Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

DIRT TRACK AMAGRAND N ATIONAL C P SHIP SERIES HAM ION Round 20: Cal-Expo State Fairgrounds Lak e Racing's Paul Ber gst ro m fo r th e other ticket to the main. Paul ey just beat Darli ng back to the stripe for the second spot and a berth in the main . Coolbeth was all bu t unstoppab le in the secon d semi, as he remained in con trol of a th ree- ma n race be tw een himself, Mo rehea d and Bigelow fo r two spots to the big s how. A red flag a nd subsequent res tart after a cras h by Jaime . Ag uilar di d little to derail th e Warren, Co nnec tic u t, yo u ngs ter 's d rive, as he picked u p right wh ere he left off to lead Morehe ad into the main . Landes was th e star of the show in th e fina l se m i. Afte r rocketin g o ff th e line with Roeder and Schnabel, the Califo rnia n figured o u t a way to d oubledraft the pair down the back straight to ta ke th e lea d a t th e e n tr an ce to turn three. Roed er led the middle laps, as he and Sch nabel a lso ran three-wide, but (Above) Hard-luck man: Will Davis st ru ggl ed w ith tires on th e mile at Sacramento and ul timately fi nished 12th in the mai n event aft er t rans ferring In f rom the semis . Dav is now trai ls Parker by 40 points In the series st anding s with 46 po ints ava ila bl e In t he fi nal tw o ro un ds, GRA ND NATIONAL Parker leaped off his perc h in the middle of row one and went strai ght to the front of the 19-rider freight train after Zimmerman gave the field th e green light, bu t Hacker, Atherton and CamJin had a ls o g o tt e n good run s . lIacker ju m ped into the lea d as th ey motored down the back straight. Atherton got the best d raft up the front chute, however, and he led lap o ne a s they (Right, !rom left to right) Atherton, C3mlin and Parker let the bubbly Ity. coming three-wide to the stri pe on the last lap. with Californian and Rookie of the Year candi date Murphree just edging his more veteran colleagues in a blanket finis h to ea rn his second direct transfer on a Grand National mile in 1997. Hacker wa s on the ga s in the final heat race as he, Beattie and Springer left early contenders Landes and Ian Segedy behind in sh ort o rder and appeared to lock up the top three spots well before th e ra ce w a s co m p lete. But then the resurgent young Virginian slid off the groove in turn two while leading on lap six. The m iscue dropped him behind Beattie and Springe r, and also gave Lan des and Segedy a chance to catch back up. Hacker managed to rotate his way back to the front , and he was rust to the line in another close finish , with Springsteen topping Beattie for second . "It felt like I hi l some oil or something in turn two," Hacker sa id . "Th en I just ran 'em d own. The bike was working great, and I could draft 'em wherever I wanted to. I just caug ht back up and passed Beattie when he m ad e a m istake." SEMIS Davis rebounded from a disappointing fifth-place finis h in the fourth heat to blast to a half-s trai ghtaway lead in the first of the three eight -lap semis. Corbin Racing tea mmates Pauley and Darling sc rapped ha rd and heavy with each o ther and Dudley Perkins H-D /Loral Project 2000 Th e Team Und o ca mp created qu ite a stir at Sacramen to by debuting an incarnation of a production-based mo torcycle for di rt track racing as set for th by the AMA in its five-y ea r dirt-track plan. Th e team, which backs rid er Brett Landes, showed up with w hat wa .. effectively a str ipped Honda VTR1000 to tak e a few test laps in front of th e crowd and pcrfonn an initial assessment of th e stock bike and (mo re importantly) ibo engine, which had not been run on the dirt prior to Sacramento. "We ha ven 't even really s tarted on it ye t," said team tuner Rick Ca node. "A ll I did was strip part~ off it and shorten up the swin garm to get it ready to come here. We just wanted to brin g it out to try and spa rk up a little interest ." Canodc did say that although th e bike was prepared very little for the sha kedown, it ap~n. to ha ve some JXll~nli.d . " If yo u look at where the cran ks haft sits in relati on to the grou nd , it's within three-quarters of a n inch of whe re we are now," Canode said, citin g one example of compatibility. Land es and TeR rid ers Kevin Atherton and Will Davis all lined up to take three laps each on the bike pri or to the start of the- .opening ceremonies. The engine appeared to sound healthy as the three carefully nego tiated the turn s a nd then pulled the trigger a nd banged a shift d own the straig htawa