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/128121
ing off the final turn, Carr was prepared for the possibility that he might have to lead the race off the final corner, but Team Harley-Davidson's Rich King made it easy for him by dropping low to take the lead off turn four, spinning his rear tire and allowing Carr to latch onto him for a tow to the flag. Carr made an easy draft move past King for his second win of the weekend, adding it to his May race win and Hall of Fame win for the sweep. "The way that thing shook out, Kevin [Athertonl really slowed me up coming off turn two because he was trying to dart away from us and break the draft, but he got kind of loose in the dirt stuff and slowed us all down. I figured someone would come by me and then they'd become a sitting duck. It just happened to be Rich. I got a pretty good drive and guessed which way he was going. "This whole weekend was great, you know," Carr continued. "I look at what Shaun Russell did yesterday, running up front like that, Bigelow winning the short track, Kevin [AthertonI getting going again, Steve Beattie running up front at a mile. A lot of young guys stepped it up, and this weekend was good for all of us to go through a therapy session. Racing three days like this really allowed us to not forget about the [Will Davis] tragedy, but to put it into perspective and take care of each other out there. All the guys were real good in that department... Unfortunately, the day's racing was not without incident, as Phil Miller Racing-backed Dan Stanley lost control of his motorcycle while battling for the lead off of turn four in the third heat race and was seriously Canadian champion Steve Beattie (261 ..bounded from two frustrating days to noy only make the main event at Springfield, but also to lead the race. A blistered tire dropped Beattie to t t th at the finish. injured. Butler low-sided and then cartwheeled into the wall. Down on the track for several minutes, he was taken to Memorial Medical Center where we underwent surgery to fuse a broken vertebra in his neck. The surgery required a bone graft, which was taken from his hip. Additionally, Butler suffered a broken collarbone, broken ribs, a bruised lung, a deep cut to his left elbow, which required stitches to both the skin and the tendon, and road rash that burned to the bone on his right elbow. He is expected to be out of action for the rest of the season. For King, who had inadvertently rammed into the back of Springsteen - and thus prevented either of them from beating Carr - on Saturday, today's second-place finish was one more rung up the ladder, and yet seemingly more disappointing to him than yesterday's third-place finish. "I gave this one away," King said. "I thought that I had it won. I was right in the place where I wanted to be, and I just spun the tire coming off turn four. I got in the loose stuff, and that was all it took. Nobody beat me to the line the whole time in the main event. I just got down in the dry stuff and gave it away. It sucks, but that happens. I pretty much contained most of the exciting stuff to yesterday. 1 was trying to be a little more boring today." Hacker simply put in the kind of blue-collar ride that all but ensures his future in the sport. He has the talent to win a mile, it's just a question of when. Though it didn't happen today, the 26-year-old Virginian had the capacity crowd believing that he might, as he piloted his Johnny Goad-tuned Harley-Davidson around the track near the front of the pack for the first 20 laps, and he had plenty left to go with Carr, King, Springsteen, Atherton and Corbin Racing/Harley-Davidson of Missouri's CalT (41 ran at the front of the pack for much of the race, but it would take a tow from King (801, who charged up from the back of the pack, to seal his victory. Kenny Coolbeth when the five-lap board was shown to the field. His only faux pas came when it was time to make the split-second decision as to who to draft. Hacker chose Carr, but it wasn't enough to get him past King, who ran a lower line to the stripe. The three riders could have been blanketed, King's bike on the inside, bridging the gap between Carr and Hacker. "I thought I was going to be there at the end, but Rich kind of surprised us a"" Hacker said. "First Kevin banged the wall, so I really wasn't able to double draft, and then King Proving once again that they are tight-knit like few other sports, the flat track community of race teams, fans, officials and other supporters came together at Springfield to raise money for the family of the late Will Davis, through donations and speCial auctions. At Friday's Fed Ex Springfield Short Track Shootout, over $6000 was raised, but on Sunday, the total was even more incredible. An impromptu memorabilia auction was held during a break before the main event after severa i racers donated items, with all proceeds going to the Davis family. Some of the best-selling items were helmets belonging to two-time AMA Grand National Champion Gary Nixon and two-time Daytona Short Track winner Terry Poovey, which netted $600 and $750 respectively. But the bidding got crazy when the prize item came up on the block: a set of Jay Springsteen's Bartels' Harley-Davidson leathers. Bidding was brisk until the number got around $6500, then it came down to a showdown between motorcycle racing television producer Chet Burks, who was using one of his TV crewmen as a proxy and an unidentified fan who was standing in one of the aisleways high in the main grandstand. The amount climbed higher and higher, until it reached $8000. At this point, the fan knelt down to his buddies, conversed with them and then waved his hand to up the bid to $8500, to the roaring applause of the entire grandstand. Unfazed, Burks upped the number to $9000. The fan sat, and sat, and sat, and thought about it some more before finally raising the bar to $9500, which met with a roar of approval. Burks finally broke the fan, however, paying a winning bid of $10,000 for Springer's leathers. Then the unthinkable happened. The fan walked down out of the stands, got hold of the announcers and informed that he didn't want the leathers anyway. He then pledged $10,000 to the Will Davis Memorial fund. So who was that masked man? It turns out that the fan was Ohio businessman John Dragoo, a name that may sound familiar to many Steve Morehead fans, as Dragoo was one of Morehead's sponsors throughout much of his career. He had come to Springfield to see his hero get inducted to the Dirt Track Hall of Fame. Consequently, Dragoo left Springfield a hero to the thousands of fans who will no doubt remember his kind gesture for many years to come. Over $22,500 was raised from the auction, swelling the weekend total to over $41,000. cue I _ n __ s 'SEPTEMBER 12.2001 23