Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Right) Will Davis (21) ran second for much of the race, but Rich King (80) eventua lly got under Davis in tums three an d four and made a pass for the runner-up spot. In do ing s o, King pu lled ba ck to within four points of series leade r Sco tt Parker. (Below) Sco tt Parker on the ropes? Not likely, but the defending Grand National Champ ion (1) suffered a dismal eighth place at Rapid City, paddling backward after runn ing fifth early. Joe Kopp (43) ran second, almost crashed, and then rebounded to fourth : The n, al most inexp licab ly, it all sta rted to go so u th fo r th e Sou therner . Dav is seemed to have to fight to get off tu m tw o o n th e banked, grooved , cla y half mile, and he drifted higher and higher, allo w ing King to finally get a good run u nder him off the low line and ta ke over seco nd pla ce . Davis had more th a n enough for the rest of the field and ran thi rd , but it was ob vio us from his disappointment that he felt he had let this one get away. " I o ugh t to be happy, b ut m an .. ." Davis said. '1 ran Chris down in the first five laps . I w as killin ' him go ing into turn three. The n on lap six or seven, it just sto pped wor king . On lap seven or eig ht, I mad e a mistak e, and he go t ou t o n me, and I jus t kept telling myself, 'I can make it up, I can mak e it up.' But I just kept ge ttin' high er and higher until I g ot into the marbl es . But m y TCR Harley-Davidson ran pe rfectl y all night. It w as just me. If I had to go ou t the re and d o it all over aga in , I d on't kn ow what I'd cha nge. " Ask the fourth -placed Kopp the same qu e sti o n , a nd th e an swer wou ld be obvio us. After posting the fast heat tim.e of thr ee minutes, 49.513 seco nds to SIt o n the pol e , the Wa sh ington ia n a p pea red se t to sco re his first pod ium finish of the yea r. He w as second off the sta rt a nd every t hing seemed to go smoothly until th e 27-year-old Kopp hit tum thr ee and , very nearl y, the grou nd . " M an, I almos t wou n d u p o n m y head," said Kopp, w ho low-sided, then nearly high -sided , and then go t pitched u p to th e o u te r ed ge of th e tra ck . "I thought I was go ing to wi nd up in the hay bales for sure." Kopp was quickly swallow ed u p by the back, and altho ugh he fought his way back out of it, Carr, King an d Davis were . n ea rl y out o f s ig h t. Kop p co ntinued along, setting a fast , rh ythmic pace that guaranteed fourth place at the finish. " Ma n, I shou ld have been on the ' podium ," Kopp said . " I wish t ha t I ha dn' t made that mistake. But we're happy. I felt good o ut there, and Dave (Burks) was rea lly ha ppy to see us run fou rth an d fifth ou t ther e." No, Ko p p did n' t mana ge to tr ick AMA officials into believing th at he had finished in two s po ts . Rather, Kenny C ool be th, Kopp' s H -D of Mi s souri / Burks M ot orsports teammate, n etted fifth after running solid as a rock for the whole 25 laps and gaining spots by taking ad vantage of the misfortunes of o thers . Case in poi nt: Coolbe th g rabbed th e fifth spo t when fello w com petitor and tr aveling budd y Mike Hacker slipped off the groove in turn o ne just four la ps from the fin ish. The finis h was a good one fo r Coolbeth, w ho has long been to u ted as having 'a m ple ta len t to run near the fr ont of th e Grand N ational pack. "I'm happy," Coolbeth said. "This is my best fi nis h in a co upl e y ears , it seem s lik e. Everything was just w orking from th e get-go all d ay . Well , w e had a littl e bit of a sus pe ns ion problem ea rly in the day, but (H -D of Missou ri ow ner) Darrell Jones was her e, and he kn ows a lot about suspe nsion, a nd we got it solved . I had a totally d iffer ent line than anvone in the main even t. I was going low in the three and four and find ing moisture. It seemed to be working. Hopefully, we can go u p the ladder from here . Th is night gave me a good kick in the butt." Momentum a p pears to be th e name