Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127772
a ham ion ·P E IE . 1995 AMA Grand N tionalC p shipSeries RV W 3. 1. Rider: Scott Parker National #: 1 Team: Team Harley-Davidson Age: 34 Hometown: Swartz Creek,Michigan 1995 Result: AMA Grand National Champion Rider: Steve Morehead National #: 42 Team: F&SHarley-Davidson Age: 40 Hometown: FIndlay, Ohio 1995 Result: Six1h S TEVE M O RE- F ACE IT, 5cOIT -=-.--By Scott Rousseau f all the things that the Cycle Neios staff has to do in order to prepare for the annual Da ytona preview issu e, thi s was the one job tha t I personally tried to put off the longest. Having been a relative newcomer to the inside workings of the AMA Grand National Championship Series last year, I deferred to my d eparting coll eague Donn Maeda to handle the tough chore of predicting who would be hot and wh o w ould not during the 1995 dirt tra ck season. After missing the boat miserably in 1993 and 1994, Maeda would ge t on e last chance to redeem h im self before pa ssin g the torch that I must now unwillingly carry. Donn elected to play it sa fe, tabbing five-time Grand Nati onal . Ch ampion Scott Parker as the man to beat in '95. I gu ess he figured that he'd go ne ou t on the proverbial limb enough to kn ow better, and selecting the factory Harley rider was the only logical alternative. He was booed and jeered for not taking a chance, but in his defense, Maeda was right. Parker not onl y clinched the titl e two ra ce s be for e th e en d of the series, but he equaled his own person al recor d of 10 wins in a single season to. up h is record -setti ng ca r eer G rand National victory tally to 70; alo ng the wa y, the Michigan rider gave his longtim e tu ner an d friend Bill Werner over 100 Grand National v icto ries as a mechan ic. An d Maeda also covered his own butt qui te nicely with his wild-eard picks. Alt hough ' 93 ch am p io n Ric ky Graham was, no t surprisingly, AWOL from the series, Maed a's othe r tw o jokers, the hard-ridin g Rich King and 1992 champion Ch ris Carr, held up their end of the deal in abig way by nailing down second and third place in the series afte r ' battling Parker and each other almost all th e w ay to the wire . Fro m th ere, yo u m igh t sa y that old Donn fell off the groove a bit as his hopes for several of the seri es' younger stars like Brett Lan- I 20 d es, Ken Coolbeth and Larry Pegram went unfulfilled. . So now it's m y tum. It' s ea sy to s it back and laugh at someone else 's attempt to produce a credible top 10 list, but when the shoe is on the oth er foot and the pressure is on, you'd be surprised at how little fun this job really is. But it's m y responsibility now, and I'm going to do the best that I can with it. And like it or not, I'm going to start m y run as the Cycle News d irt tra ck ed ito r I idiot progn osticat or guy wi th a very safe pick. . Scott Parker is g o ing t o w in a n unprecedented seventh Grand Tational title. Parker will be th e 'on ly fac to ry backed rider on the circuit, and he will on ce again have the tale nte d Wern er in hi s comer. Separate th e tw o and they mi ght be harmless enough, but co mbined, the pair have shown ti me and tim e again that they have the ded ication and abili ty to beat the competition in to the gr ound. . But it won't be eas y. The 1996 seaso n could well be remembered as the year of the privateer thanks to tw o contributing factor s: 1) Several of the pri vateer teams have made serious headway in their offseason efforts to secu re more lu crative sponsorship deals. All of this off-season racing w ill undoubted ly yield bette r p rograms and thu s better racing. It sho uld be qu ite visib le from the stands, too , as m or e professional-looking rigs in vade the Grand National pit areas th is su mmer. 2) The yo unger ge neration is co mi ng on s tro ng . In a ti m e w he n detractor s argue that the growth of d irt track racing has stagnated, several new young sta rs emerged during the '95 season to give the veterans fits. New rid ers like Kevin Varnes, Mike Hacker and Joe Ko p p were a t or n ea r the top of th e podium througho ut the year. Look for it to happen again in 1996. Donn Maed a was not wrong in predicting the changing of