Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ing to find a good line that really worked for me, but 1 just couldn't. The restart helped a little. 1 passed Morehead, and 1 was trying to hang with the front .guys, but 1 don't know what they were doing different. 1was spinning too much, they were coming off the comers' better than 1 was. 1 passed Morehead on the outside and thought I had a good line w«;>rking there and it seemed like I was gaining, but I couldn't make anything happen. It was better after they watered it. 1 couldn't see anything the first couple of laps it was so dusty." (Left) Kevin Atherton finished a relatively close third after playing catCh-Up for most of the race. (Below) Rich King collected his second fourth-place finish in as many weeks. HEATS Washington's Dan Stanley had the quickest trigger finger off the line in the first heat, but Kevin Varnes' flexed his Honda's horsepower and led at the end of lap one. "I've got a real good line down where there is some moisture left," Vamessaid. Stanley and his Schmulbach Racing Harley-Davidson were soon under attack from former Grand National Champion Jay Springsteen. At the halfway point Springsteen thrilled the partisan crowd by taking away second on his Bartels' Harley-Davidson. Varn.es was long gone and Springsteen left Stanley to fend off Atherton. Atherton, who had ridden the fastest four-lap qualifier, got it together to take the last transfer on the white-flag lap. Rich King led Paul Morgan and Georgie Price IV into tum one of the second heat. As King pulled away Geo Roeder blasted his way into second. Roeder was soon challenged by Morgan, Ken Coolbeth and Price. "1 think they tried as much as they could with the race track, 1 don't think it was as bad as everybody thought it was," King said. "The moisture is at the bottom now during the heats." At the halfway point Cool beth worked his Eddie Adkins/Winchester H-D-sponsored Harley into second. Coolbeth then pulled away, leaving Roeder, Morgan and Price to battle over the last transfer. Price put the BNR Harley in the Grand National with a late-race blitz. The third heat was a back-and-forth battle between pole-sitter Steve Morehead and Parker. Parker had led Chance Darling into turn one only to have Morehead blast by into second. Morehead then went to work on his F&S/KK Supply Harley-Davidson. "We were able to run a low line in the heat, but 1 think we'll have to change gearing and move up for the main," Morehead said after his win. Parker was a solid second as Corbin Racing's teammates Chance Darling and Dave Camlin had a knock-down, dragout fight over the last direct transfer. Darling kept his Honda in front of Camlin's Harley to make his second consecutive national. Brett Landes had his Audiovox Honda out in front of Dan Butler, J.R. Schnabel and Joe Kopp in the last heat. The surprise was Davis mired in fifth position. As soon as the action spread out a little, Davis went to work and knifed his way into the lead by lap six. Sacramento H-D's Kopp came along and challenged Landes all the way to the end. Butler, Schnabel,. Danny K'Oelsch and last year's winner Steve Beattie were all semi bound. SEMIS The 1995 Rookie of the Year, DeMay Racing's Paul Morgan, ran away with the first serni. The last transfer went to Danny Koelsch as he kept Paul Lynch from making his first Grand National of the year. Lynch pressured Koelsch the last hail of the eight-lap race, to no avail. Recil Hart grabbed the h«;>leshot in the second semi and led on lap before giving way to H-D Central/Frontier HD-backed Dale Jenneman on lap two. Just past the halfway point Moroney's H-D's Jason Fletcher took second from Hart, but it was a three-rider contest for the lead as Fletcher and Hart caught Jenneman. Although the racing was close, the final positions were set. The last semi proved to be disastrous. Dave Camlin got off the line first and led Brent Armbruster and Dan Butler around lap one. Camlin maintained his lead over Butler and Annbruster as he started lap three. . Suddenly as he exited turn two, Camlin's Harley shook and he slowed drastically. A broken shock on his mono-shock had eliminated Camlin. The defending Du Quoin Mile winner's hand shot intO the air to signal that he was slowing as Butler and Armbruster slipped to the inside, but Camlin could not get off the groove at the start of the back straight and absorbed a solid blow from Mike Hacker. Rob Gette then hit Hacker's fallen mount and there were riders down the full length of the back straight. A very shaken Camlin and· Gette were able to make their way back to the pits, but Hacker was once again, over his objections, hospital bound. "Mike got his bell rung pretty good and he's