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/128165
When the green light flashed, Carr spun off the line and Coolbeth was back on top for the first time since lap one. As the leaders entered turn one the next lap, Coolbeth cracked the door open on the inside and Carr charged in. "I knew Coolbeth was running good, but he tends to run better when he's behind than when he's leading," Carr said. "I knew he would be a threat, and he got a good start. He stuffed it up underneath me on the restart and moved me over. The next lap, going into turn one, he left a hole for me and I took it." Jay Springsteen (9) used his wealth of experience on cushion tracks to pull off a runner-up finish, his best of the year so far. The rim-riding Geo Roeder II (66) was strong all night, but wound up fourth. Not only was Coolbeth's chance for his first victory gone, but he wound up dropping to fifth as Roeder, Springsteen and Bigelow all got by him. Roeder had the crowd's attention as he returned to the cushion in his spectacular drive to the front. Roeder made it work until the last turn of the last lap. A bobble let both Springsteen and Bigelow by and onto the podium. "When we got the red flag, I said to Skip [Eaken], 'We need to take a couple of teeth off,' to make it easy to ride around the bottom'" Roeder said. "He said, 'I think you ought to go back to the top for five laps.' It almost worked out, I got fourth and I don't know where I was at on the restart - 1Oth or so, I guess. I picked off six spots, and I never could have (Above) Kenny Coolbeth (31) had two shots at winning his first National event - once off the original start and once off the restart on lap 22.. Instead, the snakeblt young superstar wound up fifth. (Below) Bryan Bigelow got a brilliant run In the five laps after the restart and wound up third. The Michigander has clearly elevated his game this season. done that on the bottom. I was running second the last lap, but I screwed up the last urn, but it was fun. I went from 10th to fourth and had a lot of fun doing it. If I could have been a little smoother, I could have got second, but it's hard to be smooth when you're up top like that. I was able to make it work for five laps, but if it had been a 10-lap race, I probably would have ended up in 10th place again. If it had only been four laps, we would have been second." Carr said that he saw Roeder out of the corner of his eye. "I thought, 'I'd better get my ass in gear here! '" Carr said. "That was a heck of a run for him, to come from as far back as he was, so hats off to him on that one. If anybody was going to make that work up there, it would be him, but I don't know how long he could have done that. I'm sure he's pretty tuckered after that five laps." Suddenly Springsteen was in his best position of the night. "I didn't change tires or anything for the restart, so there was no way I was going up in the cushion, but Geo must have because he buzzed up top for a few," Springsteen said. "( thought he was going to win the thing running up there. I peeked over my shoulder and thought 'He's going to the front.' Even Chris was looking over his shoulder. It was good though, I really enjoyed it. I really feel good for Joe [Bisha]. He works so hard on the bikes.