Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Dirt Track (Left)Jay Springsteen (left) and mechanic Joe Bisha (right) ready Springsteen's Bartels, machine for the feature. The always-tough Springer took a beat ing, but wound up ninth. (Above) The night began on a sad note as Chris Carr and former dirt track racer Alex Jorgensen took a memorial lap of honor aboard the late Toby Jorgensen's motorcyc le. 16 with M itchell's Mod esto H-D's Michelle DiSalvo runnin g third, ahead of JMK Pro Racing' s Robert Miller and reigin ing HDSP series cha m p ion Jess Roed er on the Las Vega s Harley-Davidson /Roeder Harley-Davidson 883. The race was red flagged when Miller lost the front end between turns three and four , and crashed. He was uninjured, but his bike was not, a nd Miller would retire af ter the restart, finishing 15th . Russell again pulled the ho lesh ot on the second go, with McCoy right there, althou gh the Texan appea red to lose more ground than gain it initially, as he was clearly hard on the gas in an effor t to cat ch th e fl eei ng Russell. Aft er McCoy s e tt led down, he did pull to within striking distan ce. Meanwhile, Roeder was having diffi culty with DiSa lvo and Skip Fordyce Harley-Davidson 's Billy Martin, but the savvy Ohioan found the break that he was looking for when the trio cam e up to-lap Mike Boyle, who was running a much s lo we r p ace . Roed er s im p ly moved up and put himself between DiSalv o and the top of the gr oove, for cing her into a brake-check to a void piling into the back of Boyle. Roeder moved into third for good . "I seen the slower rider coming, so I just decided that I was going to use him as a blocker ," Roeder said . "I knew that if I got to the outside of her, sh e wa s goi ng to have to back off, and then it would be an easy pass. I was having a ha rd time getting arou nd her. When I moved into third, I could see tha t thev (Russe ll and McCoy) had a straightaway on me. I jus t settled in an d didn' t wa nt to make any mistakes so that I could finish on th e p odium. I th ink th at I' ve mad e a prett y good statemen t this yea r, two wi ns and tw o third s and I've only ridd en four tim es. If I had d on e th e whol e sea s o n th is year, I fe el like I would at least be with them going down to the wire, but it' s been a good learning season for me on the road racing side of things. Hopefully we can build on that ." Up fro nt , McCoy was on Russell ' s tail, but it appea red as if there was little th at he co u ld d o to co m p lete a pass. McCoy we n t far it in turn three anyway jus t before the white flag was th ro wn . His reward was a bu ckin g mot or cycle that nearl v sho t ou t fro m und erneath him . The mistake was eno ug h to secu re Russell the win by several len gths at the finish, belying the fact tha t it had actua lly been a close race.. And wit h one war over, runner -up McC oy fir ed th e opening sa lvo in th e a ther one. "I tried to get a good s ta rt, a nd it wheelied on me and then the back end brok e loo se , so I g o t prett y ex ci te d because he (Russell) was in fro nt of me," . McCoy said . "I s tarted ca tch ing h im , then he'd make a mistake. Then I'd try hard and jus t a bou t go d own. I ju st ca lme d down a n d tri ed to fi nis h th e race. If I caug ht him, great, if not, then I'm jus t go ing to beat him next week. He has only got a one-point lead on me, but th at ' s a ll right. He ' s a little w imp, so he's probably going to be sca red next I'm week . no t worried. I'm just going to go out there and beat him." Russell was equally satisfied with his win and with the fact tha t next week's Del Ma r Mile will decide the title - just as he had predicted tha t it would. "T he track was real in consi stent," Russell said . " It was hard to ge t a good lap , and I figu red that I was going into (tu rn three) slow, and that he had to be ca tch ing me. If I tried to go fas ter, it wo uld feel like I was just going to fall d own , so I jus t stayed smooth and consis ten t, and hoped that he didn't catch up to me. So now I'm going to Del Mar with a o ne - po int lead , a nd w hoever wins, wins." As for being a wimp? "I've been called wo rse, " Ru ssell said. "Besid es, we went runnin g together one night, and I asked him , '00 you wa n t to go three miles or five mil es?' When we go t to the three-mile point he sa id, 'I' m all d one.' I said, 'C' rnon, lets go .' But he sai d,' 0, you go ahead if you wa nt to.' So, I think that mean s that I'm in better sha pe ." SEMIS King took off and hid in the firs t semi, leaving Hacker and Stylemaster Custom Motorcycles' Steve Beat tie to ba ttle for the second and final tra nsfer spot. Hacker was running third, but the Virginian managed to ge t a run on Beattie and pass the Canad ian rider down the back straigh taway . Beattie failed to retaliate, and like the res t of the field, he wa s in the tru ck for the night, while King and Ha cker ad vanced . Russell led the second semi early, but Pegram woke up and blasted past the yo ung Califo rnian to ta ke the point for good . Ru ssell' s troubles weren't ove r then either, as Art Skaggs & Bob Berry backed Chris Boone jumped Russell off tu rn two as well. With Pegram checking ou t, Boon e made Russell wo rk his tail off in an effort to retake second place. It loo ked as th ou gh Boon e w ould b e en joy in g an upset, but then he slowed d own o n th e fro n t s traig hta way ju s t eno ugh to allow Russell to ge t a great run in to turn one . Ru ssell retook th e spo t, finishing well behind Pegram, bu t also depositing the