Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

By Dave Hoenig . Photos by Flat Trak Fotos INDIANAPOLIS, IN, AUG. 16 cott Parker's autograph changes quite often, and a fter the 1997 Indy Mile, it n ow re ads : Sco tt Parker #1 - 7 GNC ; 80 wins. And the seven-time Gra nd Nati onal Champion could not have tra veled any further or passed any mo re rid er s than he did in ord er to collect his 80th career victory at th e Indiana State Fairgrounds on th is hot, humid, Hoosier nig ht. Parker to ok advan tage of th e re latively new AMA ru le that allows riders to swi tch motorcycles before 'the y stage for a race. The penalty for the switch is th e forfeiture o f th e rid er' s qualified posi tion , and he is placed on the penalty line. It proved to be a cha nge tha t the 36year-old Harley factory racer could live wi th. "In the hea t, I was really ge tting beat d own the straightaway and a litt le bit in the comer," Parker said . "I said, 'We've go t to change bikes. If we want to win th is th in g, w e've got to cha nge bikes.' It' s on e of those things you ha ve to deal wi th . We jus t didn't feel we were capable of winning on that bike after we ran it hard in th e heat. So w e swi tched ; I sa id, 'We can tak e it from the back row.' On a mile, you can get away wi th a bad start or all that stuff." Park er wasted no tim e going to the front. He took to the cushi on and was all the way up to fifth at the end of lap one. "I expected to see Kevin (Ather ton) up there at the start, but he went right to the bottom," Parker said . "I though t :<\11 right, more room for me.' I wa s ab le to really ge t a good drive up there." C u r r en t series points leader Will Davis also took advantage of the motorcycle-switch ru le . Davis mad e the change before his semi and, like Parker, he came from th e last row to take a win. "W e had a little clutch. prob lem on the o ne bi ke in th e hea t; s o m e th i ng wasn' t just exactly right," the 32-yearold North Carolinian said . "I had ridden one of the other spares in pr actice and it felt really stro ng, so we made the decision to change and go to it for th e sem i. I had to come off th e th ird row to go to the front." Once in to the Grand Na tio na l, th e Tota l Control Racin g-spon sored Davis wa s ag a in face d w it h th e u phill cha llenge o f com ing fro m the b a ck to th e front. "I w as concern ed wi th the way vision w ould be ou t th e re fo r me; may be it didn't bother other people," Dav is said. "With the calcium and stuff, I was really getti ng sp rayed d own. I was w orried ab out running out of tearoffs, but once we got go ing, the bike was working so great that I didn't have to ge t outside of anybod y. I could just ma ke m y moves where I wa n ted to and stay ou t of th e spray ." Corbin Racing / R&R' s Rich King had a so lid rid e, o nly fini shing two p laces out of the top in third. "We we re running good . I just used th e tire up," said th e Iowa veteran. King 's Hon d a w as ve ry s tro ng all ni ght, and d uring th e midrace laps, he took th e lead of a tight five- and sixrider pack which was figh ting over firs t. "The Sam Wessley-tuned Ho nda was fast," King said . ''We just lost it because of the tire. I wore the tire ou t. I learned a less on . We'll go to the next one a lit tle better p repared . Stay out of the throttle so hard, until the end." After a several-year abs ence, Rick y Graham returned to th e Indiana State Fair and made it a very worthwhile trip. Graham overcame a slow start to run in the lead pack most of the race before finishing four th. "I thi nk it' s grea t to be ba ck on the mile, but we wer e just a little down on ' power," th e USC Ra cin g /Z Ga lle ries backed former seri es champion said . "I just could n' t draft pa st before the start / finish line. It wasn 't a winning bike." Surpris ingly , Kevin Athe rton struggled on his Benson Ford / Total Control Racing Harley. Ather ton has done very we ll on the Ind iana mile in the past, and he set fast time in his heat for the po le, but he ra n into trouble from th ere. He di d cat ch the tail of 'the lead pack, but could never really challeng e for the lead. Atherton was fifth at th e finish. "We did not cha nge on e thin g on that motorcycle after the hea t race excep t the rea r tir e," Ather ton sa id . "I think that had to be our p roblem . I'd ge t the th ing into the ap ex and it would just go sideways , and it wo uld spi n all the wa y out. I don 't know if it w as a bad tir e or what. The tire ac tua lly look s pretty good, it wore good; but I just cou ld n' t ge t it to hoo k up com ing off the comer at all." USC Racin g /Lancaster H-D-backed Kevin Varnes filled ou t the lead pack and was up front m ost of the race before finishing sixth . " I w as m aybe a little too ca u tio us early," Varnes said . "I was just hangin g on instead of charging into th e corners." Whil e running in the top three ear ly, Varnes may have shown his mil e-track inexperi en ce. "I was tryi ng to be patien t, bu t the n Davis picked me off," Varnes sa id . "Atherton got by me, and 1 tried to follow him for a while, but he got awa y. I think we star ted he ating up the tire; that's what really hurt. I was racing real close with th em ea rly, then ki n d of bu rne d my tire off. I sett led d own and backed off, and they must have burned thei rs off, too, because 1 started to reel them back in. I caught Atherton - that's not too bad . I think th is is on e of the hardest miles arou nd . U we can get sixth her e, we can win Spring field ." A short distance ba ck, there was an excellent race fo r se venth a s Bartels ' Harley-David son-backed Ja y Spring stee n, Dan Butler and Dave Camlin ba ttled it ou t. . Dan Butler (22) led the l 8-rlder Grand National field into turn one at the sta rt of the feature. The Gardner Racin g rider would eventually finish seventh . "I had a gr eat race where] was at - it . was like sixth, seventh and eighth - but it loo ked like we w ere go ing fo r the lead," th e legendary three-time Grand N ational Champion sa id after finishing e ig h th . "I en joyed m yself. We h ad a g reat d ay . (We) ju st need a cou p le of more hor sepow er in the old girl." Miles are h is s tr o ng p oint, but th e nin th-p la ced , 1-800-FASTHOG / M oroney ' s H arle y-D a vidson-bac ked Ca mlin was jus t off in his se tu p . ''W e struggled ton ight ," Camlin sa id . "I don't kn ow if it was the chassis or if the motorcycle was a little off, because we were w ay differe nt tha n everyon e else in gearing - like two to three teet h d iffer ent. We we re really turn ing some rpm. 1 just d on 't kn ow. Even in th at pa ck of rid ers, 1 was just barely hangin g o n . 1 th ink it w as a little bit of eve ry thing. Th is track isn 't usu ally like this . 1 just wa sn 't ve ry aggressive," said Camlin. H owever , it wa s Ga rd ne r Racm g / Walters Brother s H arley-Davidson' s Dan Butler wh o came ou t on top in the race-long, three-rider battle. "The la st co rner, 1 ju st we nt to the outside and snu ck around Davey; then I took it down to the in sid e and passed Sp ring er comi ng off four," Butler said. "I just had a great drive off the comer, and nobody caught me at the line, thank God." Rou nd ing ou t th e to p 10 was 1995 _ Rook ie o f the Year, Cozia hr HarleyDavidson's Paul Morgan III. Morgan has bee n on a ro ll of late, and has moved solidly in to the top 20 in points. "It' s m y fi r st mil e o n a 750 ," a pl eased Morgan sa id : "I mad e some on

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