Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

DIRT TRACK AMA GRANO NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP Round 6: New 96 Speedway "Th e res t a r t d id n ' t r e a ll y h u rt because I wa s right up there w ith Ceo," Da v is sa id. " Bu t w hen eve rybod y picked the pa ce u p, the track starte d to w ear ou t and my setup kind of w ent a way . We had a litt le b it of spa ce on th em; ma yb e if th e ra ce h adn 't been s to p ped w e wo u ld h a v e sta y ed up fro nt , but that' s ju st speculation. I got a good restart. I just didn't have the righ t line ." The laps wo re down and Parker was closing rapidly. Roed er still held a solid lead , bu t Par ker chipped away. "He m ust ha ve reall y been pus hing because I neve r let up," Roed er said . ,"I r e m e m ber t h inkin g a co u p le t im e s, 'Man, I ought to back off; no, I better not.' I tried to push har d the whole time. When th a t fiv e-la p signal ca me ou t, I s ta r te d co u n ti n g th em down. Ma n , th a t' s the lon gest fi ve laps I' ve eve r raced ." Cau tious ly, Carr moved into third on the 14th lap. " It was really roug h down low and it d idn't matt er w hat they did to it," Carr sa id . "They could p ack it in and all it d id wa s make the ruts hard er. It didn't reall y get rid of th em ; it just took th e sharp edges off. You get into the heat of the battl e and it's hard to be precise, to ge t a smooth lin e th rou gh th ere. VOu never kn ew w hen you were go in g to hook u p and catch a rut. " Dav is continues to sho w flash es of speed bu t ha sn' t gai ne d the necessa ry consi stency to keep him up fron t. The lap that counte d we nt to Beattie on hi s Sty le mas te r Cus to m Motorcyclesbacked Harl ey. Mor gan and Butl er finished in a race that was deci ded by the ca mera . Mor gan was hea d ed int o th e N a tio na l, w hile Butle r was fo rced to pack up. The seco nd semi saw Bret Beyer first o ff th e line, but it was th e Flamingo Lounge Harley of Pau l Lynch lead ing at the end of the first lap. Former Can ad ian Cham pion Chr is Evans went to the top on his TLC Racing / Am erican H-D Harl ey and easily took the win. Lynch p arked himself on th e bottom of th e track , well ahead of a four-rid er contest over third. Murphree led the pack that included Shaun Russell , Beyer and Brett Landes. Murphree, Russell and Land es tried the high line to reel in Lyn ch, to no avail. The last semi was a classic. Tw o vetera ns - Jay Spri ngst een on his Bartel's HD/ RC Truc king Harley and Steve Morehead on his F&S H- D /KK Motorcycle Supply-backed Harley - pretty much ra n away with the race. Spri ngsteen rode the very top, while Morehead was as low as possi ble. Lap after lap they rode side by s ide, wi th Springsteen h o ld ing t he advantage u ntil the white flag came out the n Morehead made the bottom work jus t long enough to take the win. Both , riders would advance wh ile Jeff Ran do lph and Danny Koelsch packed up. f 24 GRAND NATIONAL Aft er some last-minute wheel pa cking, the Nation al was called to the line. Led by pole sitter Varnes, the front ro w from the ou tside consisted of (from the outsid e) Parker, H a yd en , King, Carr (w ho had orig ina lly looked at the spot between Parker and Hayd en ), Stanley and Varnes. Row two was mad e up of Hacker, Davis, Roed er, Schnabel, and a blan k spot that wo uld have belonged to Bigelow and Kopp. Bigelow was starting a backup bike and Kopp joined him on the pen alty line after jump ing the start. Row three held Spri ngsteen , Bea tt ie, Lynch, Evans, Morehead and Morgan. Fast qu alifier Varne s led the race into turn one over Stanley and Parker, but at th e en d of lap one it was 1996 Lake Od essa winner Will Davis on the point. Varn es had alrea dy' dropped to fifth o n his way back into the pack. Stanley held d own second for one lap before giving wa y to Parker. Stanley also faded into the pack. By la p fiv e, Parker was in con trol. Then the u nheard -of happen ed - a fail- HARLEY-DAVIDSON SPORTSTER PERFORMANCE NATIONA L The three Spo rtster heats fell to Bartels' H-D /Bartels' Perfo rma nce- backe d Shaun Russell, Gutteridge H-D / Vance & Hines-spon sored Scott Stu mp and DPC Racing / Tilley H-D's Willie McCoy. The com plexion of the 12-lap Na tional changed completely when half of the fro nt row was sen t to the penalty line. McC oy, John Cl a rk and Billy Ma rti n wou ld all hav e to come from the third row . Corbin Racing / San Jose H- D's Gary Rogers go t th e h ol eshot ove r Ru ss ell (Abo ve) The to p three ce lebrate, w ith Chris Carr (left ) and Scoll Parker (r ig ht) fl anki ng Geo Roeder. (Rig ht) It was a good night to be a Roeder, Jess Roeder (94) won t he Harley-Davidson Sportster Performance fina l, bringing a smile to the face of his famous