Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

·DIRT TRACK· series .Round 9: Peoria M.C. Clubgrounds National Championship AMAGr~nd (Left) ... But Kopp (partially hidden between Varnes and Parker) aced them both In the same turn to steal third place after coming from the back of the pack. (Below) Josh Butler landed his first Grand National main event start with a surprisa second-place finish In heat two. "1 could feel the pressure for the· first five laps," Tresser said. "I felt slow in turns one and two, but the rest of the track came easy. 1 had no trouble with th~ jump or the chicane. I was just trying to ride with my arms loose on the bars so 1wouldn't pump up." Tresser and Kopp appeared all set to ride off into the sunset and settle the race between themselves, but the complexion of the race changed drastically when Kopp missed the landing on the jump and started mowing the lawn. "I did that same thing in practice," Kopp said afterward. "1 kept thinking that after I'd flubbed Castle Rock (600cc National TT) last year, this one was mine. But I flubbed it here too. Oh well, next year." On the restart, Tresser and King got going and began to check out on the field. King did his best to stay with Tresser but the Iowan never mounted a serious challenge for the lead. "1 thought that 1 was faster than he was everywhere but the jump," King said. In the meantime, Varnes had gotten an excellent start and was more than holding his own against the likes of Parker, Athertons and IT specialists like Bostrom and Stanley. That pair would eventually hit the finish line in eighth and seventh, respectively. "1 just didn't have as much corner speed as those guys," Bostrom said. "I'm disappointed. 1 don't know if they were set up a little better or what. The restart really hurt me, too. Some guys went before the green light, but 1 didn't, so 1 lost a few positions right there." "We didn't get it fixed," Stanley said." Do you know what it feels like to be running as fast as you can and guys are blowing by you from both sides? But eighth and seventh in my last two Nationals. I'm pretty happy with that." But Kopp was the one to watch as he knifed through the pack to run in sixth by lap 10. By lap 12 he had passed Atherton, who would go on to finish sixth. "Joe was running a great race," Atherton said. "1 jut couldn't go any faster. 1 really struggled in three and four. We thought that we'd gotten rid of that push from the heat race, but it came back halfway through the main event. But we went well. We're happy with sixth. A lot .of guys are just happy to make it out of here alive." Kopp continued his forward progress until he ran into the stubborn Parker, who refused to yield the groove. "That dog," Kopp said with a smile. "He kept running it into turn one so hard. 1 was thinking, 'Man, just roU out of it a little.' "1 was definitely making it as hard on him as 1 could," Parker said. "I was leading, and he was going to have to outbrake me. Then 1 decided I'd better try to get around Varnes before someone got me on the front straight." Parker did get Varnes in turn three on lap 21, but Kopp got both riders to nail down third place. He would try to pursue King and Tresser, but the two riders were too far out of reach. And Tresser was the farthest, as he left King behind and claimed a win which has been eluding him for years. Finally, Tresser had gotten the job done. . "I was just trying to relax out there and not work too hard," Tresser said. "1 was only bothered by one thing - a bug flew into my mouth over the jump, and 1 had to spit it out. That was it. I'll tell you what, 1 don't have a lot of big sponsors, just a lot of little people who do a lot. Bob Wirth gave me a fine racing engine, and I get a lot of help from Fox, Arai, Motion Pro and ·Circle Bell. Then there are a lot of people.back here in the midwest who help me when I'm back here, like Aupperle Construction and the illinois Boys. This is for them." "You know when you're close, and we've been close here before," Tresser said. "We've had a lot of bad luck here,

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