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/128339
Briefly... Continued from page 27 w hat he saw. "I've heard so much about it , and it isone of the great traditionalracing venues in the Unit ed States," He ben sa id . "I know that the r id e rs ge t more excited when they come here ." Favorite or no, Joe Kopp didn't have the best practice sessions of his season . Kopp lost precious laps in the second session when his KTM suffered a flat rear tire. "Then, in the second round, I wanted to ride my 450 instead of my 50S, but I couldn't get it to start," Kopp said. "So I think that I'llprobably just stick with 505. We'll be all right. We've got a good shot, because this rough a track is my kind of deal. I know that Schnabel and Murphree will like th is kind of track, too. I like them when they 're rough and they have a lot of mo isture in it like this o ne ." Kopp pulled it together for the main event. Sh aun Russell was camped just outside the to p 10 prior to the Peoria TT. and he was looking for a good finish in the main event in order to put himself inside it. "I wa nt to win the thing, but a top- three wo uld be good : ' Russell said. "I wan t to finish the year str ong and win some races ." Although she had already made her Grand National debut at Davenpo rt, Iowa, rec entlytumed-Expert rider N ichole Cheza was taking her first shot at making the Peo ria IT "Hope fully I can go out and put in the show:' the 17year-o ld female phenom said. "I have never been here before, but it doesn't look that bad. I failed to make the 4B-rider fie ld. J,R, Schnabel ad mitted that he was fee ling a lot of pre ssure to repeat as the Peo ria TI champion. "These TIs and short tracks are my deal, so when we come to these tracks, I'm jacked up. Last year I waited right till the end . Chris Carr was ridinga framer; and I knew that he would wear down , but he's always fast here, and I know he's going to be running up front . We just have to go hard." Besides Ch ris Carr, the last rider to win backto -back Peoria TIs was Bubba Shobert in 19B7. Shobert actually did the deed in the year that there were two Grand National TIs in one season, Shobert's victo ries coming on June 14 and August 16. Shobert's tuner, Skip Eaken, remembered that year as well the others. "We won 'em both that year," Eaken said. "Eve ry other year, we got seco nd." O ne th ing that was the same about Peo ria TI fro m then to now, according to Skip Eaken, was the atmosphere . "This is always been a big eve nt:' Eaken said. "It's a fun deal. I like the damn place." While Skip Eaken's rider, Geo Roeder II , was taking the week off from the Peo ria TI, Eaken had two compete nt replacements, in the persons of former third-place finisher Dan Stanley and rookie Expert Dan Gedeon, "Geo's home , enjoyinghimself," Eaken said. Stanley missed out on the main event, while Gedeo n crashed during his sem i. He was down for several minutes but not seriously hurt . have a motocross track at nome, and I have been riding that, so hopefully everything willgo well and I'llput it in the show." Cheza performed adm irably in her Peoria debut but missed the cut for the 4B-rider field. Yoshimura Suzuki/Monster Energy Drink's Kevin Varnes reported that he felt his team had made more progress on his factory-backed Suzuki DLI000 after Varnes finished 13th at the Rapid City Half Mile. "I kind of held back on the starting line because I didn't wan t the thing to overheat, but once we got going, I felt really co mforta ble on it," Varnes said. "A lot of our problem has been that we haven't been taking enough power away from it to get the chassis right. Now that we have the horsepower down, it is easier to ride. It actually felt slow off the corners to me at Rapid, but I didn't want to change anything because it was working so we ll. Now tha t we have the power down, we can develop the chassis and then feed the power back into it." For the Peoria TT. Varnes was o nce again aboard Suzuki DR-Z4oo-based, motocross-style bikes. He said the team hoped it would have a new Suzuki RM-Z450 in time for the indoo r sho rt track at Du Quo in, Illinois, the pen ultimate round of the series. Speaking of factory Suzuki riders , A,J, Eslick went for a tumble in the first practicesession, his bike landing in the creek after Eslick made a mistake off the jump. "The track and I just had a little miscommun ication," said Eslick, who was uninjured in the crash. "It was a little bit greasy, and up the face of the jump I spun the tire and went to the left, which was where you want to go. But I went extra far left and landed in the wet grass. I got up but cou ldn't find the bike . I didn't know where it w ent." Eslick was never really on form after the crash, and he www.cyclenews.com Kevin Atherton continues to both look fast and suffer terrible main-event finishes due to mec hanical failures. At Peoria, Atherton made the main, only to end up 17th. "I'm breaking motorcycles every wee kend ," a dejected Athe rton said. "Th is one was breaking all day. It felt fast, but I couldn't get it to wheelie off the comers, and I knew that it wasn't running right. I had to work just to get third in my heat race , and in the main event we just went backwards. The piston or the rod broke. " Longtime Peo ria Motorcycle Club me mber Kenny Barth hosted a fish fry for his friends and the race competitors o n the day before the annual IT Accor dingto Bart h, the feed , which takes place at his home, near the track, has been going o n since "Kenny Coo lbeth was in the BOcc class at the Amateu r Nationals. Kenny, Geo rgie Price IVand the Haydens. Roger Lee was only about 5 o r 6." Barth and his crew fried over 300 pou nds of fish this year. Barth says that hosting the fish fry is o ne of the highlights of the year for him. "Wh en I raced , and when my son, Chad, raced , we would go to places like Sacrame nto to ride the mile. Aaron Hill's dad and the families tha t we met out there did the same thing for us." It's all about keeping the dirt-track familytogether. "I don't want these kids and their families to fee l like they are away from home : ' Bart h said. "If they need a lathe or a millo r a hot meal or a hug or a shower, if I can help them in any way, then that's what I wan t to do ." Reignin AHA Flat g Track Champion Chris Car r and his familyare perennial atten dees at the fish fry. "I th ink that this sucks, and that only th ose who are here today should come back next time ," Carr joked. "That way we'll have more fish to eat:' CYCLE NEWS • SEPTEMBER 1,2004 29