Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

.DIRT TRACK' .. AMA Grand National Champion~ip Series Round 21: Knoxville Raceway "I really want.ed to win this one," King said. "But Kevin was really f1yin' around the top. This is a neat facility, though, and it was great fun racing in fr0l1t of everybody in Iowa. We beat everybody we had to beat. We knew we couldn't do anything with Parker, but we beat everyone who's right behind us in the points." Parker ran th ird aboard his factory steed, and the reigning champion was once again in fine form aboard the Bill Werner-built "Locomoti ve,N the twingled XR750 in the team's stable. But despite building what appeared to be an insurmountable lead in the early going, Parker elected to run around the bottom of the race By Scott Rousseau Photos by Flat Track Fotos KNOXVILLE, lA, SEPT. 23 hen Kevin Varnes scored his first-ever National victory at the Hagerstown Half Mile earlier this year, he did so in the most miserable of conditions. The sweltering summer temperatures and high humidity were almost more than anyone else in attendance could even bear, but Varnes was hotter yet as he ran away and hid from the field to secure the win. Then as the AMA Grand National series continued to roll across the country under cooler, more-normal temperatures, so, it would seem, did the youngster from Pennsylvania. Varnes cooled off considerably, failing to build on his Hagerstown success with even so much as a podium finish to add legitimacy to that first win in the Maryland heat. But when the Rolling Thunder Show finished out its stint in Americars heartland under conditions that were a direct contrast to those of Hagerstown, the young lion once again piloted his Johnny and Sarah Goad/USC Racing Honda RS750 to his second career victory at the Chris Agajanian-promoted U.S. Motorcycle Nationals at Knoxville Raceway, the revered home of the Knoxville Nationals sprint car championships. Varnes braved the mid-3D-degree chiJJ in the air and displayed a little bravery of his own as he overcame a poor start and then used the highest available line to drive around Team Harley-Davidson's Scott Parker and native Iowan Rich King on the Garvis Honda to post a convincing victory on the smooth, slick, widegrooved half mile. "I feel like I've arrived with this one," Varnes said. "I just kept my same line. Those guys were running low in W presentation, no nothing. I had some friends fly to this race just for that reason. We asked them, 'Where's our number-one plate?' They said, 'Just go pull one off your motorcycle and we'll give that to you.' It just goes to show you that nobody knows what the hell is going on. Screw their new positive attitiude." "But I'm still happy," Parker said. "How can I not be? We just wrapped up nwnber six." TCR Racing's Kevin Atherton came from virtually out of nowhere to secure fourth place on the slippery track, thus salvaging the position which appeared almost certainly to belong to his TCR stablemate Dan Butler. The former HarleyDavidson factory rider was all over the leader board during the 25-lap main event, starting sixth and then charging to third before slipping back once again and then collecting himself once more to put together a steady, late-race surge to fifth place. That appeared to be where the 24year-old White Pigeon, Michigander would end up, but when Butler crashed in spectacular fashion on the back straightaway during the final lap, Atherton narrowly avoided being collected and was thus handed fourth place. "The rear tire didn't start working until about the 16th or 17th lap," Atherton said. "Then I ran those guys down If it had worked that good from the start, then I think we would have had a shot at it. Finishing in the top five is good, because you have to be consistent, but I wanted to be in the top three. We beat (WiJJ) Davis and (Steve) Morehead, but we really needed to beat Parker." Atherton's fourth-place charge came at the expense of his good friend Ronnie track, losing precious ground to King and Varnes before the 25-1ap main event was over. "1 tried to run up high for a couple of laps, but I figured I was going just as fast down low," Parker said. "1 just tried to keep it on two wheels. I almost busted my butt a couple of times. Those guys just had their bikes hooked up a little better than I did." And Parker was extremely vocal about his displeasure over the turn of events at Knoxville. The new champion was not upset with his third-place finish, but rather with the fact that he clinched the title with it, and that was something that appeared to be lost on both the AMA and the KnoxviJJe fans after the record-upping triumph wasn't even announced over the public address system. "It's a done deal," said Parker, whose 64-point advantage over King placed the championship out of reach by no less than four points with three rounds left. "We worked so hard to win this thing and then the AMA can't even tell the announcer to let the crowd know it. No Jones, who brought the Loral Lake Racing Honda home in fifth place, scoring one of his better finishes this year. The cagey Oklahoman cut a great light in the main event to run right behind Parker for two laps before being displaced by King, Varnes, Butler and Atherton in the middle laps. Like Atherton, Jones appeared to be able to put his best laps together near the end of the race, but a sixth-place finish appeared to be imminent until Butler went down on lap 24. "It was slippery," Jones said. "But we needed a good finish. I'd like to have been a little higher on the box, but we wanted to finish in the top 10." With the win, Varnes moved into a tie with Jones for eighth place in the series standings, each rider having amassed 111 points. King's second place helped him to retain his solid footing in second place, boosting him to the 200point mark, 31 ahead of third-placed Will Davis, who ran an off-pace ninth at KnoxviJJe. Atherton moved to within 10 points of the absent Chris Carr while staying in fifth overall with 158 points. (Above) "Revvin'" Kevin Varnes scored his second career victory with a runaway win at the U.S. Motorcycle Nationals on the Knoxville Raceway Han Mlle. (Right) Stili the one: Scott Parker (1) led the early laps and then went on to finish third and clinch his sixth AMA Grand National Championship before the Knoxville crowd. Rich King (80) led the middle laps before finishing second in front of his home-stete fans. three and four and getting good drives, but I stayed up high because I knew I could run it in harder. It worked." So hot was Varnes' performance that it all but camouflaged two other remarkable runs. One of them was by another privateer on another Honda RS750, as King rolled to a smooth second-place finish. The other was by Parker, who clinched an unprecedented sixth AMA Grand National Championship title before the 6500 fans in attendance. The 32-year-old, who hails from Waterloo, Iowa got an excellent jump off the line to follow early race leader Parker before finding traction on the very bottom of the race track and pulling by the factory hog rider off turn four on lap five. King then stuck to the low line aboard his George Garvis-tuned machine in the hope of pulling off the win in front of his home-state peers, but Varnes proved'to be too much to deal with. Nonetheless, King was pleased with the way his night went as he more than upheld Iowa pride with the runner-up result. -

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