Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

D.IRTTRACK·. AMA Grand Nati~naIChalT1pion.ship .series • By Scott Rousseau Photos by Flat Trak Fotos KNOXVILLE, LA, SEPT. 21 n a championship series that has shown all the grace and beauty of an all-out prize fight, Team HarleyDavidson's Scott Parker would appear to have been laying'on the ropes of late. Sure, the card showed that the sixtime and defending heavyweight champion of GranGl National dirt track racing was still barely ahead on points with just three rounds to go as the series stopped at the Madison Square Garden of sprint car racing, Knoxville Raceway, for the second annual U.S. Motorcycle Nationals. Yet, after not having recorded a win since 1he Indy Mile, pundits were beginning to question whether or not Parker and tuner Bill Werner would have what it took to go the distance against the lightning barrage of wins and consecutive podium finishes turned in by challenger Kevin Atherton and his Total Control Racing Team. But at Knoxville, Parker came off the ropes and struck a hell of a blow to the Michigan-based privateer squad'S title aspirations by recording another milestone with career victory number 75, and he did so in typical Parker fashion. The 35-year-old Michigander got a good run off the line on the rough and incon\0 sistent half mile. He ran hard. He ran ~ fast. He ran away. If it" was a real fight, ,..... they would have stopped it: "Seventy-five!" Parker said. '1 never would have thought it. I'm way over what I ever thought I'd do. And 1 want to dedicate this race to Dick Andrae (see Briefly...). He's always been a great guy, and we're going to miss him. He and his wife have always worked so hard, and they always enjoyed coming to the I races." Round 19- US • Motorcycle Natl'onals • • ------------------------------- With the win, Parker has now forged an imposing IS-point lead as the series moves into the season-ending California swing, but the title chase is still effectively between three riders as both Atherton and his TCR teammate Will Davis managed to absorb the Parker punch quite well, posting fourth and third-place finishes, respectively, after crashes and another disqualification once again affected both the outcome of the race and the title chase. Atherton now trails Parker, 252-267, with Da vis hanging tough at 241. Harley-Davidson of Sacramento's Joe Kopp sits fourth with 221 and is the only other rider who stilI has an outside chance at the title, but a disappointing eighth-place run at Knoxville has the Washington speedster facing a possible TKO at Sacramento. Hometown favorite Rich King, meanwhile, saw his dreams of Grand National glory hit the deck for good after Mr. Consistency crashed violently in practice and was transported to the Knoxville Area Community Hospital with with broken ribs and internal bleeding before the racing program got under way (see Briefly...). Corbin Racing/Wiebler's H-D rider Dave Camlin got in a few good licks of his own at Knoxville as the flyweight miler stormed from a fifth-place start and dropped both Atherton and Davis to run third behind another spoiler in rookie sensation J.R. Schnabel, wh() crossed the line in second, a little less than half a straightaway behind Parker, at the completion of the 25-lap main event. But Camlin's best career half mile result would improve by one spot after Schnabel was disqualified by AMA officials when post-race inspection revealed that one of his carburetors was too small. "That's too bad for those guys:~ Camlin said genuinely. "But we're feelin' good. This is almost as good a feeling as winning, because we have struggled on the half miles. 1 only live two hours away from here, and 1 was born less than an hour away. This place was rough, and you know me and rough. We're getting it together. 1 just hope we can keep it together, because Skip (Eaken) and 1 have come a long way in three years." . Though he failed to gain any ground on Parker, Davis, 'who is still on the mend from the broken left leg tha t he has been dealing with since the Oklahoma City Half Mile, did appear to return to his form from earlier in the season, starting sixth at Knoxville and then constantly upping his pace to land his 'first podium finish since Hagerstown - even though he did not get to enjoy it. "It's better than last week," Davis said. "We're happy. Fourth is as good as we were tonight. It was a rough race track, and we all made a lot of changes. The guy who got the closest on the setup was gonna do the best. 1 don't mean to harp on the race track, because everybody had to ride it, and 1 aChjally kind of liked it, but 1 am tired .of seeing people get hurt because of unridable conditions." Faced with the stinging jabs of seeing his brilliant string of eight consecutive podium finishes - four of them wins halted, and his road to the title made all the more difficult, Atherton blamed nobody but himself for his Knoxville perfonnance. . "It was rider error," Atherton said. '1 just couldn't really get it figured out. When we talked strategy before the race 1said that 1 had to just follow Scotty and see' what he did, when he did it and Seventy-five and still alive: Scoti Parker served notice to his detractors that he Is not about to let his chances for a Grand National title slip away by claiming his 75th career win in the U.S. Motorcycle Nationals at Knoxville Raceway. learn from him.·l tried to follow him, but the only problem was that fhree other guys passed me. We're disappointed. We've had eight good nights in a row, but we've stilI got our work cut out for us." HEATS Parker appeared to get off 'to a slow start in the opening heat race, following Deeley Harley-Davidson's Steve Beattie, Bartels Harley-Davidson's Jay Springsteen and Schnabel through turn one. Springer then took control after Beattie got loose coming off turn two on the second lap while Parker jumped both Schpabel and Beattie to pick up second. In a battle of past and present champions, Parker zipped past Springsteen as the duo took the halfway flags from AMA starter Steve Faraci, and from there Parker proceeded to check out on the field, posting a heat time of four minutes, 1.59 seconds to claim the pole for the feature. "1 thought 1 got a fairly good holeshot, but 1 hit a bump and they got away," Parker said. "1 had to just mellow out, do my job and ride the motorcycle. Then 1 found a couple of lines where no one was working, and then we got by one, and then two...But we have made two adjustments for the main." Springsteen held off Schnabel for second place. "1 was going as fast as 1 could with what we had to work with," Springsteen said. "1 couldn't even pull in the clutch

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