disappointed Boone into the pits for the rest of the night. So close . Kevin Varnes led the fina l semi until about lap five, when he bobbled bigtime co mi ng off of turn four , allowing McCoy to scoot un dernea th him . McCoy th en suddenly appeared as tho ugh he had the joint wired, and he cut so me of the smoothes t laps all night en rou te to a runaway wi n. Varnes hun g on for second, filling the field for the main event." GRAND NATIONAL Parker, Roeder a nd Hayd en w ere a ll banished to the ba ck row fo r having ju m p ed the sta rt, lea ving only Da vi s, Carr and Kopp on the front row to take the gr een light. Davi s got the holeshot o v e r Kopp , Carr, Moreh ead a n d Bigelow when th e 18-rid er fie ld filed toward the groo ve in turn one, and he ap peared to be in the d riv er 's sea t for the durati on . Th en Kopp ju m ped him again. "The tra ck just cha nged so much," Davis sai d . "In the heat race, I just got in there too hot wh en he did it, and I just kind of missed the groove. So once I got the holeshot in the main event, I said to myself, 'I wi ll not do that aga in.' But on the warmup lap I didn't really go d own there and look at it (the turn), and so I didn't reali ze that there was a hole there about four feet deep. I wa s going plenty slow no t to make that mistake again, bu t when I went in there I al most went over the bars. 1 bent the bars and everything, and it was like, 'O h no, not again! '" But although Kopp gained the lead for two laps , he lost it in the same place, as Davis roll ed a rou nd the top of turn three and took the point back, dropping Kopp into the clutches of Carr, who held third . Mea nwhile, Hayden had go tten a flying start off the back row , and he was alread y up to sixth place. Perhaps one of Brieflv... National series aboard a Tim Goeken's twin -shocked Honda RS750. which appears to be either a former Ted Boody- or Alex J orgensen· mount. -We're going to hit all of them ifwe can get some backing." said Rickman. who actually debuted the bike on a one-time basis at Sedaiia. The evening's races at Las Vegas too k on a rather somber tone as it was Mi ssouri. earlier in the year: learned that GrandNational racer Toby Jorgens en of Stockton, California, had passed away in Dallas. Texas. the night before the race. AMA Dirt Track Manager Bruce Bober asked for a moment of silence during the riders' meeting. and also arranged for all of the riders to take part in a memorial parade-lap for Jorgensen. Chris Carr was selected to ride the Team Saddlemen Harley-Davidson with Jorgensen's number-23 plate s around the track. Jorgensen's uncle. dirt track hall of famer Alex .Jorgensen. rode on the back of the bike. carrying the checkered flag In.Jorgensen's honor. Toby Jorgensen was 17 years old. Apparently tired' of just : hanging around with h'is buddies. " as fellow Texan Win'e McCoy recentlystated. Irving. Texas' Jason Tyer has been a regular on the West'Coast swing of the Hariey-Davidson Sportser Per· fonmance Series. "rye got to get my GNC points." Tyer said. "I have to get three more points' to get my card. We'II get it- The reason for the sudden push is that 1g-year:<>ld plans to ride three classes on the circuit in the year 2000. Tyer has signed on to ride the XR750 of Bill Allen. an BB3 for Widman's Hartey-Devidson and a SuperTracker for former dirt track racer.Ted Davidson. . By winning the Las Vegas Half Mlle. Will Davis 'got more thanj ust the mental relief of a tough season. he got a bit of finaneial relief as well after Survival was apparently the keytosucces s for most of the racers ' I.his Goldsboro. North Carolina. home took a fair beating when Hurricane ' . who dealt with what most"all of them described 'as abhorrent track Royd ravagedthe Carolinas recently. Davis ' wife. R honda, related a'parte- conditions at Las ' Vegas Motor Speedway. Full-time road racer and ularly scary incident that nearly injured Davis 'and the couple's 5·year.old part-time dirt tracker LarrY Pegram. who cruised to a 14th-place hn. son Cole during the storm. ."A (40·foot·tall) Hickory tree fell on our ish. was among them. ."1survived whatever that was," Pegram said. "I house.- Rhonda Davis said. "Will and Cole were standing in the window ' came here to have fun.. I kind of had a little bit of fun early on. but it when the tree broke. It hit our deck and came through the window where . wasn' t too much fun in the main event: It was kind of a joke for them they were standing. Will threw Cole out of the wayand then'jumped out of .to put" anyb ody on somet hiri g like that . Obviously . maybe they the way. They both had glass allover them. But we were fortunate. A lot of shouldn't come back to this place if they can't keep the track any bet- . people have lost everything. Will said that it has 'been strange tuminif on ' ter than that." Using a road racer's ·perspective. Pegram was asked to CNN and seeing Goldsboro.'North Carolina. on national television..- . 's uggest a' plan of action to rectiFY such problems.in 'the future. : You . . .. . ... co uld sit here and talk for an hour abo ut 'what sho uld be done. " There 'may be another Washington rider to keep a n eye on at future Pegram replied. "But I think that just as in road racing. the orqa ntza750Cc Grand Natlooal events. as Eric Rickman of Puyallup. Washing- tionthat is supposed to be protecting us is not doing their job. I think ton. has secured a ridewith Goeken Racing to contest next year's Grand that their first objective shouldbe safety. From mypoint of view,look-

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