Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

drifting wide and having a hard time, and I thought, 'If he keeps that up and this bottom keeps getting better and better, I'm going to have something for him.'" Russell also felt things could be changed. "I was slipping a little, but I was having more of a problem with Johnny," Russell said. "I was concentrating on what he was doing and trying to find a way around him. That was messing me up the most. He was holding me up, and trying to find a way around without knocking him down caused me to make a few mistakes, but that's racing." KTM Sportmotorcycles/Jones Powersports' Joe Kopp had made a good start from the outside but then slipped into a heated battle with Bastian, rookie Rob Pearson, Mike Hacker, Steve Beattie and Ken Yoder. "I went high the first three or four BRIEFLY••• "I just never. ever thought this would happen," said an ecstatic Garth Bastian after taking the Tunica Short Track win. "I was back in fourth. and I was catching Shaun and Johnny. I had passed Johnny earlier in the evening. I knew I could probably get those guys if I just did my thing. They were screwing up a little bit, and I was cussing Steve Beattie because he brought out the red. and people would catch back up, and the restart might kill me. Fourth would have been great, you know. Now he says I owe him one. I wasn't even tired. You know that's good, when you ride 30 laps and you're not even tired. My dad was so excited when I went to pick him up for the checkered flag, he didn't know what to do. Everyone was patting him on the bike, and he was looking up in the air. I had to tell him to 'Get on the bike, and let's get the flag.' My sister came over and said she couldn't breathe because she was so winded from yelling. Everybody was just slapping me and saying great race, that they were cheering for me the whole time. That's cool. It was just really cool. I spent like four years trying to get a national number. I finally did that last year. I made the race at Charlotte on my 750. and I made this one here last year and node around in the back. I was nervous about keeping my number, then I was running pretty good and I thought. 'Good, I can keep my number.' Having Joe Kopp - a former national number one - and Chris, one of the greatest ever, next to me on the box, it was awesome!" to re-establish the rhythm. That's a big part of the way I race: You lose the rhythm. sometimes you get off sync a little bit. and you start to struggle. I struggled the last nine laps and still came out second. We'll take it and move on. The IMDA gave us a racetrack that we were allowed to put on a show for the fans. I don't think there could be a fan that would be disappointed with the show they had tonight. .. laps and lost a couple of positions," Kopp said. "It felt like it was working good, but they were getting around the bottom pretty fast. Guys were getting under me, so I moved to the bottom. My bike wasn't working on After a shaky start. Mike Hacker left the Paul Battle Arena feeling better about his Honda program. "I thought this was a neat little track: I'd like to run more of these," Hacker said. "This was exciting racing. I didn't get to watch much of it. but I would imagine it was pretty good racing. I love miles. I wish we had a bunch of miles and a bunch of short tracks. Early in the day we struggled so bad, but Pat (Moroney) made a few suggestions, and from that point on, I got more and more comfortable. After Daytona, I thought I might never make another short track National. I looked like a dork. " the brushed-off stuff." Despite the small racetrack and high speeds, the race was 20 laps old, and there still no lapped riders. Then the race changed completely. Aupperle Racing-backed Pearson slipped in Perhaps a little early to be counting points, but Rich King is happy with the way 2003 has started, and after his snake-bitten 2002 season, who can blame him? "Look here. I'm fourth in points," King said. "It has been a while. The thing [H-D BlastJ is real rideable. The motor combination is so much different from the motocross stuff they're running today. Our lap times are comparable, but it's just different on acceleration and decelera· tion. We're getting it figured out. I passed some guys on the outside and some on the inside. We were really tracking good off the comer. and I think that was the key. A lot of guys were getting real squirrelly in the middle of the corners. and as the race went on. I think it just wore them out. It worked out good. I'm happy with it." tum two, and Lancaster Harley-David- Bryan Bigelow said that he felt like he had a good enough bike to run up front. "but you have to win your scratch heat. which we didn't; win your heat, which we didn't." he said. "You have to win, win, win. It's so hard to put that combination together: you\'e got to be on your game. and you've got to have some luck. "I'm just so proud of Garth. That was awesome. and there's nothing I like better than seeing him take away all those points from the top guys while I'm struggling. Usually a 10·place finish and I'd be pretty bummed, but after the way this day started, it sure could have been worse. It was last year. I'm trying to be more positive. the older I get. " Carr led lap 22, with Murphree, Kopp, Bastian, Yoder, Russell and Hacker son/Saddlemen Racing's Beattie got into Pearson's rear wheel, causing them both to crash. Pearson was up qUickly and on his way, but Beattie remained trapped under his bike until the red flag came out on lap 21. The restart was just what everyone expected, a mad, nine-lap scramble . .Joe Kopp tried to use some of his tricks from back home in Washington. with mixed results. "I hit the wall a couple of times, too hard once coming out of tum two, about the fourth or fifth lap after the restart." Kopp said. "They've got these indoors at home, and they have cattle panels on the outside for walls, and I'm too afraid to use them kind of like a berm. but I hit that so hard it almost took the handlebars out of my hands. I knew I was going to hit it. but I just told myself it would just straighten me out. I hit it. and it was like, 'Don't do that again.' I left a couple of good tire marks on the walls. " Chris Carr had another solid run on the Italian Vor motorcycle. "Before the red flag I had a great rhythm going on, and I felt like I had it in hand," Carr said. "Those restarts are nerve·wracking. I was running a lower line early on, before the red flag. and I had rhythm. I hit my spots just about every lap. and I was getting away from the guys in second. After the restart, I never was able giving chase, but Murphree's race was starting to unravel. "Chris was riding a medium high line, and it was going away," Murphree said. "He was going to have to just keep going higher, and the bot- Shaun Russell is sure things would have been different were it not for the red flag. "You put your head down for nine laps. and it would have been hard for someone to get by, but that's the way it goes. We're going to the Springfield Mile next, and that's my track. " cue I tom was already polished off, so it wasn't going to get any worse. On the restart, I thought I'd just keep doing e n e _ S • APRIL 9. 2003 23

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