Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

DIRT TRACK AMA GRAND NATIONAL CA H MPIONSHIP SER IES "I liked this place from the start, hut 1 reall y love it now," th e jubilant yo ung Roeder sa id afte r g i v i ng his fath er George a ride o n th e vic tory lap. "It' s like being home, rid ing No rwalk Ohio's half mile." Furth er bac k th e re ca me another ti ght battle . joh n Parker Raci ng's j .R. Schna be l, Bartels' Shaun Russell, ja mes Hart Racing / Dale's Bret Beyer and Bartels' johnny Murphree we re all figh ting over fou rth. Even tua lly , Sch nab el and Russell split away and, after swa pping positi ons many time s, Schn abel slid into four th. Paul Bergstrom worked his way op into the mi x o n his Du d ley Perki nsbacked Spo rts ter a nd came awa y w it h sixth . Victo r McAnally wa s also ab le to d rop Beyer and Murphr ee back a spo t. Billy Marti n round ed ou t th e top lOon his Skip Ford yce mo unt. GRAND NATIONAL Obviously th e race to turn one wa s going to be important, as visibility was a 12 m aj o r .co n ce r n . Afte r a coupl e o f ·w arm u p la ps, th e fog dissipated somewhat, and the 18-rider, 15-l ap Grand Nati on al w as under way . Kopp led th e p a ck into turn o ne down low , but Parker was right ther e on a higher line and too k comma nd d own the back straig ht. . Having accomplished his first goal of pu ttin g so m e sp a ce betw een himself and the rest of th e field , Parker se ttled into a rhythm - albeit a very fas t one. "I found some reall y good lines the firs t few laps and stayed wi th them the whole time," Parker said . "A couple of tim es 1 go t in a little hot, and it pulled me u p into the deep stu ff. 1 just dropped it ba ck d own a ro u nd th e botto m a nd made it wo rk." King had ma de a ver y goo d start off row two and moved from fourth to second by the third lap, dropping Kopp to third . King took off after Parker, but to no avail. "I was trying to run on th e ed ge of the cushion all the time an d stay out of the ho les," said King, who appears to be o n hi s way to ea rni ng ba ck his "Mr. Consist en cy" moniker. "1 had some really good lines as far as mis sing the holes, but th en tu rn three broke up, and that was where I was making up a lot of time . on Scott y. When that broke up, 1 was in tro ub le then; at least 1 wa sn't making up any tim e." Kopp wa s then passed by Davis , who closed rapid ly o n King . Dav is' charge was cut short on lap six as Kopp, Grah a m a nd Beattie all blasted by in a group. Kopp held on to third for thr ee lap s this tim e, u ntil G raham unseated him . Graham then pulled clear and wen t afte r the on ly other Honda in the field King's. "Even though I wa sn 't rid ing the line 1 inv en ted , it felt like 1 w a s making time ," Grah a m sa id . "T h a t ye llow Corbin bik e w as getti n g bi gger. Th at hig h line was wh ere I wa s going to go, but it takes lon ger to ge t there, a nd I thought maybe it was ge tting rough up th ere . So 1 s tayed down lo w . I w en t through the pack down there." Graham's Honda , h ow ever, w as barely up to the 15-lap challenge. "On th e la s t .lap, co mi n g o ff turn fou r, the bike started to seize," Graham sai d . "It wa s jus t bogging d own; then , after the start/ finish line, it locked u p. Good thing they shortened the race." At he r to n was the next rid er to set Kopp back, moving by on lap 12. Ail the ' while Parker was holding a solid lead . " I co u ld sec 1 ha d a little time o n them; 1 could be a little slowe r, and they (Left)Will Davis had another bad day on the m ile. Pa rker's o nly serious ti t le r iv al, the North Caro li n ian fe ll back from co ntention ea rly and finished eighth. He now trails Parker by 24 points with three rounds left, (Above) Jess Roeder won the 883 National main event. The Ohioan now t rails s eries leader Davey Ca mlin by a mere two poi