Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

my own RAce §.6@ Johnny Murphree ®® Geo Roeder ®7J Mike Hacker 5th "I started on the front row this time and still had to pass like 30,000 guys," Murphree said. "I let myself get caught up in the 'pre·race track hype.' Everybody was really worried about the track being really rough and should we be racing on it. I somehow let myself get caught up in that instead of getting out there and dealing with the track and trying to get dialed in. Hey this is the track we're going to have to race, and if we race it, we race it; we need to be fast. I was out there lobbying to get the track fixed instead of working on getting fast on the track we had. My mind was in the wrong place. Come race time, I was off. I didn't get comfortable at all until the heat, and then about halfway through the main it felt good. Last week at Lima was about the same. By the time I got to feeling good, I was in eighth, running all by myself. This week I was running with Paul, and we were able to work forward." as it was i.n the heat, but after the restart it started coming around." King was entering turn three on the very bottom and closing drastically on the lead duo but could never quite Mike Hacker finished seventh in the main. Hacker recently admitted that he is still working to get over the mental hurdle of thrusting his once badly broken left leg onto the clay on the half miles and short tracks. finish the pass. "I could get into three really hard, but you don't want to go up and take anybody out, so I had to get it stopped and accelerate back off the turn, and that's where they were eating me up," King said. "I would have been all right if I could have made the pass and drifted up the track, but I just couldn't get it done. I just didn't want to get in there and take anybody Joe down in turn four, [and] he caught a rut, and he couldn't have been six inches off the line he had run the whole race," King said. "He hit it a little goofy, and it pitched him right up off the seat. I caught right up, then the last lap, last corner, I ran it in real hard down low. I knew I had got in a little bit deep but wanted to make the pass. I caught a rut, and it pitched me out - taking a guy's line away is up off the seat, and he got me back. another thing. It was a good line, and It was a track you had to respect. It it was fast; you just had to be real could bite anybody, anytime." careful. I tried the inside in one the first lap or two, but it was just real inconsistent. I didn't feel real comfortable there." Kopp said that he felt like he had lost some steam after the restart. "The first four laps I was railing," Kopp said. "The wheels were staying As Johnson pulled clear, the race in line, and I was really getting a for second heated up even more. It good drive. After the restart I just was a battle between Kopp and King couldn't get any bite. I don't know if that went down to the last turn. the track changed, but I didn't "There at the end I was following change anything. I was having a hard ·6th "I passed a few guys, then I got passed there at the end," Roeder said. "I don't know, the bike was working good, I just made a few mistakes. I'm satisfied with the way things went. It was rough getting into turn three. I think the high line was the place to be, but you had to get in so high to get above the ruts. It seemed like you were getting pretty close to the fence, and if you didn't get in just right, it got pretty hairy at times. That's racing. Everybody had to ride the same track. I got to watching the guys in front of me and not watching the racetrack, and that's when I started screwing up. You have to race the racetrack. It's been a long time since we finished this well at a car track, so we're pretty happy. Now we've got a few weeks off to get ready for the next one." 7th "I'm happy," Hacker said. "Coming from the third row, I thought we did okay. , wish I could have done a little better. I was getting it on, but when I caught Chris, he was riding the same line that I was making my passes on. I struggled with him for about eight laps, then Paul went by, and we were really tied up in a group of riders. I felt like in the main I could go anywhere' wanted. It took all day, but I finally got comfortable with the track. I felt like I could ride like' wanted to ride and not be so timid about it. I had a good time. It's great to see all of us (Moroney's Harley-Davidson) in the top 10. And Jake, he's the man. He deserves it. He's a good boy." lJ Chris Carr 8th "I had moved up to fourth when the red came out, but they revert back one lap, and I restarted in sixth," Carr said. "I got a great start and was third for a lap or two and thought I was going to roll good. For some reason it didn't work after about four or five laps. Once things started going bad, they ganged up on me. I was running high, and King was getting away from me running low, so I went low and maintained position for a while. Roeder went back by me on the outside. I had passed him by running low. But after he went by, I moved back up. , was all over the place, trying to fend them off. You could only enter the corners within certain