Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Jake Johnson (141 and Joe Kopp (31 battled early after Kopp and Terry Poovey locked handlebars. Johnson wen1 on to finish fourth. Kopp slipped to sixth got the best of me this time, so I'm just going to keep going to school with him. I had the holeshot, but once again this old guy here [Carr] - he's not quite as old as this other old guy [Springsteen], but this middle-old guy put it on us again. I was fine until the holes started showing up." The 44-year-old Springsteen probably ran the most uneventful race in the main event, starting third and finishing third. In fact, he was the only rider in the main event to neither gain nor lose a spot during the 25-lap battle. He simply ran his Joe Sishatuned Rotax around the middle of the track in both sets of corners, watching as Carr and Murphree did their thing ahead of him. When it was over, "Springer" was atop the box with them, making his first Daytona podium appearance since 1997. "I thought that I was staying right with them," Springsteen said. "I bobbled a couple times, and I about spun it out coming off of turn two. I kept hopping them holes, and it got a little bit away from me. It was a good race. I thought that I had something for other two races that I won, the track was a narrow blue groove. The track was really fast, but it was rather boring to watch. This is the first time that I won on one that didn't have any rubber on it, so I'm pretty stoked about that." Carr said that his gameplan was simple: Just be ready to make a move if Murphree made a mistake. "He would get away from me a little bit, and then he would make a beat the racetrack from that point on." Murphree struggled to regain his composure after losing the lead, and it appeared for a time as though Springsteen might have a shot at him. Murphree kept his cool, though, and clicked off the few remaining laps to cement the runner-up spot, making for an American Supercamp onetwo. Murphree is an instructor with couple of little bobbles, and I would get back on him," Carr said. "I figured Carr at the dirt track camp run by Coloradoan Danny Walker. "I was just telling Chris on the that if I just stayed in the hunt, if he podium that we have cut a million happened to make a big enough bobble, I could take advantage of it. That's what happened. Then I just tried running my own race, tried to laps just like that at American Supercamp, with him on my butt, chasing me," Murphree said. "Not quite as much was at stake there, though. He my own ~@ Rick WInsett Jr. @@ Rich King RACE: 7th By all accounts, Winsett put in an honest effort and defended his '02 Daytona title admirably, qualifying fourth-fastest and then making the main event by winning heat four. "I'm happy," Winsett said. "I really wouldn't change anything, except maybe to just hold on a little longer. This year the track was a little bit slipperier and a little bit rougher. I just couldn't stay away from the bumps." 8th King appeared competitive on his number J 00, centennial anniversary-hued XR500R, but his main event finish was not what he had hoped for. Or was it? "Coming down here, I thought that I just wanted to get the thing in the main event and see what I can do," Team Harley-Davidson's King said. "Then I got in the main event and thought anything in the top 10 would make me feel good. Then I looked at the racetrack and said, 'Anything less than a top-five and I'm bummed.' I didn't make the top five, but I'm not sure if I'm happy or bummed. Once you win a National, you're bummed if you don't win, but the Blast was awesome, and my guys are putting their hearts into the thing, so I'm putting my heart into it for them. We've got some other races coming up where I think: it will be really good." ®® J.R. Schnabel ®1] Kenny Coolbeth 11 th Aboard a motorcycle that didn't even exist at the start of the week, Schnabel put his Memphis Shades/Parts UnlimitedlYamaha into the main event by finishing second to Chris Carr in heat one. That was his highwater mark for the night. "I got second behind the fastest guy out there." Schnabel said. "I got off the line sixth in the main event, and I thought that I would at least stay there or go forward. I just had some problems hooking up, got on the gas too hard and went backward. The thing is, we took a new motorcycle that I had never even sat on before Friday, put it in the main event and got 1lth at Daytona, my worst singles track. There's still a lot we can do with the bike. It's still at 450cc. The Yamaha has got a ton of potential." 13th After appearing strong early, the Team KTM-backed Coolbeth ran into his usual Daytona demons, finishing well back in the pack as he struggled in the main event aboard his dirttrack-framed KTM. "I don't know what happened," Coolbeth said. "I just couldn't ride the track. I still think that I'm ready anyways. I'm good. I won this week [Barberville Hot Shoe) on the stock-framed bike. It just seemed way too long to me, but maybe I should have practiced it today." cycle n e _ S • MARCH 19,2003 27

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