ys. Atherton CV L'n too k the op portuni ty to charge up the fans by pulling a hu ge stand -u p wheelie down the front straight at the end of his session. After ward , Da vis Mid that wh ile the chassis left a lot to be desi red , the mo tor felt as thou gh it had a lot of potential. "The motor fee ls pretty good," Davis said . " It reminds me a lot of an RS750. But that chassis needs work." Atherton agreed. "It felt better when I kept my foot on the peg.'" going into tht" turns," Atherton said . "when I put my foot down, it got squirrelly." But all agreed that making any type of qualitative judgement uf the future of the series based upon this test would be ext remely prema ture, as it is likely that engines such as the VTRlOOO will be housed in much more con ven tiona lly ..tyled dirt-tra ck rolling ('ha.;r,sis - bearing mo re resem blan ce to the Ducati machine campaigned by the late An dy Tresse r - before tes ting begins in earnest. But the ball is rolling. > r-, 0\ 0\ ,..... 00- ... OJ ..0 o .... u o 12 th e top six, which also includ ed Rose Racing's Willie McCoy on a OPe Racin g mount, Howell's Harley-D avid son rid er Robert Mill er, Mi ke Ha cker a nd Billy Martin. Roed er and Camli n were at the front , each taking a turn at the front whim the field lumbered d own the front straight on the first two laps. Roeder led laps one and th ree, with Ca mlin leading lap tw o and then taking the poi nt for good on lap four . But th e battle behind him rem a in ed cl o se and in close range, Roeder had to deal with the othe r four, w hil e Camlin co ncen tra ted so lely on building up a lead . . Both Hacker a nd McCoy mov ed up to cha lle nge Roed er at th e end of the fro nt st rai gh t o n lap 10, a nd th e tri o rolled into the corner three-wide on the groove. Roeder remained in control, but Hacker wa s staging a re lentl ess attack whi le his Moroney's teammate broke out to a I S-b ike-I ength lead with just two laps to go . Carnlin we nt on to take the win by tha t same margin, wi th bo th Hacker and McCoy ducking past Roeder at the finish to ta ke the second and third spots, respectively . Landes had the double-pass down consisten tly, and he used it to take the lead off turn four on the final lap and score the win jus t inches ahead of Roeder and then Schnabel. 883 NATIONAL The pl odding Ha rley-Davidson Spo rts ters we re a nything but boring, as a sex te t o f rid ers broke from th e 17rid er fie ld ea rly on a nd showcased a close contest for nearly 10 of the 12 laps in the AMA 883 National main event. Series poin ts riva ls Ca mli n a nd Las Vegas II -D' s Jess Roeder were am ong ca m e across th ree-wide, By lap three, there were seven riders in the lead draft, as King and Sp rin gsteen teamed up to tag on to the rear of the pa ck, with Graham just in front of th e m . Soon, the three- time Grand National Champion wa s threatening for the lead , thou gh he never d id run hig her than third in the tight formation . Parker was back to fourth on lap four , but on lap five, he trailed Atherton a s they rolled down the fro nt straig ht 1-2 and tried to ditch their pursuers. Ca mlin, mea nwhile, was kept busy with Graham, Hacker and King, but he ran down Pa rker and Atherton by la p eight an d beg an a dice that saw the trio come across th e li ne three a breas t for the next th ree laps. Graham was still right in the thick of the chas e as we ll, and he dropped Ca m lin to fourth on lap I I before th ey began to finally string out ov er the n e xt three laps . Atherton re m a in ed in co ntrol o n th e fro nt c h u te during laps 11 and 12, and Camlin was back up front o n lap 13. Then the red flag came out after lo nnie Paul ey laid it down on lap 14. Parker had just broken ou t on top, but after officia ls revert ed back a lap to set th e o rder, he was to be placed third in line behind Camlin and Atherton for th e single-file restart. But it was while they were wa iting for the track to clear tha t Pa rker a nd Werner made th e decision to cha nge the rear tire. At fi rs t, the move appeared to be a mistake, as Ca rnlin and Atherton got kill er starts and pulled away from the field, leaving Par ker n ear l y a h a lf straighta way behind . "I looked back there to see who was with Kevin a nd me, and 1 d idn't see an yon e ," Camlin sa id. " I was like, 'Where th e hell a re th ey? Oh wait, I'd better tu ck.?" Parker and G ra h a m were third and fourth, but they a ppeared 10 be doing little to catch the lead pair, at first.

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