Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128235
AM A P r o gre s s iv e Insurance U .S . F la t Track C h a m p io nships R o und 1 6 : Illi n ois S t a t e F a ir g r o u n d s W ith no one abl e to get an advantage t he c h ance to grab one . There was no on t he man in f ront of hi m beca use st ra ig h ta way at all. It was all turn out ev eryone ra n on the bottom of the there . T he bike was g ood . The m ain t r a c k , t ha t's th e w a y th at th ey f in- th i n g was t hat I was tr y in g t o j u st ished , K op p la nd in g th e second spot. keep my w heels in li ne o n both the "It w as good, " K opp said . " I got a exits out of t he t u rns , beca use it w as good start, got t he h olesh ot ac tua lly, and I wa sn 't t o o worried about ge tting ge tt ing p retty slick. J .R. w as going in p assed on th e f irst lap until J .R..w en t by me , balls t o th e walls . I didn ' t pa c e t h e fi r st 10 l ap s th at I ju st c o u l d n ' t come cl o se to m a t ching . I th er e making two apexe s. He se t a t h in k h e ' d b e a b l e t o kee p runnin g fe lt st ro ng on th e KTM, th ough. When w he re he was up h ig h fo r th at long . th ere' s t ract ion , it's reall y awesome." He was r e all y ge tti ng t h r o u g h th e Wiles d o gg ed Ko p p fo r the enti re d istan c e , n ev er rea ll y ge t t i n g th e t urn s q ui ck . I w as j u st biding my time, but th en so meone st arted p res- c ha nce t o c hallenge him fo r secon d su ring m e , an d I h ad t o pro t ect m y b ut also nev er rea lly fee li n g t he heat lin e . I started to ca tc h J .R . , but h e much fo r riding th e bi g b ikes b eca us e I wa nt to be ab le to c ha lle nge for tha t ch ampio ns hip. I wa nt to congratu lat e wo n it. "We got a g o od lea d . Ou r M emph is Sh a d e s Ya ma ha worked a we so me Ch ris and John ny o n a grea t sea son . T hos e guys, wh en th ey fi nish o utside t he top 10 , th at ' s a bad d ay for th em. W e n eed t o g et ou rs elves m ore li ke th at. I co ul dn ' t have bee n h ap p ier to be on t he p od ium w it h Ch ris w h en h e w hen it was d ee p , bu t the n it bru sh ed o ff, a n d I sta rte d l o o k i n g b ack and sta rt ed p anicking a li ttle. For th e last f iv e l a p s I just coole d it d o wn and c r u is ed i n th er e . I w a s lu c k y I h ad g ot ha nd e d t he n u mber - on e p l ate . Somed ay I'd like to c h all enge h im for it , but C h ris C arr is t h e man in o u r sp ort right now ." K opp n ev er re ally ap pea red to g et fo c u sed on c h asi ng after Schnabel - that good o f a lead . Th is is a pl ac e y o u w ant to w i n. You t al k a bo ut Springf ield an d y o u tal k about Peoria as p la ces w here y ou w ant to wi n, and now w e got th em b o t h in the sa m e y ear. T omo r row [Mil e] is th e on e h e .w a s t o o b u s y fe n din g o ff "t h e tha t' s re al pres ti g ious , th ou gh , an d we wa nt to go in t h ere and get t hat on e, too." Schna be l' s w in v aul t ed h im f ro m RHC /George M ack /Wiseco · sp on sored W il es, as w ell a s K a w asaki / W kr/ Pro Circu it' s T om m y Hay d en and Un iv er - 1 1t h to se ve n t h in t h e series standings with o ne ro u n d remaini ng . He is ho ping fo r a sol id fi nish o n the Spr i n g f i eld Mil e t o mo r row t o keep good, e v e r y o n e k no ws t h at , bu t I sa l Co ating s/Fa st F o rw ard Ra c in g ' s R.J. O verholt for t he fi rst seve n laps. Ove r hol t wo uld sli p back into t h e field , ulti m atel y fin is hing 12 t h . O nce C ar r was past Mu rphree , h e work ed his way into a f ive -rider , sing le-fil e gro up th at i n cl ud ed K o p p , Wiles, w a nt t o g et o n t h e p od iu m on t he mi le tomo rro w, too ," Sch na bel said . " O ne day I'd like to be recogn ized as quin tet pull ed away fro m M u