Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

DIRT TRACK =::::51 .Round 1/Round 7: Daytona Municipal Stadium FLORIDA FLAT TRACK SERIES ~. _.""",,~ "My first lap, it wa; so slippery-· greasy comin' off the corners, so 1 thought, 'Hey, I know how to go high.''' Springsteen said. "I just kept working on him. "I knew he was comin' ," Jones replied. Heat four played center stage to a rare miscue by a Municipal short track veteran. KI< Racing/H-D of Sacramen- . to's Chris Carr stalled in the first-comer melee but somehow got his ATK refired, and he continued in the fray. Kopp held the lead from start to finish, while road racer / dirt tracker icky Hayden provided the fireworks as he attempted to run down Charlie Orr. Hayden pulled it off, getting the necessary drive to knock Orr into the semis. Hayden followed Kopp directly to the main. Heat five was loaded, as GNC regulars Rich King, Will Davis, Steve Morehead and Mike Hacker - all contenders for the night's win - lined up for the start. Ultimately it would be King and Davis who moved out on the rest of the field and took the top two spots. Hacker got by the third-placed Morehead after the veteran crashed in turn three on .the third lap. By then, King and Davis were too far out of reach. King led Davis across the line for the win. "I just have to go back and loosen up a little bit," Kiflg said. "My bike is working great, and my crew is really working hard. If it starts rutting up, the line might be around the bottom (in the main), but right now it's high, wide and handsome." Landes won the final heat, dropping AMA Hot Shoe Champion Kenny CooIbeth to second with a move around the bottom on la p six. Coolbeth then fell into the clutches of Kevin Varnes on the last lap, as Varnes got a big drive in the cush off the last comer to take second place. "I feel pretty good," Landes said. "I was tight early on, but I've kind a calmed down now. I think the track is outstanding, and I thiJ)k that there will be lines all across the board in the main event. But there will be three or four of us on the bottom." ''I wasn't goin' nowhere, and I wanted to win," Poovey said. ''I didn't care if I crashed. I ha·d to try." Try he did, but it wasn't until lap 20 that Poovey finally put together the inside-one-and-two/ outside-three-and- . four line that urged him past Landes. One lap later, Poovey squared it off under Kopp and set off after Parker, who looked back to see Poovey com- f1 SEMIS There were four spots left on the back row of the feature, reserved for those ridj?rs lucky or skillful enough to win one of the four eight-lap semis. Schnabel gained his spot courtesy of Lonnie Pauley, who surrendered the point after his borrowed Honda jumped out of gear on the back stretch during the opening lap. Mike Varnes and Chris Evans waged war in the second semi. Varnes tried high and low, bu t could not find a way past Evans, who went on to take the win and the transfer. Mike Hacker rooked good off the line in semi number three before Dan Stanley came from downtown Daytona to lead the field back to the line on the first lap. Stanley never lost the lead. Finally, Charlie Orr avenged his disappointing heat-race defeat at the hands of icky Hayden by sending none other than Carr ·to the showers in a race that went right to the wire. GRAND NATIONAL Kopp grabbed his second holeshot in as many nights to lead the 16 fas.test short trackers in the nation into turn one, with Parker, Poovey, King, Landes, Davis and Orr fanning out behind him as the pack sorted itself out. It quickly became obvious that the majority of the field had elected to run around the very bottom of the track, as the race turned into a high-speed processional. Most of iJ.l.g. "I looked back there and seen that it was Poovey," Parker said. "I thought, 'Man, that guy really knows how to short track.'" Parker drifted-up just enough to block Poovey's momentum when the Texan came off lap four, and the win was his - victory at Daytona, as if it had, been that simple all along. The crowd roared, Werner bowed - the whole night might have been completely perfect J Parker's infant son, Austin Scott, hadn'~ started bellowing when his dad got a little too exuberant with the microphone while holding him on the podium. But can you blame either of them? Daytona Municipal Stadium Daytona Beach, Florida Resufts: March 7, 1998 (Round 1 of 2217 of 7) the finishing order outside the top five was set right from the get-go. But two laps later, Parker did his deal, skipping around .the outside of Kopp off turn three and keeping the power on to arc around his rival factory