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Dirt Track Round 18: Las Vegas Motor Speedway By Scott Rousseau Photos by Flat Trak Fot os and Shawna Rousseau LASVEGAS, NV, OCT. 2 t wasn' t like Will Davi s hadn't seen the move before. After getting the holeshot at the.start of the Las Vegas Half Mile at Las Vegas Mo to r Speedway, th e Eaken Racin g / Rod Lake/Racing for Kid s-backed Davis wa tched as Joe Kopp sho t un d ernea th him in tu rn thr ee and attempted to pu ll away, just as Kopp had d one successfully in a heat-race win over Davis earlier in the night. It looked as if hist ory had rep eated it s elf, a n d th a t th e be s t 01' "Winkin' Will" could expect was a runn e r-up fi nis h o n a nar ro w -g r oov ed , cra te r-fi lled La s Vegas trac k whi ch mad e pa ssing incredibly d ifficult. Instead , the 34-yea r-old Dav is proved that he is a qu ick s tudy - in history and d ance - as he someho w found a way to waltz around the ou tside of Kopp in the mid dl e of turns three and four after hole-hopping ove r the broken-up su rface at the end of the back straigh taway . He then su rvived a late-race challenge from 1999 AMA Gran d National Champion Ch ris Ca rr - includi n g a hell of a jolt fro m Carr off turn tw o just before AMA sta rter Sco tt Zi mmerman th rew the five-lap sign - to claim his third win of the seas on and the 24th of his career. So call him "Twinklin' Will." ''I' ll probably s till o nly h a v e 23 Gra nd Na tional wi ns," said Davis, wh o w on th e inaugura l Las Vega s ra ce in 1997. "The y prob ab ly wo n' t give me a d irt track w in; thi s was m y firs t hare scrambles Na tio nal. Wha t's them gu ys' nam es? Hatch, or whoe ver it is? You tell 'em to wa tch ou t. I'm lookin g at a factory hare scram bles ride next year." Dav is' sarcasm, a result of his d isapp oi ntmen t over th e track co nd itions, was clear enough , but wa s it mispl aced? That dep ends on the perspective of the indi vid ual rid ers, bu t three of th erruvetera ns Scott Parker and Terry Poovey, and yo ung cha rge r Kevin Varn es - d id su rren der an d pull off the track during the 25-lap ma in even t, deem ing the sur- (Above) Will Davis (21) survived brutally rough track conditions and a constant attack from Ch ris Carr (4) to win the Las Vegas Hail Mile at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The win was Davis ' thi rd ofthe season. (Left ) Joe Kopp (43) led the first two laps of the main event before fa lli ng to third. Nicky Hayden (59) came fr om the penalty li ne to finish fourth. I m '" M ~ CI> .Q .8 u o 14 face to be unsafe. Davis himself ad mitted to go ing into survival mod e eve n wi t h Ca rr bre a thi n g d own h is n e ck w hile the tw o rid ers pu lled awa y fro m th e res t of the pack. Aft er th at , Dav is had the advantage and sim ply ma de the leas t mistakes while he and Carr bucked and bounced aro u nd . They came within a ci rc u it of lapp in g Co z iahr Ha rl eyDavid son temp Larry Pegram, who was the las t-ru nni ng rid er o n th e track, in 14th p lace. N evertheless, the win w as welcome relief for the North Caro linan, who has su ffered through a subpa r seaso n on the track and, mor e recently, a hurrican e seaso n off of it (see Briefly...I, "Th is w in was someth ing tha t we needed rea] bad ," Davis sa id . "Jus t racing w ith Ch ris th at w a y a nd beati ng him, an d winning in Las Vegas ... We've don e it.before, bu t the feeling is just d iffere n t, even if the track is crap py . It's ju st a real good feeling ." For the Ha rl ey-Da vid son of Sac ra m ent o /Ph o en ix Ra cin g / Big Va lley Ford-backed Ca rr , th e ra cin g su rface extracted a fair toll. The '99 series champ ion wa s s po tted lim p in g in the p it s p ost-ra ce after he had appa ren tly stu ck h is left fo o t in o ne o f th e ho les a nd tw isted h is a n k le . It did n 't s to p him fro m twistin g the thro ttle on the tra ck, however, as he managed to come off the li n e third and th e n fo llow Davis b y Kopp to run second. Carr was the onl y r id er o n th e tra ck w h o w a s abl e to m a tch Da vi s ' p a ce, a n d th e tw o lef t Kopp and even tual fou rth-p lace finisher Nicky Hayden well beh in d them. Ca rr's only hopes for a pass lay in his steadythrot tled , ,co rn e r -ro ll i n g te chn iq u e , which placed him just ou tside Davis ill turns one and two several times duri ng the race . The one time that he decided to try to run a little lowe r than Davis was th e one tim e th at h e ass- packe d th e No rth Ca ro lina n, nea rly se nd ing both riders d ow n for the count. Carr backed off a bit after the inciden t, and he took a well-deserved ru nn er-up finish . "I caug ht my ankle in a hole in one and tw o, or it mig ht have been three and four - they sucked too," Carr sa id . "I' m happy w ith second. I think that we ha d th e bike th a t cou ld w in, but hey, Will just ou tfoxed us in three and four. I had a cou ple cha nces to ge t by him, bu t he rod e a reall y good d efen sive rac e w hen he needed to. I just go t second . [ go t bea t." For Kopp, thi rd pl ace was th e bes t th a t he could d o afte r Da vis and Ca rr s p li t o n h im ea r ly in th e race . T h e H arl ey -Davi d s on of Mi ss ouri /Da ve Burks Motorsports /Carl Patrick-backed Washing to nian lost too mu ch ground a fte r lead in g across th e s tripe on the first tw o laps. Still, he was able to hold off a hard-chargin g Ha yden for the final rostrum spot, ea rni ng his second podiu m finish in the last th ree even ts. "Th ird's prett y good ," Kopp said . "It was the same thing as in the heat race. Will w en t into turn three and bobbled real hard on the first lap. I ducked under