Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127858
DIRT TRACK
AMA NATIONAL H
OT
S SERIES
HOE
Rounds 11-12: Castle Rock Raceway
(Lell) Dan Stanley finished off the AMA National Hot Shoe series
with two straig ht 600cc Expert w ins during t he final two rounds
01 the series at castle Rock Racewa y.
(Abo ve) Rex FISher was clear1y the next-fastest man in line at
Castle Rock. Fisher finished second to Stan ley in the 600cc
Expe rt class on both nights.
By Clay Ught
CAS11.E ROCK, WA, SEPT. 6
e ll i ng h a m , Wa sh in gton' s Dan
Sta nley pro ved th at th ere is no
place like home a fter ta king not
one but rather two wins in a row at the
final tw o ro unds of the AMA National
Hot Shoe Series, as he earned the 600cc
Expert mai n-even t victory at the Castle
Rock Fairgrounds IT.
Sta nley, who prio r to las t nigh t' s
Na tional had not po s ted a victory in
Na tional com petition, carded a narrow
Friday night win ; then, on this evening,
storm ed back to hammer th e co mpeti tio n - m os t n o tab ly Rex Fisher a n d
Mickey Fay - to win the series finale.
Stanley , who coming into the final
tw o rounds ran nin th in the series points
standi ngs, solidified his thi rd place in
the final tabula lions wit h his two wins,
trailing Kenn y Coolbeth, winner of the
inaugural 600cc Expert-class title, and
second-placed Lonnie Pauley; neither
man was on hand, as Cool beth had
al ready all but clinched th e title over
Pa u ley, 124-95. Stanley finis hed third
wi th 83 point s to beat Joe Kopp's 71 for
fourth.
'The only thing better than winning
o ne race is winning 'two," a jubilant
Stanley said fro m the podium.
Fisher, th e second -p la ce finisher,
came from jus t ins ide of the top 10 o n
the opening lap to finish in the position
fo r the sec o nd night in a ro w after a
spirited charge to lead Fay, who rou nded out the spo ts on the box.
The event also doubled as the Andy
B
28
T resse r Me moria l i n ho no r of t he
National number-9l plate hol der from
Red wood City, California, who died as
the result of injuries from a p ractice
cras h at the Rapid City, Sout h Dakota,
G ra nd Nation al. .Tresser, a No rt hwest
favo ri te, w a s b es t know n fo r h is TT
prowess after his wins in the past two
600cc Na tionals a t Castle Rock. The
emotional tribute included a parade lap
o n Tresse r's Rotax, which was ridden by
his brothe r Ca rlo . Also in attendance
w ere Tresser's g ra ndpa rents. his mother, and ¥S broth er Ch ris tian.
QUAU FYING
National number 70, John Hlebo Ill,
one of the six scratch-hea t winners, led
the first of the four hea t races, where he
co nvi ncing ly beat Del Schni tzer and
Steve Mayfield . Schnitze r would follow
the Engi nes Only /Rod Lake/Aupperle
Racing-backed Hlebo in to the final from
a d istan ce.
Eric Rickman ra n ahead of Stanley,
Pa u l Iwana ga. Ch ristian Verno n and
Steve Liberty in heat two , bu t Rickman
wou ld narrowly miss makin g the transfer. Sta nley, rid in g the Gardner Raeing/BBRP /Budweiser-backed Rota x,
led Don Wilson into the fina l.
Fay and Fisher led Jeff Ha rsha and
Steve Smith in the third heat race , which
se t up one of the evening's d osest ba ttles. Fisher eventually got around Fay, a
mainstay at the facility, to grab a win
aboard the Hart Ra cing / C elorie
Bros./Paul Peiroli-sponsored Rotax, Fay
lan ded a ticket to the main event wi th
second place.
Jeff Annen forged ahea d of the fourth
and final heat-race contes tants to eas ily
w in, placing the Lopko / Sh oe i / Thorsponsored Rotax on the front row for
the final. Ron Wa ters finished a popular
second pl ace in front of his home crowd.
Eli Price, Smith, Iw a naga a nd Ro n
Yamamot o spe nt a grea t d eal of time
battling in the first of three semis . Price
eventu ally pus hed his way into a huge
lead, o ne that would earn him his first
Hot Shoe Na tiona l start, beating Iwanaga and Smit h, wh o also transferred.
Lo n ny Ko pp, Ha rs ha and S te ve
Arndt held the transfer positions in the
second semi, but a crash involving bo th
Amd t an d Harsha brought the actio n to
an early end. Harsha was transported to
the University of Oregon Med ical Center in Portland, Oregon, with a severe
head injury.
On a brighter not e, roo ki e Expe r t
Beau A. Brown, th e thir d-p lace finisher,
earned hi s fi rst -ever National ber th .
Mayfield , Troy Rose and J.P. Simonsen
were the fina l rid ers to make th e 17rider field ou t of the fourth semi.
Hlebo, und er standably pumped up
about his hea t-race win, p u lled off a
similar runaway act to lead Stanley, Fay
and Simo nsen in the six-rider, five -lap
Dash for Cash. Sta nley' s untimely
demise due to mechanical problems left
Hlebo to score a wi n ahead of the veteran Fay and Simonsen.
"T he bike is working really w ell
tonight," said H1ebo. "It's running really
stro ng, and this is my kind of track."
600cc EXPERT
Stanley got first pick of staging posilion s on the front row by virtue of his
win in the fas tes t heat race; he chose a
spo t right down the middle, one tha t he
hoped would la unch him out front of
the 17-rider field on the slippery track.