got some pain in his lower right leg," reported Hacker's sponsor Pat Moroney. The restart saw track regular Pat Buchanan up front on his Knapp Racing/Randy Buchanan-backed Harley. On lap three Butler took over with Buchanan leading Beattie, Armbruster and Greg Sims. Buchanan held his line and made the first National of his career. Armbruster had a valiant charge fall just short as he finished with a glowing brake disk. GRAND NATIONAL As fast'qualifier Kevin Varnes had first choice of starting positions for the 18-man National. Varnes picked the third slot from the outside, while Davis picked the inside with the fourth choice. King, Springsteen, Varnes, Coolbeth, Morehead and Davis made up the front row. Parker pulled into row two right behind King on the outside. Davis made the most of his position when the field rocketed into turn one. Davis held the point over Morehead, King and the spectacular Parker. "1 just went to the top and held on/' Parker said. "1 came out of turn two in real good shape." King slipped into second until lap five when Parker got back by. Davis pulled well clear of a tight pack of riders, but all was not well with the TCR Harley. His seat was slowly coming off. "1 lost the seat when 1 came off the line," Davis said. "1 was a little worried 1 might get a black flag as the seat worked its way out. Starting off the line 1 felt it break and 1 was trying to hold it on for the first few laps. It finally started falling off and 1 was glad when it came off. As the leaders finished lap 12 the red flag was out for the Butler crash in turn two. The red benefited Davis to some extent, but his big lead was history. "Once it did come off it really wasn't a problem," Davis said. "1 mean it was hard, but 1 rode mini bikes without them before - that's no big thing. 1 wasn't pullin' in for no seat, let's put it that way." During the red-flag delay, Parker campaigned for some water on the track as most of the riders were concerned about visibility. Brett Landes was moving up when the race was stopped and the water was not high on his list of wants. Landes would finish ninth. "1 got a pretty good start, but then went back to 11th or 12th," Landes said. "There was some moisture just above the groove at the start, but that went away quick. That's when my line started to work real good. Nobody could work the bottom like 1 was. The restart really hurt. 1 found a good line and moved forward to sixth and then they watered it _ and it just killed me. It gave the other guys a better line to ride. We've been struggling the last few races. It felt good to be back in the hunt." The restart found Davis leading Parker, King, Atherton, Morehead, Kopp, Varnes and Springsteen. "Well we .survived," Kopp said. "We were halfway competitive. 1 think everyone felt they were going to be doggin' the track tonight(but it worked, 1 guess. 1 went to the top later, after they watered it. After the restart I stayed right where 1 was, then got by Morehead a few laps from the finish. 1 had good lines down. there in three and four, but you just couldn't see. It was so dusty; if somebody crashed you'd never see them. I was really backing off going into three, but everyone else was doing the same thing." Morehead struggled to a seventhplace finish. "We took a tooth off," Morehead said. "1 tried to lug the motor more. and it kind of hurt. We were riding around the bottom, 1 was running a 7.08 gear and we took a tooth off for the main back to a 6.94, hoping that we could get up on the track more. Everything that beat us was a twingle. Everybody that went by me had the gas wide open and their feet on the pegs, hooked up and gone. We just got beat tonight. It happens." "They watered the race track and 1 think it made it a, little bit greasy where 1 was riding at up the on the high line," Atherton said. "It took a couple of laps for it to work in, for me to start working back forward." This all built to the last couple of laps which were spectacular. Parker looked to have once again worked his magic at the end of a race, but this time Davis was able to retaliate. "1 knew I was going to have to do something," Davis said. "1 just didn't know what 1 was going to do. 1 knew his line was a little bit better, but going down the back straightaway 1 made up my mind that if I was close enough to him 1 was going to run in there hard. 1 was going to make the pass on him going in and try to slide up in front of him. 1 really started to run it in there, and he decided he was would stay low and he slammed on the brakes and 1 was like, oh gosh! 1 turned it, 1 made the turn and slide up by underneath him and it worked. I thought 1 was

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