Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Left) Chris Carr (4) came off the second row to wind up in third place at Route 66, thus making for a 1-1-3 week of Grand National competition ..Kevin Varnes (89) finally had a bike that would stay together, and he was fifth at the finish. (Below) Brett Landes (41) charged into the fifth spot late in the race, passing eventual s ixth-place finisher Nicky Hayden (69C), who had run as high as third during the main event. the front. Varn es found his way past ho t y ou n g sters USC Ra cin g ' s Bry a n Bigelow, Team Powell 's J.R. Schnabel . and TCR' s N icky Ha yden (among ot hers) before se ttling int o fourth place on la p 16, far eno ugh beh in d Ca rr that-h e was u nable to mou n t a cha lle nge for thi rd pl ace . From there, Va rnes ro de hard an d pra yed th a t h is mot o rcycle would stay together - so me thi ng th a t has been a di fficu lt proposition of late. Varn es went on to score only his second top-five finish of the year. "Every thing went pr ett y good for us , and it's abo ut time," Varn es said. "Lately, everything has been suckin'. But I'm rea lly g lad for the tea m, and I' m glad that I qua lified for the Hall of fame race he re ton igh t. On ce I got in that, there wa s no pressure in the main e vent. We ' ve go t an oth e r co u p le g ood half miles coming up. Hopefully we can just keep this rolling." Team Und o/Don ahu e Harl ey-Da vid son's Brett Landes more or less followed Varnes arou n d th e t ra ck after b eing passed by the Pennsylvan ian w hile run ni ng six th. Th e pa ir' s pace took th em past a struggling Hayden, who had held third place earlie r in the race. The en d result w a s th a t Land es h ad hi s best 750cc Grand National finish of the yea r. . Hayd en wound up sixt h aboard hi s part-time TCR/Michigan Harley-David so n Dealer's As soci ation rid e. Springs tee n sold ier ed on to fini sh seven th. TLC Racin g's Chris Eva ns battled with USC Ra cin g / Lanca st er H-D /Dod ge Brothers' Dan Butler for eighth. Schn abel ro unded ou t th e top 10, running jus t ahea d of Parker. HEATS Steve Morehead pu n ch ed hi s F&S Ha rley-Davidson /KK/Shepherd & Dragoo machine to the front of the pack and led the first lap when the first of the four IO-Iap qualifying hea t races got und er way - but Davis slipped und er Morehead d own th e ba ck s traigh t and ran ha r d on the low edge of th e groove, quickly pulling away. Sub urba n Mot ors' Brent Armbruster ran third, with Varnes run nin g fo urt h a nd q uickly ga ini ng ground . Varn es qu ick ly s u p p la n te d Armbruster for third an d the n d ived underneath Morehead in turn four to take away second on lap tw o. Ca rr was a lso in this one, and he was working hard to get into contention for a qualifying s p o t. After making his way to fourth, the former series cha mp ion took a shot at Morehead in turns one and two on lap eigh t and then made a pass a t the line on the last lap to steal thi rd place. But th er e was no catching Davis, who had extended his lead to almost a full straig htaway by the fifth lap . Davis made it look easy as he crossed the line and stopped the clocks to earn another p o le position, p osting a time of three minu tes, 49.518 seconds. " I w is h it was easy," Davis sa id. "T his TCR Harl ey- Da vid son works so go od w eek in and week ou t. My crew works so hard to give me such a goo d m otorcycl e. Hope fully, so rne of th e moisture will come up later . I wish that we cou ld run around the top . This is such a g rea t facility . If we cou ld ru n from top to bot tom, this place would be un believable." King d id Davis one better in heat two - at least in the start depa rtment - as the Iowan jammed his Hon d a to th e fore after winning a drag race wit h Coziahr H-D's Paul Morgan III d own the ba ck s tr aight. Beh ind th em , Schnabe l, Bob No rfleet Racing' s John Nicken s Ill, Bartels' H-D' s Sha un Russell and W hit e's H-D's Mike Varn es were dicing for the third spot. As tha t pack sorted itself out, King experimented a bit , running from : top to bottom on the groove but basically m aintainin g lines- that kept him pulling away from the rest of the field . In the meantime, Schnabel and Morga n got free fro m N ickens (who ran second for a brief period), Russell and Mike Varn es. The tw o ran side by side down the fro nt stra ight on laps five and seven, wi th Mor gan mai nt ainin g the seco nd spo t, but Schnabel finally got a dri ve off the last corne r to jus t beat Morgan to the line for seco nd . By th en, Kin g w a s already long gone. "This Corbin Ra cin g Honda reall y fe e ls goo d ri g h t n ow ," Kin g s ai d . "Hopefu lly, we can kee p it on the box, but it' s really going to take a good start ton ight. I get good s ta rts, but it's just that I don't ge t to the corner first." He at three w as th e Sprin ge r-a nd Park er show, the three-time cha mp get ting the holesh ot and then showing the eight-time cha mpion that he still has the fire a n d th e d esi re . Sprin gst een kept Parker at bay in the early laps and then quickly beg an to es ta b lis h hi s d om inan ce wit h a lead that was five lengths o n la p three, seven on lap fou r, a nd around 20 by lap nine. Parker ran seco nd, ahead of TC R teamma tes N icky Hayden and Paul Bergstrom, wi th Hayden movin g away to earn the last d irect transfer. Sp rings teen's win wa s