racer and take the lead. And once again, Parker dropped right to the lawn. Kopp fought back, but it wasn't enough as Parker quickly began to show a superior ability to drive his Werner-mobile off the turns. Soon, Kopp had more to worry about than just Parker - Landes, Poovey and Davis were all within striking distance. Davis, who t:J:usted that the outside would hold up, was the first to drop off - but not necessarily because there wasn't any traction. "Every time I went up there I'd think that they were getting away from me, because I'd see that big gap between me and them," Davis said. "TheIl I'd get on the gas, and it would light up the rear tire. Oh well, I've let Parker chase me down (in the points) for two years, and we know how that's turned out. Now I'm gonna let him lead this deal early and chase him down, and we'll see if we can't make this deal go the other way." Kopp waited until the halfway point before moving back up and taking a lick at Parker; somehow finding a way to go lower than the champ off turn four, but Parker held his ground. "I could make time into the corner when 1 was on his back, but then I couldn't see the ruts, because I was too dose to his rear wheel," Kopp said. "He was.holding me up... Easy to follow, but. ·hard to pass. But he kept looking back, and 1 was thinking, 'I'm still here, Scotty.'" The longer the race wen t on, the more Parker looked back, a fact he later admitted to. "I was way panicked out," Parker said. "I didn't know where the hell they were. Usually I know where they are here. I can see them all, ahead of me." Parker, Kopp, Landes and Poovey ran right together in line from laps 16 to 18 before Poovey finally began the experimentation that would see him come ever so close to. unseating Parker. Poovey took a look up high in both bends. Just like the old-timers: Nicky Hayden did double duty at Daytona. The 16-year-old Kentuckian finished second In the AMA 750cc Supersport feature at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday morning, then made the Daytona ST main that night, finishing 14th. HEAT 1 (10 laps; 12 riders, top two transfer): 11 Scott Parker (H-D); 2. Willie McCoy (A TK); 3. Mike Varnes (ATK); 4. 1.R. Schnabel (W·R); 5. Paul Bergstroll) (ATK); 6. Jerry Vanderkooi (Rtx); 7. Marco Morello (Rtx); 8. Chris Boone (R.IX); 9. Jon Cornwell (W-R); 10. Tim E.,des (Rtx). Time: 3 min., 22.177 sec. HEAT 2 (]O laps; 10 riders, top two transfer): 1. Terry Poovey CRtx); 2. Roger Durkee (Rtx); 3. Georgie Price IV (KTM); 4. Craig EStelle (J(TM); 5. Ryan Brown (Rtx); 6. Rob Damron (Hbg); 7. Ken Yoder (Rtx); 8. Todq Kendig (W-R); 9. Garth Bastian (Rtx); 10. Mike McKee (Rtx). Time: 3 min., 21526 sec. HEAT 3 (10 laps; 10 riders, top two transfer): 1. Jay Springsteen (H·D); 2. Ronnje Jones (Rtx); 3. Chris Evans (Hon); 4. Mate Gifford (W-R); 5. Lonnie Pauley (Hon); 6. Davey Camlin (Rtx); 7. Paul Lynch (Hon); 8. BiU Newkirk (Han); 9. Josh BuOer (I-Ion);10. Goo Roeder II (KTMl. Time: 3 min., 26.033 sec. HEAT 4 (10 laps; 10 riders, top two transfer); 1. Joe Let's hear it for Jimbo T rue to his promise, former dirt tracker and AMA 250cc ational Road Race Champion Jimmy Filice was back in action on the dirt at Municipal Stadium - the first of 12 Grand Nationals that he will be contesting for KTM and Eddie Adkins Racing in 1998. Although he missed the setup on the first night and failed to qualify for the AMA Hot Shoe field on Friday, Jimmy Filice did get through the scratch heats and qualify for the Daytona Short Track field of 60. 'We're having fun," the former Team Yamaha rider said before the heat races on Saturday. "We're trying to get it (Filice's KTM) set up. I haven't had that much time on it. The team is reaLly working hard, and KTM is working really hard. This is really kind of special for me, and my satisfaction comes from that man right there (Filice was pointing to tuner and friend Eddie Adkins) and Rod Lake and Robert Crabbe. This is where my love is, and where some of the best motorcycle racers in the world have come from." Filice missed out on the Grand ational main event but was far from disappointed, and said that he was looking forward to Springfield. "It'll take a little time to get it back, and we aren't just going to come right in here and beat these guys who have been doing jt for a lot of years," 35-year-old Filice said. '1 have the experience, and I don't think that my age is a factor, but I realize that this is an opportunity, and chances like this won't come along too many more times. We'll see what happens on the miles."

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