Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

DIRT TRACK A GRAND NATIONAL MA CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES (Left) Steve M orehead (42) led the opening laps of the Sedalia Ha" Mile . Kevin Athenon (23) used the outside to come from the back row and lake the lead within three laps. seen Parker (1), Rich Ki ng (80), Ricky Graham (3) eventual winner Will Davis (21) and Jay Springstee n (9) give chas e. By Scott Rousseau Photos by Flat Trak Foto 16 SEDAUA, MO,JUNE21 ife in Benson Ford Jr:s Total Con trol · Raci ng ca mp see ms to be a win -win situ ation these da ys. Take the Sedalia Half Mile, for example, where TCR's Will Davis stormed to hi s se co nd ra ce win i n a ro w , while Davis' teammate Kevin Atherton won the hearts of the 5000 in attendance at round si x of the "Rolling Thunder Show." In doing so, the pair gave the Michigan-based privateer squad its first 1-2 finish in team history - but there was so much more to it than that. Davis made it a race, steadily working his way up from as far back as sixth place to run down the fleeing Atherton and finally take the lead on lap 16. Davis then kept his Dennis Town- and Rand y Brad y-preparcd XR75 0 gl ued to th e groove, and the 32-year-old North Carolinian steadily steamed away to victory . The win was lucky number 13 on his Grand National career victory list , and his third of the '97 campaign. It was also as do minating a 750cc performance as anyone had put up all year; Davis beat the rest of the field to AMA starter Steve Faraci's checkered flag by more than a straightaway. And yet he was quick to give Atherto n as mu ch credit for it as an yone. "Kevin was a weso me, wasn't he ?" Da vis sa id . "1 co u ldn't even ra ce for wa tch ing him . I co lo red him gone. It was aw esome > everyth ing w ent jus t s weet. On ce aga in, the TCR team bui lt me an incredible motorcycle; they work too hard to build the best bikes I'v e ever rid de n. It's so easy to ride." Despite his joy in victory, Davi s wa s also qu ick to rem ember fallen comra des, an d he dedicated the race win to on e of them. "I' ve thou ght ail week ab out Recil Hart," Davis sa id . "It (a cras h) is not a good thing to be thinkin' abo ut. bu t I've been praying for him . I d edicat e thi s ra ce to h im , a nd that' s r ea ll y not enough. H im recovering is twice as important as this race." Ju st as h e d id la st week a t Terre Haute, Indian a, Ath erton led the Grand National main even t for several laps an d put the o the r TCR entry o n the box, improving by o ne spot wi th a second place finish . Bu t, as me ntio ned, there was so much more to it than that. Atherton started from the back row , cra shed hard in a full-force first -turn co ll is io n with Adkins Ra cing's Geo Roed er II, picked himself up and dusted himself off while th e crew made ha sty repairs to his ma chin e, and th en the 26- · yea r-old Michigander made a real show of it for the fans by launching off the back line again and darn near bouncing his bent-up machine off the hay bales to make his way in to second place by just the second lap. Atherton then sho t past F&S Harley -Davidson / KK Mot orcycle Su p p ly's Steve Mo rehead on lap tw o and se t sa il for wh at appeared to be a sure vic to ry . Fu rthe rmor e, Athert on ' s ga mble to take the high line forced a lot of others to head up top , making for lots of passing during the rest of the race. It . wa s o n ly At herton ' s refusal to drop ba ck down on th e g roove in the latter stages of the race that allowed the more conservative Davi s to cut into the seeming ly in su rmountable le ad that th e flas hy -rid ing former Harley-Davidson factory pilo t had built. Even after Davis ma de the winning pass, Atherton stayed u p to p and wa s good enough for th e runner -up spo t. "For a ben t-up m ot orcycle, it was wo rking pretty good," a satisfied Atherton sa id of hi s Tom Cummings- and Davey Watts- tu ned XR. "On ce I took the lead, I thought tha t I had it won - I really did. But then I co u ld feel it going away. At the apex, it would spi n really bad. Also, the bike was kind of bent up. That kind of made it tough to be precise toward the end . I couldn't be as aggressive with it." Were it not for Atherton's performance, the hard-cha rg e r-of- the- race award mig ht easily have gone to th ird place finis her Davey Ca mlin. The two- tim e Springfield Mile winner hovered do wn in eighth or ni nth pl ace for the first five laps of the main event before uncorking his Skip Eak en -prepared 1BOO-FAST HOG / Mo ro ney's H arl e yDa v id son e n tr y o n the lo w line a nd methodically picking hi s way through the field , gell ing a measure of reven ge along th e w ay for his recent heat-race drubbings by USC Racing's Ricky Graham by passing th e three-lime Grand N a tio nal Cha m pio n on lap 17 for th e final podium spot. "Tha t wa s a good night, huh?" Ca mlin said . "I f I could ge t my ga me togeth er 100 pe rcent every weekend, we cou ld have a sho t at this deal. But I can' t compla in . We kep t th e thing on tw o wh eels. Sk ip (Eake n) and Pat (Moro ney) ha ve go t th e bik es working. We 're gonna have our bad week ends - like we did at Parkersbu rg - but this makes up for it. We just need to keep that bad stuff out of the way ." Though he struggled late in the race, th e fourth-placed Graham was, in fact, the most consistent of the front-runners. No better than second but no worse than fourth, the 39-time Grand National winner shook off a cras h from earlier in the night and experimented with several lines on the race track, putting his Johnny Goad-built Ho nda in the hunt for the first 10 laps. He rod e alo ne for much of the race - save the late chaUenge by

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