Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Then the red flag came out, and it was just a bad situation for everyody. I grew up in this s tuff, where yo u can' t see . because of the spray, the whole sho t. I have experien ce in this stuff , and I know how to rid e in it. I coul d have run 25 laps, but with the fence bein g d own, it wasn 't sa fe. At Sed alia , I said th at if I cou ld fini sh th ird at th e rest o f th ese races , th en I'd be happy . Now I g o t third, and I'm not." For the Springfield Arm ory /Walters Bro ther s Harlev-Davidson-backed Stanley , the stoppage marked the se co nd week in a row that he'd had a pot ential podium finis h take n awa y fro m him by un fo rseen circ u ms tances . Stanley wa s clearly one of the fastest riders on the track, but the red flag relegated him to fou rth place. "l ' Il tak e this one, " Stanley said . "I probably cou ld ha ve been on the podi um tonight, but I'm walk ing , so I' m happy . joe w on it, a nd I was a ll over him in the heat race . I m igh t not have been ab le to catch him, but I was going to give it my d amndest. I thi nk we' re on a roll. We're fina lly starting to think an d ge t this thing figured out." King was running fifth when the race was stopped, and he appeared as thou gh he mi gh t h ave d on e better w ith mor e lap s, but the Corbi n Racing /H-D Cycle Ce nte r of Waterloo /SuperTrapp-backed Iowan still fi nis he d a hea d of Ca rr. It gai ned him a few mor e cha m p ions hip p o in ts o n th e series poin ts le ad er, altho ug h Ca rr sti ll has a big advantage. He leads King, 272-227, in a title race that is all but assured to come down between the two. Parker is third, wit h 175. " I w a s ki nd of in a t ig h t s po t o u t there," King said. "I need to run races to hav e any cha nce of movin g up in the points, but we obviously didn't have any kind of race tra ck to run on. It sucked . How can you race on someth ing like this? You can 't. I mean , you need to race and you want to race, but you have to have a race track to race on. We we re going forward, but I didn't feel safe. I was jus t running around the bott om , while everybody else got roosted. When they got roosted, I'd pass 'e m. This wasn' t a mile. This was a har e scrambles." Bart el s Harl e y -D a vid s o n' s j a y Springs teen, Harley-Davidson of Sacra mento /Pho eni x Ra ci n g' s C hris Carr, USC Racin g / Lan cast er Harl ey-David son 's Bryan Bigelow a nd TCR' s N icky Hayd en were ru nnin g in positio ns six through 10 at the time of the red flag . Stylemaster Cus tom Motorcycles ' Steve Beattie was 11th, with Rogers Lake Racing 's Gary Rogers 12th and HarleyDav idson o f Dallas /DPC Ra cin g ' s Willie McCoy upholding Texas pride in 13th. Sadd lmen Racing /Lan caster H ar le y -Da v id s on / Do d g e Brothe rs ' Kevin Varnes was 14th - one lap down as w ere Bar tels ' Harley-Davidson ' s Shaun Russell in ·15th . jo rg ensen was credited with 16th, ahead of Lvnch Racing's Paul Lynch and non-starter Mike Hac ker on the 1-80 0-FAST HOG / Moroney' s Harl ey-David son . HEATS After only a few prac tice sessions, it was obvio us that the soft, sandy nature of the Lone Star Park racing surface was go ing to present probl em s for the racers in attenda nce. In the interest of running as few r a ces as p o s s ibl e befo re th e G rand Na tional main eve n t, th e AMA once again mod ified th e race progra m so that the 750cc program cou ld be ru n in its en tire ty befor e the suppo rt-class Ha rley- Davidson Spors ter an d Su perT ra p p Supe rT racker progra ms were allowed to take to the track. The Dallas M ile hos ted on ly 28 750c c e n tr ies, so (Left) Geo Roeder II (66) ran low, while fourthplaced Dan Stanley (10) found happ iness on the high line. (Right) Lights out: Texas ' own Willie McCoy showed the effects of racing on the sandy track. McCoy finished 13th. scra tch heats were eliminated, and the heat races were lined up with seven rid ers across the front row in ea ch of the lO-lappers. In an effor t to help the situation , the track was groomed after eac h eve nt, bu t ge tting the ho leshot wo u ld be im p ortant, as th e so lid ro ost from a com petitor's rear tire was practi call y su fficien t enough to knock any hapl ess pursue r fro m his mou nt. Park er a nd Bigelow, th e fo rmer a tio na l n umbe