the guard, just a little premature. Parke r is the tru e ice man of th e AMA G ra n d .N a t i o n a l Series. As the o n ly fa ctor y ri de r o n th e c i rc u i t , th er e ' s d efinitel y no argu ing that Par k er h a s the resources at h is d isposa l to win a seven th ti t le rather handilv. But h e always ha s, and he hasn' t always won. Parker's true strength may lie more in his track sa vvy and his mental preparation than in his rid in g skill. Com bine th at with the ta lent o f longti m e m e chani c Bill Werner, a n d th e tw o com plem en t each ot he r perfectly. They are dirt track's ha mmer and anv il se t. Th ey simply beat on the competi tion re le n t lessly a nd wear it down. An d Par ker has made no secret of the fact that he' s after Ricky Graham's singlesea so n win record of 12 victo ries, so he's still hungry. Sure, he's no kid . But he y, he an d w ife Wanda recently had a kid . That's reason enough to make him the hot p ick for the number-one plate in 1996. 4. 2. Rider: National #: Team: Age: Hometown: head was running in s econd pl ace in the 1995 a nd series might well ha ve b een on a colli si on course with Sc ott Parke r for the Gr and Nati on a l crow n . rbu t a serious leg inju ry incurred at a Regi on al event halfway through the year left him s id elin ed for several races. While th e ." Fi n d lay Fl y er " w as g rou n de d, h e could d o nothing but w atch helplessly as h is cham pio ns hip h ope s sli pped . away . But th ere' s n o u se crying over sp illed milk, and Morehead, th e senior rid er on the circuit, has vowed to come ba ck stronger th an ever in 1996 . The 1995 Dalla s Hal f mile wi nner will once again be teamed-u p w ith Ohio-based H arley d e al e r Ga ry St o! zenburg, an arrangem ent he has beco me quite comfor ta ble wi th. He will also do double duty again as he p romotes the Rossbu rg Hal f M ile . For all h is tena cit y, Morehead h as often had trouble hunti n g down that elu sive first National win of the season, but if he gets on a roll, an ything could happen. Will Davis 21 Total Control Racing 31 Goldsboro, North Carolina 1995 Result: Fourth AFTER FIN ISH- ing a v e r y re spectable fourth in the 1995 series standings , Will Davis will b e m aking the move to th e Ben Ford Jr.own ed TCR squad a longsid e Ke v in Athe rton for 1996. The change marks a switch for the veteran rid er not only in te a ms but in e qu ip m en t a s well, a s Davis makes the move from H onda to Ha rley -Davidson .m ach inery . Even so, it will not be as b ig of a jump as it so u nds. Davis rod e an Eak en HarleyDavidson to a fourth-place finish at the spring running of th e 1995 Po mona Half Mile, and he cam pa igned his perso nal XR750 to the Mot or cycle Asphalt Racing Series titl e la st ye a r as well. With TCR in his corne r, Davis will have more resources available to him th an at any other poi n t in his car eer . It' s so mething he' s well aware of an d ready to put to use . "I'm very hap py with wh at we'v e go t going," Davis sai d. "I think I ca n win the w hole d amn thing . If I can't, it won't be anyone's faul t but m y own ." Rider: KevinAtherton National#: 23 Team: Total Control Racing Age: 25 Hometown: White Pigeon, Michigan 1995 Result: Fifth K EVIN A TH ER- ton ma y b e the hardest rider to figure out. The former Team Harl e yDa vidson rider appears to have struggled m or e with finding his own ident i t y on the trac k th an w ith any deficiencies in skill or b ra vado. Under racing conditions he can re semble the li k es o f either Randy Goss or Da vid Aldana at any gi ven momen t. Still, th e fri endly Michigander has found a permanent h ome on Ben Ford Jr.' s Harl ey-D avidson XR750s, and it has p aid off. Atherto n ran a steady race to win the 1995 Indy Mile, an d sa t on th e podium severa l m ore time s, pl a ci ng him in the enviable position of being able to take com p lete advantage of the mi sfortunes of his com petitors. He fini sh ed fifth in th e final stand ings despite en ding the season on a d own not e after a grin di ng crash at th e Del Mar Mile. At herton is maturing, thou gh , a n d h e co ul d b e ready to equal his career-best fin ish of 1991. All it will take is a li ttle consistency .