Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Willie McCoy (59) used Karl Klement's potent KK Racing 600 to claim the 600cc support main event for the third straight year. This time, McCoy fended off a charging Nicky Hayden (69) at the line. Springsteen led lap 13, and seemed to be in the hunt for the win right up until the last lap. "The last lap I should have run it in harder, but I ended up letting Hacker in there," Springsteen said. "My front wheel just touched his rear wheel, and I about high-sided off my motorcycle. It was just a cluster out there. There were guys all together in the draft, and then they'd split up and it would feel like a semi went by you. I should have picked the pace up earlier. It was a fun race, though, the Springfield Mile is always the best. My bike ran great. I ran the same one both days in a row. Despite riding with two broken hands, Corbin Racing/Harley-Davidson of Missouri-backed Coolbeth was in the hunt for his first career victory again, latching onto the tail of the breakaway pack. Coolbeth just never seemed to get a good run to the front, and he finished sixth, behind Springsteen. "Everyone was going the same speed, but I think that everyone was just scared to pull out because then it would be a three-man draft," Coolbeth said. "It was just like a NASCAR restrictor-plate race. My tire was fine. I'm happy with sixth from the third row." And who should come home in seventh but another young star of the future, KK/F&S Harley-Davidson's Bryan Smith. The 17 -year-old Michigander was impressive, running right in between the fast front six and the rest of the field. When the leaders wicked it up, Smith tried to go with them, but just couldn't quite get the run to catch their draft. He would four of the last five laps trying to catch a breath, but it was too little too late. Still, Smith's mE;ssage was clear enough: the veteran vanguard had better start watching out for the new kid from Flint, Michigan. "That's about the best way to get noticed, is to keep getting better and better finishes," Smith said. "That was the quickest 25 laps that I've ever rode. I kept looking up and seeing that I was with the leaders, and I got excited. I could get by.Coolbeth, but I couldn't get by the factory Harley. Then they stepped it up the last five laps, and it took me four of them to get back with them. But that was too much fun. I never thought I'd make it to seventh. I'm really happy." Smith's teammate, Willie McCoy, was also appeased with his eighthplace finish. "Eighth ain't too bad," the Texan said. "I wanted to run at the front of the draft, and we did that, but I wish I'd of had that one more horsepower to get me off the turns. There was a lot of brake ~hecking going on out there, a lot of stop and go. I about crapped my pants when Nicky almost crashed out there on the last lap. His feet were off the pegs, and I was right behind him." USC Racing/lstlegal.com's Terry Poovey rode his venerable Honda RS750 to ninth overall, but expressed concern over the safety consciousness of some of the riders he was racing against. "These guys aren't racing the same way we did in the old days," the 42-year-old Poovey said. "They're running up against that wall - Kevin Atherton hit that wall, and Nicky hit that wall down the back straightaway - and if they don't quit doing that, they're not going to be around to race. They scare me, so I just let 'em go. If I can race two or three guys, I'm good, but I'm in that pack, and I'm thinking that if somebody's bike breaks, then we're all going to tumble down the front straightaway. If I can get off with 'em, I can beat 'em, but if I can get behind 'em, I can't catch 'em. I don't want to. I want to live." Memphis Shades/Coziahr HarleyDavidson teammate Johnny Murphree, usually a mile contender, wasn't up to speed as much as he would like to have been either, running 10th today on teammate Kevin Varnes' back-up motorcycle after his number-one mile machine blew up on the opening lap of practice for the Hall of Fame Grand National. After making that main event and finishing down in the order, the hard-riding Calfornian figured that the right strategy for today. "Yesterday, I rode every lap in the main event wide open, and by the halfway point, I had no tire left," Murphree said. "Today, I changed my game plan and rode conservatively, and guys kept going by me, but I figured they'd come back. Then at the end, there I was, spinning tire and backing up more. I think we may have just missed our setup. We'll take two top- 1Os and go to Vernon [New York] and see what we can do there." BOOcc SUPPORT Willie McCoy used his KK Racing