Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

(Left) Rich King (80) "blasted" past Dan Stanley (10) for third place. (Right) Runner-up and defending series champion Poovey (left) congratulated winner and fonner series champion Carr (right). "Chris was just faster than me," Poovey said. Tire and Auto-sponsored ATK. Dan Stanley picked up the last transfer spot on his BBRP/Circle Frames/ Nymo Plates Suzuki. The second heat belonged to the defending series champion, Terry Poovey, who rode to a strong win aboard his 1stLegal.com/USC Racing/Dallas Honda-backed Honda CRF450R. Joe Kopp took second ahead of Willie McCoy's Dallas Harley-Davidson/Tucker Rocky/ Shoei-backed ATK. Rich King picked up the final transfer spot in fourth. Jason Tyer took a surprising win in the third and final heat after running 10th fastest in the qualifying session. The Arai/SuperTrapp/Redline Oilsponsored ATK of Tyer even did one better when he turned in the fastest heat to take the first gate in the main. Steve Beattie picked up second on his TLC Racing/A&A Racing/Saddlemen-sponsored ATK. Jared Mess picked up third on a Moroney's Harley-Davidson-sponsored Honda ahead of Smith, who seemed to be struggling with the track surface. When the light went green on the first main event of 2002, Poovey jumped out to the early lead ahead of Carr and Stanley. Poovey led the first lap uncontested, but the second lap saw an early challenge come from the black Vor of Carr. Carr followed Poovey into turns three and four momentarily before drifting out just enough to pull alongside the Honda. Poovey managed to hold off the early attempt at the lead and had to do so again the very next lap as Carr tried the move again. It was on the fourth lap that Carr drove hard around the outside of Poovey and pulled alongside him as the two started lap five. Heading into turns one and two, Carr made his move for the lead, took it, and never looked back. Back in third, Stanley was getting a big challenge from King, who had to come from a long way back on the start. Behind the pair, Mees had the bright-orange KTM of Kopp on his tail. By the seventh lap, Carr had already began to stretch his lead out to almost two seconds over Poovey, and King, who had moved around Stanley to take over the third position. Stanley now faced Kopp, who seemed to be coming up through the field fast. Kopp took over the position and settled into fourth behind King. Stanley's troubles continued as he slipped outside the top five and finished the evening in ninth behind Bryan Smith. At the checkers, it was Carr with a runaway win over Poovey and King. Kopp rode to fourth and Jared Mess picked up fifth. "I had pulled up alongside him going down the front straightaway. I knew that him being on the inside, I would not be able to go around the outside on him into turn one because of the way the track was," Carr said. "He melted it off pretty quick to protect the inside. I saw that coming and turned qUicker and just straight-lined the middle of the comer to put a nice, clean block-pass on him and I was able to run my pace from that point on," Carr was also very happy with the setup of his Vor. "We put more weight on it just in case we got below the minimum weight, and we topped it off with fluids all the way. Actually, we left the bike and hardly touched it all day long except for trying to meet the weight requirements." Defending series champion Terry Poovey, who was 100J

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