Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128009
Despite being involved in th e turnthree pileup, Bartels Harley-Davidson / Real McCoy /SuperTrapp's Jay Springsteen and KK Motorcycl e Supply /F&S Harley-Davidson / Sheperd & Dragoosponsored Steve Morehead finished fifth and sixth. " I was pretty happy to finish fifth ; I think 1 st arted 15th or so:' Springsteen said. "I wa s going as ha rd as 1 could. I had both wheels off th e gro und so metimes. Some of the spots were shiny and some were ruts. I know in my hea t race it felt like I crashed three or four tim es, but I neve r went down. It was bouncing and wiggling all over the place, but I just kept it pinned." Like Springsteen, Morehead also had to co me from the back. "We had to start on the tail and work o ur way up: ' Morehead s ai d . " If we hadn't been on the ground, we wou ld have starte d fifth . The race track was greasy; you had to go slow to go fast: I started behind Jay on the rest art , and I jus t followed him around the rest of the nig ht . If he 'd ha ve made a right turn and drove into the parking lot, I probably would have been right behind him." Battered and bruised, Ha rley-Davidson of Sacramento /Phoenix Racing /Big Valley Ford's Chris Carr limped home in seventh after being involved in the first red -flag in cident. It wa s th e firs t tim e that the Grand ati onal Dirt Track Series points leader had fin ished off of the podium all season. " I just couldn't avoid Butler's bike ," Carr said. " I wa s committed to go below him, and h is b ike just kept coming down, d o wn, down . Finally 1 m et u p wi th the front wheel and it spit me up over the handlebars. I landed right dead on my hip. I don't know what shape it' s in . I'll go get it checked out. My bike was bent u p.. The front end was bent no t on ly in, but sideways. It didn't ha nd le ve ry well . To get seventh we 're very pleased. I got' good starts on the rest arts . 1 ke pt going th e way everybody else wasn't, an d 1 was able to pick off a lot of guys. I jus t tried to keep smooth and ride conservative ." . Da n Stanley stayed out of tro uble and brought his Gardner Racing / Springfield A rmo ry / W a lte rs Brothers Harl ey Davidson-backed Harley to an ei ghthplace finish . "We started off la st and moved up through th e re st arts : ' Stan ley s a id . "O nce w e go t go ing we w ere pa ssing guys pretty 'm uch right and left ev er y lap . I noticed on th e seco nd lap - the final restart - that one of my fork to ps ca me unscrewed, and the w ho le fork leg was sticking ou t the top of the right side. So I pretty mu ch ran the w hole race wit h one fork. It d idn't really affect me, but I was wondering if the other o ne was goi ng to com e loose. You jus t had to ride mellow an d be pati ent. There we re guys makin g mistakes all over th e place. You jus t had to be there whe n they did ." The USC Racin g / Lancaster Ha rleyDavid son /Marshall Dis tribu ting team of Bryan Bigelow had to put a new set of forks on after his inv olvem ent in the last red-fla g pileup. Bigelo w' s troubles w ere not o ver, as more mechanical pr obl em s hit at the end of the race, dropping him from seve n th to ninth in th e last tw o laps. "My brake pedal broke off and I was downshifting going into the corners, and the transmis sion fell out of it," Bigelow said. 'T ha t's all we could do. It could ha ve been worse . We got o u t of it all right , just a little banged up. We were on the move until tha t pileup." Roun d ing out the top 10 wa s the USC Racing / Ara i/Hap Jones Hond a of Terry Poovey. The Texan had been as high as (Left) Both Rich King (80) and Jay Springsteen (9) had to race the ir way up from the back of the pack after crashing In separate incidents . King went on to finish th ird. while Springe r was fifth. (Below) Geo Roeder II continues to get a handle on the " stock car" tracks. The Ohio cushion maste r was fourth on the s lick Hagerstown clay. thi rd on the ninth lap, then he started to fad e. " I just didn' t like it," Poovey said . "1 only like good race tracks, and I' m no t good on mud rac e tracks, either. 1 was running the bo tto m, and it go t bumpier and bumpier, and fina lly it went away. It was like wheel ruts. I'm okay with that. We'll have a good race track next week." HEATS Because of the rain delay, qualifying heats w er e omitted, and the 42 entries were seeded into th e four heats by the points standings and their draw at tech . Butler led the first heat into tum one over Poovev, Kevin Varn es and Carr. At the end of the first lap, Varnes was leading his Saddlemen /Lancaster HarleyDavidson /Dodge Brothers teammate Butler, with Poovey, Dan Stanley and Ca r r tra ilin g . The red flag greeted Va rnes as he came around the second time because Paul Bergstrom had fallen on the front straight. Bergstrom wa s able to make it back for the complete res tart. Varnes read the ligh t this tim e and led Butler and Carr off the line. Varn es slowly pulled to a commandi ng lead, while Butler and Carr ba ttled over second. Ju st past the halfw ay point, Carr captu red second . Carr opened a little breathing room on Butler, with Stanley and Poovey closing o n Butl er. They would have to settle for fourth and fifth. ,Carr 's second wa s not without cost. "We tied up the bike in the heat race and had to rid e th e backup in the Na tional," Carr said . " Fo rt u na te lv it ma de it through the race . Coming ofc'the