Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Round 3: Daytona Municipal Stadium AMA NA TIONAL HOT SHOE SERIES • (Above) Chris Carr (4) rides past a stationary Scott Parker (1). Parker led the early going but was passed by carr; then Parker's timing belt broke. (Left) Carr (4) took charge on the 1Oth lap and Parker (1) held second for a few laps until his machine expired. By SCott Rousseau Photos by Dave Hoenig and Kinney Jones • 8l ,..: 36 DAYfONA BEACH, FL, MAR 5 fter the thunder died, the motors cooled and the champagne ran out of fizz, Harley-Davidson of Sacramento/Phoenix Racing's Chris Carr was the latest rider to enter his name in the Daytona doublebagger sweepst~es. For it was the 32-year-old Carr, a two-time Daytona Short Track winner, who rebounded from a less-than-perfect A start and then used careful line selection to overtake last year's winner, Scott Parker. And then he went on to win the first night of Pro short-track racing at Daytona Municipal Stadium during round three of the AMA National Hot Shoe Series, the all-important tune-andtest that leads up to the Grand National Championship Series-opening Daytona Short Track on Saturday night. Carr looked a little shaky at the start of the main event, as he trailed F&S Harley-Davidson/KK/Shepherd & Dragoo rider Steve Morehead, pole sitter Brett Landes on the Team Undo/Don- ahue Harley-Davidson entry, Team KTM's Joe Kopp, Departure Bike Works' John Nickens III, and a flying Parker early in the race. And when Parker, who came from the last row after having to transfer through a semi, took the lead and set sail for the checkered by the third of the 25 sched uled laps, it appeared as though Carr was in a deep hole indeed. Instead, it was Carr who mastered the deep holes that appeared in the racing surface, and once Parker came down from his post on the high line, Carr mixed technique with the excellent handling of his Kenny Tolbert- tuned mount to reel in the nine-time 'AMA Grand ational Champion by the 10th lap. Then it was Carr's turn to take charge, and the 1992 AMA Grand National and multi-time AMA 600cc National champion never relinquished. the lead, cruising to the win by about half a straightaway over ultimate second-place finisher Kopp and third-place man Landes. "I was just able to run the lines that I wanted to run, and it looked to me like he (Parker) abandoned what got him to where he was. He made a mistake in three and four, and I went underneath him and never saw him again. There was no magic to it. Kenny's been tuning my 600s for 11 years now, and the thing was good. It's just an oLd Ron Wood chassi , the same old design that Ron has had since 'B6.It works for me." Parker ran second for several laps before his Bill Werner-prepared HarleyDa vidson XR600 tossed a timing belt, ending his evening prematurely. From t)lere, last year's second-place finisher, Kopp, and last year's third-place finisher, Landes, waged war for the same two spots. Landes never strayed from the low line, while Kopp ran a bit higher in an attempt to skirt the holes. After several side-by-side laps, Kopp was able to pull clear of Landes and eke out enough of an advantage to guarantee the same results as last year when the checkered flag fell. "Man, that was great," Kopp said. "I'm really happy for KTM. My KTM was working great ·tonight. This was really important to me, beca use I felt like we could have won last year, and now I know we have a good shot at . winning tomorrow night. I'm a little tired, because this was the first (25-lap) race of the year for us, but the KTM was handling great all night, and maybe we can corne back and do better tomorrow." . "It's a good start for tomorrow night," Landes said of his third-place run. '1 was in that first heat, and thel1 I wasn't on the track again for three hours. It was as smooth as glass when I went out there the first time, but when 1 went back out there, the holes were a foot deep. I'm happy, but tomorrow night I want to improve on that finish." It was former Daytona Short Track winner Landes who also sat on the pole for the first heat race earlier in the night, and he grabbed the lead off the start of the first 10-lapper and took Contillental Tire/Mikuni's Greg Tysor wit\J. him. Landes pulled away from the ba ttle for second place, which remained a heated one when TyS<1r slid wide, allowing Richard Winsett all. the Winsett family Rotax.to duck a wheel underneath Tysor in every turn. When Tysor bobbled in turn two just past the halfway point, Winsett took advantage and skittered into second place. Then Tysor caught a break and regained the runner-up spot after Winsett pulled off with problems on lap eight. There was no catching landes, however, who finished the race half a straightaway ahead of Tysor. "The track's great right now," landes said. "They did an excellent job on the track. I'm just having a lot of fun out there." Nickens attempted to pull a copyca t killing of heat race number two, as he pulled away to a quick lead over Canadian rider Chris Evans, 1-BOOFASTHOG/Gould Erectors rider Mike' Hacker, Heartland H-D Buell and ATK's Donnie Steward, and Parker, leaving them to battle it out over the second and final transfer into the main event. Parker tried valiantly to improve, but a broken spark-plug wire halted his charge. The

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