Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Left) Springsteen nearly threw it away after slipping into a hairy slide early in the main event. He gathered it up and traded the fourth spot with Atherton a couple times before cruising to fifth. (Above) Party time: (Left to right) Carr, King and Atherton celebrate with Miss West Viriginia Motor Speedway in Victory Circle. before Russell took it for good in turn one on lap four. Camlin then had the misfortune of being jumped by a closefollowing Evans off turn four and down the front chute as they went by the white flag. Russell won, with Evans holding off Camlin for the transfer. Davis could have been considered the favorite to take the third semi, but he once again found himself playing catch-up as friencUy rivals Bigelow and Stylemaster Custom Motorcycles' Steve Beattie decided to hammer on each other for the win. Beattie got the holeshot and led for two laps before he and Bigelow swapped positions about three times off turn four in a single lap. Davis was catching the front-runners, but he couldn't make headway fast enough. Bigelow led the last half of the semi, with Beattie claiming second. Davis, who had won the Mineralwells Half Mile for the past two years in a . row, found himself one spot out of the big show with no chances left. The 18rider field w~s set. H-D SPORTSTER PERFORMANCE NATIONAL 30 Although there are still several events yet to be contested, the run for the Harley-Davidson Sportster Performance Series Championship is quickly turning into a four-horse race, as the same quartet of riders seems to be on or 'near the podium when the checkered flag falls on. one of the 12-lap support series features. That held true at Mineralwells, where Bartels' Harley-Davidson/Miller Electric's Shaun Russell, DPC Racing's Willie McCoy, Mitchell's Modesto H-D/Rogers & Lake Racing's Gary Rogers and Howell's H-D/Finish Line Technologies' Rob Miller all appeared to be capable of claiming victory. Unfortunately for Miller, the wheels came off his main-event bid in the first Sportster heat, as he attempted to stave off the challenges of Russell. Miller was on the gas' and coming off turn four when he caught a rut in the track and was launched into a vicious high-side right in front of Russell, bringing out tile red flag. Dazed, Miller slowly made it to his feet and walked off the track under his own power, but both his motorcycle and his hopes of remaining in the thick of the championship chase left the event in dire need of repair. "That rut bit me quick," Miller said. "I was supposed to come here and not do that. 1 hurt all over, but at least I'm not being hospitalized. The way 1 look at it, you can only screw up bad once all season and still get the championship. 1 just used up my one time." Upon the restart, Russell wound up chasing Mitchell's Modesto H-D rider Nate "Gator" Wait to the flag. Heat two saw two more of the major players dice hard for six laps, as McCoy and Rogers pulled away from the rest of the pack and flew in formation around the semibanked track. Rogers appeared to be carrying more speed, and he carefully measured McCoy before diving undernea th him and taking the lead in turn one on the last lap. McCoy tried to regain the lead by cutting downtrack and running low off of turn four, but Rogers would not be denied. After the first two heats, the third and final six-Iapper was anticlimactic. Skip Fordyce H-D/Bieffe/MotuYs Billy Martin ran down Widman H-D/Jim Wagner/K&N rider Brian Kromroy on lap four and took the lead until the finish. Moroney's H-D/Saddlemen rider Jason Fletcher ran second at the wire. Wait launched al1ead of the 17-rider pack at the start of the main, only to show the pack the entire left side of his motorcycle, as he slewed sideways uncontrollably in the middle of turns one and two. The Californian managed to gather it up, but his bid for the win was over, his Harley having thrown its chain. Russell picked up where Wait left off, grabbing the lead and attempting .to run away, but a pack containing McCoy, Martin and Rogers took off with him. Rogers first disposed of Martin by getting underneath him as they rumbled off turn two on the second lap, and he had the low line working again as he picked off McCoy in turn three for the second spot on lap four. But McCoy repassed Rogers again by lap eight. Meanwhile, there was considerable dicing going on in the battle for seventh, behind TCR's Paul Bergstrom, as Lancaster H-D's Randy Texter, Dale's HD/The Wrench-backed James Hart/ Widman H-D's Tom McGrane Jr. and BADDAR Racing's George Richtmeyer ran so close that they could have been blanketed. Hart would ultimately claim the spot, followed by McGrane and Richtmeyer. Lady Expert Michelle'DiSalvo wound up 10th on her Mitchell's Modesto-backed 883. Texter dropped to 12th, behind Real McCoy's/Sundance Racing's YulUko Hirao. . Up front, Russell was well in control of the race, as he held a five-length lead. The