Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

(Left) Murphree was one of the favorites for the win, and he proved worthy by finishing a close third at the finish. (Right) Hayden, too, was looking for a win aboard his Terry Poovey Honda RS750. With it he would have completed the Grand Slam. Instead, he finished fourth. Johnson earned their spots in the main event by running one-two in the first semi. Eades came back strong to lead JAB Computing/CTC Racing/ SuperTrapp rider Paul Lynch across the line in the second semi, with both going through to the main event; the race was red-flagged after Geo Roeder II crashed for the second time in two days (he was not seriously hurt). Rogers regained his poise in semi three, holding off a late-race charge by Schnabel at the line. They were the last two to make the 18-rider main-event field. Murphree chose to start nearest the groove in the main event, with Atherton, Hayden, Carr, Springsteen and Russell lining up to his left. But Varnes got a fantastic start off the second row to jump into the fight for the lead. Atherton, meanwhile, got a terrible jump off the line, but showed some sack by stretching the throttle cables and running around the outside of Springsteen, Russell and Varnes to take the lead down the back straightaway. Atherton led the first two laps across the line, as Murphree, McCoy and Eades all tried to make a bid for the lead. McCoy dropped out of the race with mechanical problems soon after that. Hayden was 10th by lap four. Although there were as many as 13 riders in the lead pack, four of them - Atherton, Springsteen, Murphree and Carr - appeared to control the pace as they battled up front. Varnes poked his head clear one time, on lap five, but that was as close as he'd get to the win. From there, he slid backward, ultimately finishing seventh. "1 got a hell of a start, and we led a lap," Vames said. "I was in position to try and keep it cool because we were having tire-wear problems earlier in the day, so at least I was already up there. Then we got the halfway flags, and when I tried to make a move I was either spinning too much or the bike was slowing up a hair, because I just couldn't get any momentum up to draft anyone. It felt like it was spinning, but we had a lot of tire tread left at the end. I just couldn't get a run on anybody, but it was still a good weekend." Coolbeth meanwhile, was the hardest working man on the track, picking his way trough traffic. He was 12th on the opening lap, but used the draft to pull himself forward in the field, passing Russell, Bigelow, former teammate Kopp and Varnes in the middle stages to land in limbo a ways behind Springsteen on about lap 20. He remained sixth for the rest of the way. "I could draft pretty good going into the corners, but 1 was lacking a little power," Cool beth said. "It worked out pretty good. If 1 hadn't blown up my number-one bike in practice, we could have been in the hunt for the win. The track was breaking up pretty good." Russell fell off the lead pace by lap 16, and with McCoy gone, that left 11 riders up front. Bigelow was on the tail end of the group, but he appeared unable to get a drive toward the front. "It was just one of those Springfield deals," Bigelow said. "I started 1Oth and I finished 10th. I'd get up to about seventh, and I'd pass a guy, and then another guy would pass. It's hard to pass in a single-file line like that unless you want to do some stuffing. 1 got stuffed a couple times, but that's racing. There's wasn't a lot of room out there, and everyone was evenly matched." A few positions ahead of him, Kopp was stuck in eighth and having the same problem. "It wasn't bad," Kopp said. "I would like to have been on the podium here. I got a killer start, but then 1 ran right into the back of Kevin [Atherton]. I don't know if he missed a gear or what, but we almost hit. 1 just had to work my way up slowly. 1 could draft okay on the front straightaway, but with the track starting to break up in turn three it was just too risky to try anything down there. I just picked 'em off as best I could. Next time. We have a slick half mile coming up next." The pace intensified with five laps to go, and it became fairly clear that the win was going to be decided among Carr, Atherton and Murphree. Nevertheless, Hayden shot past Springsteen in turn three on lap 21 and then brought the crowd to its feet by stuffing his Honda to the front in turn three. Hayden was credited with leading lap 22, but it would prove to be his high-water mark. No Grand Slam today. "We didn't do bad, but I really feel like 1 let an opportunity get away," Hayden said. "No real excuses. I was behind Carr off the start, and 1 thought that I'd try to run with him, but then Bigelow and a couple other guys got under me going into three. I just worked my way back up and took the lead with a few laps to go, but somewhere along the line I missed the five-lap sign, which didn't help me any. Those guys who were up front just ride so good, and they are so confident making the passes at the end of the straightaway. Sometimes I didn't have the confidence to go ahead and commit myself like that. I had a good time today, though, for sure." Fourth was still good enough to get Hayden past Springer, who admitted afterward that he had "a fun race" en route to his fifth-place finish. "1 was leading Kevin [Atherton] into turn three a couple times, and he just wouldn't shut it off!" Springsteen said. "He had the front wheel hopping and the ass-end moving around, and just when I'd think he was going to go down, he'd get the wheels in line and off he'd go. 1 was like, 'Man, how in the hell are you doing that?' It was a good, good race. I didn't know that Nicky was there, and then once he was ... Them Hondas are hard to pass. They accelerate hard off the corners, and I could catch him at the end of the straightaway, but then we'd do it all over again. We just changed the gear before the main event because my bike was jumping so hard off the corner that 1 had to let the guys go or else I'd run them over." Atherton and Carr came across the stripe side by side on lap 24 and got set to finish the game. Down the back straightaway, Atherton elected to lead rather than follow, which sat quite nicely with Carr, who had one ace left cu cle up his sleeve. When Carr blocked Atherton's drive, the race was over well before the finish line. Carr had his name on the books again. "For now," Carr said. "But you know, you think back to the guys like Scott Parker and Ricky Graham that I grew up racing against, and I've seen just about every trick in the book, and I've come up with a few of my own. I'm using all those years of experience to win at this place. You rarely see young riders win here. It's usually the veterans that win here. We had a great weekend. We moved from 10th to first in the points." While Athterton led the most laps, 15, and was reasonably pleased with his finish, he knows he wants more than just decent finishes now. "I was thinking, 'You're dead meat, Chris,' and then he made that move, and when he did, I just knew," Atherton said. "But it was a good day. There are a lot of talented riders out there right now. We picked up the pace, and everyone ran with us. It has been three years since I got hurt now, and I'm just now getting back to where I feel good out there. It was a pretty far reach for me to think that 1 could just jump back in and do this even though you have to think that way. 1 want to win the championship bad. 1 don't want to say I'm getting old, but if I had taken it this seriously when I was 21, I probably would have won the championship a couple times by now." HARLEY·DAVIDSON SPORTSTER PERFORMANCE NATIONAL Defending series champion Bryan Smith had his Widman's HarleyDavidson entry in the right place at the right time in the see-saw 12-lap Harley-Davidson Sportster Performance main event, and when it was over, Smith notched his second win in the class. As many as seven riders ran up front in the early going of the main event, with Smith leading Moroney's Harley-Davidson/Nort/Arai's Jake Johnson and Moroney's Harleyn e _ S • JUNE 5, 2002 11

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