track, it just locked up when I killed it." The second heat go t off to a rock 'em, soc k 'em sta rt. Steve Beattie led int o the firs t turn, w ith H ack er tr yin g to slash under him. Hacker drifted high and go t into Beatti e's rear w heel. Beattie continued on, but Hacker dropped to the rear of th e fie ld . The Stylemas ter C ustom M otorcycl e / AFAM / Bicycle Wo r kssponsored Beattie was joined by the ba ttlin g duo of Sp ringsteen and King. Once again the red flag came out, this time on lap four. Garth Bastian was down in the middle of tu rn two. Bastian returned to the pits, una ble to make rep airs in time. Beatti e re peated his holesh ot on the restart, but it w as sho rt-lived , as both King and Springst een blast ed by . Th ey fou ght it out to the end, with King taking th e w in . Beattie cam e home a sa fe third. Willie McCoy was closin g but fell on lap se ven. McCoy was abl e to ge t off th e track as th e ra ce continued . Jaime Aguilar moved into a so lid fourth. Hacker held off John Nickens for fifth. Morehead got the start in heat three but wasted it when he go t sid eways in turn two. Eaken Racing/Rod lake /Racing For Kids' Davis took over, and Morehead had his hands full trying to fend off Kop p , Lap six saw Kopp drop Morehead to third and quickly close on Davis. As fast as Kopp was closing on Davis, Jason Sentell was closing o n Morehead . On the e ig h th lap, Se ntell pitched it away in turn three, leaving Moreh ead to an uncontested third. The action up front was really heating up, and Kopp made a last-lap blitz tha t carried him to the wi n. Bigelow go t th e holeshot in th e last heat, but by the end of the first lap, Hayden was solidl y in fir s t and pulling away. T he race for s econd quickl y turned into a four-rider war. Roeder, Bigelow, Mike Varnes and J.R. Schnabel were all shoo ting for transfer spots. Hayden was well on his wa y to setting fas t time, as Roed er eased int o a more secu re ho ld o n second. Bige low, Varnes a nd Sch nabel fou ght it out to the end, with Bigelow secu ring the last transfer . SEMIS Three sem is would fill the six remaining spots in the Nation al. Poo vey pushed his Honda to the lead in the first semi, while Brent Armbruster, Mik e Varn e s and Jes s Roed er w ere bunched close behind him. Poovey was ab le to gai n a sma ll lead as Armbruster a nd Va rnes rode w heel to w heel. The Tucker Rocky / SiIkolene/Su p erTra p p backed Armbruster held off Varnes after a race long battle. Hacker , Schnabe l and Shawn C lark led the seco nd semi into turn one . The 1800-FAST H OG / Moro ney's H a rl eyDavi dson /Tucke r Rocky -suppo r ted Hacker and Schnabel opened u p a good lea d over C la rk a n d Paul Ly nc h . Schna be l kept hi s Team Po well / Sunoco / MSR H arl ey right o n Hacker 's re ar wheel as both moved on to the main. • Th e last sem i wa s a wild one. Shaun Russell , Dav e Rayburn, Ag u ila r, Larry Pegram, Ken Yoder, McCoy and Sentell m ad e up the hu ge lead pa ck. Lap tw o sa w Rus sell wit h a s ma ll le a d over Pegram and Aguilar . Tu rn three bit Russell, and the race was red-flagged, w ith a com plete restart. Yoder got the ho leshot this time, over Rayburn, McCoy and Aguilar. Sentell had his K&N / P ro g r es s i ve Suspen sion / White Brothers Harley flying, and he took over the lead on lap three. Yoder was still in control of the last transfer when he lost his brake. Yoder's misfortune almost cost Sentell, too, as Yod er blasted into turn one, just in tim e to realize he had no brake. As Yoder fough t for control, he forced Sentell high, almost into the hay bales. Someh ow everyone made it th rough, but in th e confusion , the field bunched back up. Sentell re overed to take th e win, but c Stanley shot into seco nd a nd th e la st transfer slo t. Stanley w as sched ul ed to be on th e p ol e for this race, but wa s forced to start on the penalty lin e after he wa s assigned to his backup bike. GRAND NATIONAL For the second week in a row, H ayden led the field ou t to pick th eir starting positions. Ha yden opted to start seco nd from the ins ide. Kopp w as o n th e bottom with Kevin Varnes, Davis , Roed er and King to his right. Row tw o was m ade up of Bea ttie , Butler, Morehead , Sp ringsteen an d Bigelow. Carr was also su p posed to be on th at lin e, but he was aboard his back-up bik e and w as s tationed on the p en al ty line . Bef ore th e race go t going, Ca rr wo uld ha ve a lot of co m p a ny . Th e last ro w he ld A r m b rus ter , Poovev, Hacker, Sentell , Schnabel and Stanley. . Varnes got off the line firs t, but Ha yden held it on deep into the first tu rn to take the lead . At the end of the first lap it was Hayd en , Va rnes, Kop p, Davis a nd ~ King . Lap three saw Kopp wrestle sec- !Ii. ond from Varnes. :Iii Butler fell in turn two as they start ed the fourth lap, st arting a cha in reacti on, w ith Carr and Hacker also going down. iii This brought ou t the first red flag . Th e long d ela y to tend to Bu tier' s severe . ~ injuries let the track surface get more lji a n d mo re slick. Wh en the race did restart, King fai led to get throug h the Q first turn , as he spun down in the middle of the track, bringing ou t the second red flag. On the t hird s ta r t, Ha yd en main tained hi s po sition, with Kopp lead ing Va rnes, Davis and Morehead. Davis got by Varnes in turn two and was holding third as th e tightly bunched pack hit tu rn three. 19 i!