Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

ing. I was kind of glad that I was able to jump up and be mad about falling. It looked like Kopp just kind of slid out. I saw him and I was really trying to point the bike down. The bike was kind of coming down the track. I was running a little low through there anyway and thought I was going to make it. I was getting it timed. The bike came down and straightened up. I went over the bars pretty hard. It was a pretty wild ride." Restart number two showed eleven laps in the book, with 14 to go. The question now was whether or not Carr would play it safe with his two main-title contenders on the sidelines. Carr answered that a couple of laps later by roaring by Mees going into turn one. Mees got right back into the swing and had his lead back before the lap was over. On lap 17, the unthinkable happened: Carr hit the deck in turn four. Bigelow and Goo Roeder II were also collected. Despite the frantic work of their crews, only Geo Roeder would be able to make the last restart. There were 17 laps down, eight to go. Smith and Schnabel now were ready to take their shot at Mees. Mees maintained his spot over Smith, but American Suzuki's Kevin Varnes made the most of the restart by grabbing third from his sixth-place starting position. "Kevin [Varnes] surprised me on that last restart," Schnabel said. "I know Shaun [Russell] and myself said there were some guys leaving a little bit early on the starts and Bruce [Bober] said he was going to watch that. 1 know he [Varnes] left early because there were two guys behind me, then Kevin. When he came up there and got third, I thought, 'Oh, he got off real good.' I was able to get back by him and pull off the podium finish, so it's good." Smith wasn't settling for second, and as the laps wore down, he locked onto Mees' rear wheel. "I took the run on Jared [Mees] a lap too soon, I guess," Smith said. "I figured if I got by him in three and four coming for the white flag that 1could hold him off, but he got through one and two real good and got back by me. I thought I still had him because we were side by side. It was all I could do. I should have waited one more lap. It's no big deal; I'm still happy. I learned a big lesson." Mees said that he had heard Smith coming, "I rode the last five laps really timid because everybody was falling," Mees said. "When you see Chris Carr fall, you know there is something wrong with the race track. I just rode the last five laps timid, and Bryan [Smith] was rocking out. When he passed me, he got off the gas and slid up. I just stayed on the gas and drove right by him again. I thought he was either going to slide up underneath rr;'e - and I was ready for that - or he was going to try to get me across the start/finish line. It was close, but I didn't see him. I wasn't going to lead 24 laps and give it up on the last lap. I'm kind of mad at myself for letting up on the last five laps. The whole thing of getting passed on the last lap, 1 don't know what I was thinking. I'm a little mad at myself, even though I won this thing." Bartels' Harley-Davidson/TNT Harley.com's Shaun Russell worked his way by Varnes on lap 22 and settled into fourth. "The restarts were terrible tonight," Russell said. "They weren't watching that too well. I don't know where Kevin [Varnes] started at, but he blew by me, and it took me a little while to get ahead of him. By that time, J.R. [Schnabel] and everybody was gone. I didn't have much to work with. Johnny [Murphree] snuck up and got me on the last lap." Coziahr Harley-Davidson/National Cycles' Murphree had indeed "snuck up" and ended the night in fourth after running as low as I5th early on. "It was a war of attrition, and I didn't fall off," Murphree said. "It was exactly like the X Games. I drove around and didn't fall off, and guys were having problems left and right. I wanted that last spot. Shaun [Russel] and I had lunch and hung out all day. I was beating him on the video games, so I thought I better do it on the race track." Varnes held on for sixth, his best finish since .Briefly... The tight series points race looked to be a thing of the past when Kenny Coolbeth could not make it out for the first restart and Joe Kopp could not make the second. Chris Carr was in position to take full advantage, challenging Mees for the lead, when tum four claimed the defending champion. Carr, Kopp and Coolbeth finished 13th, 15th and 16th, respectively. This vaulted Mees past Kopp and into third in the points. "It's kind of a crappy way of doing it with Joe and Kenny and Chris having problems, but we'll take it any way we can," Mees said. "We did get the holes hot and led every lap, so we earned it." Jake Johnson, A.J. Eslick and Chris Boone all were transported to the hospital after crashing at Sedalia. American Suzuki's Johnson fell spectacularly in his qualifying heat. As Johnson entered turn one, it appeared his front end tucked and he highsided violently. He suffered a compound fracture to both bones in his forearm but really appeared to be lucky that it was his worst injury. KK Supply/F&S Harley-Davidson's Eslick was slammed by his Sportster in the first Harley-Davidson Sportster Performance heat, suffering a fractured ankle, concussion and cut mouth. Dave Burks/Wynn Harrison's Chris Boone fell in the last semi and suffered a broken wrist and finger. "This was one scary race track. I was ready to go home after my scratch heat," Shaun Russell said. "I got the holeshot, and I think I ended up fifth. I guess they did a good job working on the track. They kept working for us, and at least it was something that we could ride around on. It was narrow, and a lot of people were falling. It's tough to see that. I don't ever like to see anybody fall, and hopefully everyone is okay.., "The whole main event I felt good. I came off the second row, and I got a pretty good start and was up to sixth right away," J.R. Schnabel said. "I made a few passes and got myself up to third. I was running good, then we had the first red flag when Shawn Clark went down. Everything was good all night, but I was just panicking the whole time. I didn't want any gremlins tonight. We've had enough of those the last couple weeks. I know Babe [DeMay) and Tryce [Welch) have been working hard in the shop. When stuff like that happens, it's tough to get over. We had problems the last couple weeks, we got through it and had a good finish tonight. I'm looking forward to next week. It was a good thing nobody got hurt in that main. A couple guys went down, but I think just equipment got tore up," Even with a fourth-place finish, Johnny Murphree's 2005 struggle continues. "I thought the monkey was off my back after Peoria, but I looked back and found him again today," Murphree said. "Hopefully we will go to the Springfield short track and set the world on fire and do well at the mile like we normally do and get things rolling. I just suck at my big bike program. It's hard to stomach when I got a third, a second and a first the last three years here. I came back today and barely made the main," "There was plenty of traction. You just couldn't really push it because it was so rough," Bryan Smith said. "You didn't know where that limit was. It was actually good for me, but it was still treacherous. You couldn't really see the holes. If you did, it was too late. When Kopp fell, he was quite a ways ahead of me, but his bike started coming down the track. It almost got me. Wiles was right behind me and he hit it, so obviously it was close. The track wasn't the best, but we made the best of it, I guess. It was my best finish on a twin. I got a second a Daytona last year and third at Joliet, this year. Now we've got to win one." CYCLE NEWS • SEPTEMBER 7, 2005 33

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