Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

pl ace fini sh tha n th e other, and why not ? He beat both of the men ahead of him in the series points stand ings. "I need to be winning these things, you know?" Atherton said. "But we did good, and I feel that w e had as good a chance as anybody, but the track came to Rich's style. I was hoping tha t they'd water it one mo re time like they did las t yea r, s o tha t it would suit my style mo re, but oh well . I do want to apologize to the Harley people for not giving them anothe r win." Another rider who appeared to get back on track wa s USC Racing / Lancaster Harley- Davidson' s Kevin Va rnes. After fightin g .to get used to his new Harley-Davidsons for much of the sea son, the you ng Pennsylvanian appears finally to be comfortable on them , and it showed as he backed up his fine fift hpl ace finis h at the Eldo ra Half Mile two weeks ago wit h his first podium finish of the season at Rapid Ci ty. Varnes was one of the fastes t rid ers on the track in the late going, bu t a rnidrace battle with TC R' s Will Dav is a n d 1-800FASTHOG / Moroney's Ha rl ey-David son's Da ve y Ca m li n le ft Va rnes far behind the tw o front-runners once he fina lly go t clear. "I feel th a t we're on our way back toward the fron t-runners," Varnes said. "My Uncle Ed told me to run the high line, a nd I kept tha t in th e back of my head . It wo rked out. If I only co uld have gotten off the line:.:" Series points leader Will Davis got a pretty good start from the second row and parlayed it into a fourth-place after e ngag i n g in dogfights with Te a m Harley-Davidson 's Scott Parker, Varnes and Camlin before th e checkered flag fe ll. It marked the firs t time th at the TCR -ba cked ve tera n ha s been off the podium at a 750cc race since the LaSalle Short Track, but no matter . Davis mav have lost points to teammate Ath erton, but he gained some more on defending series champion Parker, one of the riders that Davis passed on his way to the fourth spot. The frie ndly Sout h Carolinian didn't appea r to be at all upset with his performance. "I wa nt to beat ' em all," Davis said. "I have to win these races, bu t I'm happy, tho ugh. Those guys were just faster than I wa s. It just wasn't my deal tonight. We jus t co ul d n' t get hook ed up." Equa lly as happy was Ca mli n, who woun d u p fifth and is qu ickly becoming one of the most consistent riders of the yea r, if not the m ost imp ro ved , The Rock Island, Illinois, speedster ha s been e n joying so mu ch success on th e half m iles in 1997 th at it m ay be unfair to la bel him as only a mil er . He rocketed off the line third, a nd th en spent most o f th e rac e d ici n g wi th Varnes a n d Da vis before bo th riders go t th e better of him in the late goi ng. By th en, howeve r, Camlin was well ahead of the seve n th- placed Pa r k er. The p o s it ion stren gthen s his fif th-place ra nki ng in the current series s tand ings. ''I'm goi n' to Disney land , ba b y," Camlin sa id . "I don 't know w hat to say. We go to every race and do the best that w e can. Th at seems to be fo urth , fifth and sixth, but I can remember w hen it used to be 14th, 15th and 16th, so we've' progressed to th is p oin t. And like I always say, I've go t the bes t team in the world behind me." USC Racing /Z Ga lleries' Ricky Graham charged throu gh the pack fro m th e p enally line to fi nish sixth, a head of Parker and F&S Harley-D a vid son /KK Mo torcycle Supply' S Ste ve Morehead . Aft er losin g his brak es lat e in th e race, (Above) Ricky Graham gets the jump In the Beer Nuts Dash lor Cash . In the ma in. Graham was blamed for a false star! and sent to the penalty line, where he began his drive up to a s lxthplace finish . (Right) Parker (1) and series points leader Will Davis (21) mix It up in the ma in. Davis ended up finishing fourth to ParKer's seventh . Bartel s' Harle y-David son's Ja y Springs te e n wa s ninth , and Rose Racing's Willie McCoy was 10 th . 