Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Briefly... Rich King (80) came up to challenge Kopp (3) for second. A miscue by King moved both men wide and allowed Carr (I) to slip past for second place. King was third, Kopp fourth. Ouis Carr's good fortune on lap 23 helped minimize the damage in the points battle, as he only lost four points to Coolbeth instead of eight. "I was pleased with the finish," Carr said. "Obviously I don't like losing points to Kenny, but he's riding really well right now. We're getting through the hard part of the season for us pretty well. Last week I got a great start, and we sucked at the end. This week was the opposite - I sucked in the beginning. I got a tenrible start, but we were real good at the end. I had some great lap times on the last 10 laps. That was something that we focused on pretty hard this week, to make sure we were better at the end of the race than what we had been." ''Any way you can win is awesome," Kenny CooIbeth said. "To run away with it and beat them that bad, it sure feels good. The win felt real good. I'm getting close to the points lead. I just need to keep on winning and keep that number one [Carr) behind us. We've been working on everything, I'm healthy, and the bikes are awesome. I just have to stay healthy and train hard. Chris digs deep when he has to. He's going to be tough. I'm not saying I can do it [win the championship), but I'm going to try like hell. I train every day, which I never did before. I used to train like twice a week, and now I'm doing it every day. I'm not working a job like I did before. I'm pretty much focusing on my racing. That's what it takes. So hopefully we can beat Chris. I don't want to work a job. It's kind of a bummer that we have two weeks off, but it's all right. Everybody is 100 percent in the pits. I'm 100 percent on the track. We're 100 percent everywhere. Our sponsors are awesome." est thing that happens. You go in there so hard and you want to get in there so much harder than someone else, then all of a sudden there is nothing there. I just completely blew everything. " Mees slid all the way to the turn-one hay bales, losing fifth to Quality Checked Certified Pre-Owned Ford Racing' Carr. Mees recovered and carried on in sixth, while Carr set out after Bigelow and King. "I couldn't get out of my own way there for a while," Carr said. "Then Jared caught Bigelow and Jared made a big mistake. I was able to get by Jared and then chase down Bryan. I just kind of picked them off. My bike came in real good. The tires started working real good from about lap 10 or 12 on." Once past Bigelow, Carr joined the Kopp/King battle over second. King grabbed second on lap 20. "I had Joe pretty much figured out," King said. "It was just a matter of time before I could get by him. I got by him, and I tried to turn the wick up. I hit a rut down in turn three and four, where 1had been running strong all night long. I kind of cross-rutted a little bit. It was a mistake. It ran me up the racetrack a little bit. I think Joe might have been on the outside of me at the time. It kind of screwed both of us, and Chris was able to get both of us. He was on the outside of me. I more than likely pinched Joe off into the wall. I don't know Me posting consecutive wins, Joe Kopp's fourth-place finish was somewhat disappointing, as he lost four points to Carr. "We've got a lot of races left," Kopp said. "I've been looking forward to this track, just because of the night I had here last year. It's a hard track; I wouldn't say it's real technical, but you're on the edge a lot here. It's a pretty high-speed track for the size of the track, really. It was not smooth. You go somewhere like Hagerstown, and it was just glass-smooth. This place has some ruts and bumps. It wasn't too bad, but it's definitely a bumpy little track." For the second week in a row, young Sam Halbert was impressive, posting a qualifying heat win. Unfortunately, the Zanotti Racing/A&A Racing-backed rider dropped his Eaken Racing Harley in his heat race while running in a qualifying position. His big brother Jethro Halbert was able to move into the main with a last-lap pass of Charlie ltalia in their semi. exactly where he was at, but Chris went from fourth to second right there. I probably screwed me and Joe both up, and Chris got by both of us." Carr said that he felt he was solid at the end of the race. "I was getting superior drives at the end of the race over guys like Joe and Rich," Carr said. "I was really starting to come off the corner, and we weren't that good in the early part of the race. I was spinning it up quite a bit. My bike just got better and better as the race wore on." Gerencer's Harley-Davidson/Kersting's Cycle's Kevin Atherton had his best outing of the year as he climbed to a seventh-place finish, with Quality Checked Certified Pre-Owned Ford's Willie McCoy right behind him. Reggie Amos Custom Home's Tim Bryan Bigelow's home-grown effort for 2005 has been getting stronger every week. "My best finish has usually been 10th," Bigelow said. "We've been able to get into every main event but lima. I'm pretty proud of that. To get fifth kind of bums me out, because I thought we were better than that, but I can't be bummed out. My motorcycles are pretty tired. They're going to get a little bit of an overhaul before the last part of the season, and we'll go from there. I'm pretty proud of my dad, and I've got a friend back home, Mike, who builds my suspensions. He works an eight-hour day, then comes and works at the shop. He drives 30 miles and works at the shop until like 10 o'clock. Then he drives back home and gets up at 5 o'clock in the morning to work his real job. A lot of people sacrifice a lot of things for my team, and to finish fifth is like winning for us. We're all very excited, and I'm tickled. It's pretty cool." After weathering some tough times, Rich King rolled into his home-state race on a high note. "We've been working pretty well together now for the last four or fIVe races," King said. "We're starting to get dialed on these slippery half miles. Five years ago, this was my strong suit. We're kind of getting things rolling. We just need to keep it going and finish good on these and win the miles. I'm having a lot of fun racing, and when you're having a lot of fun, it's a lot easier. The team is definitely coming together. The people are starting to gel a little bit. They brought on a new race manager; he's getting the team to gel well. I'm having a lot of fun with the guys, and we're having a lot of fun racing. We're comfortable, and we're messing around with the top-threes a lot." CYCLE NEWS. AUGUST 17, 2005 27

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