areas. Turn three, for instance, you had to be all the way high or all the way low, or you were in a corn field." ®lJ Kenny Coolbeth 9th "Before the restart I was flying; I felt good," Coolbeth said. '" was consistent the first three laps. and I thought I could run with those guys. After the restart, everything went away. I don't know what happened. It seemed like maybe the moisture came up a little bit, and it got real slippery. It kind of confused me, I guess. I tried every line they showed me. The guys that passed me were all doing different things, and I tried to pick up on them, and I just wasn't working for me. I don't know if it was tire choice or what." QUALIFYING ~ [?f!!JDO [){]@f!!Jf;3@ Seven qualifying heats were required for the 49 riders on hand. Joe Kopp set fast time in the last four-lap heat at 1:22.392, but Jake Johnson, Chris Boone, Jared Mees and Chris Carr all won their heat at 1:22 also. J.R. Schnabel and Mike Hacker won with 1:24s. Shawn Clark led the first heat over Raun Wood, Joe Kopp and Johnny Murphree. Kopp quickly moved his way to the front, with Murphree taking second late in the race. Clark held off the last-lap charge of Wood for the last transfer. Kenny Coolbeth led heat two into the first tum but ended lap one in fifth behind Rich King, Ricky Winsett, Jake Johnson and J.R. Schnabel. Johnson settled his race with King for the win as Coolbeth started his recovery. Coolbeth took second from King on the white flag lap, and the top three positions were set. Bryan Bigelow and Mike Hacker led the third heat away, but Bigelow had a major bob· ble in tum two as Chris Carr charged to the front. Kevin Atherton was flying from the back and swept by the startled Carr on lap four. Carr regrouped and challenged Atherton unsuc· cessfully. Geo Roeder and Hacker fought the entire way over the last transfer, with the nod going to Roeder. The last heat saw Paul Lynch easily out front of Chris Boone and Jared Mees. On lap eight, Cory McDermitt fell in turn three. The red flag came out, and the race was called complete. In just his second 750 start, Mees was in his first 750 National. The first semi was worth the price of admission. Bartels' Harley-Davidson teammates Shaun Russell and Jay Springsteen locked in a great race with Schnabel. On lap seven of the eight-lap race, Russell fell violently coming off turn two into the back straight. Fortunately everyone missed the fallen leader. Eventually the shaken Russell would make his way back to his pit area. The restart saw Schnabel and Springsteen pick up where they left off. Springsteen would take the narrow victory. Raun Wood led the second semi until Bryan Bigelow charged by. Wood hung on to second and his first trip to a "big bike" National. The third semi saw Willie McCoy, Jason Tyer and Aaron Creamer up front. A slip by McCoy left Tyer and Creamer battling over first until Mike Hacker arrived. Tyer and Hacker fought until the last lap, when Hacker took control. Tyer held on to the last transfer over McCoy and Garth Bastian. ®® J.R. Schnabel 10th "Fifth was only about 10 bikelengths in front of us - I could see it the whole time. I could see it; I just couldn't quite get there," Schnabel said. "At the end I was running the real low line. I got by Carr once, then I hit a hole. I knew he was going to have the drive on me off the corner, but I was just hoping I could block him enough to hold him off, but I didn't, On the last lap I tried to put it through one and two really hard. I felt that if I could get up next to him, I could get him before the ftnish. I put it into one too hard and just couldn't get turned. The front end tucked on me, then Kenny got by. I thought maybe I could go low in three and block both of them, but they were smart to that and were already down on my line when we got there. Tenth wasn't that bad; fifth was right there, and we're feeling good. Guys were going everywhere, and I think there were a few more holes than everyone would have liked, but at least we could move around and do something. If you were legitimately faster than the guy, you could pass him tonight. I guess I'd rather have that than a real smooth two-foot-wide groove." time coming into turn three, then I line to mess with him, but I stayed up started going in higher than the top. I saw him getting in too hot, so I bumps. I moved up in turn one. too, backed out and let him go then came and started to get my confidence up, under him out of four to the finish then I had a big bobble in the middle line. It was close, but I knew I needed of one and two, with about ten laps to second instead of third; three extra go. That really slowed me down, and points is a big points deal for me. We it was hard to get rolling after that. Rich started .pestering me down in chipped off eight points; he's [Carr] got to be thinking about us now." three. I was pretty confident I could While Carr slipped to fourth, his beat him because I was getting race really started to fall apart after lap 15. through one and two really great. The last lap I thought about taking Rich's cue I e "The first five laps, my bike was n e _ S • JULY 16, 2003 19

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