Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

DIRT TRACK AMA GRAND NATIONAL C HAMPIONSH SERIES IP By Dave Hoenig Pho tos by Flat Trak Fotos 00 0'\ 0'\ ,..... "':1" ' ,..... l-< (J) ..0 o .... u o 16 LAS VEGAS, NV, OCT. 3 t' s not surp rising th a t Steve Morehead w as able to capture his 23rd N ational win on the bumpy-sli ck Las Vegas Mo tor Sp eedway half mil e, but the full-straigh taway lead he gained in the 19 laps a fter a red flag had halted the action was very impressive. "O h , m a n , wh at a d a v !" th e F&S H arl ey-D a vid son /KK Suppl y / She p h erd & Dragoo- backed Morehead exclaimed when all was said and done. "It's Gary's birthday. My buddy Fra nk agy, who's bee n working with Gary (Sto lzenberg ) an d Dennis (To w ne) all yea r, got marr ied . We jus t had a lot of ad renaline flowing comi ng in. The las t few weeks, things ha ve been clicking. Gary and Dennis wo rk toget her really good. Dennis and I see eye to eye on a lot of stuff. They .had the motorcycle SQ easy to ride - it was flawless. AlI I ha d to d o was give them so me feedback; they mak e it happen . That motorcycle steered better than any thing I' ve ever ridde n in my life. Th e throttle control was there. It went over the bumps so easy. Dennis is a wizard o n sus pension." Morehead threw a wrench into th e tigh tes t point race in the seri es' history, but title contender Ch ris Carr was ab le to take over the point s lead by working his way into a solid second p lace. Of the four title contenders (Carr, Scot t Parker, Rich King, and Will Davis), th e Harl eyDavidson of Sacramento /Phoen ix Raeing/ RC Digital-backed Carr's weeke nd was the most successful. Much of the drama sta rted 24 hours earlier in th e Hot Shoe National. All Round 18: Las Vegas Motor Speedway' fo u r o f th e contenders were chec king out the treacherous half mile . Three lap s into the main event, points lead er Parke r go t h is foo t ca ugh t in a hole and pull ed off th e track in obvious pain . Parker rod e straigh t to his car and headed to his ho tel. Th e next da y , Park er was u p bea t abou t the incident. "The leg' s good ," Parker sa id . " It didn' t affect me at all. We had it locke d in prett y we ll all nigh t wit h a brace and tape. I was rea lIy worried last night, and I thought the re was no way tha t I going to be able to ride. I iced it alI the way home and the n iced it for about an hour and a half in the mo tel. Finally, I decid ed I had to get some sleep; it was abo ut • one in the morni ng . When I woke up this morn ing, there was no swelling." Ki ng ad ded t o the su spen se by falli ng in tu rn three while leading the th ird heat. Th e Corbin Racing /SuperTrap p / Rogers Ra ci n g- ba c ked King restarted the heat but finished just ou tside a direct tran sfer . Add ing to King 's probl ems wa s an injured finger. "It's no t good, " Kin g admitted . "I ju s t go t in so me m arble s and we nt d own. Th e cl u tc h lev er b roke, a nd I th ink it h o oked o n to m y g love . I cou ld n' t ge t my ha nd ou t fro m under th e handlebars. It to ok the end of m y finger' - by the fingernail - off, and I'm pretty sure it's broken just below the big knuckle." Defend in g rac e winner Will Davis looked strong alI night, but th ings fell ap art during the mai n event. "We just made some w rong calls for th e m ain e ven t - boneh ead m o ve s," Davis admitted. "We tried to go a little faster a nd we made a wrong cho ice of St eve Morehead scored h is first GNC w in of th e year at t he Las Vegas Half Mlle . He is fl an ked by Joe Ko pp and Chris Carr. tir es, es pecially after the red flag . We cha nged so me other stuff before the mai n, and the y were d efi nit ely wrong, too. Tha t happens; de al with it." Ea rly iI\ the National , Morehead pulled to a commanding lead , but th e act io n behin d h im was tight. HarleyDavidson of Missou ri / Dave Bur ks Mo to rsports' teammat es Ken Coolbeth and Joe Kopp ba ttled over seco nd. CooIbeth took over on lap th ree and too k off after the di sappearing Morehead . On lap seven, Geo ROeder bailed off in tum three, and, as the leaders came a r o u n d toward th e re d flag , Br yan Big el o w hit th e g round hard in tu rn fou r. . " We were co mi ng fo r the red flag and there was a flag man ru nning out to help Roeder," Bigelow