Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Mike Hacker led Parker, Spri ng steen and J.R. Sch na bel into tu rn one a t th e start of heat three, but Hacker's advanta ge was short-lived . Parker assumed the lead at the end of lap one and eased aw ay from th e field. Sp ringsteen p u t Hacker awa y one lap later, and the two lead er s p ull ed away . Hack er w as then a ttacked by Schnabel, Brett Land es and Roeder. Typically, Roeder pulled high into un charted waters, bu t the Ohio veteran m ad e it pa yoff han d somely and , took the last tra ns fer spot on lap seve n. H acker, Landes and Schnabel continued their battle to the end . Th e fou rth heat got off to a vio len t start as Rob Miller and Paul Ber gstrom turnbledin to turn one. The red flag came out as Miller lay motionl ess, high on the track. Bergs trom wa lked bac k to the pits bu t was u nable to make rep airs in tim e fo r the re start. Miller had to be tra nsported to the Parkersburg hospi tal. John n y Mu r phr e e p ut hi s Fr ed Sc h m u lb ac h /E d die A dkins Racing Harley into tu rn o ne firs t, bu t it w as his for m er tea m ma te Sh aun Ru ssell o n th e Bartels' H arl ey-David son w ho led th e first lap of th e las t hea t. By la p tw o, Ca nadia n N a t io na l Cha m p io n Steve Bea tti e ha d used the high line to put h is Styl emast er Custom Mo to rcycles-back ed H arley into th e lea d . a t to b e in t im idat ed , Ru s s ell sto r me d back in to the lead a t th e crossed fla gs. Ru ssell' s lead w a s brie f, h ow ever, as' Bea tt ie asser te d h is h orsepo w er a nd we n t on to th e w in . Ru ssell and Murphree pulled a way from Mi ke Varnes a n d gai ned d irec t t ra nsfe rs to th e G rand N at ion a l m ain eve n t. Ja s on Fle tcher a n d D al e Je nn e m a n d u e le d o ver fifth. SEMIS The three "last-chance semis" would send tw o riders fro m eac h to the main, and close, action- pac ked, racin g was the norm. In the first se m i, [enn ernan led th e p a ck into turn on e o ver Bren t Arm bruster and J.R. Schnabel. At the end of la p one, Ar mbruster had his RC Tru cking /Joe Bisha -ba cked Ha rley u p front. [ennem an, Schnab el and Bigelow w er e cl o se beh ind . Bigel o w m ethod i call y worked his wa y to th e fro n t a nd too k over the lead o n la p five . Armbrust er stayed in the hunt despite pressure fro m Schna bel 'and Ken ny Co olbe th, w ho go t around Schnabel but was unable to pa ss Arm bruster in the fading laps, leaving the tw o yo ung Michigan ride rs a trip to the main. Stan ley rocketed int o the lea d of se mi two a-nd was never headed , d esp ite the fact that ve tera n Steve Morehead had his F&S H arley-Da vi d so n / KK Mo torcycl e Su ppl y H arley righ t on his rea r wheel. Mo rehead had bee n forced to work his way aro und first Paul Morgan and. then Mike Hacker, bu t he di d so by la p three of the eig h t-la p ra ce . A t th e ha lf w ay po int, Morehead caug ht Stanley and tha t is where his char ge wou ld end . Hacker would end his night one position fro m a feature berth. Land es w as the fast est ou t the ga te in the las t se mi as he pushed his Audiovo x /Qua ker Sta te-s po nsor ed H o n d a into turn one . Cam lin an d Ead es w ere righ t behind hi m . Cam lin ch a lle nged La nd es , wh ile Ead es fell in to a ba ttl e w ith Mik e Varnes and Pa u l Lyn ch . At the race's mid poin t, Camlin had slip pe d back and was bein g pursued by Varnes and Lyn ch . Wit h just two laps left, th e Flam in g o Lo ung e /Rid g e H ea t in g & Ai r-sponsored Lynch g ra b bed sec o nd and qualified for his first Grand National of 1998. GRAND NATIONAL By virtue of his fas t heat time, Dav is mad e th e first selection of starting spo ts. Davis p ick ed ne a r the bottom th ird of the trac k, w hile Par ker we nt to the very top with his choic e. To Parker's left we re Va rnes, Sp ringstee n and King. Bea tti e we n t to the ve ry bottom, giving the fron t ro w a very un balance d loo k. Ru s sell , Kopp; Eva ns and Roed er w ere high in row two , while Murp hree and Carr were towa rd the b o tt o m . Sta n ley, La ndes, Bigelow, Armbruster , Lyn ch and Morehead wou ld start from the last row. "We felt good all thro ug h practice," Davi s sa id . " When it w as ju st a so lid Davis (above, center), runner-up Kevin Varnes (above, left) and third-p lace finisher Scott Parker (above , right) share a smile in the winner 's circ le. (Left) Right down the middle: Varnes fared well aboard his Rose Racing Harley-Davidson. keeping pressure on Davis for the entire distance to collect his first runner-up finish. Varnes has previously won and run third in Grand National main even ts . (Below) Jay Springsteen continued to plain look good abo ard his Bartels' Harley-Davidson, The former three-time champ put together a so lid ride for a fourth-place finish at Mineralwells. groove, th ere w ere a couple of guys getting a hold of that stuff a little bit better th an w e w ere . 