Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

E -moola .com West C o a s t F la t Tra c k S e r ie s Round 1 : Moha v e V a lley R ace w a y B y S COTT R OU SSEAU PH OTOS BY D ENNI S v o u, MOHAVE, AZ, APR. 29 n ligh t of h is pa st yea r, you might figure that J o h n n y Mu rphree d e s erved a day like t h is o ne . After strugg ling throu gh two leg injuries that ke pt him off of motorc ycles since last Jul y , th e jo urney man AMA G ra n d Na t ion al reg ul a r paid a visit to the o pe ning ro und of Gene Romero's Emoo la .com Wes t Co a s t F la t T ra c k Se ries a nd simply could do no wrong. Borrowing a souped- u p PIC Rac ing / Brow n's Cyc les Yama h a from good friend and reig ning West Coast Fla t Track Series Champio n Ronn ie Br o wn , Mu rp h ree, the 1998 AMA Grand Natio n a l Rookie o f the Ye a r, a ppea red to disp la y a lot of m aturity a s he le d all 16 la ps to post th e Op en ma in event win on a bumpy -b ut- fast 1/3 -mil e cla y ova l at Mohav e Valle y Racew a y in Mohav e, Arizona. "If th e y wou ld ever le t me have some time off, I wo u ld be ou t he re m or e ," Murp hre e said in refe rence to hi s h e ct ic Na t io n al sc he d u le . "My bu dd y Ron ni e b ui lt me a bi k e t h is week , and h e to ld me tha t I wasn 't s up posed to beat him , but I couldn 't s it ba ck and let him beat me . I had to make him work for it." Desp ite runni ng third th rou gh the first turn , Murphre e quic k ly du c ke d b e lo w t h e h o o k e d - up gro o ve and found the nec essa ry trac tion to prope l past Beau Brown a nd Ronnie Brown , I 30 M AY 1 7, 200 0 ' eye I e who had e lecte d t o foll o w t h e b la c k lin e in t o t urn o ne. Mu r phree th en went on to ride a nea rpe rfe c t race for th e remai ng c irc ui ts , slow in g o nly o nce or tw ic e aft e r c a tc hing a ho le t hat wa s develop ing in the ' middle of tu rn two . But his supe rior drives off both co me rs allowed him to le ave th e field in his wake. It was the culmin ation of a night in which Murphree had begu n by showing a more ragged style as he had raced to his win in the he at ra ce , a nd then bou nc ed and bobb led to a d omi nan t victory in the Open Trop hy Dash. "I ha ve n 't rea lly ridd e n si nce last Ju ly, " Mu rphree sai d . "I've on ly got a bo ute mo nth of riding motocross under my belt, and this is my first tim e back on a dirt trac k. I felt rea lly rough at first, like I had co bwebs all over me. But as the da y went o n, I jus t kept fee ling smoother. I did n't feel like I was getting fas te r, but actually like I was getting s lower , an d I knew th at that was a good sign. Th at' s really my goal . this year. I do n't wa nt to push it over my head . The plan is to crawl before I can wa lk. We'll be go ing to Da lla s next wee k, a nd I'm just go ing to tak e it one step at a time there." Come m a in ev ent tim e , Murp hree had it all together, pull ing away as the two Bro wns battl ed fur iou sl y fo r the second spot wh ile the la ps wore away. Ro n ni e Bro wn remai ned in seco nd , a p pe a rin g t o h a ve e no ug h dri ve o ff o f tu rn fou r to e sca p e t he a d v a n c e s of Be au Br o wn , t he 19yea r-o ld from O re g on. The se ries c ha m p he ld o n for seco nd, beggi ng the q ue stio n as to wheth er o r not he may ha ve given Murp hree the wron g moto rc ycle to ride . nevus "I think tha t I just go t outr o d e ton igh t, truthfully ," Ronnie Brown sa id . "But some of these guys will be heading off to the big rac es bac k east, and I'll be he re at Gene's ra ces, try ing to win this champions hip . The races were exce lle nt a n d th