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/128110
la p s five through nine , w ith Carr s h a dowing h is eve ry m ove . In th e m e antim e, Springs te e n was still third , but a hung ry Bige lo w. fre sh o ff h is first career Na tion a l win in the SuperT ra p p Su pe rTra cker ra c e held ea rlier, qu ic k ly ca me a -knoc kin' . Da vis , who ha d be en fo rced to sta rt on th e out s ide o f ro w tw o , was also fa s t approach ing . On lap ei g ht, Bigelow dropp ed un der S pr ingsteen in turn o ne and beat h im o ff of tum two to ta ke o ver th e th ird s pot. " I surp r is e d myself , I g ue ss , " Bige low said. "Whe n they watered the t r a c k , t hey m ad e t urn four p re tty s lick, a n d Coo lbeth got s idew ays dow n t h e re in t he m u dd y stu ff. He cou ldn 't help it - he go t a ll s ideway s a nd we all had to get on the brakes . Wh en I lo o k e d u p , Kopp a n d Carr we re g on e , h a v in g their o wn little race . I st ill had to de al with Springer , an d he was n't about to just m ove over a nd let me pass him . I ke pt try ing to get a run , but he kept blowing ba c k by m e. All in all , though, this is the best day of racing th a t I've ever had ." Ca rr wa ite d o nly one lap m or e to put a similar move o n Kopp in th e same two co rners . Once he was by, Carr the n s lowly be g a n to pull away from Kopp , a s it wa s clea r th at while Ko pp wa s a ble to make up some o f the advantage by bro ad slid ing into th e corne rs, Ca rr's m otorc ycle wa s better set up to handle the slick conditions. Ca rr wa s nowhere near as wild go ing in, and he was definite ly mu ch bette r coming off the c urves . Kopp tried sev (Below) Kopp Carr. Joe Kopp (1) and Chris CarT capitalized on an early bottleneck behind them to put a cushion on the pack. The two went at It for a while before CarT managed to pull ahead for the w in. era l d ifferent lines , but Carr q uickly began to pu ll a length here and there until th e margin wa s nearly 10 lengths by the halfway flag s . "He [Ca rr] was screwing up a co uple tim e s a nd I was s c re win g up a co uple time s ," Kopp sa id . "It was ha rd to put a consiste nt la p tog e ther o ut there. It was real tight. It was like we were laying on each oth e r a c ou p le times, but it was clean . It was good ." As the field bega n to string out, a cou ple o t her in ter e s ti ng b att les shaped up , some of them rathe r brie f. Dav is c aug ht up to Sprin g ste en o n la p 11 and wasted little time di ving underne ath the a g ing legend to take a way the fourth spot. By th en , how e ve r, Da vis had too mu ch real estate to make up o n Bigelow. •J ust ha d to start on the sec ond row , a nd I got behind those guys and d idn 't get off real good from the top : Da vis sa id. "But I guess I p ut myself b a c k th ere from th e heat race. We we re qu ick, but Bige lo w be at me lin the hea t]. I cou ld tu rn good la ps , but w h e n I wa s raci ng w ith peo p le, I coul dn't get t u rn e d . It 's hard to ex p lai n th is tra c k , b ut yo u have t o drive it in stra igh t, get it turne d and then come off the bo ttom . Trying to pass every bod y, I'd j us t d rive it in, but it wou ld ke ep skating to th e top of t h e tr a c k . By th e time I did get it turned , I was already wa y out there. It was too late . First and second pla c e were th e people that we d idn 't want up th e re , and fourths and fifths aren't goi ng to c ut it. We need to be winn ing races . We just have to ke ep digging . We'll be all right." Spr in g e r wa s n ' t c ha lle n ge d by anyone else , however, a nd so ldie red home a so lid fifth - on a straight-up fir ing m ach ine , a s oppo sed t o the m or e com mon twingl e s found in the field . "We had to search o n the c hassis to get it hoo ked up to get tra ct ion ," (Above) Shown h e re celebrating h is v ictory i n the SuperTrapp SuperTracker final, Bryan B igelow also had a strong ride In the Grand National, fini shing third. Spring s te e n s a id . · We tried a lot o f stuff tha t we nev er tried be fore, and I th ink that it helped a lot. No rm all y, yo u try to pu t some more angle in the sw ing arms to get traction with these c h as sis, but th e chassis th at we used to us e years ago never h ad any a ngle in the sw inga rm . I we nt ba c k to that a nd d id so me thin gs to th e fro nt e nd, a nd that he lped. Plus , when th e bike s are tw in gl ed , yo u ca n ju st grab a h andfu l co mi ng off th e co rne rs, but my bi k e was standa rd . If y o u w atch ed , y o u' d have s e en that I would come pretty far off the corner be fo re I re a lly na iled it. It wa s just re ally s lic k out there tod a y , so I' m ha p py with fifth . I su rvived the heat to d ay a n d fin ish e d fifth . All th ose gu ys u p in front of m e we re yo ung guys . It was a fu n ra c e ." Behin d S p ringsteen , Te am Pow ell/Ha rley -Davi d son of West Bend 's J . R. S chn ab e l had co m e through from 11th pla ce on lap one to c hal le nge a struggli ng Mike Ha c ke r, who was a board hi s fa m ili ar Johnn y Goad-tun e d Sadd lem en Ra c ing /Lan ca st e r Ha rle y -D a vidson , by lap 15 . n e _ S • JUNE 27,2001 25