Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Briefly... Defending Grand National Champion Chris Carr continues to hold on to his tenuous points lead as the AMA Ford Quality Checked Flat Track Championship has reached the halfway mark. "Looking at the big picture, I didn't necessarily need to beat joe [Kopp]," Carr said. "I'm not disappointed. Obviously, I thought we were capable of winning. We just needed a little bit better setup for the main event. We stood pat with what we had. It was working good on the bottom, there just was no bottom in the main event. It was gone, I was kind of surprised by that." Kenny Coolbeth is now just 13 points back. After taking the lead from Carr on lap 12, Kopp (3) had to fend off Kenny Coolbeth (31) in the late laps. The two ran side by side often, but Kopp was able to defend the lead until the checkered flag. kind of in and out. Unfortunately, it was more out that in." Carr and Kopp pulled away after Schnabel faded back. "When Henry [Wiles] jumped out there, it made Chris [Carr] move his line real quick," Kopp said. "Chris was running on the bottom. I was kind of following Chris down low. It was working good for him earlier. Henry moved up high, and I thought that was working pretty good. Chris got him [Wiles] pretty quick, and I went with him [Carr]. I thought, 'This is exactly what I need, to follow him [Carr].' I knew that the first few laps I was probably going to be on the bottom. When Henry started making that top line work, he made me move up a little bit qUicker than I was thinking. I know Chris said it made him move up a little qUicker also. That was quite a bit different line. I was thinking I'd be down low and go up high eventually and start bumping the cushion. About halfway through the race, we were just skidding around the middle of the track pretty much. I was staying out of the cushion because it was so deep up there and rough. It was a different line than what I thought I was going to run." Carr said that Wiles forced him to play the chasing game early in the race. "I chased him [Wiles] down," Carr said. "Schnabel went by me, banzai, up high. I went up there with him and kept pace with him after he pulled the initial gap. When he broke, it was left to me to kind of set the pace. I just wasn't comfortable running up in the deep stuff. I didn't want to tangle with any hay bales tonight. I was probably a little conservative up front. I probably could have rode a little bit more aggressively. Some nights you can go for the win and some nights you have to keep the big picture in the back of your brain." Wiles was still holding on to third but was under a lot of pressure from Mid-America Harley-Davidson/Jones Powers ports' Kenny Coolbeth, Mees and KK Supply/Las Vegas Harley-Davidson/ Schaffer's Harley-Davidson's Geo Roeder. Roeder was experiencing his own adventure as the fast qualifier had engine problems in his heat, started on the penalty line in his semi and started on the third row of the National. Despite all this, the crowd favorite was charging to the front. Kopp stalked Carr for five laps before taking over the lead on lap I2. "Chris [Carr] got the lead, and I thought, 'This is the perfect spot where I want to be,' and then j.R. [Schnabel] started to roll on the top," Kopp said. "I thought, 'Holy smokes, he's going to put on a show.' He was riding this thing like the Springfield short track. Then he broke. It looked to me like he must have had a carburetor problem. "When it was just Chris and I up there, I thought, 'This is exactly where I want to be. I don't want to be leading it right now,''' Kopp continued. "I worked on him good, and I got a decent lead, and all of sudden I saw someone catching me." For Carr, catching was the easy part. Passing would be the big challenge. "It was one of those things when you are right behind somebody, you were catching so much roost it would kind of slow you down a little bit," Carr said. "He Mer breaking in the last race, while leading Joe Kopp felt the pressure for a strong outing. He didn't help himself as he jumped the start in his heat race and had to come from the penalty line to take the win. "It was a rough night, but it was a good night when all was said and done," Kopp said. "I kind of put myself in a hole in my heat race when I jumped the start. That's not something I normally do. I had to dig myself out of a hole there. Iwas kind of fired up after that more than anything. Jared Mees has been one of the dominant half-mile racers the last few races. If we wouldn't have broke down, Ithink Iwould be the dominant guy. We had second at Uma, and Iwas leading Lake Odessa, and we won this one. I'm feeling pretty good about my program. We just need to keep it going." In a four-lap period, it looked like J.R. Schnabel was going to check out and collect his second "big bike" National win when things went sour. Afterward, Schnabel elaborated on the failure that dropped him out of contention for the win. "I felt it coming out of tum four," Schnabel said. "I got some dirt in the back carbo Babe [DeMay, his team manager] took the float bowl off, and there was some dirt in there. On a cushion track, we sucked it up in there somehow. It's a bummer. I think we had another 750 win for us. It's been awhile since I had a 750 win; I was thinking tonight was the night. It was all working. Oh well, that's how it goes. I feel confident in our 750 program." The Memphis Shades team will grow next week at Hagerstown as Rob Pearson comes aboard. "Robbie is going to ride the Yamaha," team manager Babe DeMay said. "I don't think it's fair to J.R. [Schnabel] to have him use one of his practices to try and get the Yamaha up to speed while he's in the points battle. Robbie will be able to give us more seat time." Carr led the race early and was able to match the pace of Kopp until Coolbeth passed him. Carr wound up third. Ohio's favorite son, Goo Roeder, was the odds-on favorite to take his second Grand National win, and that belief was only made stronger when he set fast qualifying time in his four-lap race. Unfortunately, things unraveled quickly. "We can't figure out what went wrong in the heat race," Roeder said. "The bike was working good in practice. The bike we used, we don't run on this kind of stuff. Anyway, we thought it was running good. I won my scratch heat, and it was still working good. It was obviously working good. I could go anywhere on the thing. Every once in awhile you get on and think, 'This thing is awesome.' I didn't get a real good start in the heat, and on the last comer Igot sprayed down pretty good. I got on the gas, and the thing just felt real lazy going down the backstretch. When Iwent into three and four and got on the gas, it was like stopping. It was like it was running out of gas. Skip [Eaken] tore Continued on page 47 CYCLE NEWS • AUGUST 3, 2005 4S

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