Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AMAlPf"'ogf"'essive Insuf"'ance U. S. Flat Tf"'ack Championships Round 1 2: Oelawaf"'e State Faif"'9f"'ounds talking about that at the beginning of the race," Roeder said. "My strategy was to be Will Davis, and get out front and bust everybody's ass. When I moved down, fortunately I had a big enough lead so that I didn't have to show everybody how good of a groove-track rider 1 am." The best battle on the track was for the fourth spot, as Evans, Hayden and Kopp went at it on lap 17. Hayden managed to roll around Evans in turns one and two to take the spot, which he held to the finish. Kopp also desperately tried to get by and make up that one more point on Carr. Evans, who has been off the Grand National trail since suffering a rib injury in a race after the Lima Half Mile, wasn't about to let that happen. "Nicky kept coming, and he finally got around the outside of me," Evans said. "Then, I guess, Joe [Kopp] was coming, and I said 'Fifth is my limit, I'm not going back to sixth.' I managed to push her a little harder and hang on. I'm still not in the best of shape yet. I tried to stay on the bottom for most of the race. My gig is normally to blast it around the top, but I concentrated on the bottom. For the most part, it worked pretty good. I'm happy." Rather than being bummed at missing the podium for only the fourth time in 12 races, however, Kopp was actually kind of relieved. "I got a great start on the restart, and' was using the same line down low," Kopp said. "It was working until we started getting rubber down there. , had a Continental on the rear, and it started hooking up and causing me to push. This was the one race that kind of had me nervous all year, but we got through it. After the heat race, I was pumped, and I was going to go for the win, but sixth place is stiJJ better than I thought' might originally do here. Now we have Hagerstown, Sedalia and Peoria, and I love those places. I'm looking forward to the rest of the races from here on out." Behind Kopp, King had quietly managed to work his way into a solid seventh. "I struggled early on and couldn't get the thing turned, but once' the. track started to groove up, I got a lot better," King said. "I picked up a lot of the spots that 1 lost early. I've never really been a big threat here. It was a so-so day. I'm not happy with it, but I'm not disappointed with it, either. We'll just see what happens at Hagerstown next week." Clark finished eighth, while Beattie and Jess Roeder ran ninth and 10th, although their battle wasn't necessarily over after the checkered flag fell [see Briefly... ]. The dirt up top was all gone by lap 22, and everyone soon dropped to the bottom, where a black line was down. I looked up and saw the bike hit the fence. Shit happens. It could have been worse." Coolbeth was taken to Milford Medical Center, where X-rays revealed that he had suffered what are termed as "boxer breaks" to both hands. Davis once again shot into the lead on the restart, and left little doubt that he was going to be the man to beat as he inched away from Carr, who had his hands full with a charging Kopp as they came off turn four on lap two. Kopp waited two more laps before making his ill-fated pass attempt in turn three. The Washingtonian low-sided and was pinned under his motorcycle as the pack rained down on him. He was unable to get free of the bike, and the red flag was thrown again. During the mandatory work period between the restarts, Carr yelled over to Davis, "Dammit, Winkin', slow down!" To which Davis replied, "I did there for a second." Davis must have been talking about the red flag, because as long as the main event was under green, he was simply untouchable. He had 15 lengths on Carr by the halfway point. That lead had grown to a half straightaway by lap 16. "Early on in the night, we had a Maxxis on the front and a Continental on the rear, and we were getting a push, so I went to a Goodyear on the front on the main," Davis said. "Chris [Carr] actually showed me that combination at Lima. I don't know what it is, but that setup just works - it's a night-and-day difference on this type of track." As far as second place goes, Carr was untouchable too, and although Davis was leaving him behind, he managed to keep his cool. "It doesn't do any good to get frustrated, really," Carr said. "I knew at that point that the guy I'm chasing in the points was at the back of the grid. I wanted to give Will an honest run. Off the last restart, I was able to get by him off of two, but he got right back by me. I just didn't have enough for him. There's a minor threat in that, because we have a lot of half miles left, and Will is an outstanding half miler. He has his confidence back, but if I finish second to him every week - which I don't think will happen - it won't matter that much in the points. Whatever happens, we go to Peoria in two weeks, and I think that I can end his win streak there." Geo Roeder II broke free of Clark, Evans, Hayden, Murphree and Jess Roeder by lap eight, and he, too, was not challenged for position after that, even when the track went away in the late going. "The track was dry at the beginning of the day, and Skip and I were 8 AUGUST 15, 2001 • cue I • neVIl's forming on the surface. It was followthe-leader for the last three laps, which guaranteed the win for Davis if his motorcycle would hold out. It did. "It's just unbelievable, man,' Davis said. "This is 31 [wins] for me. When things work like they did tonight, you just keep thinking, 'We can do this again and again.' I've said all year that you can go from the penthouse to the shithouse so fast in this sport, but even when all that bad stuff was happening, we knew that we had what it took because we were winning practice and Winning the scratch heats. Even if I missed my line tonight, my bike was rideable. That's when you're having fun. I wish we could go to Hagerstown tomorrow." SUPERTRAPP SUPERTRACKER NATIONAL Starting with the race at Charlotte, Gardner Racing rider Bryan Bigelow had fallen headlong into a hell of a week. He had failed to qualify for the Grand National final at Charlotte, and Left to right: Carr, Davis and Roeder share a toast on the podium heading home to Michigan did little to ease the tension, as the air conditioning unit and the bathtub in his house both crapped out later in the week. His failure to make the Grand National feature at Harrington sent him to the breaking point, and come time for the SuperTrapp SuperTracker main event, Bigelow was set to go off. That's just what he did, cutting loose on one of Randy Texter's Lancaster Harley-Davidson Buells in the 12-lap final. Bigelow got the holeshot of the night and quickly left Team Powell Suzuki rider J.R. Schnabel and Suzuki-mounted Willie McCoy to take the win by over half a straightaway, even after backing off to preserve the bike. The win was even more dominating than Davis' performance in the Grand National main event. "That bike is just too good on these slick tracks," Bigelow said. "People say that you've got to have a good attitude, but I think that Bryan Bigelow does better when he is For the past several seasons, it was always easy to spot New Holland, Pennsylvania's Rob Miller in the pits. If you didn't know that he was AMA Grand National number 68, Miller was still easy to find; all you had to do was scan the crowd for the rider who looked like he had a Siurpee dumped on his head. A solid rider in the 883 and SuperTracker classes, the outrageous hairstyles were part of the in)age, but Miller, 28, called it a day after suffering a terrible crash in Portland, Oregon, last September. But these days you can still find Miller in the pits at select dirt track races. He's the guy servicing the brightly colored Arai helmets wom by many of the Grand National players. Miller was hired by Arai just prior to Daytona Bike Week, as he was considered to be the perfect guy to represent the helmet company in the dirt track arena. Being "one of them" certainly doesn't hurt. "Actually, it helps a lot, because I'm really comfortable here," Miller said. "It keeps me active with everybody. Arai is a company that I love, and this is a sport that I love.' The Arai-backed riders keep him hopping at the races, as there is a lot of work to be done on a lot of lids in a short amount of time. "It's a lot of shields, tearoffs, making sure that parts don't fall off - that doesn't happen very often, by the way," Miller joked, "We also have consumers walking through the pits as well, and we want to get them dialed in. Miller said that he has leamed a lot about a lot since joining the company, and looks forward to hanging in the pits and helping his Arai-wearing pals as often as possible. "It's such a great company," Miller said. "I'm looking forward to being here for a long time."

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