Rotax to win the 12-lap 600cc Support main event for the third straight year, defeating Nicky Hayden in a drafting war that came down to the wire. In the end, it was the awesome power of McCoy's ride that got him to the line first. That KK Racing 600 is awesome," McCoy said. "Phil Darcy builds an awesome engine, and Karl and all the guys work so hard on it. It makes it easy to go fast. Nicky was able to keep up with me. I didn't want him to get past me going into turn three. He tried to go around me, and it didn't work. I just had the horsepower to stay out front." Hayden finished second, with Bryan Smith third. eN 1111a... State Fall1lnlUllda Sprlqflald, IIUn" Ilasultl: SepbI.III11' 2, 2Ul [Row leaf 2UI HfAT 1 (10 laps; 1 t riders. top three transfer): 1. Kevin Atherton (H·D); 2. Shoun Russell (H-D); 3. Mike Hacker (H-D); 4. Rich King (H-D); 5. Kenny Cool beth (H·D); 6. Bryan Smith (H-D); 7. Gary Rogers (H·D); 8. Dale Jenneman (H-D); 9. Tim Eades (H-D); 10. Joe Duvall (H-D); 11. Chris Evans W';'~~'5 min.• 51.311 sec. HEAT 2 (10 laps; 11 rider., top three transfer): D U a I _ n A tremendous outpouring of support was shown to the family of late dirt tracker Will Davis. At the start of each day, the riders saluted Davis with a Polish victory lap. and then stopped on the front straight as AMA announcer J.B. Norris paid tribute to him. I. Chris Carr (H-D); 2. Dan Stanley (H-D): 3. Johnny Murphree (H-D); 4. Kevin VlIrnes (H·D); 5. Paul Morgan III (H-D): 6. Shawn Clark (H-D); 7. Kyle Long (H-D); 8. Donnie Steward (H-D); 9. Cory Roth (H-D); 10. Roger Lee Hayden (H-D); II. Greg Tysor (H-D). lime: 5 min., 48.522 sec. HEAT 3 (10 laps; 12 riders. top three transfer): 1. Steve Beattie (H-D); 2. Willie McCoy (H-D); 3. Bryan Bigelow (H-D): 4. Jess Roeder (H-D); 5. J.R. Schnabel (H-D); 6. Paul Ber9strom (H-D): 7. Robert Lewis. Jr. (H-D); 8. Jaime Aguilar (H-D): 9. Dan Butler (H-D); 10. Nicky Hayden (H-D); 11. Roy Miller (SUI); 12. Tom McGrane (Hon). Time: None. due to red flag. HEAT 4 (10 laps; 12 riders, top three transfer): 1. Jay Springsteen (H-D); 2_ Terry Poovey (Hon); 3. Chris Hart (H-D); 4. Jason Tyer (H-D); 5. Larry Pegram (H-D); 6. Paul Lynch (H-D); 7. John Nickens III (H-D); 8. Greg Teague (H-D); 9. Devon Pritchard (H-D): 10_ Jim Sumner (H-D); 11. Eric Rickman (HD); 12. Yuhiko Hirao (SUI). Time: 5 min.. 48.787 sec. SEMI 1 (8 laps; 11 riders. top two transfer): 1. Kenny Cool beth (H-D); 2. Kevin Vames (H-D); 3. Dale Jenneman (H·O); 4. Larry Pegram (H·O); 5. Roger Lee Hayden (H-D); 6. Greg Teague (H-D); 7. Paul Ber9strom (H-D): 8. Kyle Lon9 (H-D); 9. Eric Rickman (H-D): 10. Dan Butler (H-D); 11. Chris Evans (H-D). Time: 4 min.. 44.170 sec:. SEMI 2 (8 laps; 11 riders. top two transfer): 1. Bryan Smith (H-D): 2. Jason Tyer (H-D); 3. J.R. Schnabel (H-D): 4. Tim Eades (H-D); 5. Paul Morgan (H·D); 6. John Nickens III (H-D): 7. Jim Sumner (HD); 8_ Jaime Aguilar (H-D); 9. Roy Miller (SUl): 10. Donnie Steward (H-D); II. Greg Tysor (SUl). TIme: 4 min .. 48.323 sec:. SEMI 3 (8 laps; 12 riders, top two transfer): 1. Rich Kin9 (H-D); 2. Nicky Hayden (H-D); 3. Jess Roeder (H-D); 4. Paul Lynch (H-D); 5. Gary Rogers (H-D); 6. Devon Pritchard (H-D); 7. Robert lewis, Jr. (H-D); 8. Shawn Clark (H-D); 9. Joe Duvall (H-D); 10. Cory Roth (H-D); 11. Yuhiko Hlrao (SUI); 12. Tom McGrane. Jr. (Hon). Time: 4 min .. 45.016 sec:. GRAND NATIONAL (25 laps; 18 riders): 1. Chris Carr (H-D); 2. Rich King (H-D): 3. Mike Hacker (H-D); 4. Kevin Atherton (H-D); 5. Jay Springsteen (H-D); 6. Kenny Coolbeth (H-D); 7. Bryan Smith (HD); 8. Willie McCoy (H-D); 9. Terry Poovey (Hon); 10. Johnny Murph.... (H-D); 11. Steve Beattie (H-D); 12. Nicky Hayden (H-D): 13. Shoun Russell (H-D); 14. Jason Tyer (H-D); 15. Chris Hart (H-D): 16. Kevin Vames (H-D); 17. Bryan BIgelow (H-D); 18. Dan Stanley (H-D). Time: 14 min., 50.540 sec:. AMA/PROGRESSIVE INSURANCE U.S_ FLAT TRACK CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES POINTS STANDINGS (After 18 of 20 rounds): 1. Chris Carr (305/8 wins): 2. Rich King (222/1 win): 3. Joe Kopp . (213/1 win); 4. Mike Hacker (164): 5. (TIE) Kenny Coolbeth (162)/W11I Davis (162/4 Wins); 7. Johnny Murphree (143); 8. Bryan Bigelow (135/1); 9. Jay Springsteen (134); 10. J.R_ Schnabel (134/1 win); 11. Terry Poovey (94); 12. Geo Roeder (88); 13. WIllie McCoy (86); 14. Nicky Hayden (82); 15. Steve Beattie (63); 16. Shoun Russell (60); 17_ Kevin Vames (58): 18. Shawn Clark (56); 19. Brett Landes (51); 20. Paul Lynch (39). Upcoming Rounds: Round 19 - Vemon, New York, September 8 Round 20 - Du Quoin, Illinois, September 29 __ • • SEPTEMBER 12,2001 25

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