Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

DIRT TRACK FLORIDA FLAT TRACK SERIES • • ln not once, ut tWlce come off a little lower. We really just came here to do some testing. Winning is a bonus." The song remained the same for King in the 12-man, 12-lap 750cc Expert feature - only this time he had a bit more work in front of him as he came off the line third behind Moroney's HarleyDavidson's Jason Fletcher and Florida Flat Track Series opener winner Joe Kopp on the Harley-Davidson of Sacramento XR. But King went to work immediately, displacing Kopp before the end of the first lap and latching on to Fletcher's rear fender for most of the duration. Davis ran fifth, sandwiched between fourth-placed Georgie Price IV on the Rose Racing Harley-Davidson, and Schnabel, who was sixth. The three rid:. ers' ran nose to tail behind the lead trio. Further back, Kevin Atherton and Robert Knapp collided and went down in turns three and four. Both riders were up quickly, and the race stayed under green. By Scott Rousseau Photos by Flat Track Fotos BARBERVILLE, FL, MAR. 3 ith his performances during round five of the Florida Flat Track Series at Volusia County Speedway, Team Corbin's Rich King sent a loud and clear message to his competition. It read: "I'm fine, let's get it on." After the life-threatening injuries that the 33-year-old Iowan suffered in his horrendous crash at the 1996 U.S. Motorcycle a tionals, it was a wonder that King even had the desire to ride again, but that desire was evidenced by his complete domination of the 600 and 750cc Expert mains at the second straight Steve Morehead-promoted round of the Florida warmup series. King's 600cc program got off to a bit of a shaky start as his Corbin Racing Rotax ate itself during practice, but his chances for a double were saved when promoter Morehead opted not to ride the 600cc class and loaned King his F&S Harley-Davidson-backed Rotax for the night. King put the machine to good use in the main, blasting away from the starting line in second place behind First Klass Glass/Chapin Construction/Riverside Service's Doug O'Boyle, who could only hang on to the lead down the back chute as King knifed under him to grab the point on the narrow-grooved Volusia clay/sand, a place where passing was a gamble. Surprise speedster John Nickens ill held down the third spot early, but came under constant attack from Bell/Cox HD/MARS' Robert Lewis and later dropped back to seventh. . Further back, Total Control Racing's Will Davis ran fifth aboard his factory ATK and was hanging tough on the production-based machine. The veteran from North Carolina then slashed his way past Lewis on the third lap to grab W (Above) Rich King (80) ruled the oval at Volusia County Speedway Monday night. He won both the 600 and 750cc features. (Right) On Sunday night, Kenny Coolbeth turned up the heat by winning the 600cc final. the fourth spot before losing it again on the very next lap when Lewis got back by. In the meantime, the previous night's winner, Kenny Coolbeth, was one of the few riders making a charge through the field as he overcame a bad start and worked his way to fifth by the halfway point of the 12-lapper. • Perhaps in reminiscence of his lastlap antics in Sunday night's 750cc main, Davis attempted to make a wholesale run at first place with an outside pass on Lewis mturns one and two on lap eight, but it didn't work, and he dropped to sixth before the checkered flag fell. "There was nowhere to go and nothing to work with," Davis said. "The more aggressive you tried to be, the fur- ther you went backwards." Up front, however, King was having no such problems as he sprinted around, with a clean race track in front of him. He cruised to victory by nearly a full straightaway over runner-up O'Boyle and the third-placed Lewis, both of whom were able to hold off Grand National regulars Coolbeth and Suburban Motors H-D's J.R. Schnabel, the latter making his debut in the '97 Florida series after finishing fifth in the Wisconsin Sta te Championship high school wrestling tournament. "Morehead's bike worked," King said. "I had a couple good lines out there that were working. Once they widened up the groove I could go in a little different than anyone else and Late in the main event, Schnabel sneaked past Davis and made a run at Price that nearly proved to be disastrous as the young Wisconsinite rammed into Price's rear wheel in tum three and was nearly sent over the high side as he skidded off the groove. The shunt affected Price, who looked back only to watch Davis speed by into fourth place for good. '1 went by, and Georgie looked right at me, and I thought, 'Oh my God. Hey man, it wasn't me, it wasn't me,''' Davis joked afterward. "When I went down there into three and four, you can bet I braced myself." "He (Schnabel) set me up straight - it was just racing," Price said after finishing fifth. "I'm satisfied."

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