1 ju st ke p t re m in ding myself th at there w as no need to keep chasing thi s g roove, because w he n the moisture comes u p, w e' re goi ng to m ove up top. I could see the dirt up there was wai tin g to b e rid d en o n . We h ad th e sa me se tu p as last year, so we didn't ge t drasti c and sta rt cha ngi ng a lot of stuff ." Davis w as right on th e money with his sta rt an d he led King, Varn es, Parker an d Springsteen int o turn one . The next 25 la ps belonged to Davi s. . " I fe lt like the tra ck w ould change and corne to me," Da vis sa id . , "Everyth in g w orked g reat. Every bod y w a s going fast , Kin g and Parker w ere fast ' a nd Kevi n Va rn es w as rea lly fas t a ll night. I felt like there w ere a lot of guys that w ere go ing to be tough to beat. " Va rn es g ra bbed se co nd o n la p tw o afte r th w artin g Parker's cha lle nge and took off in pursu it of Davis . "At the start, I had to get by Rich, but o nce I go t by him, I w as able to settle int o a g roove," Varnes said . "Th is is the first tim e I've got seco nd at a National. I th ink I' ve fin ished in ev~ry o the r po sition. We might have been the only bike ou t there that wasn't twingled - we ran ours straight up." Davi s hel d a so lid lead , but Varnes w as pu tt ing so me p ressure o n . Da vis tried to kee p an eye o n Varnes w hile protect ing his line. ~I felt like there was a littl e d ifferent lin e th a t may be I sho u ld try go ing in," Davis said . "I was going int o the comer high, chasing the m oist ure. Bu t I ke p t thinki ng to m yself, 'May be go ing into the co rn er low mi g ht be th e faste r wa y: I talked myself out of it and decided to not change an yt hi ng until so meone caugh t me and w e started mixi ng it u p; then I'll go searc hing. I've done that before - get ou t front then cha nge my line all around, thinkin g some thing wo uld be be tter, and it wou ld be worse. All th e g ro und th at I'd gained would be lost. It's hard to get b ack yo ur-rhythm . I felt co m fo rta b le where I was; so I just stayed t~ere:' Parke r, m ea nwh ile, was fo rced in t o t he u n usua l position of chaser. "I push ed it prett y h a rd t he firs t half of the ra ce, a n d the n I so r t of los t m y r hvthrn, " P ar ker sa id . " I knew I . could n' t beat them . I gu ess I just sort of fell back and sa id, 'Well, I've just go t to ge t third: I pushed until about IS laps in and cou ld see I wasn' t getting an ywhere. Th en I sta rted ge tting slop py . I had to te ll myself to just rid e th e b ik e. Wi th about five laps to go , I got into tu m one too hard a nd slip ped off th e g roove. I guess you ju st give u p after a w hile. You jus t pus h so hard then reali ze you can' t d o it." Park er ' s tro u bles were not over, as Spri ngs teen m ad e u p a g rea t d ea l O f g ro und in th e closin g la ps. "I started glancing over to see w here Jay was at and so rt of keep a n eye on him ," Parker said. "I knew it wou ld be tough for him to just smoke by me and I ju st ro de the race out and sai d, 'Well, w e'll see yo u next week.''' "Scotty messed up a cou ple of tim es," Sp rin ger sai d . "O ne tim e in the mid dl e of one and two, he go t in hot and drifted off the groove. Then he's sideways, and he's looking back at me. I was trying to mil k it off the comer and not spin to try to ge t traction and ca tch him . Th e last la p, corning off tu rn four, I thoug h t he knocked it in to thir d gea r, wi th his foo t o r so meth ing . I swore I sa w him shift coming d own the front s tra igh t, but he said hi s b ike s ta rte d pop p ing ; th en it took off and ran again. He was screwi ng u p . H e got in hot a couple of times. I think by th at tim e he was just cru ising, He knew he was goi ng to ge t w here he wa s at." Roeder was an impressive sixth early. " It was o ne of those nig hts yo u sit back and say, 'If th is would ha ve happened or that w ould have happened.."' Roeder said. "We still did all right. I w as u p to six th, bu t I g u es s I pu shed to o hard . I sho u ld ha ve tried to se ttle d own . I was tr ying to ge t arou nd o n the ou tside. I s ho u ld ha ve tried th em und ernea th a co u p le of tim es . Hind si ght' s 20/20, rig ht?" Evans w as chargin g all night. "The o ne thi ng I have to cre d it my im provem ent to is moun tain-biki ng, " he ex plained. "I've been riding w ith Stev e and Doug Bea tti e an d a pack of o the r guys. I wasn' t w inded, I w asn't tired - I felt like I could hav e done tw ice as man y la ps ou t there." Sh a un Ru ssell , m aking his second National in a row, go t off to a good star t. "I go t a pretty good start," sa id Russell. '1 think I was ru nnin g about eighth, bu t then I m ad e a mist ak e. I tho ught I w as going to go d ow n and a bunch of guys go t by me. Then I jus t kind of hung , arou n d w here I wa s at th e rest of th e race." . Russe ll ended u p 13th . Sta nley, making th e m ost of his first s tea dy 750cc ri d e, fi n is hed a s t ro ng seventh. "After I pa ssed Carr, I go t excited and passed Roed er and a few o ther g uys," Sta nley sa id . " It felt really good. I wished I'd have sta rted u p on the front row. We struggled a little bit early in th e d ay. I could n' t get the bike to steer. It was d rifting high in the mi ddle of the comer, so we we re cha nging thin gs all nigh t lon g. We learned a lit tl e in th e semi. I sa w som e of the guys mov ing up and th at's where I like to rid e here. I was try ing to run that line all night, but it d idn't really come in u n til the m ain. I mad e all my 27

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