Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Left) Joe Kopp (43) put together a solid ride and finished fifth. the Washingtonian regaining a measure of the consistency that he has been lacking since his win at the Peoria TT. ( Abo ve) W ith Davis out front, Parker ran second, some 11 lengths behind. Though he failed to catch up, the champi on was quite satisfied with his performance. which kept the points damage to a bare minimum. took over th e point on lap three. He pulled to a comfortable lead, while Marehead settled into second o n hi s F&S Harle y-David son /KK /)ohn Dragoobacked Harl ey. Camlin and Springsteen battled over third until the seventh lap, when Springsteen tried to go aro und Ca m li n on th e o uts id e of turn two. Sp ri nge r sli p pe d off the g roove and dropped ba ck int o a ba ttl e w ith Steve Beattie. Both were semi-bound . The last heat saw Joe Kopp, Dan Butler and Kevin Varnes all ge t off the line together, As the trio exited tum two, Butler slipped and Varnes had to take evasfve action. This a llowed Kopp to pull free. By lap three, Varnes had caught the (left) Ricky Graham (3) came from the back row and stormed his way to third before the end of the race. Here, Graham dices with eventual fourth-p lace finisher Rich King (80). '1 knew 1was in a good spot, but if the other guys go t off with me, they could ha ve ju st held me o ut th er e," Morgan said of his grea t start. Bu tler also had a good start, but his race was short-lived as he quickly pulled off in se rious pain without ever falling. Butler's team o wner Steve Ga rdner explained the situ ation. "Dan got a great start, but then he got tangled up with Hacker," Gardner said. "Somehow he got his left hand in Hack- lead er, an d a three-way war over third had broken out. C hris Evans, Bryan Bigelow and Mike Hacker were shooting for the spot. By the halfway point, Hacker caug ht fire, a nd by lap seven, he was challenging Varn es for second , a position tha t he took over handily on lap eight. Not content with that, Hacker reeled in Kopp, but came up just short of taking the w in . Varnes held on fo r th ird as Evans, Bigelow a nd Jo hnny Mu rp hree battled over front -row starting positions in the semis . SEMIS Six pos i tions remained to be filled in the Grand Nationa l, and two riders from each of th e three hi ghl y co m petiti ve semis wo uld m ove on to take their pla ce in the main . . A five-rider battle boiled down to two going for the win on the las t lap in the first semi. Roeder, Evans, Beattie, Schnabel and Billy Martin were the main combatants. Roeder pulled a slight lead, as the two Can adians - Evans and Beattie - fought over the last s pot. On the las t lap, the Mik e & Eddie Ad kin s Racin g-backed Roeder was joined by the Deeley HarleyDavidson-sponsored Beattie, and Evans, Schna bel and Lonnie Pauley were homeward bound. Landes, Robert Lewis, Stanley and Bigelow led the second se m i away. All were quickly under s iege from th e screaming USC Honda of Graham. By the halfway mark, Graham had the lead and left the rest to contend over the last transfer. Landes would get the nod on hi s Do nahu e Ha r le y-Da vid so n l Audiovox/Quaker State Harley. Stan ley, Bigelow and Lewis went away disappointed. Dan Butler go t another great start in the last semi and pulled Chance Darling. Jay Spri ng steen an d Joh nny Mu rp hree into the first turn. Butler wou ld hold the poi nt until he slipped the groove on lap three, hand ing the read over to the Bartel ' s Har ley-D a vid so n of Springsteen. Butler then had to contend with Darling a nd Murp hree, bu t th e Gard ner Rae- ing / Walters Brothers Har ley-Davidsonbacked Butler was up to the task, and the Gra nd Nationa l sta rting lineup was set. Darli ng and Murphr ee finished a close third and fourth. 883 NATIONAL After being off for nearly a month, the Ha rley-Davidson 883 National Series was back in action . Las Vegas Harley-Davidson /'American Asphalt Grad ing-backed Jess Roeder earned the pole for the Na tional by winning the fastest of the two heats. The 1800- FAST HOG / Moro ney's H arl eyDavidson-spon sored Mike Hacker was the other heat winner. Bartels' Harley-Da vidson ' s Johnny Murphree got the holeshot in the National and led Willie McCoy, Roed er , Dav e Camlin and Hacker around the first lap . Murphree's lead was sho rt-lived, however, as he sli p pe d off th e g roo ve and dropped to fourth. McCoy then took over on his DPC Racing mount. The race featured a lot of close racing. with Roeder taking over at the halfway mark. Meanwhile, points leader Camlin was method icall y mov ing up on his 1-800FASTHOG /Moroney's Harley-Davidson Sportster. He took the lead with two laps left and went on to score his fifth victory of the year in the series. 