said. "I swerved to the inside to miss him , an d I hi t that berm on the inside of the jrack. I lost the front wheel and down I wen t." This cost the youngster his fifth-place position. After a b rief d e la y , a ll 18 riders restarted, w ith Mo rehe ad taking command even more qui ckly. Ca rr, wh o had moved p ast Kopp for third , lost th e positi on back on the restart. Carr methodically worked his way int o third and began to harass Coo lbeth. "I was able to apply so m e pressure an d go t by Kopp." Carr sa id. " I w a s kind of even with Coolbeth; he was run-. nin g really goo d before the red flag . I didn't ge t off quite like I wanted to on th e re s tart and h ad to get b y Kopp again . I chasedCoolbeth down, an d he m ad e a mista ke d own in one and two. I was ab le to ge t by him and take off after Steve, bu t there was ju s t no catching him. He was hooked up tonight." T hree la p s aft er Ca r r go t a ro u n d Coolbeth, Kopp also set his teamma te back. " It was a real slick track, bu t you to really use a lo t of bod y ," Kopp said. "You had to be in condi tion, especially your forearms, because yo u had to fight th e front end alI the tim e. It was so eas y, to slip up and ha ve .someone slip under you . It was a real ph ysical track - a little rough - but it was just so slick that if yo u sc re w ed up once, you'd be up 10 fee t higher than yo u wan ted. I just had to chase the front end when Chris got by me . Then the sa me thing happened to Kenny w hen we both go t by him. I don't know if he wa s getting tir ed or w hat, but I knew I was getting tired ." It turned out that Coo lbeth had other problems. "My tire went away," Coolbeth said. "If we didn't have the red flag, and I'd been by myself, I think I could 'v e saved the tire a little more. I was riding a little harder wh en they passed me, and I was smoking my tire. I wa s ru nning it in as hard as tho se guys wer e, and I just skated right off the groo ve. I had to just twow hee l it in and not tou ch the brake." King' s gritty ride gained him a fourthplace finish , as he wa s abl e to mov e all the wa y from 12th on the first lap . " I just ca n' t say en ough abo u t my crew," King sai d . "Before the start of the main event, Sam noticed the front wheel was bent. He went to tak e it off and the axle wa s bent. We got that changed, and the y just wo rked their butts off. It was a tou gh night, that 's all." Bigel ow' s USC Ra ci ng /Lan ca ster Harle y-Da v idson / Dod ge Bro th ers teammat e Da n Butler to ok over Bigelow's vacated fifth po sition after the r esta rt, and h e cl osed on the Coolbe th /Kopp battl e. King ma de it a fourrider bat tle over th e last pod ium position. Butler w a s faced with a "good news /bad news" problem. " W e lost the e xhaust pipe, but it wasn' t all bad," But ler said. " It hurt me o n top end , but th en it helped m e through three and four, because the bike would only run up and then fall on its face. That helped me a lot through three and four, because those guys were sta_ ing to get away from me . After it fell off, it toned the mo tor down so mu ch that I started getting off the comers and I ran up on them. Kenny and I we re just going back and forth ; we wer e bu mping a nd rubbing; it was so close. I go t up next to hi m a couple of tim es, bu t he jus t ha d the motor at the top . I fell flat and he had enough to inch bac k by me again." After dropping as low as 15th before the red flag, Parker cha rged back to finish sevent h. "I was moving up before the red flag, bu t the restart just let me get by a couple of g uys a lit tl e fas te r," Parker sai d. "May be I wo uld n' t hav e go tten up quite so far , but th at 's racin g." Kevin Varnes followed Parker through the field to an eigh th-place finish. "We got a rea l good restart and then made a couple of passes, but I cou ldn' t make th em s tic k, " Varnes said . " W e were ge tting them on the outs ide going in to the corners but the n had to d ro p back down in lin e when the top went a w a y. There w asn 't anything le ft up there. I tried it a couple of times; there just wasn't any thing there. We cam e up on Stanley, and I tried to get around on the outside, and I went real wide - tha t's w hen Parker go t by me; then he go t

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