Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Team Harley-Davidson's Rich King finished third aboard the factory Buell Blast-powered Harley-Davidson 500R while still nursing his broken left shoulder, which he aggravated once again in the Super Singles & Twins Challenge event held just before the Pro Single main. In that race, Roeder was the class of the field aboard his Skip Eakenprepared Harley-Davidson XR750. The Ohioan sat on the pole for the 12-lap shootout, and he made the best of it by bolting into the lead and checking out immediately. Corbin Racing's Kenny Coolbeth tried to put up a fight on his Suzuki TL1OOO, but his superior straightaway speed was negated by Roeder's better-handling XR in the corners. Coolbeth would eventually drop to fourth, behind Dallas Harley-Davidson's Willie McCoy and Moroney's Harley-Davidson's Jake Johnson, who finished second and third. "That was almost too easy," said Roeder, who won the 2000 Del Mar Mile twins event. "I kept expecting to see Kenny blow by me on that Suzuki, just like when Joe Kopp and I had that back-and-forth battle here a couple years ago. I just kept waiting and waiting. After a while, I looked back, and there was nobody there." Roeder also put in a decent showing in the Pro Singles main event. Riding a Honda, he finished 12th. PRO SINGLES The Pro Singles field boasted 64 riders, with KTM/1stlegal.com's Steve Murray posting the fastest Pro Singles qualifying time. Murray's 40.207-second lap would have placed him 12th in the 35-rider Super Singles & Twins line-up. But it was King who struck first blood on the mile, pulling clear of J.R. Schnabel and Murray early in the first of the three eight-lap heat races. King posted a winning time of four minutes., 15.159 seconds, finishing several lengths ahead of Schnabel, who remained alive in the title hunt by securing the second spot. Murray finished third, with Southland Racing Products Suzuki's Dan Butler fmishing fourth to cop the last direct transfer out of the heat race. Atherton countered with an even bigger runaway in heat two. Fans had anticipated a showdown between Atherton and Carr, but the reigning AMA Grand National Champion simply could not match Atherton's pace. Atherton held it wide open to win, posting a time of four minutes, 12.884 seconds, taking the pole. "The track is very technical today," Atherton said after the heat race. "Everything is working really well, and I'm just glad all the fans are out here to see this." Atherton beat Carr by seven seconds. "That's good for me. It's fun when it's a real close race on these big miles, but there are a lot of holes out there today, and it's really rough, which makes it unpredictable. Hope- fully, I can get out front and get away from 'em." KTM/Corbin/Samson's Kenny Cool beth and Yoshimura Suzuki's Larry Pegram finished third and fourth respectively, earning starting spots for the main. Although he did not hint at desparation, Poovey was clearly relieved when he picked up two bonus points for winning heat three (two bonus points are paid to all heat race winners). It allowed him the luxury of finishing one spot further adrift of Schnabel and still retaining the championship. Poovey faced stiff competition from Moroney's HarleyDavidson/800FASTHOG's Jake Johnson and KTM rider Kopp in the third heat. "The racetrack is kind of going away," Poovey said. "Hopefully they'll get to work on it and get it better for the feature. But I've had a rough weekend, and I needed those two bonus points." Poovey said that he wasn't about to let the pressure of reclaiming the title get to him. "I've been an Expert for 28 years. I can handle it." Johnson and Kopp finished twothree, with Johnson's teammate, Jared Mees, finishing fourth. Matt Wait and Geo Roeder II got into the main via their one-two finish in the first semi. They would be joined by semi two winner Willie McCoy and runner-up Gary Rogers, and Nate Wait and Danny Eslick, who ran first and second in the accidentmarred Last Chance Qualifier. Former Formula USA National Dirt Track Rookie of the Year Bryan Smith used his provisional start card to become the 19th rider in the final Pro Singles National of the year. The main event was mostly a processional, as Atherton and Carr slugged it out down the back straightaway on the opening lap. Atherton was in complete control of the race Blast is just a riot to ride. I've just been trying to come back from an injury, and when you're out there on a track as rough as this one ... It took its toll on me today. I just wanted to make it to the finish. I felt pretty good all day, but about halfway through, 1 caught a hole, and it nearly dragged me off the side of the bike," King said. "It hurt my shoulder again, but Harley-Davidson racing team put a lot of time into this Blast, and last race of the year, dammit, I wanted to ride it. I thought I had the chance to win both of these things today." King said that he was tentative for the first two or three laps. "I kind of got knocked around," King said. "Then it nearly threw me off in three and four, so I had to find a new line there if I wanted to stay out there the whole time. The bike ran good, but I just wasn't up to par. I plan to come back strong next year. When you miss races like I did this year, it just makes you want to race as much as you can." When reminded that Poovey is still racing, and therefore King had to figure that he still had five good years left, King replied, "No 1don't." Schnabel then began to have his share of trouble, as his bike started to slow down, forcing him to fall back behind Johnson, where he finished sixth. "I didn't know where Terry was, but I was just doing the best that I could," Schnabel said. "I was having trouble seeing, and I ran out of tearoffs when I was running with Rich and Jake. Then my bike lost a lot of compression out there. I was shifting between fourth and fifth early, but then toward the end I was just running fourth gear. The bike was fast early. We did what we could, but we didn't win the championship. Still, it was a good year. After what happened at the beginning of the year, I got on some good equipment with by the time they reached the stripe to start lap two, however. "Ron Wood gave me a great motorcycle, and Woody Kyle builds a fabulous motor," Atherton said. "All I had to do was get on the thing and hold it wide open and shift it once in a while." Carr feU some 13 seconds behind Atherton on the racetrack, but was still pleased to land the second spot, which he dedicated to the memory of the man who was responsible for getting the Italian Vor factory interested in dirt track racing. "I wish it was a win today, but Kevin Atherton was on a different planet than us this afternoon," Carr said. "I would like to dedicate this finish to Maurizio Virtuani, the gentleman who got Vor going here in the United States. He died of bone cancer earlier this week. This was a pretty good finish for this motorcycle, and I just hope that he was upstairs watching down on us. The Vor motorcycle is a great motorcycle. Vor is a small company, but they are passionate about their product, and they're passionate about racing. I didn't feel like I got beat by a better motorcycle today, I feel like I got beat by a better rider today. Kevin really deserved to win." King finished third, about a straightaway behind Carr, though the injured factory Harley-Davidson rider felt like he could have done better if he was not still nursing a broken left shoulder. Early on, King had to use all his strength to fend off the charges of Schnabel and Johnson, the latter actually crossing the stripe in third on laps one, four and five. Schnabel managed to run in front of the King and Johnson on laps two and three. King simply used the might of the factory Harley single to run away from the kids. "Basically, I had a good motorcycle," King said. "The Harley-Davidson cue I • n _ _ S • OCTOBER 23, 2002 33

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