of the game right now, and it a ppears as tho ugh Carr certainly has it, and his old fa ctory H a rl ey- Da v id s o n teamma te , Scott Parker, clearly does not . Parker, who struggled to finish eighth a t Ra pid C ity, ha s e ffec ti ve ly g ive n b oth Kin g and Carr a go ld en opportunity to take over the seri es points lead. Parker still leads with 166, Kin g ha s 162 a nd Car r has 160. But th at co uld , and probabl y will, change. And King, for o ne, is no t discounting Parker fro m any thi ng . " H e ' s a lways to ug h, " Ki ng said. "E very ra ce is h is s tro ng puin t. A nd we' ve still go t a lot of mil es coming up. Th e co m pe tition is close. Everyone is trying to ca tch Parker, and I th ink that Chris, Will and I ar e really pushin g each o the r to do tha t every week. It' s really fun." HEATS Alt hough the crowd appeared to be as stro ng as ever, the rider count for the Rap id City race might best be d escribed as weak. O nly 32 competitors made the trip to Rapid City, leaving the hea t races a ppe aring barren , as no more than eight rid ers cam e to the lin e in anyone ra ce. Jaim e Aguilar was fast on the draw in th e fi rs t heat, putting h is Rock li n H arl ey-David son XR in fr ont of Carr and the rest of the field off th e sta rt. But Carr qu ickly rolled past Aguilar off turn two and set sa il in his quest for fa st tim e. Cozia hr Harl ey-Da vid son 's Paul Mo rga n III ran seco nd for much of the race , but the Illinois rider soon go t compan y in the form of Park er, Sch mulbac h Racing' s John ny Murphree, a nd USC Racing /Lancaster H-D/Dodge Brothers' Br yan Bigel o w. Parker went around Morgan on the ba ck stretch on lap four a nd had seco nd place by turn three . Morgan th en a ppea red to be safe, but th e hard -ch arging Murph ree go t up und ern ea th him on the last la p and too k the final transfer spot away. Carr, meanw hi le, cruised to the finish. "O ur stu ff was working," Carr sa id . "We mad e a gearing change and w ent to a d ifferent-width rear rim, and that's it." Kop p got a flier of a sta rt in th e seco nd hea t r a ce an d , li ke Ca rr, was untouchable en route to th e win. But as Kop p proceeded to put over a straigh taway-leng th' s d istance between him self and the rest of the pack, th e ba ttle for second remained intense. Ga rd ner Racin g /Walters Bro the rs H arle y-Da vid son's Dan Stanley held the s po t fo r abou t thr ee laps befo re slip ping off the groove in tu rn tw o an d let tin g Adkins Raci ng /Winchester H-D's Geo Roed er II and Powell Racin g' s f R. Sch nabel who was subbi ng for the injured Da ve Camli n on Ca m lin' s Team Sad d le men /I -80 0-FASTHOG H arley-Davidso n - ran third . Roeder and Schnabel traded th e second spot twi ce before transfe rring through to th e main event in sec ond a nd th ird, respectively. But Kopp w a s the man to bea t, o r so the stopwatch sa id, as he st ormed across the finish lin e to snag th e win and earn the pole. 'Th ings are goi ng well," Kopp sai d . "We mad e so me adjus tments, like lowering th e forks in th e triple clamps to s low t he s tee ri n g do w n , and that seemed to help a lot. We'll see. The track mi ght cha ng e for th e main event." H eat three w as a Rich King ben efi t, as " M r . Consistency" lived up to his name by ge tting th e holesh ot and th en methodically clicking off the 10 laps for th e wi n , build ing m o re t han a h alfstra igh ta way lead over his near est competition. " I think w e' v e go t a g o od s ho t toni ght," Kin g sa id . " We just hav e to find a little more horsepower. We know it 's in th er e. She 's jus t runni ng a little flat on to p, but looking a t the lap tim es, it looks like w e (Ca rr , Kopp and King ) we re all in the 22s at the end of the hea t races. The tr ack is n 't the sam e as las t year. It's faster, but it's go ing to be harder to pass on." Behi nd King , Hacker and Coolbe th we re engaged in a d ice for seco nd tha t

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