Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AMA Ford Quality Checked Flat Track Championship Briefly... Continued from page 3S potential to be better," Kopp said. "I know I said that I wasn't going to race it at any Grand Nationals this year, but it's getting to where I may have to practice it at one. I really want to get it out there." Sam Halbert (43) battled baek and forth with Coolbeth (partially hidden) in the SOSee support main event. The two were never mueh farther apart than this for the entire 12 laps. Halbert won the raee. Shawn Baer was on hand to sub for the injured Mike Hacker on the SuperTrapp! Lombardi's Harley-Davidson entries of Carl Patrick Racing. The deal came together earlier in the week, as Hacker's contract requires that SuperTrapp be represented at the races with or without him. The promising Baer, who had a great Amateur career before moving into the HDSP Series to gain his GNC points, looked fast aboard Hacker's bikes immediately. "It's weird being here and not haVing to work on my bike," the 19-yearold said. "I don't have to worry about anything other than the racetrack." Baer said that he was totally surprised that Hacker chose him to fill the seat. "If anybody had told me this was going to happen, I didn't think I'd be the choice," Baer said. "I've always tried to be as professional as I could and be the best that I can be, but I never figured that I'd be picked for something like this. It feels really good. I couldn't ask for more." Baer just missed the main event at joliet, finishing third in the second semi. Speaking of Carl Patrick, the veteran tuner couldn't seem to figure out whether he was coming or gOing, as he not only worked on Baer's eqUipment but also that of Tim Eades, who has a pretty solid two-bike program backed by Reggie Amos Custom Homes for 2005. "They're based in Tucson, Arizona," Eades said. "Reggie is an old racer from Virginia, and he showed up and showed interest in my deal and wanted to help out. He has helped out qUite a bit, and I expect big things for this year." When asked how he seems to continue on with regaJ programs year after year, Eades replied, "Because I work my ass off. Stick around me long enough to see how hard I work, and you can probably figure it out." You've heard the one about "Bugs" showing up to race with the broken left leg, right? Only this wasn't On Any Sunday, this was Saturday night at joliet, where Rob "Bugs" Pearson came to race after breaking his left leg while play riding six weeks ago - two days after the Houston Hot Shoe. "I'd say it's probably about 90 percent right now," Pearson said. "The bone is 90 percent, but the muscle is still totally gone. I'm trying to actually keep my foot off the dirt so that I don't get it caught in a hole." Unfortunately for Pearson, he only made a lap in his heat race and did not start his semi. Armed with a new XR7S0, Kevin Atherton was the fastest of the fast in practice at joliet and said that he was ready to win more races in 2005. "I need to," he added. "I'm working seven days a week now to try and pay for it." Atherton is currently living in Florida, where he works for a pool-cleaning 36 JUNE 1,2005 • CYCLE NEWS service, "which sounds like the start of a porn film, huh?" he said. ''I'm also doing a lot of construction work down there. With the hurricane situations, there's a lot of need for it. I just have to make an honest living now." Atherton started on the third row for the main event and was unable to fight through traffic, settling into 15th on his Gerencer's H-D/Kerstings Cycle entry. Kenny Coolbeth won the fastest 10-lap heat race of the night, leading Willie McCoy and joe Kopp into the main event in heat three, posting a time of 3 minutes, 40.S47 seconds. That time was about 1.5 seconds quicker than the next-fastest heat (heat one), which was won by Chris Carr. It meant that Coolbeth would be the polesitter for the main event. '" feel pretty good tonight," Coolbeth said. "The track is kind of sketchy and greasy, and it grabs your leg quite a bit. It kind of reminds me a lot of Charlotte. It has big round corners like Charlotte, and it's definitely greasy. It would be awesome if we could win here." Johnny Murphree had a bum night, failing to make the main event. "We lost our brakes in our scratch heat, and it was all downhill from there," a disappointed Murphree said. "It's a big hole to climb out of, but we'll just keep hammering away at it. That's all we can do." Before the main event, Bryan Smith commented on his new big-bike program with Moroney's Harley-Davidson and owner Pat Moroney by saying: "The stuff's better than I can ride it at this point." After Smith finished third in the main, Moroney was so excited with Smith's performance that he nearly crashed the team's pit bike down the grassy hiil behind turn four, which served as the observation area for the pit crews. Smith said that much of the credit for his ride goes to the team, which broke out the Wiil Davis playbook to provide him with a setup for the race. "Will always liked the front ends tucked way under," Moroney said after the race. "That's what we did for Bryan. He didn't like it at first, but then we lowered the ride heights, and that worked perfectly for him." To which Smith added: "Will knew just a little bit about what he was doing. He would have kicked everybody's ass if he'd have been here tonight. This was his kind of deal." The last race of the night might have been the most competitwe, and it didn't invotve the 7SOS, although it did involve a top GNC rider. Sam Halbert, 17, of Graham, Washington, and Kenny Cool beth battled tooth and nail in just about every corner for all 12 laps of the SOSec Support main, with Halbert coming out on top after passing Coolbeth for the lead in turns one and two on the last lap. "I learned a few things from a halfmile master and then was able to show him what' learned," Halbert said. "That was one of the best races of my life, and it's great to run with these guys, especially Kenny. He's super fast on these kind of tracks. I'm ready to get on a twin now." Steve Murray fin~ ished third in the main event.

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