father, George - himself an eight-time Grand National winner. ure on the factory Harley. With Parker li m pi n g aro u nd o n a b lown s hock , ' Roeder slid to the top of the tra ck and the head of the pack. As Parker dropped th rough the pack, it split the pack u p and they started to string ou t. When the red flag came out on lap nine, Parker had slipped well off the pa ce. But the restart was based on lap eight, and Parker was still in fourth for the resta rt. Roede r was perfect off the line on the restart, but Parker w aste d no tim e in also moving up. "We set up the new shock as close as we could to the first," Parker said later. "Ob v io u s ly, t h e bik e w a s fa s t w ith either sho ck. I wanted to ride where it felt good and w here I wa s earlier. I had so me good lin es ea rli er, bu t with th e shock changes they did n't wo rk as well later. I think yo u come to th e p oint .where you rid e the motorcycle. You can do all this stuff, but when it comes to the bott om line - yo u've got to ri de the motorcycle. Wh at th e b ike does, yo u co rrect with yo u r bod y or wha teve r you've go t to d o." " I d idn 't k no w if s o meb o dy was right behind - I didn' t w a n t to lo o k ba ck," Roed er sa id . "But I cou ld feel someb od y and I remember th in ki n g, 'Well, they ain' t going to pass me on the outside. If they're going to pass me, they are going to hav e to go u nd erneath me : That li ne was w orkin g , an d I wa sn't going to go aw ay from it." · rle'tt' ..,. · B J ," . ~ I , , , . ~ .•__~~ ', . _~_~ ~~ ', ' - ~ It seems like everytime th ere's a new winner. he . goes t hroug h the last -lap j itte rs . Geo ' Roeder II w as no different. ~ I was co unting ' them down : now there's four. then three. tw o. 'and that last lap I j ust t ried to put in asolid lap." Hoeder- sald. "As soon as I got'down to' tw o. I fig'ured all I had to do was make a good run 'into three and get off four. I was gett ing ' off fo ur goo dall .nighland lknew! could do th at agai n. Eve ryth ing w ork ed o ut. and I' m happy! " . , tO~ight::Eddie (Adkins) put on a different ~et of ' pipes tonight and told me they were Rodney' s favorite se t of pipes. They worked good for me . t oo , I'd al so like to rem ember Ronnie McCl ure and Dennis Silva : the twoguys who ,' got killed last year on the way home fr om Harrington, De law are. 'Thos e two would have bee n . 'here tonight. and I know it would have meant a . lot: to them ." , . . S~ott Parker con t i ~ ues "t o 'pad hi"s points lead. and he now leads Rich,King by 33 point s, , Roeder' s w in prope lled him into fift h behind Chris Carr and W ill Davis. ' Inj ury report : J .R. Schnabel had his ar m . c hec ke d o ut at t he locai ho spital aft er hi s Geo Hoeder wasn't alone in ,counting the laps. c ras h In th e Nati onal and no ,fr act ure was' ,His sponsor.' Eddie Adkins, and his father, fo und . He w as sche dule d t o have th e ar m G eor ge, were also ,on th e edge . Not really rechecked afte r the swelling went down . how being able to see all the action. George wa s ever . Tim Eades. who c rashed on the last lap 'relying on Ad kins to ke ep him informed and . of his Harley-Davidson Sport ster Perform ance w it h thre e laps left th e conversatio n w ent heat. suffered a crushed left pinky finger and a some thing like this: " I' think Scotty is catching . fractu red shoulder. him, " G eorge sai d . " Yep, he ' s c losi ng ,' Adkins replied . W ith tw o laps to go, Geo rge Rich King has a unique plan. "Eve ry time I said. "He 's really gett ing close, isn' t he?" As come to 1 -96, r get fourth. " he said."·1 think the the last lap 'was under ' way, George had one · last ,th ree or fo ur years i've f inished fo urt h. ' las t q uestion : "E ddl e .: are yo u s ure t hat 's ' Next year . I don't think I'll even come up here Geo?" It certainly was, and George was soon and t hey can' jusi give me fo urth . I'm glad to headed for his second victo ry lap of thenighL see Roeder finally win one. I'd like to see this , place get a decent w eekend ofweather, Every 'An emotio nal Geo Roeder h ad many thoughts . time w e co me here. ir s either rained all week aft er his victo ry . " I w ant todedi cate this w in to . or all night. ,, ' . my fa mily . espec ially my dad - he has been . ,, behind me rny .whole career. I thought about a ' P arker echoed those sentiments: "The racing lotof guys that have paid Hie ultimate price of , was great all night .. better t han the track ." he racing, and I'd like to remember those guys - .said. " We 've had bad ,w e at h e r every time especially ,Rodney Farris. This wo uld have' we' ve been here: but you can deal with itwhen , been his ride and h" pro~bly ",:ould h ave won . there is a reason ." . " .

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