e tra ck was good. Gen e Romero a nd the e-moola.com staff really d id their job. It was a great show for the fans. I hop e. I co uld hear Bea u ba c k the re - no doubt about that. I was s haking off seven mon ths of rust here ton ight. Bu t yo u neve r k n o w when young guys like Jo hnn y are going to s tep up a nd wa n t some . That' s the th ing a bout bei ng number one, it makes yo u a ta rge t. It' s a long way down from the to p." Fo r third -pla ced Be a u Brown , who hails from Newburg, Oregon, th e ra ce proved to be a good place to sha ke down a new motorcycle before he packed up and headed to Fort Worth, Texas, for the opening round of th e Wren ch ea d .com National Dirt Track Series. "Ronnie defin itely ha d a better drive tha n me off the corne r, but I was run n ing it in a litt le deeper, and I wa s catching him goi ng in," Be a u Brown said . "I ju st didn 't ha ve a nythin g for him off the corner, but this is the bes t race I've had . We just p ut t his b ike together a week ago. It's new Circle F s ing le-shock. I love way that th ey put this ra ce on , a nd I love how we qualified singula rly [time tria ls]. I'm going to try a nd run all th e PACE races, but whe n we 're not running those we' ll be at the West Coa st Flat Tra ck ra ces ." Fo r the rest of the fie ld, the Open m a in eve nt was large ly a follow-t heleader a ffair , pe rha ps ow ing mor e to the fact t ha t th e tr a c k was allowing eve ryone to ride nea rtheir potential on th e wide , bla ck g roo ve m or e t ha n if be c a us e of a la ck o f p as s ing roo m. Fast quali fier Don Hart mustered up a fo urth -pl ac e finis h, ou t run ning AMA Dist rict 36 Cha m pion Rob Da mron and AM A Grand National campaigner Johnny Murphree used th e op en ing round of the West Co as t Flat Track Se ries to tune up for the season , and he clea ne d house. Murphree won his heat, t he Trophy Dash and th e Op e n A main event, pic king up spe e d all ni ght. Billy Martin , who won the 1999 Wes t Coast Flat Tr a c k Se ries o pe ne r, and will be remaining in Californ ia to co ntest the re s t of the series for 20 0 0 . Micke y Lane , J eff Goshart , Kurt Hawk and Billy Luker rounded out the top 10 . The O pen Vinta ge final was tinge d by a bit of c ont roversy that might not ev en ha ve c rop pe d up if AHRMA reg u lar T om Hor t on had staye d on course . After ha ving problems with his Ya m a h a e a rlie r, Horton e lect ed to ride his backup Triumph , a nd he us ed it to smoke off the line in t he Open Vintage m ain e ve nt, with A.J . Her rera and Robert Cunnington in second and third place. Open Vinta ge Champion Jeff Johnson. me anwhile , was forced to start o n h is back up Ha ro ld Ha n ve y -tu ned Triumph 650 after c ra s h ing his pr im a ry m a chine in an Open heat ra c e . J oh nso n wa s mi re d far back in the pack , thou gh he eventu ally began p icki ng his way through the field to ru n fourth, a hea d of Bob Cobb , who la t e r dropped out. T h a t left Ya m a ha -mounte d Mark Gibson to run fifth. Ho rto n, h owe ver ; a p pe a re d to be unre a c h a b le , a lt houg h He rrera a nd Cu n ningto n a p peared to be m ak ing up gro u nd. T h e n Hor ton suffe red a heartbreaker, as his T riump h pu lle d up lame going into turn o ne o n the whi te flag lap , a llowing Herre ra and Cu nningto n to bla st by dow n the back strai g ht. Cun n ing to n the n to ok o ne last shot at Herre ra , bu t Her r er a c ro ssed th e fin is h line firs t. Hor t on . held on for th ird, a hea d of J ohnson, Gib s on , Cl y d e Dennen an d Jeff S . J ohnson.

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