clearly a popular one, as was evidenced by the cheers of the cro wd . "It's ve ry hard to pass out th er e," Sp rings teen told them. "It's slippe ry in th e corners, so you g otta get a good start. You want to gas it, but it's like the slower you go , the faster yo u go . You just have to be rea l easy ge tting off the corners and use a lot of throt tle control." The final heat offered the best battle for the lead , as Butler went to the front, a hea d of Adkins Racing /W inches ter Harley-Davidson /KK's Geo Roed er Il, USC Ra cin g / La ncas ter H-D' s Bryan Bigelow, Land e s and H -D of Missouri /Burks Motorports ' Kenny Coolbeth , Butler looked to take off earl y, bu t tea m mat e Bigelow sta rted reeli ng him in while an in tense battle for third bet ween Roeder, Landes and Coolbeth . wen t on behind them . Coolbeth began trying the outside on Landes and Roeder, with Landes d ropping low down the back s traight, w hen it all came to a head . As they hit the turn thr ee-wide, Landes went in underneath Roed er , and the two a p pa re n tly made co n tact. Roed er hit the ground hard . Cool beth, ha ving nowhere to go, was collected by Roeder, the tw o gri ndi ng to a halt - practically on top of one ano ther - just befo re the ha y bal es. Both w er e unhurt. The race was halt ed and pu t in the books, wit h Butler a nd Bigelow running 1-2 and La nd es bein g awa rded third place. "I believe we cou ld have held on for a cou ple more laps," Butler said. "We've been wo rking har d to chan ge my style so that I really ride it on the front wheel at th ese groove tracks. You need to do th at. We ju st need to tr y a n d s tay focused for 25 lap s now . That' s hard to d o, but we' re lookin g fo r so me good · things to come ou t of this one." SEMIS • TLC Racing's Evans ow ned the first se mi fro m sta rt to fin ish, while Morehead and Russell ran nose to tail as the y battled over the second and fina l transfe r s pot. The 19-yea r-o ld kid w a s all over the "Findl av Flier ," but he could n ot fi n d th e way a ro u n d Mo reh ead, w ho s how ed enou g h poise to avoid a m ist ake tha t w ould cos t him a spot in the main event. The second se m i looked lik e so m eth ing ou t of th e wild West, as "cow boys" John ny Murphr ee on the Sch mulbach Racing Harl ey-David son and Dan Stanl ey on the Ga rd ner Racing/Walters Bro thers H-D-ba cked Harley-Da vidson engaged in a shoo tout to the finis h, wi th Nickens thrown into th e mi x as well. .St anl e y ca me from fourth pla ce and eve ntually ran underneath Murphree in turn fou r to ta ke the lead . Murphree h eld on for second . In cid en tall y, this w as the semi that took out a lot of heavy hitters, as Team Saddleme n/1 -800 FASTHOG's Mike Hacker, Roeder and H-D of Missouri's Joe Kopp all finished d own in the field and loaded up earlier than us ual. The third se mi hosted a great battle fo r th e fi na l trans fer s p o t, a s Arm bruster, Berg strom and Mike Varnes scuffled ove r the top two spo ts. M&K Racin g /F&S Ha rley- David son' s Jason Se n te ll w as run ning fo u rt h w he n he d ecid ed to ga m ble a nd go up high where no one had a ll n ight. Th e ploy worked , as Sentell had clear race track in fro nt of him in the turns and was able to skip into the lead . Sentell took the win, ea rn ing his fir st Gr a nd National m a in-event b erth . Armbru st er b eat Bergstrom to th e lin e for seco nd in a ph oto finish. 883 NATIONAL Team Saddlem en / I-8ClO-FASTHOG's Mike Hacker was look in g to co nti nu e the good week he' d had on the road by adding a w in in the Ha rley-David son Spo rts ter Per formance Series Nati on al to his excellen t l 1th- and sixth-place finishes at the previou s tw o Gra nd Nation als and ther e was no qu estion that he had what it took to d o that wh en the 17-rid er 883 field ru mbled off the starting line. Ha cker went s tra ig h t to th e front , with Ryan Brown , Scott Stump, Nate Wait , Jess Roeder and Shau n Russell in the immediate hunt. Wait soon dropped off the pace with problem s and would be cred ited wit h 17th, but Brown, Stu mp and Roed er w ere still engaged in a tight wa r for the other two podium spo ts, as Hacker was quickly checkin g ou t on the field. The Las Vegas Harl ey-Da vid sonbacked Roe d er made his wa y to th ird off turn fou r on lap four, but it was clear tha t his motorcycle was not handling w ell , as h e fought a b latant push in every turn. H e wou ld eventually drop back to fourth . In the meantime , Co rb in Racin g / Su per tra p p- bac ke d Ga ry Rog ers had Imth the spee d and the handling to slip his wa y past Roeder and Stump on lap eight and then stu n Brown with an outside move down the back stre tch for seco nd p lace. Rogers a p pea re d to begin mak ing time on Hacker, but he ran ou t of la p s befo r e h e co ul d d o so. And Hacker took the win. "I d idn't do good on my 750 toni ght, so I needed this," Ha cker said . "1 wanted to get the ho leshot, becaus e in m y heat race w ith Roed er it was hard to pass. I just tried to be smooth and use a littl e th rottle control." Roge rs appeared to be very pleased with second place. . "Th a t bike w as w orking," Rogers said. " It wasn 't pe rfect, but I could live with it. It was just gr eat to get back on the podium. It's been a long yea r, but this helps my confidence. It gives me a

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