Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AMA P r o gre s s ive Insurance U .S . Flat T r ack Championships R o u n d 1 2 : S edalia Half lV1ile my own RAce ® Joe Kopp 4th "On the restart I got pinched down a little bit and had to run the bottom; it loo ked like most everybody was on th e bottom . I wasn't able to run the sam e lines I had before the red," said Kopp. "I th ink I wou ld have been up there anothe r 10 laps if there hadn 't been that red , It's just very, very frust rating. I' m gl ad Kenn y won , but it should have been mine. I th ink I was third off the line. I got [Bryan I Bigelow in tum tw o and put it on Chris [Carr) in tum four. It was like ' I'm gettin g out of here.' I felt great, and then the red lig hts came on, and I about cri ed." ®7J Mike Hacker 5th "My first mistake was, I got a terri ble start," Hack er said. "Even on th e restart I didn't get a very good sta rt, and I had to m ake up a lot of ground. I got up there and felt lik e I co uld get in th ere . I al m ost got (Bryan] Bigelow go ing into three, but we ju st ran out o f room and slipped high . [J ohnny] Mu rph ree was fl yi ng. We went at it for a few laps, then he got away. The bik es are aweso me, and I'm getting m y confi dence back on them - we're going forw ard. I had to dive to the bottom to pass people, but I was able to... three or four guy s to get what I got. I wish I'd had another fiv e lap s, but I'm happ y with fifth . I was trying to get around Bigelow on that last lap . I ran it in there, and it got k ind of scary, and Joe (Kopp] got by me. Th at trac k was so fast, I couldn' t believe th e comer speed we had ." Mike Hacker (67) tries to hold off Johnny Murphree (20). Murphree got around Hacker and almost everybody else to finish second on the night. 1] Chris Carr 6th "I holeshot the race and was leading off tum tw o the n sta rt ed going backward s," said Carr. "The last eight to 10 laps, things started picking back up for me . I ran m y best laps late in the race and was actually catching the lead group, but I wasn't going to be able to do anything even if I caught them . We were bette r at the end of the race; we pr epared for a late run . I ran all over th e racetrack, and at the end the best place was the bottom . We fig ured th at was going to happen. T he track was racy early in the race , but there were som e sk etch y passes late in the race. At the end of the race you couldn 't really mak e any outside passes . You could early, but not late in the race." 1] @@ Rich King 7th "I reall y felt we had some thi ng ton ight. I was real com fortable with the bik e," said King. " I was pac ing m y self, and then red flag cam e out. I spun the ti re real bad on the restart and dropped th ree or four posi. ti on s. Th en I tri ed to mak e it back all at once and burned up m y ti re. On ce it was gone, it was all over . I was lucky to hold on to seventh . Everything I was doing right the fi rst st art I was doing wron g th e sec ond time a round. " 1] ~ Hacker (6 7) and Murphree (2 0 ) were j o i n ed for a while b y Chris Carr (1). Carr ended up finishing sixth b ut retains a healthy l ea d i n the c hampions h i p . these guys.' The hig h li ne was w ork ing t he top, h e cou ld n 't stop m e . It took a cou ple of t ries, but b y t hat poin t I' d through the m iddle , but as soon as I'd hi t the gas, the tire would break loose. u sed up most of th e m o isture u p there As soon as I figured out to j u st go in and j ust o n a wing and a pra y er." " It w as m y kin d of t rack, a nd wh en heavy and coast around to th e exit. I was able to roll aro un d guys onc e I fig- I took t he lead , it really felt good . I hav en ' t b een o u t fr ont f o r a while, ured out how not to spin it sid ewa ys . I had to d ro p down in one and two and and I might n o t h ave handled it right," move up in three and fo ur ." by m e , and h e is just unbe l i e v ab ly fast o n a little b lue notch. I played 8 th @ Jay Sp ringsteen 9 th "Everyth ing went pretty goo d, but we m ade a couple of cha nges on the bike for the ma in , and it was jumping and bouncing arou nd on me ," Springsteen said. "I thi nk every body was having those problems, though. They watered the top of the track before the Nation al, and everybody moved up and got off the rubber , but it only lasted for a li tt le whil e, and yo u had to come back down. The track was the best it's ever been , and I've been here for 20 years or 25 years ma ybe . I raced here on the m ile as a Junior, I thi nk. I had fun - number nine wa s ninth." said B igelow . " Ken ny [Cool b eth ] got M u r ph r ee ran B i g e lo w down and took second on lap 24 . Jake Johnson "I stru ggled all night - it was ki nd of like Hagerstown , I ju st cou ldn 't get a grip on the tra ck ," said Johnson. "We made some changes for the main and put on a different tire , and it seem ed to work a lot bett er. I was cha sing Rich [King) and got und er him a couple of times. I was getti ng a good drive on him but j ust couldn't seem to get arou nd . It was kind of a one-line deal. I saw early in the race Johnny (Murphree) was goi ng around the outsi de, so I tr ied that and lost about half a stra ightaway on him. We sti ll ended up eig hth and only lost one poi nt to Rich . We're only 10 points out of the top fiv e, so I'm pretty happy. I kind of spun on the restart. I didn't lose any spots , but I couldn't gain anything, eithe r. I think if I could have started with the leaders, I cou ld have run with them. but it was sti ll tough to pass." " I kn ew o n c e I caught B igelow, he d efens e wh en I shou ld h av e b e en would get very de fen siv e and protect pl a y ing offen s e . Mu rph r e e got m e the bottom," said M urphree. "T h ere 's w ith a lap or t wo to go. He just b le w by - I don't know how he made that not m uch he c a n do if you're pass in g on the outside, e x c ep t move o v er on st ick on the outside. He ca me fro m so far b a ck . Obviously , h e deserv es it ." you. I knew if I got a good ro ll around 24 S EPTEMB ER 3 , 2003· cue I e n eVIls ~® Steve Beattie 1 1th "I liked the first start mu ch bett er," Beattie said. "I thi nk I had a better rhyth m go ing, I just cou ldn 't get go ing after the restart. Springer got by me and got m e motivated agai n. With about five to go, it felt like I had a big shoc k probl em , but ta lking to every body, it seems like everybod y was bounci ng around . I'm not sure if there was just too mu ch tracti on or what, but I was strug gling . The track was as smooth as I'v e ever seen it - it was nice to not have to ride a hole-jumping conte st. I cou ld see Johnny [Murp hree] wor king the outside, but I think I had a little too mu ch gear to make it work ."

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