Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

before going to school on the mile scholars in the lead pack. By his own admission, the 25-year-old Californian wound up using a little too much tire too soon, however, and though he may have had more horsepower than Morehead, he had no way to get it to the ground for a pass. But Landes said the whole race was an education. "1 learned so much," Landes said. "I got sucked into the turns two or three times, and that scared the hell out of me. I thought that I was saving the tire. They really picked up the pace on the last five laps. I tried to pick it up, too. I almost got Morehead, but not quite. That was my best finish on the mile. I'm pumped." Kenny Coolbeth ran an impressive sixth in his debut on the Harley-Davidson of Missouri/Burks Construction entry, finishing one position ahead of Total Control Racing's Will Davis, whose seventh-place result mathematically eliminated him from the championship hunt. Frontier Harley-Davidson/H-D Central's Dale Jenneman was eighth over Harley-Davidson of Sacramento's Joe Kopp and Gardner Racing/Waiters Brothers Harll!y-Davidson's Dan Butler. HEATS With three classes being run, the AMA and promoter Chris Agajanian had to ensure that the entire program was run on time so as to avoid going past the 10:30 p.m. curfew, but the Terry Romero-bladed mile track was in excellent shape, and the entire program was completed on schedule. Parker opened up the show with a runaway win in heat one. Morehead led the opening lap with Corbin Racing's Chance Darling also in the hunt as that trio pulled away from the rest of the nine-rider field. Parker consistently had the advantage on the front straig!}t while Morehead always made a pass for the lead going into turn three. But four laps into the race, the champion ran it in extra hard for a few turns and pulled out an advantage that continued to grow to about 12-1engths at the line. But the win, which came in just six minutes, 12.65 seconds on the ultrafast groove, would only give him the second-fastest heat time behind Atherton's second-heat time of six minutes, 11.37 seconds. "Kevin had to race somebody in his heat," Parker said after the heats were completed. "He slid off the groove, so then he got aggressive. I was just basically getting everything set up and rollin'." Morehead finished second, a safe distance ahead of Darling. "We've got to stick some more gear on," Morehead said. "Parker was cuttin' a hell of a pace. There ain't no doubt about it. The track is perfect. If anything, it's a little wider than normal. They did a really nice job." "I was fast last week, but my motor blew up, and I had to ride my backup bike from the third row - that's my excuse," Darling joked after earning the last direct transfer of the heat. "I was running with them out there, but I thought I was getting a flat tire, so I slowed down a bit." Atherton did indeed slip off the groove in heat two as he diced with Camlin while Bartels' Harley-Davidson's Jay Springsteen put away USC Racing's Terry Poovey for a secure third, but Atherton somehow gathered it all back up and closed up the 15length margin that Camlin had amassed to retake the lead by the halfway point. Atherton then moved away from Camlin to take the win. Davey Camlin finished third to land on the podium for the fourth time in the last five races. "I made some mistakes and ran off (the groove)," Atherton said. "That really hurt me. I went for a fast heat. It's what I had to do. We don't know what the plan is for the main event. Whatever Scott does, we're going to have to do. If he tries to break away, we're going to have to go with him." Camlin barely held Springsteen at bay to cross the line second, and the Corbin Racing rider knew that his team would need to make some adjustments to make him a front-runner in the feature. "We're going to try some changes for the main because I don't feel like I'm going to be able to stay with them when they turn it up a notch on the last five laps. This track is awesome. They did good. I hope they do this good at Del Mar." Springsteen finished third after also chasing down Camlin. "It took me a few laps to get the confidence that I could run into the comer, because it was so slick earlier," Springsteen said. "I almost got by Camlin, but he got off the last turn sideways and kind of screwed me up. But the moisture is coming back up now, so the track should start getting faster." Harley-Davidson of Sacramento's Joe Kopp experienced a tense moment as his rear brake gave him trouble just before the start of the race. But crew chief Kenny Tolbert got the problem fixed in time for the Washington rider to make the heat. But the repair didn't _ hold up, and Kopp drifted back as Landes pulled out to the heat-race win. "I think that was my first heat-race win on a mile," Landes said. "I came so close at Springfield. I've holeshot both my races tonight." Kopp continued to circulate with a fading brake, slipping off the groove in turns three and four and falling victim to Roeder H-D/Mike's Harley-Davidson's Geo Roeder II before the finish. "I lost them (the brake) completely on the last