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/128013
Dirt Track pulling out a Ill-leng th ad vantage on only the second lap. Poovey and Jones drafted them selves into dir ect main event berths, ru nni ng second and third, wi th Poovey pilotin g his screamin g Honda RS750 to the runner-up spo t over Jones. There was no catchin g Carr, though. "I think that ou r possib ilities ar e really good," Ca rr sa id of his chan ce to clin ch the title . "We ha ve a good plan for the main eve n t, and we' re go ing to stick to it and go for it. That (the championship) is wha t I came here for. I d on't wa n t to go to Las Vegas a nd ha ve to decide it ther e. I want to win it tonigh t, in Sacra me nto, for (tea m ow ne r) Mike Shattuck." 88 3 In wha t wo uld turn ou t to be a sta rk contrast to the Gra nd National final, the 12-lap Harley-Davidson Spo rtste r Performance Se ries main event pro vid ed race fans with a tight battle for the w'in, one which left the cham pionshi p up in th e air and likel y to be decid ed at the series final in Del Mar. Title combatant Shaun Russell on his Miller Electric /Bartels Harley-Da vid son squ ared off agains t DPC Racing /H-D of Da llas' . Willie McCoy, with Howell 's Ha rley -Da vidso n 's Rob ert M ill er , Mitchell' s Modesto Harley-David son' s Gary Rogers and Skip Fordyce HarleyDa vi d son ' s Billy M a rtin a ll co m ing along for the rid e w hen the main eve nt d ron ed off the sta rt ing line. Before long. , McCoy and Russell we re figh ting for the . lead wit h each pass across the start/finish line, while Rogers ma naged to lead into tu rn one on mos t of the laps, w-ith Martin running fou rt h and sizing up the com petition. Rogers ra n as hig h as second , on lap seven, but his bike refused to go the distance, and he dropped out of the race on lap 10. It all came down to a three-rider battle, and when the white fla g fl ew , McCov , Russell an d Martin fanned ou t three-~d e d own the front straig ht in an effort to gai n an advantage . Russell go t it, and he let Martin lead off tu rn four on the fin al lap. Ma rti n a nd Ru ssell dropped d o wn lo w , le a ving McCoy with nowhere to tuck in. Russell drafted past Martin a nd crossed the lin e firs t, tig htening the se ries rac e to the point tha t McCoy now le ad s him by th ree, 175-172. Martin was second, and McCoy was third. Russell said that he believes the title wi ll go down to the wire. " It (the title ) is n ' t Willie's b y any mea ns," Russell said . " It is p robab ly en go ing to go d own to th e last race. He en en has been ridi ng good, and we 've had a> so me mecha nical p rob lems , b ut w e' re N co mi ng back. If we have to win every C1> .c race, then that's what we're goin g to do . E C1> It's goi ng to be our championship." i5. Afterward , Martin ad mit ted that he C1> en figured on playing a victim's role in the 18 final dash to the checkered flag. - "I wa s ge tting a kill er d ra ft on the back str aighta way, bu t I could n't ge t by them off four," Martin said . "I figured that they wou ld let me lead it , so I tried , but it just di dn't wo rk ou t." McC o y a p pea re d to b e le s s th an happy with a th ird -pl a ce fin is h, a nd rem ain ed firm wh en tol d th at Ru ssell might well be sme lling blood . "I'm rea l disappointed ," McCoy said . "I kn ew that I could beat thos e guys at the line, but I d id n' t wa nt to stuff it into tum thr ee and take so mebody out. Billy pulled down low, an d he ma de a great move th at m essed me up. Sha un wa s able to s tay with him, and I just lost the draft. Sha u n ca n s mell whatever he wants, he's still gonna wa tch me win it (the title)." SEMIS With only 18 riders fighti ng for the remain in g six q ualify ing posi tions , AMA officials o nce again elected to drop one of the thr ee schedu led semi s in favor of load ing the non-qualified gu ys int o tw o semis and taking three riders from each to the main even t. Four rid ers w ere left b attlin g fo r three spots on ce the first semi began to s ha ke ou t, as McCoy, Russell , Beat tie and Roed er br oke aw ay from the pack.