second-placed McCoy closed up the gap, cutting it to two lengths by the finish, but Russell took the win and, with Rogers finishing third, the series points lead as well. Russell now leads Rogers, 76-74. McCoy is third with 63, and Miller is fourth, with 44. More important for Russell, the race marke<;l the first of what he hopes will be many National wins in the class this season. "Someone told me 1 was going to win before the race started," Russell said. "I just got a good start and then Ga tor messed up in front of me - that scared me. 1 got out front and felt good, then 1 started making some mistakes and was like, 'Man, 1 gotta get it together.' But 1 can't complain. With help from Bartels' and Miller, and with Jack Bounds and Tim Humphries working on the thing, all 1 have to do is just ride it." GRAND NATIONAL Atherton was probably the evenmoney bet as he used his first pick of starting positions to line up third from the inside pole on the front row. Roeder was lined up to his left, with Carr on the bottom. Parker, King and Coolbeth lined up to Atherton's right. When the green light flashed, Parker squirted off the line and took the point, witll Carr falling to second and King to third. Springsteen and Morehead looked like magnets of the same polarity as they launched off the second row, Springer propelling forward with the front trio, while Morehead shot backward at an alarming rate. While it didn't make him happy, Morehead's eventual 16th-place finish was easily explained later. "1 took too much gear off, trying to lug it around, and it just wouldn't pull it," Morehead said. "The rider made a dumb call, is the best way to put it." Up front, King shadowed Parker, with Carr doing the same. Atherton was already fourth, setting. up on the high line and powersliding his Tom Cummings-tuned XR from before the apexes in the turns while Parker, King and Carr preferred to roll them. Springer chose to dive-bomb to the bottom at the entrances to turns one and three, and he managed to give himself one hell of a scare in the early going. "I was going all right until 1 about tossed it coming off tum four," Springsteen said. "It reminded me of ice racing - it was so far sideways, it was skipp"in' . the front wheel off the ground. It stayed hung out there long enough for me to think, 'Uh-oh, this is gonna hurt.''' King slipped past Parker on lap four, with Carr still running third. Atherton rim-rode past an obviously recovered Springsteen for fourth one lap later. King had three lengths on Parker by. lap six, with Carr about that far behind Parker as well. Atherton appeared to be dropping back, and Springsteen retook the fourth spot on lap seven. Roeder was alone in sixth, and he too almost hit the deCk after catching a hole in what was already a treacherous turn one. Worse than that, Roeder says he was running practically blind. "I couldn't see anything out there," Roeder said. "It (the track conditions) was uncalled for. A race like this is what ended Carroll Resweber's career. 1 just got up as high as 1 could, and I'm happy with sixth. [ just thought Atherton was gonna smoke everyone." Further behind Roeder, the younger generation was battling it out. Behind the freight train of seventh- and eightplaced H-D of Missouri teammates Coolbeth and Kopp, Mike Varnes, Beattie, Russell, Hacker and Bigelow had managed to create a traffic jam in the middle of the field as they slugged it out for ninth place. That battle continued to rage until the five-lap sign before the pack strung out, with Hacker and Varnes finally coming forward to claim the ninth and 10th positions, respectively. Afterward, both riders were fairly analytical about their performances, and both felt they could have done better. "1 wish I'd had a better start," Hacker said. "The first four laps 1 couldn't see a thing, and then 1 got calmed down and started passing people. My bike worked good. Me and (tuner) Mike Wheeler are really starting to work together good. I'm happy about that." "I think I needed to use a little more throttle control," Bigelow said. "If you looked back there, you could see that the guy at the front would get sideways, and the guy behind him was more sideways, and the guy behind that guy was even more sideways. It was so hard to' pass out there. .I just followed HackeF around. He showed me some good lines. He did my dirty work." Carr and Parker ran side by side on laps 11 and 12, with Carr finally shooting by Parker and taking over second place at the halfway flags. "He bobbled in turn one, and 1 finally got a run on him off.of two," Carr said. "I just put it off into three where 1 needed to be." By then, Carr says, King was already just about unreachable. Carr put his head down anyway, and he gave it his best shot. Meanwhile, Atherton was still trying to get the track figured out. He finally did, and then me started coming aftep Parker, catching his former Harley fac-

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