Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

DIRT TRACK AMA GRAND NAnONAL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES By Dave Hoenig Photos by Flat Trak Fotos - fte A r SACRAMENTO, CA, SEPT. 26 a tw o-we ek h iatu s, th e Am er ican Mot or cyclist Association's Gra n d Nation al Champions hip Series ro lled into Sacramento's Cal-Expo State Fairgrounds in the midst of one of the fierces t points battl es in the 45-year history of the series. Fou r riders came in to the race within two poi nts of the lead. Rich King and Will Dav is were tied for the lead, with defending champion Scott Pa rker and Chris Ca rr third an d fourth, respectively . A quick check of the record book showed that since 1985 there have been 23 races held on the Sacramento Mile track, a nd the wins have gone to jus t three ri d e rs: Th e lon g-re tired Bubba Shobert won three, Chris Carr captured ei ght , and the re ma ini ng 12 w ent to eight-time G rand N ationa l Champion Scott Parker. You can now make that 13 wins for the Harl ey-Da vid son Motor Co. / AGV/ HO G-sponsored Parker, who nipped th e Harley -David son of Sacramen to / Phoen ix Racing /RC Digital-backed Carr and Steve Morehead at the finis h line to capture his 90th ca reer Grand Nat ional main-event win . Rain during the seco nd heat race had caused a delav, which forced altera tions to the program. O nly tw o sem i races were run , and the Gra nd Nat ion al was shortened to 20 laps. The Harl ey-Davidso n Spo rtste r Perform ance Na tio nal an d 600c su pport ra ce were both canceled Round 17: Cal-Expo State Fairgrounds and paid off accordi ng to heat-race finishes. Despite the sho rter d istan ce, or pe rha ps becau se of it, the featu re was a flatou t battle. Par ker and Car r chased down ea rly leader Morehea d an d treated the 18,00o-stron g crowd to an action-packed Na tional. . "I was jus t dancing with the bo ys," Par ker sai d of his race strategy . "I mean everyone was dancing around." The top three ba ttled all around the track to the finish ..Much as he had done last year, Pa rk er d ro ve deep int o turn one in an attempt to put his tw o rivals awav. "On the last lap I tried to hu stle a little bit, but I knew it was go ing to be really hard," Parker sa id. " It was hard to get it in hot and keep a lot of mom entum going. I just rolled in as ha rd as I could and felt like I had a pretty good chance, but Chris had a pre tt y good chance, too." Th is.year the gamble was only partially successful. "Sco t ty s m o ke d it in th ere prett y good and burned good turns one and two, so I was probably fou r bike lengths beh ind , coming out of tw o," Carr sai d . "I wa sn' t able to ge t him back until we got in to three . It wa sn 't th e so u ndes t stra tegy, bu t I was thinking in my mind that if I hadn't gone by Scotty on that last lap, so me bo dy migh t have go t in between us. I d idn 't wa nt to run tha t risk an d finish third. Well, hindsight is 20/20, thou gh . I had a good hors e, 1 [ust didn't crack the whip good eno ugh ." Morehead, mea n whi le, was look ing to take ad vantage of any erro r from the former Harl ey-D avidson Factory team mates, "I tell yo u , th o s e tw o g uys a re sma rt," the F&S Harl ey-Davidson / KK Supply / Shepherd & Dragoo-spon sor ed Morehead sa id . "Ea rly in the race, when one of them w ould dra ft th e o the r, it wou ld pull me a lo ng, too. Th en th ey s ta rted messin g w it h each o the r and goi ng down the mid dl e of the straighta w a y. If you dra ft ed b y, yo u had to pass on the outside. The n towards the end they woul d wa it u nti l th e en d of the st raight, and I cou ld only get halfwav aroun d an d had to ba ck off. If Ch;is or Scotty, whichever was in second, would pass the other coming off the turn, it would pull me by to where I wa s clear of them when we would ge t to the next end. If they would wait until af te r halfwa v down , I cou ld n ' t clear ' them . They v':ould pull me up there , but 1 co ul d n' t finish the pass. Those guys moved arou nd the race track to wh ere you had to draft to the outside. They're really sma rt ; there wa s nowhere for me to go . I take my hat off to them - tho se two guys race with their heads." Saving his best for the end of the season, Harley-David so n of Missouri/Dave Burks M tors p orts' Ken Coo lbeth Jr. he ld hi s Carl Patrick-buil t Harley in four th p os ition for a ll but two la p s . After stavi ng off Rich King's late cha llen ge, Coo lbeth came away with his best finish so far in 1998. " I w is h Rich wou ld hav e come u p sooner, bu t I' m ha p p y wi t h fo u rth ," Coolbe th sa id . "I shou ld have started this a t the beg inn in g o f the yea r. Th e whole race 1 was clo si ng up , fallin g back, closing up, fallin g back. 1was ha ving trouble ge tting out of the corn ers, but 1 was gai ning going in . I'd rather be alone up fron t than way in back, scrambling for a spot." Coolbeth' s impressive rid e cam e at the expense of title contenders King and Will Davis. 'The bike was working good in the ma in and, coming d own to th e end, 1 thou ght we migh t hav e so methi ng for them ," the Co rbi n Racing / Supertap p / Rogers Racing-backed King sa id . "For so me reaso n we lost the brake. We started o n th e second row, so it wasn 't a good start. Five laps from the en d , we los t o ur b rakes, right w hen 1 caught Coo lbeth." Tommy Cummings Ra cing / Michigan Harley-Davidso n Deal er' s Will Davis was mad at himsel f for making a critical starting-line error. "I had a holeshot, I thought, then I missed s econd gea r," Da vis said . "I missed second gea r, no two wa ys about it. When that happens, you hav e to let it go back to idle befor e you can get it to go into gear. By then I was in last. The dang traffic at this place, you just have one spot (to run) a nd it' s ha rd to ge t lhrough. On ce I got free of all of them and the weaving everywhere, and could run my own lin e, I w a s abl e to ca tch them pretty easy . We ra n out of laps." USC Racing riders Ter ry Poovey and Da n Bu tle r fin is h ed i n seve n th a nd eighth, but th ey reac hed th ose res u lts from oppos ite d irection s. USC/La ncaster Harley-D a vid son /D od ge Brot he rs' Bu tler look ed to be off well - then his trouble started .

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