AMAIProgressive Insurance U.S. Flat Track Championships
Round 1 1 : Delaware State Fairgrounds
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Chris Hart rolls through the stones for first wIn
season-long goal of getting back on
top of the podium.
"I kept thinking, 'This is his first,
maybe he'll mess up because he's
nervous,' but I was probably just as
nervous because I wanted to be up
there just as bad as he did," Kopp
said. "With two laps to go, I looked
back and saw I had a safe lead. I still
wanted to charge him [Hart], but at
STORY AND PHOTOS BY
DAYE HOENIG/FLAT TRAK FOTOS
HARRINGTON, DE, JULY 3
he second half of the 2002 AMA/
~ Progressive Insurance Grand
National Championship continued its
rash of first-time winners, as 25-yearold Chris Hart won the Hall of Fame
National-orr-the-Delaware State Fairgrounds' half-mile oval.
The Performance Harley-Davidson/Lombardi's Harley-Davidsonbacked Hart regrouped after a
red flag, while he was leading, retook
the lead on lap four, and led the
rest of the 25-lap National aboard
his Eddie Adkins-tuned HarleyDavidson XR750.
"We were just so fast all day, I
thought I just had to win this today,"
Hart said. "My sponsors are here, my
dad's here, 1 can't even explain. It's
like it's not even real."
Not that Hart was unchallenged.
While he was on his way to realizing
his life-long dream, Joe Kopp was
nipping at his heels in pursuit of his
if
Hart (44) was forced to retake the lead
from Joe Kopp (3) after the race was
restarted when Chris Evans (not
shown) crashed.
e
AUGUST 14, 2002·
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the same time it was like, 'Okay,
pull 'er home, I don't have to win
today.' But, soon."
KK Supply/La;; Vegas HarleyDavidson's Geo Roeder finished third
on the cushion, but he rode most of
the race on the slowly developing
groove. "We seem to be fairly consistent anyway, that's a plus," said
Roeder.
"We were going good tonight,"
Roeder said. "Things were just clicking. I'm happy I dropped down on the
groove and didn't lose a spot. Part of
our game plan was to run on the bottom. We figured it would groove up,
which it did. It just didn't groove as
soon as we thought it would."
When the green light flashed the
first time, Hart went straight to the
