Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Left) Morehead celebrates with friends following his seemingly easy win. (Right) Chris Carr finis hed second but moved into the series point lead with one race lett. ah ead of Stan ley. It took me a cou ple of laps to ge t by. Once I got by Stanley, I cau ght back up to Parker and we sta rted cat ching everybody else." Jay Springsteen rounded out the top 10. Bart els' H arl ey-Davidson's Sh aun Russell won hi s fir st Harley-Davidson Sp orts te r Performance Series main of th e year, but it was not eno ug h to keep Mill er El e ctr ical Co ns t ru cti o n/ La s Vegas H arley-Da vidson /Texan H arl eyDavidson's Jess Roed er fro m locking u p the se ries title. Roed er st ruggled hom e in eigh th pl ace - good enough for a 25point lead going into the fina l race of th e year. HEATS Fast qualifier Carr looked to have the first la-lap heat all wrapped up, as he led the first nine laps. He was, however, stalked by Joe Kopp, who was able to blast around on the outside in turns three and four and steal the win. An equally tight battle was being waged over t h e las t direct t ransfer between Stanley and Springsteen. Stanley too k the spot after Sp ringer's high line went away. Joi ni ng Springsteen in the semis were Steve 'Libe rty and Willie McCoy. Varnes rocketed off the starting line, w ith Davis tryi ng to keep pace. Mech anical g re mli ns o nce again hit Varnes as his shock blew u p . Dav is took over and ran away with the w in. Geo Roed er inherited second fr om th e fad ing Varnes. Nicky Hayden pressu red Roed er for a w hile before se ttling into third. Varnes so ldiere d home in fo urt h, ahead of J.R. Schn abel and T err y Poovey. King ju m p ed in to the lead of the th ird heat, with yo ung lio ns Co olbeth and Bigelow all over him. On the third lap, Kin g made a rare m iscue. Th e red flag was ou t on lap th ree and a com plete rest art was called. Coolbe th led Ru ssell and Bigelow off the line as King was relegated to the penalty line. Bigelow s lipped in to s ec o nd a t the end of th e first lap. The to p two positions w ere set , but Russ ell was leading a five-rider fre ig ht train, with Paul Morgan, Johnn y Murphree, King a n d Brett Landes all close. Ru ssell mainta in ed his th ird-place p osition d e spite a lat e -ra ce cha rge from King. Exiting turn fou r on th e last lap, Russell lost traction a n d was co m pletely s ideways . Th e you ngs ter h el d o n a n d sent Kin g t o a la st-cha n ce semi. In th e las t heat, Dan Butler w as th e quickest off th e lin e. He led M orehe ad a nd Lonny Kopp into tum one. It only lasted three laps until Morehead flexed hi s muscles and too k ov er. Moreh ead left Butler we ll behind, as Ga ry Rogers stayed close. " I couldn't believe it ," Roger s sa id . . "It sou nded like so meone w as right on me th e whole tim e. I thought, 'Where's Parker at?' It' s pretty coo l. After last night, 1 thought ther e w as no wa y, but w e got th e bike work ing p re tty good. It's abo ut tim e." Ro g ers was hea de d into h is first Grand Na tio na l final. Joe Eades was a so lid fourth, while the b ig surprise was Parker, who was buried in the ei gh th position. Ja ime Aguilar, Marco Morello and Kopp all led the defending champ into the semis. SEMIS Steve Liberty led the first semi into tum one, with Greg Teague right on his hip. Teague he ld down the po in t at the end of the first lap and pulled to a small lead. Libe rty remained in second and gained his firs t Grand National berth. J.R. Sch nabel blasted into the lead of the seco nd se mi, with King and Pa rker trailing. Schnabel looked poised to send th e p o in ts ra ce into a scramble when disaster hit the you ngster. "I had a good pace going, and I just ran it in a little high in three and four," Sch nabe l. "The back e n d kin d of step ped out and th en it hoo ked up, an d it almost high -sid ed me." Sc h n abels exc u rsio n o pe ne d t he d oor for both King and Parker to storm by him. " I had mo re room than I th ou gh t," Schnabel said . "I wish 1 had known that. If I wou ld've just d ropped down on the bottom and tak en it easy - bu t I tho ug ht th ey (King an d Pa rke r) w ould bo th be right there." King was go ne, w hile Parke r still had to contend wi th a closing Schnabel and Landes . On the last lap, Schn abel made a last-ditch effo rt and went h ig h into tum th ree. " I just go t a little bit too high aga in ' th at la st lap and go t in to the marbles and lost it," sa id Schnabel of his failed a ttem pt. La ndes e n ded up get ti ng th e best drive off four, but he came up just sho rt. "J.R. gave me an early Christmas presen t," Parker sa id . " I w ould probably have en ded up third and been sitting on the sidelines. I've got to thank him; luckily, he stayed on the th ing, because tha t loo ked like it wou ld' ve been a nasty crash." Sp ri ngsteen le d the la s t semi into tu rn o ne over P aul Bergstrom a n d Va rnes . By la p two, Varnes wa s out fro nt and pulling away . Springsteen se ttled into second, and th e starting field for th e Natio nal was set. HARLEY-DAVIDSON SPORTSTER PERFORMANCE NATIONAL A lar ge field of 30 riders signed up for th e Sp ort ster class, and th e con tes t was run in three heats to se t the 17-ride r main. The first heat w en t to Sha u n Russell, as he a nd Jes s Ro ed e r fi n is hed w ell ahead of Sean Lollar and Na te Wai t. Gary Rogers ran away wi th the second heat, a head of an equa lly spaced Willie McCoy and Paul Morgan. Th e la st heat fell to John Faulkner. Faulkner easily outdis tance cl Brian Kromroyand Billy Martin. When the 12-lap main event roared into tum one, Russell was in comma nd, ahead of Wait, Roeder and Rogers. Rogers took over second on lap two and brieflv held the lead d own the back .straight. Russell was no t going to let his first win of 1998 sli p away an d he was back in front at the finish line. Russell would go on to lea d all of the laps. Rogers grabbed another second - his third of the .year. Krom roy was wo rking his way to the fro nt, and by the end . of the race he was a solid third. Wai t ended up fourth, ahead of Billy Martin. Joe Duvall moved his bike up two positions on the last la p for sixth . Paul Morg a n , Roeder, Fau lkne r and McCoy ro u nded o ut the top 10. GRAND NATIONAL As th e 18 r ide rs for th e 25- la p Na tional file d ou t to pick their starting po sitions, it became clea r that the sp o t of choice was the ou tside or all the way on the bottom of the banked straightaway. By virtue of his fast hea t, Moreh ead had th e first pick and he opte d fo r th e far outside. Morehead's lO-la p heat time was a lmos t th ree seconds fas te r th an Coolbeth's seco nd fas t hea t. Coolbeth lined up to Morehead's left, with Ko pp, Bigelow, Butler and Davis filli ng o ut t he fr o nt row . Ro w two belonged to Carr, Roeder, Stanley, Hayden, Russell and Rogers. The last row co n ta in e d Pa rker, Springsteen, Liberty, Teague, King and Varnes - that is, until Ha yd en and Parker w ere caught creeping and they were sent to the fourth-row penalty line. Morehead h ad th e firs t g reen light tim ed perfectly. "Th e start w as m y doing," Mo rehead said . " After 25 yea rs, th ey let me d o so mething . My crew w on this thing; I was jus t along for the rid e." Early o n, Kopp held second ov er Carr and Coolbeth, but Coolbeth was on the move. Coolbeth took second on lap three and had a small amount of breathing room when the red flag cam e out as the field completed lap seven. Carr was making an impressive run to the front. " I go t a g reat start initially - second ro w outside - and I was fourth into th e first turn," Carr sa id. "I wa s hoping to just beat my row, and I beat three guys off the fro nt row, too." Joe Kopp was o ne of severa l to benefit from th e red flag. "For th e ma in even t, we had .a tall gear o n, a nd th e first la p s befo re th e resta rt, I was going backw ard s," Kopp said. "The re just wasn't enough u p high w he re we had been in the hea t race. We elected to p ut a tooth back on for the restart." Coolbeth's race started to unravel at about the halfway point. "I was getting traction - a little too much traction in spots - and it.was sending me out towards the wall every now an d then ," said Coolbeth. Kopp dogged his teammate until lap 16, w hen he too k over third for good. "A t th e end, I started to catch Chris , but then I abou t lost it in turn four," Kopp said. "I looked back and I had a lead on fourth . I was still trying to catch h im , but I wasn' t going to go th ro ugh those sa me ho les I was going through before. It was just like, 'Kee p it on tw o w heels and make it to the pod ium : " Bu tler had p le nty of probl ems but still came away w ith a so lid sixth-p lace finish. "We had it; I w as hold ing back," Butler sa id. "Bu t you know how it is. If you don 't ge t out in front of the m, you have to work tw ice as hard to ge t by them. We just fell short. The trac k go t so narrow and slip pe ry com ing down off three and fo ur . In o ne and two, I had them covered . .I co u ld get a good dri ve o n them, bu t we'd co me up ju st sho rt of finishing off th e pass. You do n' t wa n t to blow it off the groove here - yo u'd reall y 00 0\ 0\ ,...., -.:1' ,....," l-o (J) .c o .... u o 17

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