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Dirt Track. Round 2: Hagerstown Speedway AMA GRAND NATIONAL DIRT TRACK SERIES By Dave Hoenig Photos by Flat Trak Fotos HAGERSTOWN, MD, MAY 8 n 1998, Jay Springsteen showed that he had the potential to win several Nationals, but something always popped 'Up to frustrate the three-time AMA Grand ational Champion. Well, 1999 has started much better for the Bartels' Harley-Davidson/Real McCoy' / SuperTrapp-backed Springsteen, who was nearly flawless in round two of the AMA's Grand National Dirt Track Series, which made the first of two stops at Hagerstown Speedway. Heavy overnight rains left the banked half mile a muddy mess, delaying the start of activities for several hours, but when the track was finally ironed into shape, the tacky, somewhat rough track trea ted the crowd to some great handlebar-to-handlebar racing. And without a doubt, Springsteen was the class of the field as he soundly thrashed the 17 other contenders in the feature to earn his first Grand National win since April 1, 1995, when he claimed the Pomona Half Mile. "It was a great thing, man," Springsteen said. ''I'm just really ha ppy. I know this is going to help out the season tremendously. I'm so happy for Bartels', myself, just everybody for starting the season out tins way. Jim Kelly and Joe Bisha just did a super job on the bike. It felt so good, all we had to do was pour gas in it and go. This is my 25th year in the series, and I just turned 42 last month, and that's my 42nd O ational win." After Springsteen blasted to a commanding lead, the crowd's attention focused .on a three-way battle over sec- ond. Will Davis inched his Eaken Racing/Dick Ford/Rod Lake-backed Harley into a solid second over the SF / LAF /Michigan Harley-Davidson Dealers/Duraliner-backed Tommy Cummings Racing team of Kevin Atherton and icky Hayden. Atherton was riding with the confidence and speed he has always shown, while Hayden's confidence was boosted by the knowledge that the. Hagerstown Speedway was the site of the best finish of his short career a fourth in last year's event. As traffic strung out, it appeared Hayden might once again take the fourth-place money home, but on lap 19 Davis' race came undone. "Flat tire, man - a flat tire!" a dejected Davis aid. "We couldn't handle Springer, but J tltink we had the rest of them. I'm glad to see him win. I ju t . wish J could have been there to follow him across the line. Everything , was grea t. It was just spot on. We ran the same setup all night. The track just came to us. Early, it was a little bit wet, but it just came around to what we like. " The race between teammates took on new meaning, and 17-year-old Nicky Hayden fulfilleQ. his long-held dream of a podium finish at a Grand National with a second-place finish. ''I'm pretty pumped - I'm pumped for sure," Hayden said. '1 knew 1 could run up with those guys. It's just a matter of me doing it. I've got to thank Tom Cummings and all the crew. They just really believe in me and worked really hard this winter. It was just a great race. Springer won, and that's pretty awesome." Just as Davis fell from contention, Chris Carr pushed his Sacramento Harley-Davidson/Phoenix Racing Harley into the TCR playground. As AMA flagman Steve Faraci gave the five-laps-to-go signal, Hayden slipped around the tiring Atherton. "It felt great all day," Atherton said. "I just got a little tired there at the nd. I tensed up a little bit, .made a couple more mistakes and then, with five to go, 1 started racing with Nicky. I didn't want to do anything stupid, just settle in and finish third. Then here comes Chris, and it was, 'Oh, no - where did you come from?' I'm like, 'Don't pass me; come on, don't pass me!'" However, Carr did split the teammates and then he headed out after Hayden. "Kevin and icky got to racing," the former Grand National Champion said. '1 Wnk that slowed them down a little bit and allowed me to catch them. Obviously, Will dropping out helped. He was a solid second. It took me a lap and a half to get around Kevin, and that let Nicky get away." Just a few short years ago, the AMA Amateur ationals were being dominated by Nicky Hayden, Bryan Bigelow and J.R. Schnabel. Tonight the youngsters had, collectively, the best night of their professional careers. Bigelow worked his USC Racing/Lancaster Harley-Davidson/ Marshall Distributing-backed Harley up from a slow start to finish fifth. "They told me 1 was 14th on the first lap - a tribute to one of my good starts," Bigelow said. "1 was just picking them off one by one, just trying to stay calm. I could see everyone el e making ntistakes in front of me, and I pretty much learned from them." Schnabel backed up his first-heatrace win with a solid seventh-place finish, behind Joe Kopp. '1 tltink I was running around fourth or fifth, and I had a line that had worked in my heat race, but the fast line had moved up and I dropped back pretty fast," the Powell Racing/Sunocobacked Schnabel said. "In two laps, I think I was back to 10th. I just started trying to be smooth. Bryan went by me about midrace. He showed me the line was up a little higher, so I just followed him. That's basically how I finished - got a seventh because Will got a flat tire. I wish I had found the line a little earlier, but'we had a good night." Dave Burk Motorsports/HarleyDavidson of Missouri's Joe Kopp soldered home sixth. "I didn't think there would be that much rubber down, especially down in one and two," Kopp said. '1 was losing a little bit of ground down there in two, and that's where Bigelow finaUy got around: getting ou t of two. I was kind of wishing 1 tried one of the Continentals in tEe main. I got a good start from the second row, then just tried to settle in." Farewell Tour or not, nine-time Grand National Champion Scott Parker was relegated to a struggling eighthplace finish. "We had a pretty good holeshot, then got a little mixed up and hit a couple of holes," said Harley-David on's Parker. "Because of the rain, the track had a couple of whoop-de-doos in it, and I hit them a couple of times. That upset the bike a little bit. The next thing you know, you're back in whatever place I got - seventh or eighth or whatever. I was just riding it out." Saddlemen/Lancaster Harley-Davidson/Dodge Brothers' Dan Butler held on for a ninth-place finish after running into problems midrace. "We got a good holeshot from the third TOW and I was running about fifth or sixth; then our brakes went out," Butler said. "The brake pads just flew off. I don't know if they were getting too hot or what. They came right off. I ended up Three-time AMA Grand National Champion Jay Springsteen led the Hagerstown Ha" Mile from start to finish, recording his first Grand National win In over four years.