Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

DIRT TRACK .R u d 12: Route 66 Raceway on AMAGRAND NATIO AL N HAMPIONSHIP SERIES C By Scott Rousseau Photos by Flat Trak Fotos JOUEr,IL, AUG. 8 !th ough it was the 12th sto p in the 19-round 1998 AMA Grand at io nal Championship Seri es, th e inaugural Route 66 Racew ay Half Mile just mi ght be remember ed as the place where the fun began . And even if it isn' t, Rich King will always remember having had one hell of a ball there. For it was the 35-yea r-old Iowan who had the measure of the field at the allnew IIinois half-mile and he scor ed his fifth career G ra nd Natio nal vict ory as "hell week" carne to a close. In doing so, King accomplis he d a perso na l mil es to ne, as he fi na lly managed to ea rn more than one victory in a sing le season. But even more impo rtantly, King - and h is n e a rl y obsole te Co rbin Ra cin g / Supertrapp Honda RS750 - ran down an d su rpassed season-long series points leade r Scott Parker in the title race . And he wasn't the only one. King now leads 1992 AMA Grand National Champion C hr is Carr by n ine poin ts, 185-176, while eight-time and defending cha mpion Parker, who was 11th a t Route 66, now sits third with 174. Desp ite pos ting the second -fas test heat race, King was defi nitely best when it counted - in the ma in eve nt. He trailed th ree-time AMA Gra nd Na tional Cha mpion jay Sp ringsteen off the line as the 18-rider main eve nt got und er way and then quickly shot under Spri ngsteen in turn three . There was no sto ppi ng hi m fro m there, as he we nt to wo rk on the bottom of the na rrow-grooved, se mibanked clay su rface, st re tching out his lead off every corne r until he had almost a straightaway lead on runner -up Will Davis. King's Sam Wessely-prepar ed RS appeared to be on rails. "The bik e wa s definitely dialed in, " Kin g sa id . "Every th ing is jus t reall y go ing good right now. I think that my team is reall y clicking thi s y ea r . It couldn't be better. "I su re hope that Honda doesn 't sell all those parts on me," King said in reference to last week's reports that HRC A was closing, an d thus all RS750 pa rts we re going to be sold off to the high est bidd er . "We need th ose pa rts to keep going." Ru nn er-u p Davis will d efinitely be need ing a few Ha rley-Davidson pa rts to repair his TCR/ Michigan Har ley-Davidso n Dealers-backed XR750 before next week's M is s is s ippi Valley G ra n d N ational in East Moline. In fact, the 32year-old North Carolinian was lucky to dod ge a major bu llet at Rou te 66. After posting the fast heat time of thr ee minut es, 49.518 secon ds to ea rn th e p ole, Davis came off the line in th ird pl ace behind Sp ri ngs tee n an d Kin g, chased down Springstee n after the Bart els' HD /R C T ruc king-s ponsored fo rmer cha m pion ran into mor e mechanical prob le ms, and then tried to haul in King, who was al ready almost a hal fstraightaway ahead of him . Davis, too, ra n the low road around the race trac k, and appeared to at least be on the same pace as the leader, but then on lap 24 it almost all came undone. Just past AMA sta rter Steve Faraci's white flag, Davis ' Tom Cummings-t uned sho rt-rod XR began to emi t a terrible clatter asit tried to eat itself. But so mehow, Davis managed to keep the machine running long enoug h to limp " arou nd on the last lap and get home ahea d of a speedi ng Carr, who almost ran Davis down at the finish line. "Seco n d' s good e no ug h, I g uess," said Davis, who dropped another five points off the lead pace in the se ries points chase. "Every time I hit the throttle, it wou ld just sp in off the corne r. Bu t as hooked up as I was, I though t I was catching him a little. But then, coming across the sta rt / finish line, the low er end went out or so met hing, beca use it just star ted ma king the ungod liest noise. I pulled the clutch in, th inki ng tha t it was over, but then it just kept running and it mad e it aro und there. Maybe it's just me, but I thou gh t that it migh t have started going abou t the 10th lap ." Had Davis run into troubl e even a few seconds earlier, then he would likelv have been passed by Ca rr, wh o once aga-in had his Kenny Tolbert -tuned Harl ey-David- son of Sacramento/ Phoenix Radng entry flying in the main event. After struggling in the scra tch heat s a nd th en running third in his qua lifying heat race, Ca rr got an excellent sta rt off the second row in the main even t, pulling away from the line in fourt h place. He advanced to third after Springsteen dropped back and, just like Davis, a p pea re d to a p proxi ma te King's blistering pace, neither losing nor ga in ing grou nd on th e second- p laced .Davis u ntil th e ve ry end, when Davis' bike soured. Still, Carr was qu ite pleased to come away with 1-1-3 finishes during hell week. "I' ll take it," Carr sai d of his third place ru n. "Go ing int o the main eve n t, I thou g ht we had a fifth- place bike. We made some cha nges, a nd we fig u re d that we would either make it on the box or run 10th . After th e h eat ra ce, we knew that we'd made a ste p in the right direction, but I still thought tha t we we re about fifth." Both Rose Racing's Kevin Varnes and his motorcycles were up to the task for a good finish a t Joli et. Th e 24-year-old Penn s ylv an ian , w hose tw o G ra nd atio na l wins ha ve come on Hondas and on clay tracks - hit the right combination at Route 66, and he was probably th e hardest -char gin g rid er on the race track, as he su ffe red a IOth-place start before rebounding and bolting toward (Above) Rich King showed the field his backside for the second time th is season , as the sale Honda rider on the circuit claimed the win at the inaugural Route 66 Hall Mile In Jo liet, Illinois , and also mo ved int o the ser ies points lead. (Below) Will Davis ran a solid second that was put into jeopardy when his eng ine began to gre nade on the last lap of the race . Davis managed to nurse it home just ahead of th ird -placed Chris Carr.

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