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DIRT TRACK AMA GRAND NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES Round 12: Peoria Motorcycle Clubgrounds (Left)At one point. Parker (1) passed Kopp (43) for the lead but drifted wide and Kopp passed him right back. (Below) The wi nner ยท Joa Kopp. work hard," Tresser said . "We made contact out there , and we got into each o the r a n d locke d ba rs . It wasn't an Intentional plan to move him out. " Atherton ' s departure crea ted a dogfight for third pl ace between Lynch and Mayfi eld. Lyn ch appeared to be in contTOI of the final transfer spo t, but Mayfield got a n ex ce lle n t drive d own th e front chu te. Lyn ch held off Mayfield for the final spo t by the wid th of a fron t tire. Da vis elected to start on th e outside in heat two and it paid off as he squirted in to th e lead, with Landes and Beattie right behind him. A bit further back, King was mired in fifth, behind Lonni e Kopp, but quickly put him away to grab fourth as Fa y ad vanced to fif th . King continued on the move, bu t he slipped off the groove in tum fou r on lap four and lost a lot of the ground he had already made up . In the meantime, Davis was d oing an excellent job of ho lding off Landes. King regrouped a nd too k th e th ird spot away from Beattie on lap eight after th e Ca nad ia n smoked it o ff into tu rn three and slipped off the rubber. Da vis took the win - se tting fast time to tak e the pol e, so me five lengths ahead of La ndes, wh ile Kin g ca me throu gh in thi rd for the final transfer. "Ca n yo u believe it? I won a race at Peoria," Da vis said . "Th is ATK is wo rkin g g rea t, and all the guys a t TC R are doi ng a heck of a job. We're gon na try and ge t a holeshot and win this thing. Ho pefully we can ge t into traffic and hold 'em off in traffic to win it. Wouldn' t that be something?" Ca mlin got the lead in to turn one, followed by Murph ree, wit h Graham and Kopp in third and fourth as heat three got under way. Kopp was the man on the move, putting Graham awa y before the jump and then railing past Murphree o ff turn four to challeng e Camlin. But the Illinois miler wa s han ging tough, and he remained in the lead to the halfwa y point before a red flag was th rown after Ru ss Yamamoto flipped off the track at the entrance to turn three. Yamamoto was unhurt. Camlin lined up at the front of the Single-file restart, followed by Kopp, Mu rphree and Graham, and go t another good start on Kopp, w ho al most got into Camli n when they hit the jump. Graham got a good ru n on Murphree and then sli pped off the groove in tu rn fo ur, allo wi ng Mu rphree and J.P. Simo nsen by him. Kopp continued to ho und Camlin , and fina lly made the wi nning pass over the ju mp on lap seven . Camlin con tinued in second , the lead pair by now well a he ad of Murphree, w ho broke away from a three-man race between Butler , Bryan Bigelow and Graham. That's how they fin ished, with Kopp, Camlin a nd Murphree earn ing the d irect transfers . "T he track is so different th is year," Kopp said . " If you can get off the corne r here, yo u ' re goi ng to d o good her e. It doesn't matter what you do on the back stretch. Once' go t by Da "ey, , knew that he wa s still right there . It's so dry. Last year it was a lot tackier." Parker grabbed the ho leshot to lead the 12-rider field away from the line in the final heat, but the seven-time champ blew it big ti me going into one as he slipped wide, allowing Stanley, J.R . Sch nabel and Hlebo to drive into the transfer positions. But Parker wasn't th rou gh yet, as he got under Hlebo off tum four and then caug ht Schna bel jus t before th e ha lfway flags . Th en the young Wisconsinite suffered mechanical failures , which forced him to yield the runner-up spot to Parker , who qu ickl y cu t th e gap between him self a nd race lead er Stanley. Pa rk er ca ug h t th e Wa sh ing to n TT specialis t in turn fou r on lap eig ht and th en a tte mpted to "s lide job" his way into the lea d as the pair backed it in to turn one. He did - onl y to slid e across in fr ont of Stanl ey and drop to second again. Stanley picked up a length on Parker, who then waited to the last lap before attempting a slings hot move to tak e the win at the checkered flag. Stanley prevailed by half a bike length over Parker, who fini shed w ell a h ea d of Hlebo. '" knew it wa s Scott Parker behind me - he' s th e only guy who will come up behind you and rev his motor to try a nd d istra ct y ou," Sta n ley sa id . " It worked o