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/127860
as Par ker showed u p . At that p oint, there was little that the former Harl eyDavidson factory rid er could d o to eve n hold up his ex - teammate, much less cha llenge him for the win. "Ma n, my m ec han ics w o rk the ir asses off on these bikes, and we' ve still b roken fi ve motorcy cl es thi s year," Atherton said. 'W e were running wi th bro ken cases all night. It just tied up goi ng do w n th e ba ck straight . I w as hoping Davey.was go ing to win it." . Fu rther back, a pair of Ho nda n ders came home fourth and fifth as USC Raein g / Z Ga lleries' Rick y Grah am a nd Corbin R. cing /R&R's Rich King tussled l back and forth, well behind the lead ers at the finish . Bu t both rid er s w ere in th e hun t prior to the stop page, a nd Gra ham may have actually played a part in helping lo ng tim e rival Parke r ze ro in on Ca mli n a nd Ather ton, bu t in the end, Graham was as he has been on th is particular comeback tou r - just glad to be there. "It w as just a (Above) Parker took the early lead in the 25-l ap main event, with a hard-charging Mike Hacker (67), Kevtn Atherton (23) and Davey Camlin giving chase. Hacker fell off the pace atter the face was restarted because of a red flag on lap 14. (Left) On the restart. Camlln (27) and Atherto n (23) s printed away from the field, and it appeared as though the even t would be won by one of them. Gamlin wound up second . and Atherton third. good race, an d d o (Below) Parker (1) waited four laps after the restart as his tire warmed up, and then pulled away from Rich King (80)and Ricky Graham (3) to run down Camlin and Atherton. you know wh at's so good about it?" Graham said. "T here are so man y good gu ys. In ' 93 it was ju s t Chris, Scotty and me going for it ~ve r y week. Before I starte d th is yea r, I w o u ld ' v e sti ll tol d you tha t. Bo t there really are a lot of good riders now. And it's enjoyable to co me here and race aft:T all that I went th rough. Sacra mento IS like my hom e track, since all the othe r ones close to me are gone." King lived up to his consistently used nick nam e by ru nn ing in the top s ix befor e and a fter th e restar t aboard on his Sam Wessly-prepared RS750, an d he actually had a sho t at fourth as he diced it up with Graham in the closing stages of the main . But a poo rly timed faux pas ultimately relegated the 34-year-old, 17year ve teran to fifth-place sta tus. • "We were ru nn ing goo d rig ht to the en d , w hen I pushed the front end and twisted my knee," King said . "That was all she wrote." Mike Hacker rod e h is I-800· Harley-Davidson entry to a so lid six th- place finis h, whil e Deeley Ha rley-Davidson' s Steve Beatti e charged back from a poor scratc h off the line during the resta rt to finish se ve n th a head o f Harley-Davidson of Sacramento's Joe Kopp, Harley-Davidson o f Missou ri/ Burks Motorsports' Kenny Coolbe th and Ba rt els' Harle yDavid so n 's Ja y Sp ringsteen . Te am Und o/Dona hue H·D's Brett Landes was 11th, w hile TC R ri der Will Davis ' ch ances fur th e cha m p io nship took an other tum for the worse after he finished 12th ahead of F&S Harley-Davidson's Stev e Moreh ead , Bartel s' H-D' s up-and-coming mile speed-demon Johnny Murphree, and Suburban Motors H· D' s J.R. Schnabel. Terry Poo vey w as 16t h o n the Sakaida Trucking HarleyDavidso n, wh ile Gard ner Racing /WaIters Brothers H·D's Dan Butler w as 17th. Corbin Raci n g' s Lonnie Pau ley a nd Mike and Ed d ie Adkins Racing's Geo Roed er II finished 18th and 19th, respectively. FASTHOG/Moron~y's HEATS The first heat race got the show off to a good start, as Parker found himself with his ha nds full aft er Kopp got the holeshot and led the champ and a host of co ntenders, including Marine Transport 's Bryan Bigel o w , Skip Fo rdyce Harley -D a vid so n' s Billy Marti n and Stanley, around tum one and down the back chute for the first time. Parke r soon fou n d his rhythm , however, and he ma nip ula te d the draft so as to le a d across the line on eac h a nd ev ery lap . Kopp, Bigelow and the upstart Martin all hun g tou gh for the first three laps, bu t Parker stretched it ou t a bit on lap fo ur as he tried to shake them loose. Mar tin wa s the fi rst to drop, as th e enthusiastic you ng Californian slipped off the groove in turn two an d dropped back. . Bigelow continued to hound Kopp for second, but the '97 Peoria IT winn er was unfazed, even after Schnabel and Stanley rejoined the fight as weil. Parker went on to win the heat, with Kop p second and Stanley appearing to beat Schnabel in a photo finish (see Briefly). "For a co uple laps they were right there, and then I jumped on 'em a bit," Parker said . "I looked back, and nobod y was ri ght the re. Th e bike ' s wo rk ing exce lle nt, but Bill cha nged so me thing, and he won't tell me what it is . We're just going to go out and keep the wheels under us , a nd hope nothing happen s. We're just gonna do our job." If Atherton was und er any ord ers to Sacram ento aboard a brand-new Tony Dodge Racing XR750, promptly skidded it off the groove in tum one and was not a factor in the race after that . But both King and Coolbe th w e re, afte r they moved up to challenge for a tra nsfer spot, whil e Graham knifed into the lead in tu rn o ne o n th e seco nd lap. They raced three- wid e for much of the d istan ce after that, as Graham, King and Atherton took turns in the middle of the sand wich each time they sped across the line. Graham led laps fou r and five, and King la p six. A the rto n ro ta ted to th e front on lap seven and then led the final two runs down the front stra ight for the w in - the move u ltim ately accom plishing the goal of engi ne preservation, as a nurse his ailing machine in heat two in direct transfer meant no senu. order to preserve it for later in the night, he didn't list en to th em. He sla mmed the throttle open from the get-go and led Graham and P~te Hames off the line. Hames, a former go-faster from Southern California who signed on to ride at "We had a blast - Ricky, Rich and I," Atherton said. "We had a riot. We were laughing in our helmets. It was a great time, but I knew that we were doing a lot of ra cin' , so ) knew that it was n't going to be the fastest time." ------ That hon or belon ged to Ca rnlin, as his year of fine performan ces con tinued in hea t th ree. Ca m lin ju ked back a nd fort h with the veteran Poovey - the latter aboa rd one the few twi ngled Ha rleyDa vidsons in the field, for a cha nge for the first five laps as the pai r pulled clea r of the battle between Morehead, Corbin Racing' s Cha nc e Darli ng a nd Mu rp hree for th e fina l di rect seed to the ma in event. After Poovey led him across the line to sta rt lap seven , Camlin cra nked it up a nd shot ou t to a 15length lead by the finis h . H is winning tim e of 6 minutes , 3.896 sec onds was good enough to take th e pole for the featu re. "I just wanted to see if I could get away from Poovey," Camlin said, "and I did, or he must have deci ded that he wanted to take second. But we won the fastest hea t, so I'm happy wi th that." Morehead, Darling and M u rphree staged a raging battle for third place, r-, 0\ 0\ ..... 00 .... (]J .0 o .... u o 11