Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AMA Progressive Insurance Flat Track Championship a good run and he slipped a little . I was able to draft up to him and ro ll up to him and keep the wheels sp inning. I was able to kind of creep it on in there." Carr and Murphree made minimal contact, but Carr described it as clean racing . " I came in and had a run on johnny. I easily could have just nat taken him out," Carr said. "I just rolled ou t of the thing and let it creep in there. I didn't go in the re and slam him or anything. I kept the wheels in line. I just kind of let it drift in there. It was at the point where he pretty much had to give me a spot. joe was letting johnny have a gap go ing into turn three when I passed him [Kopp]. I basically went on the outside and filled the gap. It was tough on the narrow groove." Carr 's bold move left Mu rphree out to dry. Murphree slipped off the groove, and both Kopp and Coolbeth were able to get by. "The re' s not too much room on the straightaway," Murphree sa id. "Chris' bike was th e only o ne that could ru n w ith mine down the straightaway. That's why joe couldn't get me, because mine was runn ing so hard from halfway o n. When you ru n out fro nt like th at , and it was the same way when joe was running out front by himself, you ma ke m istakes. He didn 't know how hard he could go in and stay right on it. " I slipped up a litt le bit ," Murphree continued . "Instead of being on the bottom of the groove going down the straightaway, I had one tire width or whatever le ft and he [Carr] got there. Then when I saw him , he started chopping that th ing and getting e xtra aggressive. It's the same th ing I d id to him at Sedalia. I chopped the th ing and moved down, a nd he had to back out of it . This tim e I left enough room for him to get in the re, and once w e got int o t he co rner it was too late. He kind of clipped my elbow and handlebar and jus t bumped me . It w as a one-line groove . What else are you go ing to do? He kind of shoved me a little bit, a nd I w as off MY OWN RACE 42 Brya n Smith 5th "The first lap I slipped off the groove and the lead pack got away," Smith said. ':After that, Rich and lay was in front of me . Rich was kind of holding lay up a little bit, and I was just cruising. There was nowhere for me to go but follow him [Springsteen). Rich slipped off the groove, and we both got by him. The last lap I got a real good run off of turn four. lay obviously didn't, and Igot up beside him. I didn't know if I got him or not until now. It was just a matter of waiting for somebody to make a mistake . There are certain guys that you can push out of the way, but Springer and King, you're not got stuff them. At least I'm not going to ." 9 Jay Springsteen 6th "I just planned on taking and running it up in the cushion for the one lap and then falling in line," Springsteen said. "I got a bunch of guys the first lap. In three and four it got so far sideways that it went to the locks, and it just about threw me over the high side. Then Igot hooked back up and got going. I chased Rich for the longest time. I kept trying to get by him. I kept showing him the wheel, insidethen outside. He just got in too hot and slipped off into the marbles. On the very last lap BrianSmith ended up getting me at the line. I told him [Smith) Idid all the work to push Rich out of the way, then you sit there watching it and you end up beat ing me. Mytire was gone, but you could stillsee the lugs. Rich's bike wasn't handling very good eithe r. I'm the only one that had a Harley straight up like a Harley is supposed to be. Everybody else was twingled." 14 Jake Johnson 7th "I didn't have the greatest start," Johnson said. "I tried to go high the first couple laps. There wasn't nothing up there. I dropped back in line as soon as I could. I had to pick them off one at a time. It was tough to pass, the groove was pretty tiny. I tried not to make any mistakes. I tried to force the guys in front of me to make a mistake. I worked my way up to seventh . That's not too bad from the second row. I went out there and cruised and stayed at a good pace. Rich [King) blew the groove with probably four laps to go. He was in a pack of three riders in front of me. I saw him get off the groove , and I was able to run him dow n. Igot him in turn one with two laps to go. I was able to get by him, but I ran out of time. Ifyou got off the groove , it wasn't bad e nough to crash, but you weren't going forward. Youcould really gain so much ground on somebody ifthey got off the groove." 20 SEPTEMBER 29, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS 80 Rich Ki ng 8th After starting the race in third, King's race soured . "I slipped off the groove a little bit a couple times in the first four or five laps." King said. "Igot back and was running fifth. I just chewed the tire up. The last five laps, I was just holding on. I got off the groove once because the tire started vibrating pretty good . I thought the tire was going flat. I really thought it was gone . The bike ran good. It just came down to the tires. We were fast all day. We weren't as good in the main event as we were earlier. Igot by lay [Sprinsteen) when he was trying to run the cushion. I was havinga lot of trouble seeing in turn four. I got off the groove a couple times, and the guys distanced me. The first four had a stra ightaway on me. Then I mellowed out , and it seemed like I was pickingup a little bit. The bike was coming around . It seemed like the rear tire was coming around . I was trying to push to get back up to those guys. The next thing I know, it was getting more squirrelly on me , and I slipped off the groove . lay and Bryan Smith got by me. I was just holding on. When Igot off the bike, I thought the tire was flat. The bike ran good. I just couldn't keep rubber under it." 44 Chris Hart 9th "I put the 7S0 on the front row for the National," Hart said. "I just struggled with starts today. That was key today. Get off the line good and get away clean. You just had to follow everybody aro und it ifyou didn't get the holeshot and wait for a mistake. That's kind of what I did. I had a fairly good day. I like the cushion, but there was none of that today. That's for sure . It was importa nt to be focused for 25 laps. For me it got a little tough to see in the far corner, turns three and four. The sun was com ing in at kind of a funny angle. The dust on your tearoffs, it wasn't really dirty, but the dust would make a glare. So you had to pull one , and finally I ran out . I struggled a little at the end ." 28 Shaun Russell 10th "The first couple laps were tough - you couldn't see nothing," Russell said. "I was back a little ways; it was hard to see what was happening. I ended up 10th. That's not necessarily good, but it's what we have to work with. It's work to set somebody up. On a little narrow groove , it's hard to move around and get anythinggoing. Certainly staying on the groove was the most important thing. I got off once in the final, and it cost me a lot of time. It was important to see where the track was at and see what's happening. It's important to know where you're at on the track and pay atte ntion to that. It got really hard to see . It wasn't bad if you were just behind a couple of guys, but the first 10 laps were tough." 40th A niversary

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