h ris Can- took three days to
prepare for little more than
3 minutes, rode 840 la ps in
anticipation of a mere 30 .
C
Briefly...
Team Suzuki had an off night at the Cow
Palace , ne ither of its riders making the main
event. Kevin Varnes, wh o , like a lot East-
In a marathon testing session, the 36year-old Quality Checked Certified Preowned Ford RacinglKTM-backed AMA Flat
Track Champion took the time to acclimate
himsel f to a style of racing never before utilized as part o f the Progressive Insurance
U.S. Flat Track Championship, indoor concrete short track.
But at the Cow Palace, south of San
Francisco, Can- looked like he had been
doing it all his life, as he became the first
rider ever to win an AMA Grand National
points-paying indoor short track on a surface other than dirt when he landed the
main-event win at the ina ugu ral Ricky
Graham Memorial Indoor Short Track. It
was career Grand National win number 6 3
MvOwN
ern-based riders. has extensive concrete
short track experience thanks to hun dreds
of laps at the Timonium Indoor Short Track
in Maryland, came closer. A crash in his
semi ended his night early, though. "I'll tell
you what, we had a box-stock D R-Z400
with a stock transmission, and the thing
worked perfectly," Varnes said . "I just had a
little bit of a tough time getting off the line,
and then I fell in the semi because I was
pushing it too hard. We definitely had a bike
that could have been in the ma in event, but
I was just a victim of circumstance. 0
'
RACE
69W Jethro Halbert
6t h
The IS-year-old Halbert's first Grand National start netted him a solid sixth, as he avoided snarls and simply rolled around the track. "It was pretty
crazy out there," Halbert said. "Everybody was going everywhere. I accidentally screwed up and jumped the line, but then Icame back and just
worl:f I had ~ planned. I kind of struggled in qualifying, and then in the heat race I didn't want
to follow those guys. I couldn't ride up high. In the main event Igot a temble start and just had to try everything that I could try. Every time I tried
hard, I would get passed . I tried to calm down, but I don 't like following. I'm disappointed , but I made the first two main events of the year. I just have
to do better. "
14 Jake Jo hnso n
10th
Aside from Brett Landes' last-lap sign jump, Johnson probably had the most harrowing moment in the race after he
Iowsided in tums one and two on the second lap of one of the restarts, only to stand ~ back up ~ even slowing
down. Johnson went on to finish 10th after injuring himself. "Isent ~ in underneath Jared and got in there way too deep,"
Johnson said. "I laid the thing over on the cases and then just popped it right back up and kept lt going. But that 's not
what did me in. A couple laps later, I caught up to Ricky Winsett, and my leg got sucked into his rear wheel. It really
tweaked my ankle. After the first couple starts I had a good spot, but on that last one 1just got a little too rammy, a I~
too anxious, and that hurt me . Icouldn't really plant my foot, so I just cruised around and tried to gather as many points
as possible."
49Y Rod Spencer 12th
An AHA Grand National competitor over two decades ago, Northern California rider Rod Spencer came out of retirement
and received an AHA provisional GNC card to race the Cow Palace. Spencer proved worthy by making the main event. The
4S-year-old former sprint car racer wound up 12th in the main. "That was my first Grand National since 1983,"
Spencer said . "I don 't even know where I finished . Falling down at the end kind of hurt me . I just caught my fo ot on
my front tire and slid out in turn three. I was lust happy to be in it. It was good to come back to an indoor. Next time
I'Uhave some more testing time."
7S
Donnie Mullen
13th
One of the handful of riders with concrete short track experience coming into the Co» Palace race , Mullen moved up from the back row early, running second on lap two before experiencing wheel hop and crashing, bringingout one of the red flags. "Igot off the inside a little bit, and some people
got by me ," Mullensaid. "Then I was in fifth, and I was trying to settle in, but the wheel hop was so bad . Iended up going into a tum and catching my
anm on a hay bale. I got back up and just tried my hardest. It felt like ~ was my night, but I'm disappointed. I had three good starts for the finaloff the
second row, but it just didn't happen ."
42 Bryan Smith
16th
Smith had hoped to corne in and steal away the series points lead from J.R. Schnabel . Instead he left the Ccm Palace in sixth
after finishing dead last in the main event. In fact, Sm~ never really even got the chance to race before bike woes forced him
to the sidelines. "It was the ignitionor something - ~ just shut off completely," Sm~ said. "I defin~ couldn't have won ~
from the back row unless something crazy happened. It's a bummer that Ionly got one point on J.R. [Schnabel] and everyone
else, but we'll be back good for the next halfmile and for the SpringfieldTf"
www.cyclenews.com
Even more victimized - or perhaps sodomized, was Team Suzuki's A .J. Eslick, who
suffered painful indignity in the form o f a
handlebar end in the sphincter when he was
involved in a crash in his heat race. "Have
you ever seen in the rodeo business when a
guy gets harpooned by the bullhorn?" Eslick
said. "Th at's what I fee l like. It kind o f sucks.
In the heat race, a co uple guys got tangled
up, and I got hit in the back pretty good. My
rectum was a little sore, and when I went to
change my drawers, they were all bloody. It
pisses me off that I had to throwaway a
brand-new pair of Spo ngeBob Squarepants
boxer shorts like that ."
Speaking of off nights , it was evident right
from the first practice session that series
points leader J,R. Schnabel would not be
leaving with the points lead . The Wisconsinite struggled mightilyon the concrete. "It's
not that bad - if I can just pick up a second, I
can move right up there," Schnabel joked
after practice. "The problem is that wit h lap
times of eight seconds, that's a ton. I just
might have to run a few people over
tonight," Schnabel d id say that he saw plenty
of opportunities for riders to pass . " I know
it can be done because I've been passed just
about every t ime I've been out there."
While he admittedly never got into the
rhythm aboard his factory KTM at the Cow
Palace , ninth-place finisher Joe Kopp did
have good news that had nothing to do
with racing : Kopp and his w ife, Dee Dee,
are expecting a child in November, "We're
not sure whether it's a girl or a boy," Kopp
said. "We' re just going to wait until it pops
out, and we'll name it then. We 're really
excited. This is something that we have
been wanting for a wh ile."
Will ie McC o y made his debut in the Quality Checked Certified Pre-Owned Ford Racing colors at the Cow Palace a moderate
success after he qualified for the main event
and finished eighth. Coming into the race,
McCoy said he was fee ling the pressure to
perform for his new boss, Chris Carr. "I felt
a lot of pressure just because Chris and I
had spent three days testing on the concrete in Texas ," McCoy said . "I did over
100 laps a day, and that went really good. I
was within a couple tenths of Chris, but it
took me a while to get rolling there. Here,
you don't have any time to get rolling. I'm
happy with the way things are going so far.
We're just going to go down the road and
get ready for the next one."
Jo h n ny Mu rph ree offered the following
Conlinued on page !S7
CYCLE NEWS • MAY 12,2004
49
