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Round 14: Missouri State Fairgrounds . AMA GRAND NATIONAL DIRT TRACK SERIES (Above) Rich King (80) gra bbed the holeshot and left the rest of the field behind in a hurry to claim his third win of the season at the Missouri State Fairgrounds. (Left) King and tuner Sam Wessley go for the victory ride. By Dave Hoen ig Photos by Flat Trak Fotos SEDALIA, MO, AUG. 28 ich King is the hottest rider in the American Motorcyclist Association's Grand National Dirt Track Series. Righ t now, anyway. The Corbin Racing / Harley-Davidson Cycle Cen ter of Wa ter loo/SuperTrappbacked Io wan tamed the slick, rough "Misso u ri State Fai rgrounds half-mile. King took command right from the start and easily outdistanced the field as he led every lap. King's lead at the end was nearl y a full straight. Sound familia r? It sho u ld. Long kn own as Mr. Co nsis tency, the veteran has been on the podium in four consecutive races, wi th two fir s ts an d two thirds. This win was King's third of the season, marking the most wins he has scored in a single year. And it came on a decidedly ro ug h race track, the type of place w here he excels . "We put a new tire on for the main, and I knew it would take a couple of la ps fo r it to work," King said. "I just spun around for a couple of laps, then tried to go fast and stay smooth. The bike was really hooked up, it just worked great." The series has been plagued by wet weather for most of the year, but it was the central Missouri drought that led to problems tonight. Despite an abundance of wa ter and chemicals poured onto the UP "' ~Iay su :face, thedtrack broke d aldmo I d hst rmrn e late l y an never p ro u ce t e g rea t su rface of last yea r. The nigh t's ~ action produced nu merou s ge t-offs and IIiii tw o major mu lt i-rider pileups. Bria n Kromroy, Nate Wait and Jaime Aguilar ~ all sufedfere d leg tinjuries. Kromroy's h • appear t e mos severe. ~ Once the Gra nd National took the Q green, the race we nt off wi thout interruption. g: "I wa sn 't sure abo ut my lead," King ~ said. "I tried to peek a couple of times. 00 Th e wa lls make it so und like so mebody c;; is right behind you, o n th e o u tside. .c Finally, about the 10th lap, I looked ove r ~ my right sho ulder to see if anybody was there. I realized then I had a pret ty good en lead , and I just tried to s tay smoo th. 16 Th at tr ack wa s slick a nd rough . It was g. would have taken it a little bit easier and used that same line, I might have had something for him. I don' t know, hindsight is 20/20." Bryan Bigelow was not able to take full advantage of a very good start. After running second for a couple of laps, the 1998 Roo kie of the Year slipped to fif th . Dave Bu r ks Mot orsports / Harley - Da v id s on of Mis s ouri ' s Joe Kopp was the las t to pass Bigelow, bu t was not able to improve u p o n his fourth-place position. "I couldn't get by Bigelow," Kopp said. "It took me eight or 10 laps, it seemed like, to get around Bryan. He was kind of holding me up, and I could see Ceo and Nicky getting away. I knew I had a good line to catch them if I could get free of Bryan . I fina lly got by and caught up to George fairly qu ick. I caught him with about five laps to go , and just had to wait for him to make a mistake. He made a couple, but I guess I wasn't in the right place at the right time," kind of hard to see the rough spots they w heel-packed them down into the su rface and yo u co u ld n't see where it went from d ry slic k to wet. It caught me off guard a couple times, but other than that, everything went really smooth." There was some good action to entertain the crowd, estimated at 4000. Last week's winner, Nicky Hayden, worked his way up from sixth to take second from Geo Roeder II on lap nine. Like a shark that smells blood, the BF/ LFA/ Mich igan Ha rley- Davidson Dealersbacked Hayd en was loo kin g for Grand National win number tw o. "After winning last week, it's hard to co me bac k an d be happy wi th second, b ut f ro m where I came fro m I'm happy," Hayden said. Roeder had his Schaeffer's HarleyDa vid so n /Las Veg as Harley- Davidson/ KK Supply-b acked Harley in a safe third , but was joined by Joe Kopp around the halfway mark. Roed er and Kopp battled thei r way back up to.catch Hayden in the clos ing laps. "Once I go t up into seco nd, I actually though t I was closing a little bit," Hayden said. "I had a few problems and just started going a little bit easy. With about two laps to go , I looked back and saw those guys right on me . I knew I had to pick it up or I wasn't going to be on the box . That last lap, I jus t pu t my head down." Roed er slipped in his attem pt for seco nd, but was able to hold on to th ird . "I started goi ng into the tu rns higher, then d ropping down to th e bo ttom in the middle of the comer, and it see med to be worki ng be tter," Roed er sai d. "I could see I was catching him (Hayden). I kn ew that las t la p was go ing to be a struggle. I go t in a little bit too hot. If I Kopp was forced to take a front-row seat to watch Roeder's charge. "That las t la p , co ming o u t of tum two, he got sideways and go t up a little high:' Kopp said. "He just grabbed a hand fu l a nd head ed fo r the groove. I didn't feel like crashing on the whiteflag lap. It was going to be close and "I didn't want to take that much of a chance. I kind of backed ou t of that deal" Bigelow had his USC Racing/Lancaster Harley- Davidson/ Ma rs ha ll Distri buting Har ley in a top-five finish for th e fourth time thi s yea r. Bigelow d id receive a little la te- race pressure from Scott Parke r, as the d efend in g Gra nd Nati on al Champion mad e his firs t ride si nce his Peo ria get -off. " I got a good s ta rt, then I kind o f worked m y way back to fifth," Bigelow sa id. "I thou gh t we were goi ng good all night, but it just