nts with three rounds to g o. would have to cut some rea l goo d laps to reel me in," Par ker said. "Once I saw the halfway flags, 1 just told myself to be mell ow a nd no t do any thing stu pid. I just kep t an eye on Rich and held my line." Springsteen progressed forwa rd the w ho le race, movin g fro m 12th o n la p one to,his ev entua l sixth-place finish. Butie r cam e fro m the th ird row to captu re 11th o " It wen t pretty well from th e ba ck row , I figu re," Bu tler sai d, ! ' Aft er five' lap s or so, 1could finally see. We'started puttin g i t tog e t he r an d coming u p th rou gh the pack. I kind of wi sh th ey had n't cut it short. Fifteen laps , we d id the best we could . We mad e th e main and go t points ,"Th a t' s w ha t cou nts , Starting on th e third row reall y hurts. ' Usua lly on a mile it doesn't matter that much. Here the d raft did n't really wor k that stro ng - ba sica lly no draft, and as rou gh as it wa s, I'm hap py with I l th." Paul Lyn ch rod e his Lync h Tra nsp orta ti on / Ridge Sheet 'Me tal Harley home in 12th . "We got off to a slow start toni ght," Lynch said . "Ou r mechanic d idn't com e, and it took us a w hile to figure things ou t. We got in to t he ma in ou t of th e semi, but once the Nation al started, we m ov ed up. Twelfth is not suc h a bad night, all in all. I kne w how many tearoffs I could use a lap, and 1 jus t kind of Wiped and saved them . 1 pulled my last one off on th e last lap , so [ had it figu red pr etty good. I did n' t have any trouble at all seein g, and I wa s running in a group, s o [ don't think it was that pa d out there." Aft er cha rg ing to a semi win, Kevin Varn es rode to a 13th-place finish and had to pas s tw o riders on the last lap to ga rner that. "I flipped my sh ield up probably 10 ti m es," Varnes said . "I had a pre tt y good sta rt from the insid e, but 1 don't know what happened tha t firs t lap. A bu nch of guys just scattered and started head ing for the inside rail. I don ' t kno w if the y could n' t see or if it looked like someone was going to fall. [ just back ed off. [ kn ow Butler was side wa ys d ow n the back straight. I did n't feel comfortable and d id n't want to do anything s tupid. Tha t last la p', Camlin cam e d ro p pin g back along with Morehead, an d we we re kind of running togeth er. 1 pa ssed Camlin going into th ree an d Morehead coming off four. I cou ldn't really see, so I just gassed it." Morehead 's race was doome d from the first lap, when he ave r ted a ma jor problem after being hit going down the back straight. "I pretty much ju s t rod e arou nd," Morehead said . "The lights went ou t the fir s t lap, a nd ev erybody s tru n g o u t. Going down the back straig ht the first lap, 1 cou ld n' t see, so I wa s trying to ge t ou t of the way. When 1pulled over, Graha m sl a m m ed me from beh i nd - he cou ld n't believe he hit someo ne so hard on the straightaway. Th e 'spray wa s so bad righ t off the sta rt th at you had to hold back. On ce every body stru ng out, yo u could n' t do any thing . It was jus t a mat te r of r id in g a ro u n d, ta king o ur 13th, or whatever, and hea ding to California ." Graham 's version of the incid en t was much th e same. "The track was really good, but ea rly on it was hard to see," the three-time cham pion said . "O n the first or second lap , More head was blinded a n d he swerve d to th e left d own th e ba ck straight, I clipped him , but [ never shu t : off. I needed the po we r to pull ou t of it, eve n if we did hit. As hard as 1 hit him , 1 Bret B'eye~ is busily preparing for his, future ~ as , a schoo l teacher . " That' s my lost race for ' . t hts yea r . Th ere are th ings that are mo re impo rta nt. ~ Beyer said, " I know lcan't do this forever, but we learned a lot on setup the last" 'The po ints ' race de finit ely took a turn 'for the worse for Total