Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

on it, and I was just out cruising. Once they got away from me I just started moving around and figuring where I'd run the main. This place is fast. The less . laps I can run here the better." Mozehead took complete control of SuperTrapp's heat two, riding·the high line on his Gary Stolzenburg-tuned F&S Harley-Davidson twingle to lead every lap. The "Findlay Flyer" claimed victory by over half a straightaway, but was far from satisfied with it. "We were only third-quickest, Morehead said. "We gotta pick it up ourselves. We're going to maybe stick some more gear on it for the main event. I was just luggin' around out there." ButleI put tagether a solid heat race for a direct transfer on the Gardner /Walters Bros. H-D entry, closing in on Davis from about the sixth lap and then dropping low and passing him for second place in turn one on the white-flag lap. "Did you like that ·slide job?" Butler said. "1 learned that one here last year. Everything is working good right now, but I think that the track is going to go away from us a little bit. We'll change a few things and then run 'er high, wide and handsome in the main." Davis still brought his Dennis Town and Randy Brady-prepped, Down Under-chassised XR750 (see Briefly...) home third. . "1 was going too sLow," the North Carolinian said. "1 just couldn't make it work. We're still not real, real comfortable. We've got fo do better than that, that's for sure. We're gonna change the gear. We went the wrong way twice." Deeley Harley-Davidson's Steve Beattie copied Morehead by pulling off a runaway victory in the Wiseco-Klotz heat three. The Canadian champion strapped a big holeshot on the field, which included Parker, and then set about putting them all away with another half-straightaway victory. "You can set the pace up front." Beattie said with a grin. "I want to win that cruise (see Briefly...). On that first lap I hit a hole and nearly ripped my footpeg off. After that I just chilled out." Parker wOund up having his hands - full with Mike's H-D/Roeder's H-D's Geo Roeder II and Schmulbach Racing's Dan Stanley. Parker ran third behind Roeder and almost waited too long to make a pass as Stanley caught the pair and began to threaten them for a transfer spot. Atone point, Parker, apparently unaware that Stanley was on his tail, inadvertently leaned on the youngster and almost put him into the wall. After that, Parker blasted under Roeder off turn four for some insurance. Roeder kept Stanley at bay for third. "We were just feeling her out, seeing where we need to be and where we gotta go." Parker said. "I thought I was all set. Then Stanley cam~ up on me and it was like, 'Whoa, I think we're going to have to run lower. There ain't a whole lot left on top.''' . "That was fun," Roeder said. ''I'm going to try to run around the top again, but there ain't much up· there. It's getting slicker. We've made a couple .changes to get more hooked up. If we can keep from slippin' and slidin', we'll be all right." Kopp put in his bid for "studly move of the race" by splitting King and Cortin Racing Honda rider Chance Darling at the start of the Print Express final heat race. Once in front, Kopp rode the ridge to victory in the fastest.-heat of the night and earned the pole position. . "1 knew the start was the key, so I fought for it," Kopp said. "This place is almost like a short track. The start is-real Atherton (23) caught and passed runner-up Joe Kopp (43) with just five laps to go. The event marked Kopp's second runner-up finish In four events. important. I think we set fast heat. We're gonna study the starting line before the main. We need the holeshot for sure." King grabbed a healthy second over Frontier Harley-Davidson/H-D Central's Dale Jenneman but wa's feeling anything but healthy. The normally forthright Iowan retired to his van to try and rest for the main event. Jenneman, however, was pleased just to put it in another main event after sneaking underneath Darling in turn one on the seventh lap. "1 didn't get off the line real good,' and this is a momentum race track:' the' quiet Nebraskan said. "When you' spot' 'em that much room, it's hard to make it up." SEMIS To the holeshot artist went the spoils in the three semis of the evening. Darling lessened the sting of being aced out by Jenneman earlier as the young Ohioan veteran took the first eight-Iapper over a revitalized Armbruster in the Kenworthy MX Park first semi. "1 ran a different line that time:' Darling said. 'Tve never been able to ride around the hay bales like that. It's really hard to ride it wide open around the top, but that's what you' have to do here." Darling's Springfield Mile-conquering teammate Dave Camlin put his Corbin Racing Harley-Davidson into the show in the Mike's Harley-Davidson second semi with a holeshot and a victory over Spectro/Moroney's HarleyDavidson's Jason Fletcher, who put teammate Mike Hacker on the trailer after a close contest for second place. "I was fast in practice and in the Scratch heat," Cam lin said. "But I wasn't aggressive in the heat race, and that made me mad at myself. Thankfully I had a front-row start for that semi and I got gomg." Two Michigan riders advanced in the Roeder's H-D final semi as Larry Schaidt/ Alpinestars' Greg Sims led the race from start to finish, with Koelsch Farms' Danny Koelsch running second for the entire distance to earn the final ticket into the richest Grand National of the year.' "1 went pretty fast here last year, but we had a seized front cylinder:' Sims said. "But that Honda works awesome. That's all there is to it. I couldr)'t do this without Bill Russell and my tuner Gordy Schopieray. Now all I need is a ride for Knoxville. This is my last one on this bike." GRAND NATIONAL The richest race of the year also turned into the cruelest for several riders right off the bat. With