Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Left) Wlnkln' Will Davis brought the R&RlTeam Saddlemen Honda home In third place after running In' second for most of the main event. (Below) Jay Springsteen played It cool on the Wicked, fast high banks and was reward~ with . a solid fourthplace run. chose to run low in the corners and then drift up the banking to put a "slide job" on the competition while others kept the throttle pegged and rode the outermost rim of the track, just inches from the hay bales, before diving down the bank and onto the straightaways. Springsteen and Carr both chose the latter as the two went at it in the first heat race. Springer took the holeshot with Carr running second after shaking off Winchester Harley-Davidsori's Ken Coolbeth Jr. Carr caught up to the fleeing Springer and then made the winning pass by running right with him at the bottom of the track off turn two and then beating him into three on the last lap. "I was goin' as fast as I could," Springsteen said. "I think Chris was just kinda goofin' with me." "No," Carr said. "Actually, I couldn't make the pass stick. He was getting better drives, and it took me a while to get dialed in. I thought that I would get him going into three." Parker rumbled to victory in heat two. The champ and tuner Bill Werner had opted to run "The Locomotive," Parker's twingled factory racer, and the machine was able to find traction on a surface which was still a touch slick early in the night. After the win, Parker eXpressed but one concern with the race track. . "The one downfall to this place is that if someone crashes in front of you, they'll come back at you." Parker said. "With as fast as we're going, before you know it, you'll be on top of 'em." Garvis Honda's King battled it out with Atherton, who was suffering a fair share of problems with his TCR entry, for the second spot. ill the end, the Iowan barely outran the flamboyant young Michigan charger on the final lap for a direct transfer to the main event. "I was right with Atherton," King said. "He went by me, and I thought that he was riding a sawmill. His bike waS making so much noise. I got ba<;k around him and I didn't think that I'd see him anymore. But he was close at the finish." Morehead gave the partisan Ohio crowd something to cheer about by pulling clear of a battle between fellow Ohoian Chance Darling and Hacker and then racing around the top to score a convincing win in heat three. "There's nothing really to tell about it," Morehead said. "I just got out front and started £lyin.' I might change the gearing because the track's picking up speed and we're getting more traction. We just flipped a coin. We're gonna change it." The two "kids" diced around behind the veteran for the entire race with Darling using the low / high road to hold off Hacker for seven of the 10 laps before scrubbing off too much speed on the exit to turn two and allowing Hacker· to dive below him and take the transfer spot. "We're back to normal," said Hacker, who has had a tough time with 750 program since his crash at the Denver Half Mile earlier in the year. "We finally got the bike going good. I got a good start, but Darling was holding me up. Once I got around him, my lap times went up." Morehead was apparently right, the track was getting faster, and Davis bore testimony to that fact as he railed his privateer Honda to a runaway victory in the fourth and fastest heat of the night. "1 still don't like this place," said Davis in reference-to comments that he'd made earlier abou t the track being rough and slick. "But it's getting better. It might tum out to be the best one that we've run on all year later in the night." Davis posted a time of three minutes, 24.84 seconds en route to victory over the latest rider to emerge from the midpack ranks to instant glory, Standish, Michigan's Danny Koelsch. The 25-yearold rode his Tex Peel/Oury/Bell XR750 into the final direct-transfer spot after running down USC Racing's Terry Poovey and then pulling away from the veteran Texan to secure a runner-up finish. Koelsch looked back after the finish and may have been surprised to find just how far ahead he was. "I got by Terry, and the way the echoes bounce off the wall in this place, I thought that he was still right behind me," Koelsch said. "But my dad taught me to never look back while I'm racing. That cost me a Regional once." SEMIS Donahue H-D's Joe Kopp headed TCR development rider Garth Brow and Roeder H-D's Geo Roeder II into· the show via the first semi while Beattie, USC Racing's Kevin Varnes and Coolbeth Jr. made it through in the second semi. The third semi brought about the first program stoppage when Jess Roeder piled his Harley-Davidson into the hay bales at speed in turn one. Roeder was uninjured, and the race was declared official. The transfer spots went to Butler, a resurgent Atherton (see Briefly) and Loral Lake Racing's Ronnie Jones. GRAND NATIONAL Parker bolted off the line with Morehead and Davis when the green light flashed to start the 17-rider final. He headed straight for the top and immediately began to check out while Davis struggled to g!lin an advantage on Morehead.· Davis had a lock on second place by lap two, but Parker had already opened up a five-bike-Iength gap. "I was battling with Morehead and Parker got away," Davis said. "Then I found my own line and I kinda caught back up. We were running about the .same speed." In the meantime, Carr weaved his way past Springsteen, bringing Atherton along with him, and the two diced with each other for several laps, with their own private fight carrying them past Morehead by lap eight after the veteran got in a few licks of his own. The front four stretched out and began to click off laps in a blazing single-file processional to the checkered flag, but King, Morehead, Springsteen, Beattie and Hacker were locked together in a fight for fitfh place. King held the early advantage, but it was Beattie who was providing most of the fireworks. The newly crowned Canadian National Champion refused to shut off going into tum one and was practically railing off the hay bales as he moved past both Springsteen and Morehead to challenge King. "I did the Hacker trick," Beattie said. "I just rifled myself up. I really got excited. This track suited my style. I had to get psyched up." Up front, Parker was not exactly pulling further away from Davis, but not for lack of trying. "I wasn't taking it easy," Parker said. "I was riding hard. When I get on the motorcycle I'm there to ride the damn . thing." And while Davis was still hanging tough, Carr was beginning to draw a bead on him..But making progress was difficult. "When you're going as fast we are on this track, it's difficult to pass," Carr said. "But I had a line through three that was starting to work." The race was halted on lap 19 when Geo Roeder low-sided on the entrance to turn one and hit the ground hard, sliding into the racing line and narrow- 11

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