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AMA National Hot Shoe Series
Round 11:Castle Rock Raceway
Stanley's
home(ominq
By Clay Light
CASTLE ROCK, WA, SEPT. S
n a cold, cloudy night, Washington's Dan Stanl ey fought off slippery track conditions and also the
loo m in g adva nces from Oregon's Rex
FISher to convincingly score a win in the
600cc Expe rt main event at the penulti mat e ro u nd of the AMA Na tio na l Ho t
Shoe Series at the Castle Rock Raceway.
Th e w in w as Sta nley's first eve r in
Nationa l competition, something that had
for many years eluded the Bellingham,
Washington, rider who narrowly beat fellow Northwestern ers Fish er, from nearby
Warren , Oregon, a nd fellow GNC contender Joe Kopp, who rounded ou t the
p od ium fi n is he rs a ft er a co me-f ro m behind ride ,
'This feels so good," an elated Stanley .
said from the winn er' s circle. "I've waited
so long for this. I've been close a couple of
times and have even broke while leading
one, but this is the best."
. Stanley initially followed FISherduring
the early stages of the 25-lap main event,
then he capitalized on an error by early
leader FISher to take the lead on the third
O
lap, and then fended off all of Fish er 's
advances to take a narrow victory and the
accompanying $1500payoff.
Fo r Fisher's second-place finish in
the 17-rider field, the National number12 plate holder took ho me nearly $1000
from tne purse.
'1 knew if I mad e a mistake that Danny
would be right there," .Fisher sa id . "I
missed a shift at the end of the straightaway, and the next thing I knew, he'd
motored past me:'
Kopp's only Castle Rock appearance of
1997 netted the Mica, Washington, rider
$700, but it would be a short stay as he
wo uld have to bypass the final round in
order to catch an 11:30 a.m. flight out of
Seattle to attend the Syracuse, New York,
Na tiona l. While Kopp was pleased wi th
his performance, the GNC veteran had
high hopes prior to the event.
"Sure, I wanted to win," Kopp said .
"Bu t I just can' t get a start here. I told
myself before the main that if the secondrow guys didn't pass me, I'd be doing
good. I thoug ht that I was catching them
(Stanley and Fisher), but I kep t banging
my pipe in the right-hander. That almost
spit me off:'
Thirty-four 600cc Expert riders and 33
600cc Pro-Am contestants were on hand
for what would be the next-to-last round
of the series.
The Experts were split into four heat
races in which the top two riders would
go directly to the main event. The remaining riders would qualify by way of three
se mis that would net three rid ers from
each the final tickets to the main even t.
600cc EXPERT
FISher sat on the pole positio n, joined
by Stanley, Mickey Fay, J.P. Simonsen,
Kopp a nd Ron Waters in the first of the
three rows for the 17-rider, 25-lap final
FISherdarted out front of Stanley at the
start, followed by Simonsen. Fay, Waters.
Jeff Harsha and Eli Price. The leaders ,
Fisher and Stanley, quickly established
themselves by putting substantial ground
ahead of the Fay /Simonsen battle that
. waged behind them for third, a position
that Fay would control in the early stages
after Simonsen clic ked his Hond a in to
neutral at the dogleg and threw it into the
hay bales.
Fay, though. wo uld be dumped back a
s pot by Kopp, who got off the line in
ninth but quickly ran through traffic to set
his sights on Fisher, who led three laps
but had yielded to Stanley after also missinga shift
FISher'serror placed Stanley into a lead
that he would not relinqu is h, one that
would earn him his first Na tional victory
after fending FISher off for the remainder
of the race. Kopp's charge brought him to
within striking distance of FISher, netting
him a popular third-place finish while
maintaining equal grou nd on Fay, th e
fourth-place finisher.
Annen, who ran sixth behind Waters
for the majority of the race. made a move
on the slippery track that would earn him
fifth, while Waters finished sixth - his best
National performance - ahead of John
Hlebo Ill, Harsha, Christian Vernon and
Lonny Kopp.
Steve Mayfield , Del Schnitzer, Steve
Arndt, Troy Rose, Steve Smith, Simonsen
and Price rounded ou t the National field.
600cc PRO-AM
Tony Fox led the 12-rider, 1G-lap final
into tum one, but a pileup, in which Jeff
Gabhart was injured, forced a restart. This
allo wed locaf rider Joshua Currey, who
earlier ha d won one of the three heat
races, to improve upon his start pos ition
by leading Matt Gomez (also a heat-race
winner) and Beau Z. Brown in the final .
Currey would lead from start to finish
to win what wou ld be his last ride as a
Pro-Am, figh ting off the ride r who had
bee n so dominant all week long during
the Pro-Am po rtio n of the AMA Washington Speed Week, Gomez, who held on
to place second. But the surprise performance came from Brown. who ran third
in his first race as a Pro-Am ride r. Todd
Hagman, usually a fron t-runner in the
class, finished fourth. Foll owing Hag-
ma nn were Frank Marker, Fox, Bob
Moran, Joe Lenz and Craig Bowman.
.~
castle Rock Raceway
castle Rock, Washington
Results: SCplember 501997 (Round 11 of 12)
600 EX:: 1. Dan Stank)'