the threat of rain imminent, Kopp and King battled fiercely for control of the start as the 18 best dirt trackers in the nation scratched and clawed their way off the starting line. But Parker brought out a red nag after he slid high in turn one'and collected several hay bales, scattering across the banking. "I just kept my butt on the seat and said, 'Keep goin' straight, baby:" Parker said. But then things went from messy to downright ugly on the restart as Varnes lost the rear end and low-sided in front of most of the pack. The ensuing chain. reaction sent no fewer than four other riders - Morehead, Koelsch, Jenneman and Fletcher - tumbling into the hay bales or down the banking. Jenneman and 1I10rehead got up with only bumps and bruises, but the three youngsters weren't as lucky. Fletcher stood up only to find that he'd rebroken his collarbone in exactly the same. spot that was damaged during his testing accident prior to Peoria. "Kevin fell down, and everyone just. came down the bank and someone pushed my front end away." Fletcher said, not appearing to be in pain. "As soon as I got up I knew I did it again." .The Connecticut rider probably will miss the rest of the season. Both Varnes and Koelsch were unable to get up as both suffered compound fractures to the right leg. Both were trarisported to Coldwater Community Hospital near Rossburg with Varnes later being taken to Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton to undergo emergency surgery (see Brieny... ). Once the race resumed, so did King and Kopp. King again took the lead with Kopp shadowing his every move. The two riders pushed each other hard and quickly broke free of the rest of the pack. King quickly found that he was in for a long race, however, as mechanical problems surfaced almost immediately. _"My throttle was hung up," King said. "I pulled the cables out with my leg. That's why I started going low. This is a fast track. It's so fast, and the groove is only three feet wide. I didn't want to hit the wall." King's misfortune g?-ve Kopp the advantage he was looking for, and he took it, drawing close in turns three and four and then zipping around the outside on the back straight to take charge on lap five. He would hold it for the next 15 laps. Atherton, meanwhile, had gotten off to an excellent start, but the kid kept his cool and elected to let Kopp and King sort ou t before beginning to run them down. Parker and Butler were directly behind Atherton, and neither of them were out of the hunt yet, either. By lap seven, the front five ran nose to tail with an even two-length' spacing separating them. King was the only rider deviating from the "rail" on top, dipping low and then drifting wide in the middle of the corners before setting up to exit on the high line. He held Atherton off until lap 10. With Atherton now pursuing Kopp, King was busy keeping Parker back. Butler, in the .meantime, was cruising a rather lonely fifth, a position that would only improve after the King disqualification. But either way, the former TCR rider put in his strongest finish of the year for a team -that continues to show more maturity each week. "The last five laps I put in a good charge and s.tarted to catch those guys, but the track got slippery:' Butler said."I'd just like to thank Greg Crow and Steve Gardner for giving me sud, a good bike to ride and all of our sponsors helping us out all year. This is our best finish, and we are going to get one before it's over. This really helped our points situation. We're going as fast .as the rest of thern." Parker dogged King for the rest of the race, pulling close and showing the Iowan a wheel, but King was just quick enough to keep him at bay for the entire distance. Every time that Parker got close at the entrance of the corners, King would slide up in front of him. Parker failed to pass King for third, but as things turned out, he didn't have to. "Rich covered the line:' Parker said. "I tried to get him. I think'the track got slippery in the middle part of the race, and then it got tacky again at the end. I was just doing my job. It ain't gonna be won or lost at this race track. There are other race tracks. There ain't a guy here who is totally comfortable with this place. If they say they are, they're feeding you a line of shit." Whether he was comfortable or not, Atherton ran Kopp down just as he did in Hagerstown. It took a little longer this time, and King was right there to keep both riders honest, but Atherton was somehow pulling off the nearly unbelievable as it appeared that he was riding so close to the hay bales that there was no room left. He appeared to be making race track where there simply wasn't any, but it was driving hinl forward. Atherton used that same fraction of line to put Kopp away on the 20th lap. "Joe was going good:' Atherton said. "I knew I was going to have trouble getting around him because we were both on the sarne line. Fortunately I got next to him on the outside of him on the straightaway going into three and four. Then it became a shut-off contest. Nobody beats me at those." Kopp refused tei let Atherton get away, and the gritty Washington rider did his pest to pull off a calculated game-winner as the duo were shown the white nag. Atherton ran high while Kopp dived as low as he dared in the . hopes of pulling off a slide job. But Kopp wisely aborted after he realized that he had not made enough room and thus was more or less on a collision course with Atherton as he slid back up the bank toward the leader. "I wanted to try that earlier, but I knew someone was right behind me:' Kopp said. "I wasn't sure if I was going to skate up into him or not. I could have pulled it off if I'd been just a little closer." Kopp's pain was once again Atherton's gain as the flamboyant Michigan rider grabbed his seventh career Grand -13

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