Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

DIRT TRACK AMA GRAND NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES Round 3: West Virginia Motor Speedway (Left) Geo Roeder II has started the year of strong. Fifth at Harrington, the Ohio cushion specialist backed the performance up with a sixth at Mineral Wells. (Right - left to right) Davis, Springsteen and Graham celebrate in the winner's circle. 1-800-FASTHOG/Moroney's HarleyDavidson's Mike Hacker led the second semi all the way, while Fat Boy Racing's Recil Hart held down second over Greg Sims, Paul Lynch and Hacker's team. mate Dave Carnlin. Camlin was able to move quickly into third, but could not make up the gap between himself and Hart. After letting a similar situation get away' from . him last week, Hart held on this time and kept the points leader, Carnlin, out of the main. . Dale Jennernan exploded off the line in the last semi and kept his HarleyDavidson Central/Frontier HarleyDavidson entry out front all the way. Brett Landes held off the early assault of Tim Mertens to put the Donahue Harley-Davidson/ Audiovox/Quaker State-backed Harley into the last spot in the main. Mertens had his own problems. "I lost my face shield on the second lap and could hardly see," Mertens said of his gritty ride. 883 NATIONAL 10 From their qualifying hea ts, the 23 883 entries were placed into two heats. Fast qualifier was Jason Fletcher on his 1-800-FASTHOG/Moroney's HarleyDavidson Sportster. The first heat saw Las Vegas HarleyDavidson/ American Asphalt Gradingsponsored Jess Roeder an-easy winner. Fletcher's teammate, Davey Camtin, was a distant second. The 1-800-FASTHOG/Moroney's Harley-Davidson team resurfaced in the second heat, as Mike Hader pulled out the win. Bartels' Harley-Da vidson' s Shaun Russell got by Scott Stump for second. Jess Roeder gave up his pole position for the National when he jumped the start and was sent to the penalty line. Hacker then blasted off the line to lead the race into turn one. Bartels' rider Jake Zemke held second early before giving way to Scott Stump. Roeder was in second at the end of lap one and into the lead by lap two, dropping Hacker to third. . Roeder then came under attack from Stump, but it was Carnlin, clipping the hay bales, who was on the move. At the halfway point, Roeder, Stump, Carnlin and Hacker ran up front. Shaun Russell, Paul Morgan III, 'Jason Fletcher and Robert Miller made up the next group. On lap seven, Camlin roared to the front for good. Roeder was then challenged by Stump and Hacker as Carnlin pulled to a convincing win. Hacker worked his way past Stump on the last lap for third. GRAND NATIONAL The Grand National field came out to choose starting positions and, in doing so, created a strange alignment. Atherton, Davis and King moved to the very bottom, while Morgan, Kopp and Springsteen grouped at the very top, leaving a hole in the middle of row one. After the warmup lap, the field was down one rider as Jenneman pulled his Harley from the track. "I went out for the warmup lap and tried a low line into one, looking for a place to get around some people," Jenneman said. "Unfortunately, I hit a hole. The sharp blow broke my shock. The same thing happened to me at Harrington last week, in practice." Davis, Morehead - from row two and Springsteen led the' pack into the first turn. At the end of lap one, it was Springsteen leading King and Davis. Morehead then hit the dirt in turn four and the red flag came out. Davis led the restart into the first cor- ner, but it was King who was up front when the pack thundered down the front straight. Springsteen held down second over Davis, Kopp and Atherton, who quickly slipped off the pace. 'lt could have been the tire, I don't know," Atherton said. "The tire looks really bad. The bike didn't sound right. It sounded kind of flat, 1 don't know. 1 got up to fifth. In the main event, they watered it, but they didn't water it enough. The traction went away early from the dampness they did put in it. I just struggled. The bike wasn't working at all on the hare!, slippery stuff." As Atherton slipped back, Parker, Graham and Stanley moved forward. At the start of lap three, Springsteen applied a classic high/low pass in turn two to take the lead from King. Davis also moved by King and set his sights on Springsteen. Kopp, Graham and Parker were in a tight battle over fourth. As Springsteen crossed the start-finish line, Graham and Kopp made contact exiting turn four. Kopp's race came to a crushing halt against the front-straight wall, and the red flag was once again out. With that, Springer saw his lead evaporate in the single-file restart. It took Davis but a lap to take over the lead. . "I think basically the fast line changed," Davis said. "1 stayed up there and started to pull a lead out. I kept looking back behind me, and saw I was pulling away, so I just stayed up there. I wanted to come to the bottom and run the groove, because I felt like I could probably go as fast down there. 1 thought, 'I don't need to go down there, because I haven't been down there and something might have changed: 1 just stayed running around the top:' With Davis pulling away, Graham was blazing to the front. Graham slipped by Springsteen on I'lP 11 and looked to be on a pace to get his 40th National win. His pace then leveled off, and Springsteen was once again challenging, taking second back on lap 18. "When he (Graham) went by me, I picked up on his line, because I was losing a lot of ti me getting in before the apex of the corner," Springsteen said. "Then I saw his line, so I started running on his line, and it was working. He showed me the way to get around both ends. 1 was doing the same thing. The new bike worked great; 1'm real happy with it. 1 thought my dual-shocker was the best thing. Now I ride the new one (monoshock) and the dual feels like a rigid frame. It's like it just floa ts over the bumps. It seems like I can go anywhere I want to on the race track, and it hooks up, too. I'm buying another one of these." When the five-lap board came out, Davis held a commanding lead. Springsteen and Graham settled into second and third. King held fourth, but mistakenly read the orange five-lap board as a red flag and shut off just long enough to let Parker get by. "It was that orange five-lap sign," King said. "When they stuck it out there and waved it, 1 threw my hand up. I thought it was a red flag. I guess a couple of other people did it, too:' . The final order was set, as suddenly there was space between all the top-five riders. Geo Roeder II was a solid sixth. "It was working good all night, but the track kind of went away from me after the restart," Roeder said. "A start on the front row would have helped a little bit:' Well back of Roeder and running alone in seventh was Kevin Varnes. "I was able to pick up on a high line

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