AMA Progressive Ins ur a nce
U.S. Flat Track Series
How They Got. There
Jake Johnson got the holesho t in the first of the six 10-lap heat races ,
towing Rob Pearson and Rob Lowe off the front row. Johnson and
Pearson pretty much were getting off the comers better than the
rest of the pack, which allowed them to squirt away and ce ment the
to p two spots . Pearson closed in on Johnson on lap e ight, o nly to
bobble in tum four on lap e ight and allow Johnson to escape.
Johnny Murprhree got the holeshot and ran up in fro nt of Mike
Hacker, with Shawn Clark holding third, ahead of Jay Springsteen .
Murphree and Hacker looked as though they were hooked together,
running midway up the track in the comers. After Springer banged
his way under Clark for third off turn four on lap fIVe, the th ree -time
champ attacked Hacker, bouncing up unde rneath him on lap six.
Murphree took an easy win. fo llowed by Springsteen . Hacker was
forced into the semis.
Bryan Smith blasted off the pole to lead the pack into turn one in
heat three, with Chris Hart and Jared Mees battling over the second
spot. Willie McCoy caught Mees down the back chute on lap five
and got by him off two on lap six to set out after Hart. McCoy began
to diamond the track with success. and he got the drive necessary to
steal the tra nsfer as they motored off turn two. Hart would try to
retaliate off tum four on the last lap. to no avail.
J.R. Schnabel got the holeshot in heat four. but Geo Roed e r II
came up from the inside and tried to take him wide off the comer.
That allowed Chris Carr to come from the very bottom of the trac k
to take the lead before Schnabel could recover. The two then raced
handlebar to handlebar, with Schnabel taking the lead on lap three .
Carr appeared to be getti ng on the gas soo ner. and he squared up
underneath Schnabel to ta ke the lead on lap seven . The two then
traded the point position in every corner. with Schnabel just beat ing
Carr to the st ripe for the win by less than half a length.
Heat five had to be restarted when Robert McClendon and Ronnie Jones both went down in tum one. On the restart , Joe Kopp battled with Shaun Russell and forme r race winner Rick Winsett. Russell
moved up aro und the outs ide of Kopp off tum four to take the lead
on lap thre e . The flyweight Russell really seemed to have his act
togethe r in the middle of turns one and two, slipping out to a threelength lead that he wo uld hold for most of the race. Kopp closed
that gap up to one length at the finish, but Russell too k
the win.
Coolbeth led the field onto the back straight in the final heat.
with Henry Wiles cutting across the rest of the front ro w from the
outs ide to ta ke over second before being quickly dropped back by
Poovey. The cagey veteran stalked Coolbeth until lap five, when he
got the better drive off turn two and powered up the inside on the
back straightaway. Poovey then ran egg-shaped lines to get away.
while Coo lbeth had to contend with Landes, who got unde rnea th
Coo lbeth off turn four on lap nine and the n held him off to steal the
trans fer spo t.
Hacker won the first semi. Beattie won the second semi. Ronnie
Jones won semi number three after a grea t seesaw battle with Geo
Roeder II in the closing stages of the race. Kenny Coolbeth diced
w ith Nick Cu mmings in heat four. Coolbeth won the race and
became the last of the 16 riders to make the 16th edition of the
Daytona Short Track.
"'ps;
H EAT I ( 10
10 rid ers, top 2 trandee ) , I. Jake Johman (Rot); 2. RobPeanon
(Rot): 3. Coon -ryer (Rot) ; 10 . Fred Faltenack
(Hon).
Ti m e : ] min., 18.9]9 sec.
);
HEAT 4 (10 la ps ; 10 riden, top 2 t ransfe r ): I. J.R. Schnabel (Yam 2. C hris Carr
(Rot); ] . Geo Roeder II (Hon) ; "'. logan Myers (Rot); 5 . Paul l ynch (Rot); 6 . N ick Dan iels
(Rot ); 7. Garth Bro w (Y
am); 8 . Stev e Murray (KTM); 9 . Ganh Bastian (Rot); 10. Kevin
Athetton (Yam).
Ti me: ] min., 21 .G49 sec,
HEAT S ( 10""', 10 rid en, top 2 trander)' Sha.., Russell (Rot); 2. Jce Kopp (Rot):
3. Rkk Wmseet (Rot); 4. Ronn;e J""'" (Rot); 5. R.J. OYemolt (Yam); 6 . Auon Creamer
(Rot ); 7. Robert McClendon (Rot): 8 . Shane Vance (Hon); 9 . Rich King (H· D); 10. Nick
Cunvnings (Hon).
Time: 3 min ., 25 .989 sec.
HEAT 6 ( 10 laps; 10 rid e n , t o p 2 transfer) : I. Terry Poovey (Rot) ; 2. Brett Landes
(Rot); 3. Kenny Coolbeth (KTM); "'. Hen ry Wiles (Hon) ; 5. Scott Sche rb (Rot) ; 6. Bryan
Bige low (Rot); 7. Donnie Mullen (Hon ); 8 . Greg Tysor (Suz); 9 . Kevin Varnes (Suz); la . Jess
Roeder (Hon) .
Time: 3 min., 25.S",2 sec.
S EMI I (8 laps; 12 riden. winner tramfen): I. Mike Hacker (Rot); 2. Michael
Varnes(H· D); 3. John Raun Wood (Rot ); 4. Jeremy DeRuyter (Rot) ; S. Jared r-tees (Rot); 6 .
