Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Left) Morehead put In a strong showing In only his second race back from Injury, leading the flrat 16 laps before finishing about 10 lengths behind King at the line. (Below) Paning _s difficult on the rough one-line race track. Here, Scott Parker (1) races with Davey Camlln (27), Brett Landes (41) and Jason Fletcher (65). Parker finished eighth In the main event. three races, if things didn't go better then I was just going to retire in mid- season." USC Racing/Johnny and Sarah Goad/Penn State Cycles/KK/Cycle Shack/Shoei-supported Kevin Varnes added another fifth-place finish to the one he scored at the Rapid City Half Mile held earlier in the week. The youngest member of the USC Racing team suffered a terrible start as his Honda slued sideways when the light turned green. Varnes hit the turn in eighth place and then set about biding his time and picking off Allon McBee and Georgie Price IV to run in sixth and then fifth when Camlin broke down. "I screwed myself," Varnes said. "There were all kinds of bumps where I had to start, and it just lit up when we started rolling I think Joe was holding us up, but he wasn't making any mistakes. Fifth place, I'll take it. Last year I was just glad to make the main. Now it's like, 'Fifth place, that sucks.'" HEATS After a lengthy delay and two riders .meetings, the AMA opted to modify the original race format, opting to eliminate the scratch heats and transfer three riders from each of five 10-lap heats and the two semi winners to the main event, which was shortened to 20 laps. With the weather threatening ·the race again this year, AMA referee Bruce Bober also decided to run the entire 750cc program first and then complete the 883cc program if the rain held off. Camlin led Team Harley-Davidson charger and reigning Grand National Champion Scott Parker as well as Team Undo's Brett LandeS in a processional around the race track during the first 10lap heat. Both Parker and Camlin were aboard Harley-Davidson "twingles", and both appeared to be hooked up as they pulled a'way from Landes, who was displaced by Paul Morgan ill on lap six. Morgan, once again aboard the Gardner Racing/Walter Brothers Harley-Davidson, then held off Landes at the flag for the transfer. Three Hondas reigned in heat two, with Jones essentially winning the race in the first turn over Road Rider / Rogers-backed Will Davis and USC Racing's Terry Poovey. The three riders ran nose-to-tail on the groove, finishing in that order to eam direct transfers to the final. "It was pretty much a drag race," Jones, one of the most vocal riders in his opposition to the track conditions, said. '1 picked the outside (starting position) and [ got a good start." King came out in heat three and buried the rest of the competition with Kopp running second, but behind them, Spectro/Moroney's-backed Mike Hacker and Winchester H-D/Eddie Adkinssponsored Kenny Coolbeth Jr. scrapped over the final transfer spot. Coolbeth Jr. hung in behind Hacker and then stuffed it underneath him in turn one on the white-flag lap. Hacker could not retaliate. King took the win a good distance over Kopp and Coolbeth Jr. I actually rode the heat race a bit tight," King said. "I couldn't loosen up. But the bike was really strong off the turns. That's where I could make all my time." Varnes emulated King's performanc~ with a wire-tocwire win in heat four. TCR Racing's Dan Butler and Sowle Racers/ Renteria Brothers-sponsored Allon McBee scrapped for the second spot. McBee retained second place at the line as both went through to the main. Varnes' heat was over three seconds faster than the previous fast heat. "I just got a good jump," Varnes said. "Once I got out front, I looked back and didn't see anybody, so I backed off a little bit." Morehead then went out in the final heat and upped the speed even more, po ting the fastest hea t win by ome four seconds over a battie between Bob orfleet Racing's Georgie Price IV and TCR Racing's Kevin Atherton. The former Harley-Davidson factory rider Atherton showed Price a wheel on the inside and the outside, but the burly Price was able to hold his ground and cross the line in second ahead of Atherton. SEMIS The first eight-lap semi was a real barnburner as no less than four riders George Roeder II, Hacker, Landes and Don Estep - displayed the speed necessary to take the single ticket to the main, and it was all Estep from the get-go. The Hot Shot Motor Works-backed Ohioan appeared to have the field covered, but the race was red-flagged to allow the medivac helicopter stationed on the infield to leave the facility. On the restart, Roeder put his Roeder HarleyDavidson-backed XR into the lead. Estep then tried to stay with Roeder while Hacker attempted to' move by Landes when disaster struck. Estep went into turn one too