Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Henry W iles' Peo ria TT victory was not only his first , but also the first for his tuner, George Mack, who has helped out several recognizable names in the sport 01 motorcycle racing. including Nait Wait, J.R. Schnabel and Be nny Carlson,to name a few. Wiles' Peoriawin was extra special to Mack, lor sentimental reasons. "Th is is so awesome." Mack said. "My dad has been bringing me to th is race since I was a kid, and he was here with me today, and so was my son. We had three generations 01 George Macks here today." J.R. Sc h nabe l took home the win in the $5000, five-lap Blue Oval Dash For Cash held in memory 01 Buzz Meiferdt , a longtime AHA dirt -track officialwho passed away last January. Schnabe l took home $1400 lor the win. " It's an honor to win a race that was in Buzz's name," Schnabel said. " He was suc h a great guy, and we always had this ru nning joke: When I first got started, I wasn't really consistent - not that I am any more now - but Buzz used to always walk up to us and ask my dad , 'Did you bring the fast kid o r the slow kid this weekend?' He was just one of those guys that you looked lo rw ard to seeing at the races every weekend. and he is missed," Harley-Davidson lacto ry mechanic Craig Lager des cribed t he transition Iro m the Bill Werner era as pretty sm ooth. "We're trying to just keep t hings rolling along and leam th ings as last as we can lo r next year," Lage r said. The team's spirits were buoyed alte r Rich King's th ird- place finish at the Farley, Iow a. Hall Mile. "We needed that," Lager said. "Th at's really what we want th is year, track time, so that we can get things figured out lor next year. We have come a lo ng way [in communication). I think we've got a leel lor what he likes, and it is coming to us - at least o n the half miles. Fo r the miles, we're just going to do the same thing as we did at Springfield. We don 't have anyth ing better to give him at those deals ." target's on Henry 's back." Arguably, it is still on Carr's as well, and there was no hiding the 37-year-old c hamp's disappointment over a finish that broke his stri ng of podium finishes at Peoria . Fifth p lace might have been something to howl over fo r anybody else: not for Carr. "Of course I'm disappointed wi th the finish ," Carr said . " I feel like I sho u ld have been be tte r. But you know... Every year yo u come here, and the e xpectation s are so high that eventually it kinCl of gets to you a littl e bit . May be it did t hat today. W e 'll be bacK n e xt year, pre pa red to run better t han we did th is time. " Wiles went real good . and th o se o ther guys [Murphree, Kopp and Schnabel] run up here a lot," C ar r als o sa id. "The way that I look a t it is th at t hese motocross bikes have co m e alo ng , and t hey ha ve gotten really good, and a lot of these kids have grown up on th em a nd a re more co mfortable on t hem t han o n regular flat -t ra c k b ike s . I th ink th at's w hy you are seeing a litt le bit of a youth move ment he re. But th e se kid s aren't a w ho le lot diffe rent th an I was 20 ye a rs ago ." Indeed, as jus t like C a rr, Wi les had a d ifficult time d esc r ibing the feeling o f wi n ning t he Pe o ria IT "Yo u w ork so hard to get to thi s po int , an d sometimes it doesn't feel like it' s paying o ff," Wi les said . "The n something like this happens, an d you 're glad you kept putting your head down week in and week out. It starts to payoff. Hopefu lly I can start to do good o n the b ig bikes, keep making main events and make everybody a believer." That included making a be lie ve r of himself at Peo ria , as W iles fought hard to avoid the late-race jitters that could have led to a costly mistake. "That was the big t hing," Wiles sa id. " I have run through th is race so many times in my head, w here I have been out front and sa t tlie re , jus t getting nervous. I knew that I couldn't do t hat , and I kn ew that I w ould have to be mentally strong. I just kne w I had to keep going. I d id n't even want to look behind me. I never fe lt Unlortunately for the team, Rich King had to scratch out 01 both the Blue Oval Dash For Cash and the main event due to a shoulder injury suffered in the vicious-looking tankslapper that occurred on the last lap 01 heat lou r, while he was batding with Shaun Russell lo r the final tran sler spot. "I caught a rut a Iitde goofy, and it shook my left hand o ff the bar," Kopp said. "My shoulder is pretty sore. I have had some people look at it, and they th ink it might be d islocated ." King did go out and run his semi , which he won, before decid ing to call it a day. Kenny Cool beth has been camped ou t in third place both on the tra ck and in the series standi ngs over the last few seasons, and it's a po sition that he seems to be satisfied with for the time be ing. " It' s windi ng do wn pretty good," the 27-year-o ld Coolbe th said. " I'm not eve n loo king at the points . I'm just going to every race and do ing the best I can. I wa nt to win, so that's what I'm try ing to do , but everybody is do ing rea lly good. The guys in fron t of me [Ch ris Carr and Joe Kopp] have got their heads on straigh t, and we just have to