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 GRAND N N L AnO A IP C AMPIONSH SERIES H Round 19: Canterbury Park By Dave Hoenig Photos by Flat Trak Fotos - II ~. J \ \ \ (Left) Goal! : Scott Parker ache ived a personal milestone when he upped his career Grand National win tota l to 82 - twice that 01 second· placed all-time winner Jay Springsteen - at the ExcelsiorHenderson Mile in Shakopee. Minnesota. SHAKOPEE, MN, SEPT. 13 h e Excelsior-Henderson Minnesota Mile proved to hold many challenges for the AMA Grand ational Championship stars, not the leasi of which came from a pesky light fog that kept coming up on the beautiful Canterbury Downs mile oval. It became apparent during practice Ihat the sandy track surface, so good for the thoroughbred horses that normally run there, would not be so kind to their two-wheeled counterparts. This forced the AMA to alter its normal program, eliminating the qualifying heats and shortening all of the races, including the Grand National from 25 laps to just 15. The deep cushion had many talking of da rk-horse winners; cushion-track experts Geo Roeder II, Steve Beattie, Kev in A the rto n, Dan Butler and Joe Kopp topped the short list. But seve n-time and defend ing champion Scott Parker put on anot her semina r a nd showed th em all w hy he has mo re GNC wins than a nyone. The Ha rl e y - Da vi d son / Fick Excavatingbacked Pa rker took th e win and , in do ing so, accomplished one of his goals. His career Grand Na tional win total now stands at double that of the man in second place on the win list, Jay Springsteen. The Dave Durelle / Subway Sandwiches-promoted event provided Parker with his S2nd Grand National "in. True to his plan, Parker led the Grand National final all the way. "1 got a good holeshot," Parker said . "That was my big thing. t had to have a good start and ge t away from those guys. 1 could run my race then. J knew with it being a little bit foggy that the dirt would just stick to you r shield, and it wouldn't take much time and your shie ld would be all balled up. I just concentrated on getting the holeshot; once I hammered that, I p ushed it hard until about halfway. Then I looked back and saw that 1 had a little roo m, so I could run my race and not do anything stupid." Corbin Raci ng /R&R Ra cing' s Rich King put in a great ride for second . lf "I had to sta rt on the second row (Right) Rich King r-, . 0\ 0\ ... ~' ... Q) ..0 E .... 0... Q) Q) CfJ 10 powered his Honda to a second-place finish on the rough , foggy mile race track , once again living up to his "Mr. Con sistency" nickname. afte r we struggled in the heat," said the Iowan, bu l King moved up ra pid ly, taking second fur go od on lap three. "By the time I go t into second place, Parke r had a goo d lead ," King said . "1 tho ught we came up and (I) was reeling him in, but he was looking back, so I think he was jus t p la yin g it smart. About the last t hre e or four laps, I thought it was a good id ea for me to do the same thing. The track was really starting to break up and get rough toward the end." USC Racing /Z Galleries-sponsored Ricky Graham continued to run at the top of the field, notching another thirdplace finish. " I missed a shift off the line; it wouldn't go in to second gear," Graham said . "The second row passed me, and because of tha t I couldn't run the lines I wanted to ru n. I rode a totally different line than what I had used all night. J had to go low just to stay ou t of the spray. Act ua lly, the tr a ck was rea lly good, eve n down low. 1 thought it was going to be ter rible. It wasn' t bad, though; I just missed a gear off the line." Benson Ford Jr./Total Co ntrol Racing's Kev in Ather ton face d a n uphill bat tl e all night a ft er blow ing u p h is number-one bike in his heat. "It's one of those race tracks where