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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128341
King (80) challenged fo r the win for much of the main, but hi s Springfield win streak was halted at three when his motor let go late in the race. Murphree (20) and Atherton (23) ran with Carr all the way. Like Carr, Mu rph ree was able to draft Coolbeth at the line for second. Atherton s lipped to fifth. Coolbeth's thlrd-p leee f ini s h was his best career Springfield Mile result. "w e eds, " as his chance fo r a fourth consecutive Springfield victory we nt sour on lap 2 1, h is motorcycle slowing d ra mat ically in turn fo ur and forcing him to pu ll out o f t he ra ce . Coolbeth was right behind King when the Ha rley factory rider lost power. "He d id a good job with it. " Coolbeth said . " H e w e nt righ t to th e inside and got out of the w ay." McCoy ca pitalized on King's exit, the d etermined Texan giving himself an e xcelle nt shot at wi nning his first Springfield Mile as he grabbed the le ad o n lap 22 aboard a Kenny Tolb ert-p repared machine t hat appeared equal to Carr's in every way. McCoy then so mewhat derailed his own chances when he smacked the inside gu ardrail, catching his hand. McCoyadmitted t ha t wh ile his kn uckle s were sore, the shunt mostly just knocked him off rhythm. " Whenev e r I go t up a little bit off t he rail, I just couldn't get hooked u p, and I started to slip back," McCoy sa id. "I said to myself, 'I have to get down lo w e r,' and then I rubbed the rail with my shoulder in tu rn o ne and smacked my knu ckle o n it in three o r fo ur. It killed my d rive . I led the w rong lap. I wanted to lead the last one, but we w ere runn ing great tod ay. My goal is top five in points , and it is still possible . N ext tim e I'll just have to wi n, and t he n maybe try out second o r th ird after that." Atherton t he n poked his wheel to th e front o n t he ne xt lap, with Murph ree leading as they took th e wh ite flag. Cool beth t he n ran it in on th e rest of them as t he field h it tu rn t hree for the final time, and he led o ff the final turn. Carr had matched C o ol bet h's backst re tch pace , however, moving fro m fo urt h to sec o nd through turns three an d fo ur a nd s h uffling Murphree back to th ird and McC oy to fourth. In the final run to the checkered flag , C arr was easily abl e to slings ho t past Coolbe t h for t he win. Murphree also just pipped Cool be t h fo r the runner-u p spo t, th e bu llet- fast Califo rn ian still loo king to give team o w ner T im Coziah r th e Springfie ld win he has been seeking since hir ing Murp hre e . " I ca n't even remember what was happening ou t there ," Murphree said. "I had to make big moves a couple times to keep guys fro m co m ing up the inside and getting aro und peo ple . O ur bike was worki ng pe rfect today, and we sho uld have w on t he race . Th e re was so me w icke d st uff going o n. Willie bo un ced off t he inside gua rdrail once w it h his sho ulder and his hand and w e nt out wide, and I tried to follo w him , but he lost his d rive . I lo st my d rive , so th en Chris came up t he inside of me and opened up a t hree-guy-wide d raft, and Kenny and Atherton came back up . It was a typical Springfie ld. Going into t he last lap. I led coming o ff o f two, and I let Kenny go by and thought, ' If I ke e p pulling and just let the draft pull me, I'm going to win this th ing off o f fo u r.' The problem was that C h ris was th inking the same t hing, an d he got under me, and I tried to ro ll it on so m e more, but I cooke d the tire. Luckily, I got www.cyclenews.com I Briefly... Dept. of Nightmares : If Joe Kopp's championship aspirations haven't vanished completely after the Springfielddoubleheader, it now appears that landing title number two will be only slightlymore diffICUlt than tuming lead into gold. "I just struggled today," Kopp said alter finishingseventh in the Mile. "Th is was one of them weekends where hopefully I'll go to bedtonight, wake up tomorrow and find out that it really didn't happen. I need to go out and have a beer tonight." Alter blowing up his last running Yamaha dur ing practice and failing to qualify for the pr0gram at the SpringfieldShort Track. Kevin Atherton was much more upbeat before the Mile, as his practice times aboard his XR7S0 hung in the high 34-second range, right on pace with the leaders . "We're doing well," Atherton said. "This is a brand -new scooter, and we 're just making a few adjustments to it. Atherton's new chassis also appeared to be much more stable, as he d isplayed little of the "Springfield wobble" for which he's notorious on the straightaways. "It's straight as a string," he said. "We' re not just hoping for a good run tod ay, we need it." Former Daytona Short Track winner Rick Winsett was cruising the pits during the Springfi ld weekend and showing no ill effects e from his grinding crash at the Rapid Oty Half Milelust four weeks earlier. Even so , Winsett delivered sonne bad news. "I'm done pretty much forever," Winsett said. "The stuff tha t holds the two bottom discs in my neck is nnessed up. Other than that , I'm pretty good. It's d isappo inting, not to be able to ride ." Winse tt also said that while he felt he hada lot o f bad luck in the short time that he campaigned the fullcircuit, he also had one good one, re ferring to his Daytona victory. "At least I can retire saying Iwon one. " Chris Carr's postrace burnout had every fan stand ing and cheering and eNery tuner in the pits biting a lip, and it left Johnny Murphree unimpressed. "He shifted," Murph ree said, critiquing Carr's execution (of both the bumout and, quite literally, his engine). '" told him before the race that I was going to do it again if I won, and then he we nt out and stole my move. Maybe I'llhave to figure out how to do a back flip instead ." That would probablysit better with Murphree's tuner, Mike Wheeler, who mock ingly quipped that he was "just thrilled" with his rider 's postra ce bumout after the team 's Sedalia Half Mile victory. ':As I reca ll, John ny did that on our single last year at Milwaukee, and I had a talk with him then abou t how hard it is to keep these things toge ther and running good . That was a year ago, so I guess he forgot . I'm just go ing to have to talk with him again, and the next time he does it, it's going to cost him 10 percent." Alter Chris Carr did the same thingto celebrate his Springfield Mile victory, Wheeler asked Kenny Tolbert how he liked it. and also told Tolbert of his plans to quell Murphree's antics. Tolbert replied in jest, "Well, if my rider does it again. I'm just gonna fire him!" To which Chris Carr joked back. '" think Kenny forgets who signs his paychecks ." Said Tolbert: "He ran the dam n thing into the wall SO hard, I though t he was going to bend the forks. Then he smokes the tire and all that, Continued on poge 55 CYCLE NE WS • SEPTEMBER 15, 2004 53