win races to get ahea d of the m in the po ints. That's w hat we're go ing to try to do ." Longt ime television co mme ntator Larry Maiers was at Peo ria, handling pit interviews for the TT, the th ird of five te lecasts to be aired on Speed Ch an nel. "It fee ls wonde rful to be back to d irt-tracking," Maie rs said. "I haven't been to enough of it in rec e nt years . Th is is my favorite fonn of motorcycl e racing - and I have see n a lot of it - but th is is my favorite. I love these guys, and I love the racing," Maiers said that he d idn't know how many d irt tracks that he had seen during his career, but added : "I think Jim Davis was yo unger than I was when I saw the first one," Maiers was a welcome sight to seve ral riders, Including Joe Kopp . "We know it' s go ing to be a good day when Larry shows up," Kopp said. Kopp then went on to finish third in the main eve nt . Jake Johnson was hoping to be able to remain uprigh t lor just a little bit longer than he d id in last year's Peoria TT main event, in which he led for 20 laps befo re a silly lowside cras h in tum lour cost him his chance at the win. "I definitely want to get some po ints toda y, but I would really want to win this race after lea ding for so long and then fallingoff last yea r. The big part is just be ing on the fron t row for the main, so we're just going to shoot for that, and then hopefully we'll get 25 laps in." Instead, he went way in the other direction, crashing on the first lap of the main event and being effectively knocked out of the race when AHA officials did not throw a red flag. Johnson remained upbeat about the inciden t. " I figured I'd get the crash out of the way early and come back fro m there , but it didn't work out." Johnson joked. "I just go t into the comer too hot and had nowhere to go. Mees was underneath me. and I don 't know who was above me. I went dow n, but I was expecting to see a red flag, so I took my time ge tting up. O h well, there's always nex t year," Bryan Smith talked a litde bit mo re about former Harle yDavidso n factory mechanic BillWerner's invo lve me nt in his race program. "Billhas been helping me out for the last co uple years , obvio usly - I rode his [factory] bikes a few times," Smith said. "Now that he is retired, he has sta rt ed a co nsulting deal, and he has been going to the races and he lping me. It has been great. I have gone be tter t han I ever have on the grooved tracks. I was fast qualifier at Farley, Iowa . I just messed up in the main event. Billhas helped out a ton, and I hope that he contin ues to ," Smith said that he was ready for the Peoria TT. "I have been riding a lot," he said. "I got fifth here last year, and that was from the third row," Jared Me es was hopeful that he could improve on his 2003 finish of last year. Mees had been running in seventh place before he was sidelined with mechanical problems. "We' re just going to take it step by step," Mees said. "I have been riding a lot of motocross so that I can be more comfortable over the jump . We 'll just see how it goes. We want to get it dialed in so that we can be up front," Willie McCoy said he was hoping to feed off of the energy 01 his fourt h-place finish at the Rapid City Half Mile and run strong at Peoria . "We're going to try our KTM and our Rotax out. see which is better, and then go out and have fun," McCoy said. "My buddies are here to help me out. it' s a beautiful day in Peoria, and I'm ready," Des pite his rider not winn ing the last two Peo ria ITs, C hris Carr's tuner, Kenny Tolbert, said that the team was not go ing to be do ing anything d ifferently than it had in the past. "I don 't think we nee d to ," Tolbe rt said . "If C hris Car r is on his game, th en they've got to beat Chris Carr, the way I see it," Tolbert had no less than four mo torcycles pre pared for Carr, two of them be ing standard Rotax -pow e re d "framers " and the othe r two be ing facto ry-backed KTM mo toc ro ss-based machines . "We've got a co uple to choose from ," Tolbert said. "The track con ditions are going to dicta te w hat bike he rides today, but it's Chris Carr's track, and if he's on , they've got to deal with him." For his part, Chris Carr was disappo inted that the da m p Peo ria track turn ed ca bby in the first practice session. forc ing Carr to abandon his Rotaxes and use his less -pow erful but be tter-suspe nded KTMs. "We didn't get to co me here in June and get the early testing that we wanted to get on them, but we're confident that they will be competitive," Carr said of the KTM. "It's going to be a rou gh one today. We're all going to need to go to the dentist after this one." KTM's Ron Heben was happy to see Carr aboard the KTM, as it further increased the brand's chances of placing well in the TT, Carr joining KTM facto ry riders Joe Kopp and Kenny Cool be th as favorites to put an orange machine on the podiu m. "We 're feeling really good," Heben said. "W ith C hris, Joe and Kenny. o ur odds ar e looking really good, but there is going to be som e good racing here today," It was He ben's first visit to the TT, and he liked Continued on page 29 www.cyclenews.com CYCLE NEWS • SEPTEMBER 1,2004 27

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