hot and started to slide out on the groove. Landes was able to miss Estep, but Hacker clipped Estep's front wheel and the two riders were flung to the ground hard while their motorcycles flipped wildly through the air. "They tell me that I hit his front wheel," Hacker said. '1 don't remember anything." Both riders were conscious while being attended to by medical personnel. Hacker was returned to his pit via an ambulance before being released with a possible broken foot while Estep was transported to Denver General Hospital where he was diagnosed with a punctured lung and broken ribs. Roeder went on to win the two-lap dash in the restarted semi. Coloradans highlighted semi two as Honda-mounted Clint Vahsholtz of Woodland Park and Steve Aseltine of Palmer Lake went at it for the final spot to the main. Aseltine, the 1989 Daytona Short Track winner, put an easy pass on. Vahsholtz in turn three to take the win and make the main much to the delight of the crowd. "He (Vahsholtz) just slipped off the notch a little bit and left a hole," Aseltine said. GRAND NAnONAL Morehead and Jones led the 17-rider main event off the starting line just before midnight. Jones ran up the outside of Morehead in an attempt to control the first lap before being squeezed off the groove by the Findlay Flyer and dropping back to fifth place behind Camlin, King and Kopp. Varnes' Honda had nearly spit him off at the starting Riel) King earned $4500 for his win at the Denver .Ha~ .Mile. along w~h another. $309 in posted contingencies from Shoe< helmets -. a $4800 payday alter over 10 years of effot1. "It was.worth every minute of It," King said. Will Davis finally made progress In his attempts to "chop down" Scott Parker's points· lead 'aftai finishing one position'ahead of Parker in the main. event. "We gained one 'point," Davis ·joked. "We need to do bette'r than thai. We doO't have 44 races left." '. ., Seve~allTleinbers o! ihe TCR Rac,,;g sql1ad,: inc;ludiog team o.wner Tom Cummlogs, [ider Dan B~r .anp taam assistant ~ry NIxon were sporting cuts: bruises.and DUmS thanks.. to an e'xcu(sian 'on the Alpine Slide at an alTlusement park just o.utside of Derwer. Accordirig·to "Cra5h." CummingS, he' was 'try-' ing to set fast time 'of th6 group when ne cart-. .wh·e~'ed ,his sled 9ul 'of the. ·tra«k; rece]virg' several cuts to his left thigh, left, arm· and both . '. kneElS.' Both Butliwarid. Nlx9n .were 'sportlng · n~sty· !Qoking 'bums -'[om rubbing t!:le trElck. : ""ve.Qeen trYing to, drag a knee for- 20 years: · Nilc:on said.."1' finally did ~." Kids·:._ .: line, and the young Pennsylvanian found himself mired back in eighth place. Varnes found his forward progress to be slow-going. '1 thought I could've won it if I go! the holeshot," Vames said. "You had to float through the comers and hope that someone made a mistake. Sit and wait not too good at that." But Varnes managed to thread his I'm .Several more'Haney-Davl!lson riders jumped on' the "twingle" bandwago·n. this. week after witnessing Scott Partler dominate in the slick conditions at tl)e Rapid City HM Mile eal'fier . in the week. Dave' CBmlln, Chance DerJlng, and -!ay Springateeri were spOrting ~e 45degree firing order which is audibly much d~ ferent than the Standard HaneY-PaVidson Vtwin rumble. Springsteen's machine ·was convert8d ·in his hqtel·parking.loi on Friday by one of his fomier mechanics - Bill Werner. .. . St,v. Morehead was trying out an experi-' ment or two ol'his own as he fitted' a two-intoone pipe on. his F&8- Hadey-Davidson-sponsored XR750. "' thought that·we wOuld try this while I wasn't riding hard yet: said More-· .head; ~ Is admittedly still taking it ~asy fol-. lOWIng .hls .Orash. at. Lake Odessa, M'c!',ga~.. ~ pIpe IS suppoSed to .wlden, th~. P?wer; ~and and take.away ~eQf. the camml,?8" . on the motor· It makes ~ a on mellower. The change must .have. helped on th~ dry-slick Den~e.r sur.lace. as More.head. fl'ntshed sec(md I~ th~. main event. :. Jones, ..,;as. ~~cti 9fflclally declared th,e wln- . ner of.the.Rapld City; So·uth.Dakota, AMA 883cc National after his Widman:slWagne.r/· Seminole Harley-DaVidson passed· the AMA tech inspection at Denyer: ~Ol1es'. motorhli\d . 1I1.1ui HaCk.r unexPectedly picked lip a new': be.en s\lale~.by. AMA tech .In~pector t!t'ell sponsor at Denver, SchwInn JJlcycles, whose . CI'O'/V after wlfllllng Raptd City. He al~o rode vice pr{lSident was iri attendance wilh Yeti's the machl~e. to a fOllrth:place' fmlsh In {)enJohn Par\(.r.· "Kevin AthertOn snowed them ver. Jonlls bike owner Jim Wagner WaRted to my bike (a beat-up mountain Bike) 'and' they'. thank both T.rry PQ9vey. and. Jay Sprlng·jlJst started laughing: They told me.to call them ataen for helping J.ones on his way to victory mixt ~ and they'd set me up: ~id HaCker. circle, . . .

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