r 11 a nd th e cu rre nt Na tio na l .nu mbe r 11, led th e firs t hea t race off the line, w ith Beattie, Hacker an d Russell giving chase. Beattie sho t by Bigelow down the back straight to take the seco nd s po t. Pa rk er, mea nwhile, im media tely began ga pping the rest of the field aboard his Bill Wern er- tuned factory bike, and he had an easy 20 bike leng th s on Beattie by la p six . Beattie, meanw hile, had his han ds full with the cha rging Bigelow, who was ma naging to ge t solid drives around the outside of the Ca nad ian in tu rns one and two, only to slip back aga in. Bigelow tried one more time on lap nine, but Beattie managed to overpower him on the stra igh taway to sec u re second, while Bigelow finish ed third for a di rect transfer as well. Parker cru ised to th e win, but he, like m ost other riders, was quick to voice his concerns abou t the track condi tions . "The ma jor deal is th e h ol esh o t," Parke r sai d . " L' rn mak in g m y pl an s already for wha t I've go t to do. It's a little rou gh out there, and it d efinit ely ge ts worse as you go on. Hop efully, the y'll cu t it (the main eve nt) d own to 20 laps, or 18, or so me thing like that. It' s d efinitely go ing to be gnarly after 20 or 25 laps . It' s a grea t fa cility a nd a g rea t crowd, you kn ow? We' ve go t to come up with so mething that'll hold tha t dirt togeth er so we can be put on a mot orcycle race here. It' s far from that now." Dav is, F&S Harl ey -D a vid so n / KK Mo to rcy cle Supply /Shepherd & Dra goo 's Steve Mo rehead and Sp ringsteen ba ttled off the lin e in heat two, w it h Morehead sweeping around the outside of the pair to take th e lead off of turn two. Morehead then a ppeared to be in good s hape, ho lding a two-length lead over Davis and then Sp ringsteen, while McCoy fought with Lynch Racing 's Pau l Lynch for the fourth spot. Springsteen then cu t under bo th Da vis and Morehead and ran around the low post off turn s th ree and four to take th e lea d before the start of the third la p. Davis rem ained in second, while Morehead fell in to th e clutches of the advancing McCoy a nd th en pu lle d off the track, re tiring for the rest of the eve ning (see Briefly...). Springsteen went on to take the win over Davis an d McCoy. "It's rou gh and deep, an d it's har d to rid e ," Sp rings tee n sa id o f th e tr a ck . "This is the kind of track that all of the guys from Michigan grew up on. We' re goi ng to try and cha nge the gea r so that we can ge t a little more power off the corne r becau se it is so deep tha t it's bogg ing the e ngi ne down . I ca n' t see u s go ing 25 la ps. They sho u ld cu t it (the main) down . Hev, it's beau tifu l he re, and they 've g oi a great cro w d and everything, but it's har d to race on . The spray is so d eadl y that it blows your feet off the pegs and the ligh ts go out." Kop p a n d St anl ey r e n e w ed t heir caree r-long riv alr y in heat three. Kopp go t a good bite off the line and took the lead , w hi le Sta n ley r a n seco nd a n d sea rc he d hi gh a nd low fo r. a line th at : wo uld take h im pa st his fell ow Wa sh ingtonian. As the tw o pu lled away from th e fi eld , Kin g s lip ped p a st Varn es down the bac k straight. Varnes tried to re talia te, bu t was nea rlv bucked off his jo hn ny Goa d-buil t XR in turn four, and he quickly d rop ped back . Mean while, Stanley bega n ge tti ng good ru ns on Kopp by swingi ng up high in tu rns one and two , and he fin all y go t a s ho t at Kopp as the pair roa red thro ug h thr ee and fou r for the last time. Stanley ran it in hig h an d passed Kopp, lost groun d a nd th en tried to square it off und erneat h a nd p ass up the ins id e as th ey came u p th e s traightaway. Kopp w on the drag race to the line, with Sta nley seco nd and King a d istant third. "I looked back with a few laps to go, an d I coul d see that he was makin g up ground on me," Kopp said . "I figured he w as go ing up hi gh coming into turn three on the last lap. He came in high on the ou tside of me. It jus t mad e me grab ano ther handful and hope that I would have the d riv e to beat him back to the finish line." . Like the others, Kopp was hoping for a sho rtened main event. "I wouldn' t mind it," he said . "I go t the holeshot, so that help ed me ou t a lot, bu t I know th at it' s hard