Cont rol Racing. Wi th only three ' few we eks - things that sho uld help a lot next races left. Scott Pa rk er now holds a 24 -point ·'y ea r. I'v e started my st ude nt" te ach ing , I'm teaching seven th- grade mat h at the Horace lead over Will Davis, Davis' TC R teammate Ma nn M idd le Sc hool in "Neenah, W isc onsi n. ~ Atherton is all but eliminated. as he sits 4 5 It' s awesome; I love It. Everythin g is re ally , poi nts bac k , ~We had to finis h bett er than going w ell . I'll be movi ng to a high sc hoo l in fourth. especially at a place like this. ~ Atherton Novemb er and be a teacher in January , .Then . said, " This .is m:( old sto mping grounds, ~ : I'll be looking for a full-time pc sftlon throughout the su mn:'ler . In th e 883 Natio...ai S eries. it' s ano th er story. Dave C amlin, still holds the .lead, but-: it's do w n to a mere t wo poi nts over .Jeee : M orc shocking new s: S u s p e n s ion probRoeder. Camltn'ateammate Mike Hacker ' Ie m s sidelined two hard-charg ers eartY in the, and Sha un R ussell erened for t hi rd 54 - G rand ' Nat ional and one froma semi sta rt . .points bac k. Geo Roede r n w as one of t hem, sliding to a ., halt ontap three in the main eve nt. " The bike U nder th e be -careful- wh at -you -wish- for cate- ". wouldn't go' into ,t hird gear o ff theHn e." Boed-, gory : Kevin" Atherton was lobbying for the ' er ectd.v'ft starte d doing ,it in practice and I had five-heats-and-no-semi format before the races to short -shift it I had a ,good jump off the line. started, w hich wo uld have eliminated him from ' but I got too anxiou s. I let it rev out too' much, . the proqramwhen he blew up his number-one ,. and I cou ldn't get it Into third. It jumped .bac k bike in the third heat : ~ I was just fortunate they ' into second on ' me " but once we got going 'it ' ran semis: because I talked to B ruce abo ut no t , was really runnin q goo d. I nit a rut and the seat even running them. I'm glad he didn' t usten." ca me up, I though t , ' M an. the seat' s co mmq said Atherto n afte r his fourt h-place fin is~ in the off, ' I,got back on the gas and It diqn't wan t to ' National. . go. anywhere. I'd broken the stru t and the rear. . .. . ' ,. w heel w as locking' up." Mu ch the same probEveryone w~s Impre ssed ~th the fine: occ-om- , rem befell Steve Be a ttie . as his race ended mod ations. of Ca~t.rbury Park:~ but. rnost : on lap six: "The shOCK linkage broke." Beattie ' felt .the track was In need of. help. The track · id - I ' . lik f rth n ht i th ud .." . . . (D ' sal au ng In e rm de f mite Iy nee ds' some wark . b ut heave · dl . f ·t·was m nOing I ,e lik I idmuit h If '1 G . ~' S . e a I . , WDS n Ing 1 I e £I a rr ue: a In D II ) d hi II P~;~e~ s~~~"~~er~ ~e:c~r::~efaennst. her~~~~ hlgh 'and di~mond it off ." On the stranger slde , just shows that it you wo rk ,yo ur butt off . you was Johnny ~ urphree: As h~ ca me out for the can fill the sta nds . O n the other hand. w e need , seco~ld ,s ~rn~, he ~~t,ced his s ho~k . was . no t , to ' work on the race track . W e need a troc'k rebou nding. , r took It ba ck to the Pit gate, but w here we can put on a show for the se fans at :ou l ~ n 't g e t ~t t o ,w o r k ,.':' .M urp h re e sai~ . this place . ~ Second-place finis her Rich King Whe n we .w en! .to load It In ~o th e truc k. ,It, agreed . "It's 'a neat facility and all, H'th eycan : ':'V0rked ,~I~~, ~so no w w~ do n t know ~hat s Just work' the race' tr ack and ' ge t that in top . w~ong WIth It. . shape. ~ 'Ki ng said. "Aft er finishing third in' the ' Dave Caml in reported on the money raised heat. to co me bac k and finis h second in the for ReCiI Mart at Camhn's East M oline Race , . .main is great : I'm happy . ~ . ', 'The 'golf tourna ment raised $ 2500, than ks to Jay Spri ng s te e n is 'haVing a 'rel

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