1-8 00FASTHOG / Mo roney's Mike Hacker was sixth for m uch uf the race and moving forw ard bef ore los in g his bra kes and fa lling to 11 th , a head of Deeley' s Harley-Da vid son ' s Steve Beatt ie. H-D of Missouri' s Kenny Coolbeth bro ke a rear s hock and wo u nd up 13th, a hea d of Ga r d ne r Ra ci n g /Wa It e r s Bros . Harl ey-David son teamma tes Dan Stanley a nd Dan Bu tler. Coziah r H arleyDavid son 's Paul Morgan III, Suburban Motors H-D' s J.R. Schnabel, a nd Mike & Eddie Adkins Racing / KK' s Geo Roed er 11 rounded ou t the field . Da v is now ho lds a 25 -point lead over Parker, 222-197. Atherton p icked u p a little gro und o n Pa rker at Rapi d ' City a nd is thi rd with 185. King's win tacked 23 points onto his tally. He is fou rt h w it h 131. Ca mlin remai ns fift h wi th 131. The Rap id City event was ma rred by the d eath of Andy Tresser, 32, of Red wood City, California. Tresser, the 1996 Peoria IT w inner, and the third -p lace finishe r in last week's Peoria IT, was fatally injured in a erash du rin g practice for the Rap id C ity race. Tr esser was running at speed off tum four w hen his Du cati 750 ap pea red violent ly to lose traction" and then hook up again, causing him to lose co n trol and strike th e conere te wall w hich lines the st ra ightaway ne arl y h ead -on . Tre sser wa s ru shed to Rapid City Region al Hospital, where he wa s admitted to the intensiv e ca re unit in c rit ic a l condition wit h seve re head injuries and a broken leg. He was pla ced o n life sup po rt, where he remained u ntil morning, at which time the eq uipment was turned off, and he was prono u nced dea d a t 9a. m. o n Thursd ay, August 7. HEATS Jus t over 40 riders atten d ed the mid week G rand Na tio nal, a nd after th e comp ulsory se ries of scra tch qu alifying races, defending eve nt cha mpion Athe rton go t th e regular p rog ra m into high gea r wi th his win i n th e fir st h e at . At her to n got out of th e bl oc ks and made it loo k easy as he co ntinued to pull away from the rest of the field, ta king the wi n by a full straigh taway. "Every thing's good," Athe rto n said afterward. "We pu t in so me real good laps, and after halfway, I started movin g a ro u nd on th e race track. tr yi ng some d iffer ent lines. By looking at th e s to p w a tch, we sure know w ha t th e fastest way around here is." The race was much more closely co ntes ted behind Atherton, as McCoy go t off to a grea t start ahead of Ha cker, but th e to ug h yo ung Virgi nia n got-on the gas and mad e a cou ple of pass attempts to the ou tside off tum two before find in g s uccess jus t b efore th e h alfwa y poi nt. McCoy s lip ped to th ird b ut r e m a i n ed fa r e no ug h a h e a d of the fourth-placed Butl er to secure the fina l transfer po sition in the hea t. Va r nes co p ie d Atherto n's s ty le in heat two as he g ra bbed the hol eshot and flat checked out on King, Schnabel and 5&B/Suburban Mot ors ' Bret Beyer, and then we nt on to score the rou t by ha lf a st raightaway. Kin g slipped into second a head of a battl e be tween for m er tea mmates Be yer a nd Sch na bel. Beyer appeared to have the upper hand until he slipped off th e groove in tu rn one on lap seven and allowed the 1996 Roo kie of the Year to slip by and move out to a fou r-length advan tage for th e final transfer. . " It' s look in g lik e ma yb e we'll run above the g roove for the ma in even t," w i nn er Varn e s sai d . "We 'll e i ther be above it or below it. The m o is tu re's go nna come up. it was so wet her e all week. 1 was runn ing just above the groove in th e heat, sq ua ring it off and just try ing to keep th e wheels in lin e. I jus t tried to rid e as smooth as I could." Stanley too k th e early lea d in he at three, but he would be the only rider in the heat races w ho failed to win after lea di ng the first la p. Th e Washington rider succumbed almost immedia tely to a charging Gra ham, with fu rther trouble co ming fro m the steadily advancing Morgan and Sp rings tee n. who engaged Stanle y in a three-rider battle for second pl ace. Spri nger broke clear first, as he gu nned it past Stanley d own th e front straight o n la p six a nd quickly caught up to Graham. Sp ringe r gave Gra ham fit s fo r the r e s t of th e r a ce, b u t th e USC/ Z Ga lleries Honda rid er prevailed in a side-by-side finis h at the line. Stanley wa s th ird. G ra ha m's time wa s the s lo west o f r-, 0\ 0\ .... a N ..... fJl ;:l eo ;:l <:t: 11

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