'This thing works; it's dialed in when we get here," Camlin said. "Pat (Moroney) and Mike (Hacker) have got them figured out. Everywhere we go, 1 haven't changed anything all year. Pat's made a little bit of adjustment, but they are ready. Mike has helped a lot, always telling me things about the 883s." , Camlin' 5 win was not an easy one, as he just edged Roeder . . " I feel our b ik e is just as good as theirs ," Roed er said. "It was handling good, bu t 1 made a mental error down in tum one and abo ut crashed. 1 think that let him ca tch up; th en, once he d id, I did n't ge t my rhythm back, a nd that's some thing you've got to do. 1 thou ght ( had him outsmarted going into turn three. On the last lap, turns ou t he had me. If we could d o that last co mer over, ( thi nk things would have turned out a little bit differe nt. I tried to go in under him and hold him high, but when he saw me pull alongs ide, he ju mped on the bra ke way early, and 1 pulled on past him. He knifed under me. I shou ld have been more ready to get on the brakes when he did and try to kee p him to the outside. I knew , when that happened, 1was in trouble." Also moving up from a poor start was Hacker, who we nt on to finish third . "I go t a bad start; then everyon e else was jus t go ing a ll over th e place," Ha cker said. "I just worked my way to the front. Maybe I was jus t too cau tious . 1 got into traffi c, a nd these thin gs are so big that you don 't wa nt to mak e any dumb mistakes and take anybod y ou t. I played it too cautious. 1 should have just rod e and stopped looking so much. 1 -th ink I had the best bike out there. I just didn't do my job." McC oy w a s a solid fourth . Ja son Fletcher led the next pack home. Murphree, J.R. Schnabel, Shaun Russell, Rob . Miller and Sean Lollar rounded out the top 10. GRAND NA TION AL Wh en the 18-rider Grand National field filed out to pick starting positions, the ins ide seemed to be the hot choi ce. Davis went to the very bottom, with Kopp, King. Parker, Jenneman and Morgan to his rig h t . Morehead, Hacker, Atherton, C amlin, Mike Varnes and Kevin Varnes filled the second row. Back in the last row were Beattie, Landes, Butler, Roeder, Graham and Springsteen . At the flash of sta rter Steve Faraci's green lig ht, 18 750cc motorcycles thundered into tu m one . Appare n tly Paul Morgan 1II had the best spo t on the starling line, as he led the way. ers front wheel , someone ran ove r his foot, and he tweaked his knee again ." Davis wa s hot after Morgan and had the lead by the end of the first lap. "I knew Morgan was going to have an outside run going into tu m one," Davis said. "I was on the bottom, and I was running third gear off tum two, and he kind of pu lled away. I did n't know how fast he 'd be; I knew he was fast earlier tonig ht. I didn't wan t to make a d umb mis tak e tryin g to get arou nd him too qui ck and let the guys behind get by me. I think M organ missal a g~a r coming into turn three, an d I go t under him. I just kne w I had to be cool and not do anvthing ignorant." • Parker followed Davis through , and the first two positions would not change for 251aps. "I kept looking back. I just didn 't want to make any crazy mistakes," Davis said. 'This place is so slick. I kept looking for a line that wouldn't heat my tire up . I saw him a bo u t 12 leng ths back the re and decided that if I could keep that pace and not try to speed up , I'd be all right." Parker was not about to concede, however . "I started to go a round the bottom and he w as go in g up a little higher," Parker said. "I was making up ground because I was cutting so much of the race track off. I think he looked back and saw I was on his rear wheel, and he picked it u p. He's fa st on these half miles . He picked up the pace, and ( tried to run wi th him, but I cou ldn 't quite do it. He had his bike set up a little better tha n we did . We'll work on that. We ' ve been struggling on this stuff. We're better than what we were and (we' ve) still got a little ways togo." Kop p displaced Morgan for third on lap six, bu t the Peoria IT w inner was soo n was u n d er pressure fro m K ing. Then, five laps later, Graham also got by. King's third was tentative a.. Graham continued his relentless charge. 11

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