Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

DIRT TRACK A GRAND N MA ATIONAL C HAMPIONSHIP SERIES By Dave Hoen ig Photos by Flat Tra k Fotos DEL MAR, CA, OCT. II t lea st fo r th e ' next few months, Scott Park er 's eve r-cha ngi ng autograph will be followed by 91 wins . = 9 GNC. Every win and every title just push the H arl ey-D a vi d son Moto r Co '; AGV / HOG-sponsored Parker further and further into the record book. After the seaso n-fina le Del Mar Mile, as Pa rker was signing anything tha t would hold ink for his fans, his longtime mechanic (and the onl y person with mo re National wins and more Grand National Cha mpionships than Parker) , Bill Werner, cranked up the team hauler's stereo, playing Queen's "We Are The Champions." That they are. The Am erican Motorcyclist Associatio n' s 1998 Gra nd National Dirt Track Series points race was one of the best in history. Entering the last race, fou r riders still had a mathematical shot at the title. The two forme r Ha rley-Davidson factory tea mmat es, Pa rker a nd Chris Carr, were th e favorites , t ho ugh. Th e H a rl e y- Da vid s on of Sa c ram ento / Ph oeni x Racin g /RC Digital-sponsored Ca rr held a sli m two- p oint lead over Parker. But Parker 's history on the Del Mar Mile (wi nni ng three out of four and hold in g the 25-lap recor d on the cushion ed mile oval) made him the odds-on favorite to repeat . Carr acknowledged as mu ch after the race. "It's tough wh en you come to a trac k . lik e th is w it h a s lim lead," Ca rr said . Round 19: Del Mar Fairgrounds "Sco tty grew up on crappy tracks like this. He' s proved over and over that he's . the best in the business on this typ e of track. Th e big, ball-busting cu shions he's going to be the man to beat." Rich King and Will Davi s we re also still in the hunt, but each of them wo uld need both Parker and Carr to falt er to be ab le to pull off th e title wi n ; n eith er wo uld . Because of deteriorating track conditions, all the race's lap s were shortened . The Nation al was run at 20 laps, but it wou ld ta ke th ree tries to ge t it d one. Parker was dominant when he had to be, leading every lap . He also had to overcome two crash-ind uced res tarts and a long delay after the setting sun was righ t in the riders' eyes in turn three. Parker saw his early lead wiped out when icky Hay den fell in turn two on the second lap. A com plete restart wa s called for , with Hayden coming from th e p enalty li ne. The second ti me aro und , Parke r s till m a in ta in e d h is advantage and left the other 17 riders in his wake. Carr gamely tri ed to make a race of it, bu t he was fading as bot h KK Mo to rcycle Su p p ly / M ik e' s Ha rley Davidson's Geo Roeder and Dan Butler go t by on lap 14. Unfortunately for eve ryo ne - es pe ci a ll y th e USC Ra ci n g / La n ca s t e r H arl ey-D a vid s on /D od g e Bro the rs s p ons o red Butler - th ere wa s con tac t going into turn thr ee, and Butler's race came to a violent end . Carr was apo loge tic for his part in Butler's ge t-off. " I gave him (Pa r ke r) eve ryth ing I had ; it just wasn't eno ugh," Parker said . "I was chasing Scotty as hard as' I could, and I was making mistakes and getting tired , fighting the bike. ] was pretty well spent a t that time. Danny Butler and] got together, and he got bumped wid e, int o Roeder's rear wheel. He hit Roeder's rear wh eel and high -sided. It's a racing incid ent, but I felt bad it happened, becau se he was going good ." Desp ite pulling to a full-straightaway lead before the race was stopped , thin gs we re not all rosy for the d efending champion. No doubt the most gu t-wrenching ti m e fo r Werner a n d Parker w a s th e delay during the second red flag. . When Parker pulle d in to th e work area , We rner noticed a s ma ll leak in Parker's gas tank. "The big co nce rn af ter the red flag was a small qua rte r-inch gas leak in the tank; it was rig ht in the seam," Pa rke r said. "Bill just started put tin g tape on it while we were wa iting . Af te r th e 10 minu tes were up, he cou ld n' t do anythi ng else to it or I wo u ld ha ve had to start last. Then we had that long delay jus t what we di dn' t need." As th e track prep a n d th e s u n se t wo re on, Parker worried . "What ha ppens if the tape slides off an d it sta rts pourin g out gas?" Parker said . "You just keep wo rry ing that the who le thing is going to slide off and gas is going to start pouring out. The longer we had to wai t, the better the chance wa s we wou ld have to go to the back of the pack. I wanted to put a new tank on, bu t Bill said no, and he just started taping it up. He started sma ll and just kept going wi?er and wider.", Scott Parker (1) survived two restarts and a six-lap dash to cla im his 91 st career Grand National win and , more Importantly, his ninth (and fifth consecutive) AMA Grand Natio nal title at the series-finale Del Mar Mile. When the action did resume, Parker had no problem p ick in g up where he left off. "I had so me grea t lin es during th e Na tiona l; I th ink th ey wer e th e best] had all d ay," sai d Pa rker. "I can only rem ember ge tti ng slo ppy one tim e and tha t was in turn one . Down in three a n d fo u r, i t w a s just w ham, w ham, wham lik e clockwo rk, right o n every tim e." The re d flag was Roeder' s misfortu ne, as he gave up second to the reju venated Ca rr on the restart. ' "The restart hurt some, because ] was in seco nd , but Butler was coming on me, so if h e had n 't fa lle n, he m ig ht ha ve p assed me anyway," Roed er sa id. "I was closi ng on Ch ris again. If th e race had been a little longer, 1 think I had a good shot a t second again. It seemed like he was better on the short ru n, and 1 was bett er on the lon g . 1 was goi ng in high and squaring it off, and exiting on th e p ol e. I'd been d oing it th e w ho le race, a nd (then) Da n go t int o me. It' s one of those things where there wasn't much] cou ld d o. ] feel bad abou t him ru nnin g into me, but 1 was just ru nning my line. I wa s mak ing time on Chris by squ aring off the corn ers." Jus t before the red flag , on lap 12,

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