliged and bu ried the throttle in a desperate attempt to pull away fro m Sp ri nger, bu t it was a ll for n aught : Springsteen slipped right aro und Hacker an d gra bbed his second Ha rley- Davi dso n 883 Na tional win of the seaso n. Hacker was second, and his Mo roney's teammate Jason Fletcher was third. "I outfoxed him," Springsteen said. "He ke p t beating me off tum four so I pulled u p next to him down the back straightaway then let him go:' Hacker said that he fully expected the move. "He knew tha t there was nobody behind us and I didn't," Hacker said. "I didn 't wa nt to roll ou t of it and get passed by a bunch of people. I figured I'd take my chances lead ing it. But hey, I'm happy to finish seco nd to Springer any day." GRAND NATIONAL Seve nteen of the fastest d irt trackers ' in the country left the line to start the 25lap ma in event, with Hacker gra bbi ng the lead off tum two before immediately yieldi ng to Carnlin, w ho led the freight train for the firs t tw o laps, and Parker. Hacker hung on in th ird for two mor e laps before dropping back a little further. In the meantime, Davis stepped up the p ace a little and fou nd him self a t the ' front for the next two laps. "We made a couple of changes to the 17

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