seei ng ba ck there. I wouldn' t mind a 15- o r 20-lap race." Roed er got the ho les ho t in the fina l heat race, only to have Carr pull the trigger and bla st by hi m d own the back straight to lead the first lap. The Ohio cu shion specialis t immediately fou nd the track to his liking, however, and he was quickly back in the lead , where he wou ld sta y to the finish , us ing a low line through a ll four corners. A game Carr never gave up looking for a be tte r way to hop through the holes, bu t ultimat ely finished second . Hayden ran third on hi s To m Cummings-tu ned Harley for the en tire distance. . "I followed him (Ca rr) d o w n t he front straightaway, and then 1 go t him in one and two," Roede r said. "I' m working rea l good down in one an d two. Th ree and four? I could improve on them a little bit. Thev're like two differen t turns, really. But 'I felt comfo rtab le cu tti ng 10 laps ou t there. Hop efull y, I'll be able to feel comfortable cutting 25 of 'e m." Whe n told tha t the ot her rid ers wa nted to see th e m ain eve n t s ho r te ne d , Roeder balked. "I wa nt to go 2..:;; (laps) ," he sa id. "l' rn rea l co mfortable go ing thro ug h the bumps, and I can do 25 laps no problem . The lon ger the bett er wit h me. Besi des , they a dvertised it as 25 la ps, so they've got to run it 25 laps; do n't they?" SEMIS With 12 of the 26 riders already qualified , the AMA once aga in cut la ps on the ra ce tra ck b y runn in g o nly tw o eight- lap semis . T hree riders wo u ld tran sfer from eac h se mi to fill in the 18rid er main-event lineup. The kid s came out to play in the sand during the first semi , as Lynch, Hacker a nd Ru ss ell put on a fe rociou s battl e tha t quic kly carried all thr ee well away fro m any o ther would -be co n ten ders . H ack er ran Lyn ch down a nd p a ssed h im on lap three, th en easi ly p u lled away, looki ng as though he was a cushion specialist himself. Hacker we nt on to wi n , with Ru ssell ju st ge tti ng around Lynch off turn fou r and wi nni ng the ra ce to th e line for second, tho ugh it d idn' t reall v ma tter , as both would start from the third row in the mai n. Rogers look ed sharp in th e second semi, as he led it from flag to flag, safe ly cushio ning hi mself from any poten tia l a dva nces by Varnes and Texas rid er Greg Teagu e, w ho was coming und er fire fro m a swift-moving jor gensen as th e laps ticked off. The way it turned out, Jorg ens en d id n o t ne ed to pa ss Teagu e for the thi rd spot, as Teagu e's mach in e su ffe re d mechanica l ills. jorge nse n rod e stead ily the last few lap s to jo in Varn es a n d Rog ers in th e' ma in even t. It marked jor gen sens' firs t-eve r 75 0cc G ra n d N ati onal main -event appeara nce, comi ng just one week after his first -ever 750cc rid e a t th e S p ringfield Mile. GRAND NATIONAL Once again, the AMA decided to take mor e laps away from the track, which was ru tt i ng b adl y d espit e th e b es t .efforts of the track crew to reg roo m it after each ra ce . The mai n even t w as shortened to just 18 laps. Hacker was out of the mai n before it even sta rted, as his Mike Wheeler-tuned XR chose a rather inopportune time to gre na de a t ransmission C just as he pulled in to the pits after winning his semi. Hacker was credited with 18th. " It broke the transmissio n, and it busted the cases ," Hack er said. "I wish I could have found a bike, but we ran out of time. We ran out of bikes ou rselves because we broke on e ea rlier in the day, too . But everything happens for a rea so n. I came ou t of here walking okay, so everything'S good ." . On the start , Kop p bolted off the seco nd spot from the inside of the fro n t row and head ed for the gua rd rail, wi th Pa rk er a n d Springsteen on h is heel s, w hile Stanley and a w hee ly ing Roed er h ead ed wide aro u nd t h e o u ts ide. Kopp's plan appeared to be the best on e, as he emerged on the back stra ig htaway with th e lead , fo llowe d b y Pa r ke r, Sp rings teen an d King, all of w hom had taken the low road . Davis and Carr we re fifth an d sixth a t th at poin t, a nd both wer e looking for better places to run. Lynch was the first to drop ou t of the fray , his sea t appearing to be rub bing his rear tir e as he wallowed past the flag 15

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