Thomas McGrane (Rot); 7. Robett w.." (Hon); 8 . Jasoo Tyer (Rot); 9 . Shawn Baer (Y );
am
10. Chris Evans (Rot ); I I. Fred Pahe-seck (Hon); 12. Shawn CIarl<(Rot).
Time: 2 min., "'7.393 sec.
SE MI 2 (8 laps; 12 rjders , w inner transfers): I . Ste ve Beattie (Rot ); 2. C hris Hart
(Rot ); ] . Jeth ro Halbert (Rot ); "" Roy Miller (Rot ); 5. Cory McDennitt (Rot); 6. Josh
Toungett (Rot ); 7. Tim Ead es (Rot ); 8 . Sam lowe (Hon ); 9 . Jerry Cartwright (Rot ); 10. Matt
Burton (Rot); II . John N ickens III(Rot); 12. Ben Knight (Rot) .
Time: 2 nvn, ",8.899 sec.
SE MI 3 (8 laps; 12 riden, winner transfen): I. Ronn ie Jones (Rot) ; 2. Gee Roeder
II (Hon); 3. Hen')' VVles (Hon ); ' . Rich K;ng (H· D) ; S. Scott Scheri> (Rot); 6 . Kev;n Varnes
(Sul) ; 7. Garth 8row (Yam); 8 . R.J. OYemolt (Yam) ; 9 . Logan Myers (Rot) ; 10. Greg"JYsor
(Suz); II. Steve MurrclY(KTM); 12. Shane Vance (Hon ).
Time: 2 min ., ",8,318 sec.
SEM I 4 (8 laps; 12 riders, winner transfen): I. Kenny Coolbeth (KTM); 2. Nick
C ummings (Hon); 3. Kevin Atherton (Yam) 4. Paul lynch (Rot); S. Rick W insett (Rot ); 6 .
;
Donnie Mullen (Hon) ; 7. Bryan Bigelow (Rot); 8 . Aaron Creamer (Rot); 9 . Jess Roeder
(Hon) : 10 . Garth Bastian (Rot); I I. N ick Daniels (Rot) ; 12. Robert McClendon (Rot) .
Time: 2 min ., 50.128 sec,
anyone in the main event. He came off
the middle of the second row to run I Ith
o n lap one an d the n buried it in deeper
than anyone else for the rest of t he rac e.
McCoy's last conquest was Ca r r. w ho m
he Zipped past like the champ was parked
in turns one and two . The ne t res ult of
McCoy's bravado was a career-best finish
at Dayto na. He had finished sixth at the
race in 1994.
" I felt great out there," McCoy said .
"T he re were people in front of me, and I
was just tryi ng to get past them. I was
watc hing Chris and kind of following him ,
and he would sq uare it up a nd run across
the bo ttom. I t rie d t hat , and it didn't wor k
for me , so I just said to myself, 'Stay up
there an d kee p riding hard.' O nce Igot by
Chris, I bo bbled a coup le times and
almost fe ll over. C omi ng from the second
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MARCH 17, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS
4 0 t h Anniv er sa ry
,Briefly•••
,
Continued from page 33
don't know. But Ifeel co mfortable out
the re . I wish everybody had to ride one. "
When asked if he had any qualms about riding a Honda short tracke r when his family's
name has been tied with the Harley-Davidson brand for so long. Roeder joked: "Is
that a Honda I'm riding? Oh , well." Roeder
made the cut but missed the main afte r a
great battle for the lead in his semi.
If the name Tom Cummings is at all unfamiliar, you might recall that Cummings was
the manager of the old Benso n Fordow ned TCR racing team that fielded Kevin
Athe rton, Dan Butler. Garth Brow and Will
Davis in the '90s. almost winning the AMA
title twice. For Cummings, who turned SO
last February, hitting the road with his so n,
reigning FUSAGrand Nat ional Champ ion
Nick Cummings. and Justin Filice will be
like starting ove r. "I know," he said. "I was
kind of wanting to reti re. but that ain't happening. But it's going to be fun. They're
both young guys. and they're going to make
mistakes. Nick made some mistakes yesterday, and he sat home and thought about last
night . Now Nick is in to night, and Justin
was in last night, but he's not in tonight.
Justin is great to work with. He is really
e nth used. Neither one of them has any bad
habits. They've just got some mistakes that
they 're making, and we're going to try and
wo rk thro ugh them . This short track is
tough here. We all know that ."
Jared Mees struggled with a bit of the
Daytona curse at the Hot Shoe on Wednesday night and was hoping for a better night
at the Daytona Short Track. "Last night I fell
in my heat race, and I just couldn't get it
together in the semi," Mees said. "We were
just spinning the tire because it was real
greasy. I made it in tonight, but the track is
going to change so much, and I'm hoping
that it is going to come back to me. We
learned some things last night that I think
will help us ton ight."
Speaking of Ja red Mees, the speedy Pennsylvanian has arguably made a momentous
decision in his career, choosing to represent
a true dirt track legacy number with his
selection of AMAGrand National number
21, the number that formerly belonged to
the late, great Will Davis . It was not a decision that Mees entered into lightly. "I called
Rhonda Davis to make sure that it was okay
with her and Cole, and then I called Mr. and
Mrs. Davis, Will's parents. to make sure
that it was okay with the m. I made sure
that it was okay with Pat Moroney and
Mike Wheeler. They all said that it would be
coo l if I too k it. I'm going to try and re present it as best that I can."
