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:DIRTTRACK . series· Round 7: Allen County Fairgrounds AMA Grand'Na'tibnlil Championship The Michigan Mafia: (Left to right) Dan Butler, SCott Parker and Kevin ~therton celebrate their sweep atop the podium after Parker won the Lima Ha" Mile. Butler was second and Atherton third. by and into second place on lap two, and then Beyer and Jones passed Davis by lap eight. Butler nailed the win and King the transfer. "1 was just leaving the gas on:' Butler said. "They prepped the track real nice It seemed to be real moist on the cushion." After a slight delay due to malfunctioning starting equipment, Parker blasted from his outside starting position in heat two and mimicked Butler's pedor-· mance by leading every lap, Meanwhile, Atherton and Farris went at it for second place with the former BarleyDavidson factory rider powering off turn four to gain the upper hand at the halway point. From there, Parker led Atherton home. "We rolled around high and low trying to get ready for the main event:' Parker said. '1 thought that was Rodney behind me, but it was Kevin, We've made a few changes, and now we're ready to rock and roll. It's sure a hell of a lot easier making it straight to the main through the heat than through that damn semi." REIGN OF'THE MICHIGAN MAFIA By Scott Rousseau Photos by Bert Shepard and Flat Trak Fotos LIMA, OH, JUNE 24 s the main event rolled to the line for round seven of the AMA Grand National Championship Series at the Lima Half Mile, little did Steve Morehead know that he was a marked man. Fresh off a repeat victory at the Dallas Half Mile one week earlier, the Findlay Flyer had hoped to come into his home state and win at the Allen County Fairgrounds as well - just as he did last year after a feisty battle with Will Davis. _ But Davis was gone by main event time, a casualty of the semis, and the hometown hero Morehead was left to face a hungry group of Michiganders, including five-time and defending series champion Scott Parker, Jay "Springer" Springsteen, Kevin Atherton and Dan Butler. When the dust had cleared and the trigger had been pulled on the 25-1ap Grand National main event, the Michigan Mafia had carried out the hit in a big, way, with the Team Harley-Davidson/HOG/Bell/Yeti-sponsored Parker rebounding from his disappointing 11th-place finish at Dallas to garner his third win of the 1995 Grand National Series on the dry, pea gravel half mile before 9700 fans. Parker's fellow Michigan Mafia members, TCR Racing/Cumming's Harley-Davidson/Ben Ford Jr./Supertrapp-backed teammates Dan Butler and Kevin Atherton, became his partners in crime, finishing second and third, respectively. "The Michigan Mafia showed 'em tonight!" a jubilant Parker yelled from atop the box afterward. "1 glanced back a little bit and saw that 1 had an advantage on them, but 1was really being con- A servative and concentrating on moving forward." Parker moved forward indeed, getting a great start, then running high on the cushion to move out to an over-fivesecond margin of victory. Morehead ran second in the early going, and appeared to be drawing a bead on Parker, but Morehead's F&S Harley-Davidsonbacked XR750 ground to a halt between turns three and four, relinquishing second place to Butler. Morehead was credited with 17th place - dead last. Butler, meanwhile, seemed to be dialed into the Lima limestone all night long. The Waterford, Michigan, rider ran high early in the main event before pulling it down low, settling into a steady pace behind the champ and fighting off the last-lap efforts of fellow Michigan riders Atherton and Springsteen to land the runner-up spot as well as his first trip to the podium, Butler was elated. "This is probably one of the happiest days in my life," Butler said. "1 was on great equipment. We haven't been too far off the pace all year, and I'm starting to dial these grooves in: There's nothing like being on the box," Unlike his teammate, Atherton struggled for over half the feature, mucking it out with with Springsteen, George Roeder II and Rich King before putting on one of his patented charges of doom with Springer in tow - to run down Butler on the last lap. But it wasn't to be as the wily Springsteen gave Atherton just enough grief to keep the young Michigander from pulling off the move for second. "I'm bummed," Atherton said. III should've gotten second. It took me 15 laps to get going, but 1 started catching him (Butler). We've been working hard, and 1 thOught that we made the wrong decision on which bike to ride (see Briefly), but 1 think we did the right thing." Unencumbered by having to ride two classes at Lima, Springsteen celebrated his 20th anniversary in the Grand National wars (see Box) by bringing his Bartels' Harley-Davidson/Bell/R.C. Trucking-supported entry home fourth. Springsteen took a liking to the smoother-than-usual half-mile oval early and then bided his time while battling with Atherton, Roeder and King before pulling clear with Atherton in the closing st;lges of the race. The crafty veteran then briefly stole third place from Atherton and tried to sneak in a quick shot at Butler before slipping back to fourth at the flag - and back into second place in the Grand National points standings. Springer now trails Parker by 14 points, 82-68. "1 got a little greedy," Springsteen said, "Still, it wasn't that bad, huh?" The Garvis Honda/Shoei/Motion Pro/Missile Engineering/M.C. Stuffsponsored King remained the constant in an ever.-chaJ1ging dirt track universe by guiding his RS750 to another solid, consistent fifth-place finish, jumping back up to third place in the series standings with 65 points, . HEATS The 883 riders had the weekend off, but no less than 52 riders showed up to contest the Grand National class, necessitating eight scratch qualifying heats to thin the field to 48. In the first lQ..lap regular heat, Butler served notice that he was going to be tough by making a terrific start and simply running away from the field. Davis ran second, but the North Carolinan was forced to defend his transfer position from a quartet of riders that included King, Suburban Harley-Davidson's Bret Beyer and. Loral Lake Racing's Ronnie Jones - the latter two riders finding success up near the hay bales. Davis just couldn't hang in there as King moved Team Harley-Davidson's Chris Carr came up. to bat in heat three, and he, too, led all 10 laps en route to a main event berth. But while his two predecessors seemed to have had it easy, Carr had to deal with Springsteen. Carr tried to make a run for it, but Springer would have none of that as he pulled in behind Carr on the low line while Deeley Harley-Davidson's Steve Beattie ran in third out by the hay bales. "Beattie spooked me:' Springsteen said, "He kept running inside of me and then going high. I told him afterward, 'Man, you kept running inside me and then heading for the parking lot.''' Springsteen started pressing Carr hard while Beattie swarmed both riders, but in the end, Carr was able to keep Springsteen from the win by a wheel. "That was fun:' Carr said. "I saw Springer trying those low lines and I decided that I'd better experiment down there too, because I don't know what kind of race track they're going to give us in the main event." Morehead bagged the final heat in the same convincing fashion while Bob Norfleet Racing-backed Rusty Rogers ran behind him around the bottom, fending off I.M. Leathers-sponsored Chris Evans and USC Racing's Terry Poovey. Despite being dialed in, however, Morehead didn't want to make any predictions about the outcome of the main event. "I might have before I got here," Morehead said. "But they put all the dirt in a pile on the infield. We'll keep track of .the times of the guys in the semis and keep watching the race track. Now I hope it polishes off a bit more." SEMIS USC Racing-backed riders owned the . first two semis as Poovey got a rocket of a start in the first semi and flat tore up the race track, leaving Moroney's Harley-Davidson-backed Georgie Price IV, Beyer and Farris to ba ttle over the final two spots, Beyer wound up being the odd man out. Poovey's teammate Kevin Varnes came back from a fall in the scratch heats to find his way onto the everdeveloping groove - a rarity at Lima and parlay it into a win in the second semi over Evans and Jones.