lap," Kopp said. "Other than that it was really good, actually. We had the bike coming around in the comer a bit, so we're going to lengthen it a little, then hopefully we'll get 'em in the main." Roeder was just glad to be dialed into the groove as he finished behind Landes for second. "We're hookin' up for once," Roeder said. "I always seem to have problems on the groove, but not tonight. And that's the way we unloaded it out of the truck, too. All we did is change the tires. It just seems to be working." The fourth heat was the closest as four riders had a legitimate shot at the win. Davis took the early lead while drafting with Deeley Harley-Davidson's Steve Beattie, Gardner Racing's Dan Butler and Frontier Harley-Davidson/ H-D Central's Dale Jenneman. The fourrider fray remained close with Beattie and Davis taking turns leading the group across the line with Butler right on them before falling off the groove on lap eight and dropping out of contention. Beattie then led the race off turn four, but Davis was able to slingshot by at the line for the win and remain very much in the championship picture at that point in the evening. "Everything'S pretty good," Davis said. "We're just gonna put on a new tire for the main event and try to get up front in the draft and be- there wh~n it counts. We don't need to worry about the championship. We need to worry about winning this motorcycle race and let that take care of itself." "I opted to go for the lead off the last comer and take second, rather than let Will lead and chance missing out on a transfer," Beattie said. "But we don't want to be second in the main event, because that's first loser. StUI, I'd be happy with a top-five finish here tonight." Jenneman once again quietly finished third to transfer to his 10th Grand National main event of the year. "I was lucky there," Jenneman said. "We're trying to get the gearing right. It doesn't work at the end of the staightaway. A 42-tooth sprocket is too fast, and a 43 is too slow, so we're going to change the countershaft and split the gear ratio between the two of them to make it work." SEMIS Poovey gained one of the last six available spots in the main event by grabbing the win in the first semi over Suburban Motors Harley-Davidson's J.R. Schnabel. Loral Lake Racing' Paul Bergstrom overcame a bad start and tried to set Schnabel up at the line to steal the spot away, but the rapidly improving Northern California rider just missed out on making his first Grand NationaL Spectro/Moroney's Harley-Davidson's Mike Hacker and Coolbeth, who was on an identically colored machine, drafted their way away from the rest of the second semi field to guarantee a 1-2 finish for the pair. Coolbeth always had the upper hand as the duo crossed the finish line, and he took the win. Butler came back from a turn-one crash with Schmulbach Racing's Dan Stanley in the only incident of the night to claim a strong win in the last semi whUe S&B Racing/Suburban Motors' Bret Beyer earned the last ticket into the show with a runner-up placing. GRAND NATIONAL With another Parker / Atherton battle being anticipated, it was Darling who shocked the troops by grabbing the holeshot at the start of the IS-rider Grand National and dominating the race for the first seven laps before falling back into the clutches of the pack. He would eventually finish 11th. "My seat started to fall off," a disappointed Darling said. "It started falling off on the fifth lap. It started bouncing and I couldn't move around on the bike. But leading it like that gave me a lot of confidence. I thought, 'Man, I'm in the lead!' I wanted to be conservative, but I wanted to lead it as long as possible." Landes was also very much in the hunt as he traded the second position with Atherton in the early going and then ran third through lap four. Parker and Camlin were also in the lead group with Roeder tailing them. By lap six, Landes was fourth, but he never lost ground on the leaders. "I've never been up front on a mile before," Landes said. "You can learn how they save their tires, how they pick up the pace, how they move forward. There's a lot more strategy to it than in a heat race." Atherton and Camlin were trading the lead back and forth through the middle stages of the race with Parker occasionally leading just about' every place on the race track but across the stripe. The champ said he had no worries. "I felt I had as good a hand as anybody else up there," Parker said. "Chance was hauling ass early, although I didn't figure he could keep his tire together running like that. But that's beside the point. He was there, and Landes was there." Parker finally got credited with leading a lap on the 14th circuit while Atherton dropped from fourth and then came right back to first on the 15th lap. Morehead and Davis were catching the lead group, but the North Carolinian never did manage to mount a challenge that could take him to the front. Seventh was the best he would do, and that cost him his chance at the title. "Oh well," Davis said. "I screwed up at the start and stayed there. That's all '-0 g:: .--I

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