Stanley's gam ble proved to be a good
one: Thou gh he trailed Fay on the opening lap, he ran ah ead of Wilson, Hlebo,
Annen and Mayfield at the flash of the
g reen lig h t. Hl ebo qui ck ly relegated
Wilson to fo ur th, mo ving h im up
behind leaders Fay and Stanley. Stanley,
though, wou ld have to trail th e
Spa na wa y, Washington, ride r for severallaps before making a mov e on the vetera n that would stick.
O nce Stanley d isposed of Fay, Fay
was then faced wit h the ad va n ces of
Hlebo, se tting up a spectacula r ba ttle.
Fisher, who charged from just inside of
the top 10 to dose in on the Hlebo /Fay
clash in just five laps, joined in the battle
to form a three-way struggle fo r the
position.
It proved to be too close-quartered
for three riders, thou gh , as Hlebo , wh o
was making a move on Fay that would
have moved the Californian in to the second-p la ce s po t had he s ucceeded ,
instead wound up taking a trip over the
bars, end ing his fine rid e and allo wing
Fisher to mo ve up a po sition .
Fisher then worked over Fay, making
a pass on the vete ran on the se venth lap.
By th is time, though , St anley had
checked out on the compe lition to finalize his sweep of the two Nationals.
Anoth e r impressiv e perfo rm an ce
behind Fay was sho w cased by Annen ,
who ran fourth and narrow ed the ga p
on Fay late in the final . Annen finished
fou rt h behind Stanley, Fisher and Fay,
bu t ahead of Mayfie ld; Mayfield foug ht
off Wilson and Simonsen to score fifth.
W ilson , th e s ix th- p la ce fin isher,
equall ed his p erformance of th e
Spokane round, finishing ahead of
Simonsen , Price, Schnitzer and Waters,
who rounded out the top 10.
Kopp, Rose, .Smi th, Iwanaga, Brown,
Arndt and Hlebo finali zed the order of
the finish .
Stanley, who took a break fro m the
GNC Series, netted over $3000 for two
nights of work.
'There's no pla ce like hom e," Stanley
sai d .
600cc PRD-AM
Yamaha-mounted Mark Patterson
posted his finest performance as a ProAm rid er . After he pulled the ho lesho t
in th e 12-rider, 10-la p, 600c c Pro-Am
fina l. he led Ca lifornian Ro tax rid er
Ma tt Go me z and local Honda rider
Frank Marker on the opening lap .
Pa lIer son enjoyed a slim lead until
Gome z clawed his way in to contention,
finally getting around the Washingtonian fo r the lead. While Gomez wou ld
lead fro m t ha t poi n t o n, Patterso n
stayed wit hi n st ri ki ng d ist an ce of th e
leader to take second p lace ahead of
Marker, wh o, w it h third p lace, a lso
exhibi ted his bes t-ever finish.
To d d Hagmann, w ho matched his
performa nce of the n ig h t prior wit h
fourth, led Califo rn ian Steve Hlebo, Pete
Medcalf, Craig Bo w ma n , Jo e Le nz ,
George Prindiville and Bob Moran , who
rounded out the top 10 in the final.
I:'>
Castle Rock Raceway
Castle Rock, Washington
Results: september 6, 1997 (Rou nd 12 of
12)
600 EX: 1. Dan Sta nley (Rtx); 2. R~ Fisher (W-R); 3.
Mickl.."Y fay ( R tx )~ 4. Jeff Annen (W-RI: S. Steve Mayfield
(W-R); 6. Don Wilson (W·R); 7. J.P. Simonsen (Hon); 8.
Ell Price (W-R); 9. Del Schnitzer (W-R); 10. Ron Wa lers
(W-R); n, Lonny Kar p (W-R); 12. Troy Rose (Rtx); 13.
Steve Smith (W· R); 14. Paullwanaga (Rtx): 15. Beau A.
Brown (W-R); 16. Steve Arndt (Rtx); 17. John Hlebo III
(R tx).
600 PRO ·AM : 1. M att Gom e z (Rh); 2. MoJ(k.
Pa tters o n (Ya m ); 3 . Fra n k. Marker (Hon ): 4. Tod d
,H agma nn (Rtx): 5. Steve Hle bo (Rh:); 5. Pete Mt'd calf
(I-I n ); 7. Cra ig Bowma n (W-R); 8. Jue Len z (Rlx); 9.
o
Geo rge Pri nd ivill e (Ya m); 10. Bo b Moran (Ya m); 11.
Beau Z. Brown (Rtx); 12. Ton y Fox (Rtx).
AMA 600cc EXPERT HOT SHOE SE RIES POINTS
STANDIN G S IAfter 12 of 12 round s) : 1. Ke nn y
Coo lhc th 024/ 3 w ins); 2. Lonnie Paule y (95/1 1;3: Dan
Sta nley (83 /2); 4. Joe Kop p (78); 5 . Garth Ba ~t loln (60); b.
Stev e Mayfield (54/ 1); 7. Pa ul Mor ga n III (52); 8. Mickey
Fay (51); 9. Willie Mt<:o y (49); 10. 8M Beyer (48/1 ); 11.
Ryan Bro wn (46/ 2); 12. Jeff Anne n (44); 13. Rex Fish!!!'
(38); 14. jason Sen tell (35); 15. John N ickens UJ (,34); 16.
m E> J.R. Schn