rphree as th e t r ac k got sl icker a bo u t la p 16 . h im th er e. " W e r ide t hese li ttle b ik es p retty Hayden, h i msel f and Mees . Th a t st a yed agg ress ive , h eld h i s g ro u nd se ve n t earo ff s on it , and I n ev er got littl e bit and sm o o t h ed o u t , and w e from Ha yd en , either. Th e youngster w as j ust to o fa r ahead. My shield had w he n th e g roove ca me i n an d w a s my own RAce 1] ®& J ared M~~s 6t h The Sad dl em en Rac i ng / Lan c as t er Ha rl ey Davidson-backed Mees had a great run in the main event . finishing sixth while being in the thick of a chase that could have j ust as easily seen him finish second if anyone made a mistake in front of him . "From where I started out here tonight, on the back row of our heat race, , thought it was over then." Mees said. "We ju st kept our head hig h, and I had a lot of fun. You know , J05 good riders showed up here tonight , so to finish sixth, behind Chris Carr, is awesome. My bike was working great, and th is was my kind of short track , bump and go. I had one or two tri es, and' could have made something happen, but Chris is too smart for that. I'll go home with sixth and know that I still have a lot of years of racing ahead of me. We'll be back ." .@ 'fl Kenny Cool be;h ' ,,' 10 th "I'm pretty bumm ed out." Coolbeth said. "I pretty much j ust followed Steve Beattie for most of the ra ce. Th e bike han dled great. It was j ust m e mostly. I ju st couldn't get into a rhythm . As soon as , started to get focused, somebody would stuff me and mess me all up. I j ust fell back ." 11 11 Bryan Bigelow 11th A former Springfield Short Track winner, Bigelow was fast in his heat race, eami ng a direct transfer to the main event, but he str uggled in the big race. '" had a good ju mp in the main." Bigelow said. "I was fifth or sixth going down the back chute, but to be tota lly honest with you - no excuses - I've never been further back th an second or third on the first lap here. It was mass chaos back there. As we went into tum three, somebody got undemeath me and stood me up. That's racing. It's tight here, it's tough, and this is my favorite place in the whole world to be. Thi s was a totally different racetrack than we've ever had here, and I hate to bitch about it because I was here last night, and from what I saw then, we are totally lucky that we even got to race here tonight, Afte r winning this thing and being on the podium here, it' s tough to get beat like that. That' s just ki nd of the way our whole year has gone. , know we're better than that. We haven't had a lot of luck on our side. After tomo rrow I'll be looking forward to starting '04 with a clean slate." ®®@ Danny Eslick . . 13 th Danny Eslick was the only factory Suzuki rider to land a spot in the main event, and even better for him , it was his first career GNC start in his fir st attempt, He ran alone for most of the main event. "My teammates put in a good try, but I got dealt a , litt le bit better cards than they did, I guess." Eslic k said. "We switched bikes early on, moving over to the stock swingarm bike, which was good. I can't say enough about the Suzuki facto ry team and what they've done for me this year." 1] ~ Jason Tyer 15th The Allen Racing/Arai/Redlin e Oil · sponsored Tyer won the closest race of the night , fending off Chris Hart by a spoke to win the second semi and earn a spot in the main event. In the feature, Tyer started 12th but ran toward the back after lap one, "There was a crowd out there." the Texan said. '" messed up a few times early, and everyone j ust kind of checked out. I set my own pace and ran my own race. Hopefully we' ll do a littl e bit better tomorrow. Davey Durelle really helped me out with my suspension, and it work ed great for me." 14 O CTOB ER 8 , 2003 ' c ue I e n e .... s