Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

DIRT TRACK AMAGRAND N ATIONAL C HAMPIONSHIP SERIES Roe d e r wen t to the sid eli nes w ith a mechani cal problem. Chris Evans, Mike Hacker, Morgan and Johnny Murphree were left to battle it out. Morgan would eventually work his wa y free for third. The A therton-Graham race wo u ld result in the fastest heat of the night, as Atherton ' s winning time wa s nea rly three seconds fas ter than a ny of th e oth er three heats. "That was really fun; ev erything is working great, the track is last and a lot of fun," said Atherton. . A n infreq uen t visitor to the GNC scene, Sakaida & Sons Tru cking's Terry Po ove y led the la s t heat over Ki ng , Kevi n Varnes, Da ve Ca m tin an d Ken Coo lbeth. King and Varn es would pull a wa v in the second half of the race as Poo vey sett led into third . Ca mlin wou ld lead Coolbeth and Brett Land es to the semis. King was able to power his way to the win, as he had been ab le to draft by Varn es at the line on most laps . " I knew I could draft him , so I had to be pa tient : ' King said . " The bike is really fast: ' SEMIS Th e three semis would d etermine the six sp ot s rem aining to fill the I8-rider Grand Nation al. Jim Su m ner led th e first sem i into tu rn one, only to be set back by Evan s as five riders vied for th e tw o ticket s into th e ma in . Camlin then fo rged to the front , leaving Evans, Sumner , Schnabel and Dale Jennema n shooting for the last spot. Suburban Mot ors Harley-Dav id son's Sum ner held on to qualify for his first GNC of 1997. Young sta rs Ha cker, Cool beth a nd Bryan Bigelo w led semi two unW Davis , coming from the penalty line, shot to the front. Davis went on to an easy win, as 1-800-FAsTHOG /Moroney' s HarleyDa vid so n' s H ack e r ed ge d Coo lbe th, Bigelow and Lonnie Pauley. Randy Texte r took a short -lived lead in the last semi. before fallin g victim to C ha nce Da rli n g . Th e Cor bin Racin g /F&s Ha rley-David son-ba cked Darlin g went on to a co nvincing win. Second was any thin g but cu t and d ried, as Lyn ch, Mik e Va rn es, Te xter , Bre t Beyer, Mu rphree and Bret t Landes all took turns in second . In position wh en it cou nted wa s Donohu e H ar ley-Da vi d son l Aud iovox / Quaker State' s Land es, who took the win . GRAND NATIONAL the 883, but that' s my first GNC mil e. We needed that , but we needed ninth to be .tied for 17th . We're one po int back, bu t II (points) out of 15th ." HEATS Typical of most mile races, the heatrace action was tigh t wi th a lot of passing . Dan Butler led the first heat into tum one with Steve Beattie and Springsteen on his heels. The ever-popular Springsteen moved to the front with Butler, and the two pulled a sma ll lead until the halfway mark. Beattie, Paul Lynch and Will Davis then pulled into contention . On the last lap, Beattie took over the lead, but the Deeley Harley-Davidson pilot could not make it stick at the line. "He (Butler) drafted me right at the line: ' Beattie said. "It was only by inches ," "Looking at the lineu p for the heat, I th ought, 'This is no t too bad : " Butler sa id. "Then I go t u p to the li ne and looked down, and there we re a bunch of fast people in there. It' s like, 'Hey we' re going to have to race them in the main; no big de al: We just got a holesh ot and jus t went for it. Greg 's (Crow) go t the bike all d ialed in, and it's fresh." Sp ri ngs teen w a s a b le to take th e fina l d irect transfer , over Lynch an d a fa d ing Davis. Th e second heat w as basically a two-rider race, as Sacramento Ha rley-Davidson's Joe Kopp and Scott Parker broke to the front. Kopp and Parker led J.R. Schnabel into turn one, but Schnabel wa s soo n set back by F&s Harley-Davidson' s Steve Morehead. The top three were then set , but Parker would take one last run at Kopp un lap nine. " It was a fun race," Kopp said . " Dr a ft ing with Parker is a learning ex perience . He dra fted by at the line several times, then once he did n't . I tried to look back for him , but he must hav e been right behind me. I knew that w hen he d id n ' t d raft ' me d o w n the ba ck (Top) Will Davis (21) worked his way through the field to get to the front. The 32-year-o ld North Carolin ian finished seco nd to Parker, thus min imizing the damage that the champion did to Davl,' series po ints lead as mu ch as possible. (Above) Dueling Honda': Rich King (80) made his way to a satisfying third place before the mai n event was over . while Ricky Graha m (3), who later claimed to be down a c ouple of horse power, ended up sixth. straigh t, he was setting me up. It felt really good to pull that one off." The third heat was another two-rider war as Atherton and Gra ham squa red off. Geo Roeder led the field into turn on e, but was quic kly set back by Atherton a nd Gra ha m . Th ei r b la z in g p a ce pulled them clear of Ro ed e r, who d ropped int o a fiv e-rider ra ce for the las l transfer. [u st past the halfway point, Kopp and Bu tler led the 18-rider, 25lap Gran d Na tional in to turn one, bu t heat winner Butler slipped off the pace first. "I thou ght I wou ld start in the midd le of the track, because I got a great start in m y hea t," Butler sa id . " I go t a great hol e s ho t and , going d own th e ba ck straight, I went to pass Rich for the lead . Every thin g was working gre at we were in first down into tum three. I g uess the track had cha nged from the heat races. I jus t couldn't get a drive off the comer. We added a too th to the back to get some punch off the comer, bu t the track got so fast that it hu rt me on the d raft." Kopp held down the first position for two laps before giving in to King and Park er. "\Ve had a good start, but I was having trouble down in o ne and tw o, " Kopp said. "The back end was comin g around, getting more sideways than I wan ted it to . After the first couple of times, the lead pack go t away. I got sidew ays one mor e tim e and dr op ped back to the next pac k. I cou ld seem to dr aft with them, but I don 't know - it's frustra ting ."

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