ยท Russell appea red to be the stronges t at the star t/ finish line, but McCoy wound up making the winni ng draf t-pas s at the line. Russell was second , and in. Beattie was th ird , and in. Roeder wa s fou rth, and ou t. Rogers, Jen neman and Schnabel were th e fas tes t th ree rid ers in the s eco nd semi, and it was clear that all three wou ld ma ke th e big s how, barring a mishap. That's the way it went down, as Rogers did most of the lead ing, on ly to have Schnabel take a run at him off o f the last turn wh en Rogers drifted up hi gh . Rog ers man a ged to drop b a ck down onto the groove, how ever, forcing Schnabel to stom p on the brakes. Rogers then pull ed a way, w hi le a vulnerable Schn abel was dropped to th ird b y a chargi ng Jen ne man. GRAND NATIONAL Ca rr wo n the fastes t heat to earn first cho ice of s ta r ti ng p os i tion s fo r the abbreviated ma in event, and he chose to start third from the outs ide pole on the front ro w . King lined up on the insid e po le, with Morehead and Poovey to his right. Hacker lined up on Carr's right, and Varnes took the ou tsid e p ol e to complete the front six. King got the drop on the field as they entere d tum one, bu t Carr and Poovey wasted no time in drafting past him to run one-two down the back chute, and tha t's the wa y that they hit the stripe on th e openin g circuit. King rema in ed thi rd , with second-row starters Davis and Bigelo w fourth and fifth, followed by Hacker an d Morehead. Pa rker wa s (Left) Bryan Bigelow (11) and Jay Springsteen (9) mixe d it up in bo th thei r heat race and in the main event. Springer outmat ch ed the kid both times, ultimately passing him to ru n 12th . B igel ow was 13th . (Above) King dices with Terry Poovey (18), who hung on for seve nth aft er completely smoking off t he left side of hi s tire. (Right) Car r (center) hol ds th e Drag Spec ia lt ies number-o ne plate up high w hile P ar ke ~ (right) offers hi s con gratulat ions. 10th, but appeared to be on the wa rpa th. Ca rr wasted no time in ga pping the field at the front. Tha t gap was only a few lengths early, but it d idn't take long fo r h im to put him s elf o u t of reach . Davis managed to fight his way into second, forci ng Kin g, Poovey and the res t in to a battle for that spo t while Carr ran away. King need ed to win to stay alive in the points race, but it was clearly not going to fall his way. "I could n't get away from Will to go with Chris," King said. "If I could hav e gotten up there to race wit h him, then I would have, but Chris was ru nni ng like a dog, an d I think Will was having a few problems getting th ro ugh the corners. That just held everybody up enough for Chris to get away." Hack er w as n' t movin g forward in any hu rry at first , but then Park er came calli ng . The cha m p had scra mb led his way into fifth by lap five to ca tch the y ou n gs te r , a n d th e two soo n b eg an drafting w it h Poov ey as they m ov ed closer toward th e front. Both Hacker and Pa rker we re p as t th e Te xan and moving away fr om h im b y lap s ix . Meanwhile, Ca rr had al most 15 len gths on the field alread y. With th e field sp li tt ing in to ma ny tw o-rid er groups, Springer and Bigelow once ag ain found themselves together on the track. Bigelow was show ing a lot of aggression, wit h Spri nge r apparen tly willing to let the kid sow his oa ts u ntil the latter s tages of th e race. Sp ringer would beat Bigelow to the line for 12th place. "A couple of times , I cou ld jus t see his front wheel ou t of the corne r of my eye going in to tu rn one ," Sp ringsteen said . "He was inside, so [ jus t kind of rolled off an d let him go . If h e wo ul d have had p roblem s, he w o u ld have taken us both ou t, so I just let him go . Bu t he cou ld n' t get me down the back s tra ig h t away a n d goi ng in to th r ee , thou gh . It was fu n . We d id all right." Kopp was ex pe rien ci ng mu ch th e same type of race as Park er. The former Peoria IT winner wa s passin g peop le stead ily after having run as far back as . 10th. Once h e go t b y a ri d er, he w as p rac tica lly by fo r good. Wit h no real d ra fting help , tha t left him sixth at the finish, after a bit of a tussle wi th Poovey, who finishe d seven th, and Morehead , who was eig ht h. "I got a terri ble s ta rt, and Springer a nd I locked ha ndl eba rs off the line," . Kopp said. "But Carl Patrick bu ilt me a hell of a horse, and it was coming off of the turns good. Only problem was, once I caught up to Poovey, he had a hell of horse with that Honda, and it was hard to ge t away from him. I th ink I fina lly go t away fro m him in the tu rns. " Up front, Ca rr was s till cruising, and Kin g, Da vis, Hacker a nd Parker were racing - and falling back. Parker was still moving forw ard throu gh th e ranks, how ever, and he finall y made his wa y to second by di vin g under Kin g at the .en trance to turn on e on lap 15. . "Every guy that I went by, I just said 'Hello ' a nd kep t mo vi ng toward th e fron t," Parke r said . "We we re wo rried abou t the tire, and the last couple laps I . thin k that I cou ld have we nt faster, but I wa nted to be conservative on the tire. I d idn't wa nt to bust my ass because all of the su d den the rear tire is go ne. That was the issu e there. I wa s conservative a t th e end of th e ra ce . It was a good race." Dav is and his w heel beari ngs d ropped back abo u t lap 16.