nce, but not the second tim e. There's a little bit m ore a d r e n a li ne (when it's Parker), beca use he's a hell of a rid er ." SEMIS Paul Bergstrom took co nt ro l in the firs t of th ree eight-tappers designed to fill o u t the 18-rid er G rand Nafional field, but it was all for naug ht as both he and Graham jumped the start and were ordered to the penalty line. On the subsequent a ttempt, both Jeff Annen and Steve Smith were sent back. Fin all y, Beatti e go t the nod as they worked off turn tw o and over the jump. Beattie then pr omptly checked out to take the victory , and most of t he atte ntion then turned to Graham and [enneman, who were locked in a titanic struggle for the other transfer spot. Graham caught [enneman at the hal fway point, a nd then hou nded hi m fo r th e next three la ps before maki ng a textbook pass over the ju mp. It wou ldn' t stick, as [ennern an du cked un d erneath G r a ha m off turn four a nd o u tpowere d h im d own th e front stra igh t to gain entry into the final. Steve Mayfield appea red to jump the start as he took to the front of semi number two, bu t the race rem ained und er green, and his starti ng-line adva ntage w as all the Californian ne eded as he never relinquished the lea d pos it ion . Fay pulled through to take the second sp ot , ahead of Bret Beyer, while Schnabel was riding his tail off to run fourth by the halfway point. Both Beye r and Schnabel caug ht the lead pair to create a four-rider freight train to the finish, but neither of the Wisconsin riders would ge t past former 600cc National Champion Fay, who held them off to finish second and earn a berth in the main event, along with Mayfield . Atherton sw itch ed motorcycles a nd thus handicapped himself by ha vin g to s ta r t o n the penalty line. Josh Butler popped into the lead off the start of the final semi, with Dan Butler in close pursui t, but Atherton was alread y on the charge, making his way to fifth by the ' end of the first lap. Atherton stayed on a roll, shoo ting . pas t Tro y Thames to run third as AMA starter Steve Fara ci dis played th e halfway flags , and then passed Josh Butler for second on the front straight one lap later. Athe rton just as quic kly ma de hi s w ay to lea d er Dan Bu tler's re ar wheel, and waited another lap before du cking und er hi s former TCR teammat e in tum one to take the lead after Butler slipped off the groove. Atherton an d Butler were the final entrants to the 25-1 main . ap GRAN D NATIONAL Tresse r g ra bbed th e hol esh ot from his position just ins ide Davis, who elected to start on the outside pol e so as to ex p lo it th e groove. Stanley tucked in right behind the lea d er, with Parker , Da vis, Kopp, Fisher and Hlebo all get ting off within s triking dista nce. Tresser immediately tried to split, pulling a I (). length advantage on his pursuers before the field came aroun d for lap two. In the meantime, Parker was all over the race track on his way to the front, as he went wi de off turn four and then grabbed traction off the banking next to the fence to shoot into th e thi rd spot. Kopp was righ t there as we ll, a nd he p ulled pas t Pa rker to ta ke it away as they ran in to tum one. " I go t him (Parke r) a little sooner than I expec ted ," Kopp said. "O nce 1 did , , kn ew tha t as lon g as , didn't bobbie, , was going to be all right. I se ttled dow n a lot." With the lead ers g ra bbing m ost of the a tten tion, King and At herton were already chargi ng throug h the field , ru nning eighth an d nint h, respectively, by lap four. '" needed to be on the second row," Atherton said. '" was on the thi rd row , and just had to pass a lot of guys. Th is is a hard place to pass." Davis wa s off to a good s ta rt, runnin g behind Stanley in fifth before King a nd Atherton w en t by at th e halfway mark. Fisher dropped off the pa ce and fell back to ninth, while Ca m li n a nd Landes ca me forw ard , ultimately leav in g Davis in eighth, where he w ould remain to the finish . "I did better than' expected to, but I b le w i t," Davis said . '" felt like I cou ld've gone fast er if I wa s up front , but I missed the sta rt. Eighth is abo ut w ha t 1 ex p ec ted , th ough. Shoot, I'll probably fram e this o ne. My ATK was working grea t all da y. I just couldn't get into a rhythm." Landes cO llld, however, and made his way to seventh before the race was over. "I could 've go tten off tum four better," La ndes said . " I w ent backw a rd , then I went forward. But th is is the first time that I've finished in the top 10 since