Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

keeps me goi ng. I was ner vous before that restart, but he kept me ca lm , I'd say th at th e track was fine . We've rid den worse , I'm e xci ted about PACE be ing invo lve d in o ur sport. I want to see th ings get ba c k to be ing as big as they were in th e '80s. I want people to kno w what dirt tra ck is, and I don 't want us to keep runni ng a ro un d the country, running for th e sa me purses t h a t we were runnin g for 10 ye ars ago ." Wren ch ead .com /H -D o f Sac ramento/Phoen ix Ra c ing 's Chris Carr seemed to pla y catch -up all n ight , but by the time th e checkered flag fe ll in th e main e ve nt , he had pu t it all tog ether to ru n fourth , p ull ing it off with late -rac e passes on Steve Be at tie and J a y Spri ngsteen , a mong oth e rs . Lik e Dav is , Carr c a me away impres s e d - for th e most part - with the PACE exper ien c e . "I th ink that we racers need to get used to runn ing th e different form at, b ut I th in k it wa s a d e c ent d ebu t," Carr s a id . "It d idn 't go a s s moothly a s they'd ha ve like d it to, I'm s ure , But 1 t hi n k that it ca n on ly g e t b etter. I think th ere is a ton of po te nt ial here , We ha d a dece nt crowd here tod a y for t his bein g a ne w venu e , and I think th at when we come ba c k here in Aug ust it will be even better." Ca n ad ian c h a m p io n Beattie ro de to a n impre s s ive fift h- p lac e Finis h, ru n ni n g n e ar t he front a ll eveni n g a bo a rd h is Gardn e r Ra cing /Walters Brot he rs Ha rle y-Da vids on XR750 . "We h a d a good night ," Beattie sa id . "We s t arted o ff g ood , but we we re just fight ing a litt le more t ire s pin than we wanted." Coo lbet h got the hole s hot when the 25 -lap , 18 -r ider ma in event got underway . Ha cker , Davis , Bea ttie , Bartels ' H-D/ Co rbin Rac ing -backed S pringste e n a nd Powell Racing/Sunoco ' s J . R. Schnabel foll owed . Las Vegas Ha rley -Davids on/KK Motorcy cle Suppl y' s Ge o Roeder II ran eighth. Mitch ell's Mod es to/R og ers -La ke Rac ing's Ga ry Rog ers ran n inth , whil e curre nt AMA Gran d Na tiona l Ch a m pio n Car r was l Oth , after hav in g t o st a rt from the third ro w. The action was fast and furio us in the o pening laps, as a frantic Davis attem pted to set Hacker up in turn s one and two to take over second place. "O n the s econd la p , I got a go od run on Ha ck er going into one a n d two , and then down the back stra ight, I kn e w it wa s go ing to be a shutoff co n t e s t aga in in turn one , " Da v is said . "I came under him and thought , 'Lord, 1hope he knows I'm her e.?' Hac ker d id roll out of the gas just e nough fo r Davis to squeez e into second pla ce. Davis th en went a fte r Cool b eth , and with the North Carolinan having th e first turn wired , a repea t of th e move that was made o n Ha c ker netted him the lead. Davi s qui ckl y bega n to pull away from the pack . Beattie remained on the le a d pace for th e e ntire ra c e and cont in ued to run fou rth with Sp ringsteen hound ing him , the pa ir evi dently restagi ng their e a rlie r heat -race battle . S c h n a b e l rem ain ed in th e hunt , whi le Roede r ran alone in seventh by the tim e the hal fway flags were thrown . Then all th e rid ers ' effo rt s we re wipe d out by a red flag for Fr ontie r HD's Dale Jenneman, who cra s he d h is Rota x 600 c om ing off of turn t wo while runni n g n e ar the b a c k of the p a c k on la p 19. J enn e m an was u nh urt, bu t h is motorcycle was too close to th e racing line , a nd officials were forc ed to ha lt the race . [}(]@(JfJfS7]@!JDD ~@ [}(]&Jf!l@ CfJ ffJ[it§)[E)D@[fiJiJ While PACE Motor Sports and Formula USA offi cials ultimately called the series' debut event, the group's mettle was immediately put to the test as several glitches ham pered the debut event at Texas Motor Speedway. For starters. the event was delayed while the Texas M otor Speedway scrambled to improve the racing surface , which had been terribly pounded by rain for several days leading up to the event. The work ultimately yielded a racy track , but the down time caused the practice/ qualifying sessions to be delayed by over an hour. Then. after the sessions were com pleted, the'Formula USA transpo nder system malfunctioned. erasing the entire batch of qualifying times. "The system was picking up all the numbers just fine during the sessions, but when he {the computer operato r] put them all togethe r in order to print them. everything was lost," (Above) Davis and team owne r Pat Moroney head off on the vi ct ory la p. Davis survived a restart late in th e race to take home th e big bucks aboard hi s Fasthog.com Harle yDavidson . (Left) Steve Be attie (26) and Jay Springsteen (g) battled furiously during their heat ra ce and he re In the main event. Be attie finished fi fth, w hile Springer slipped to ei ght h. The d ownt im e was c lea rly t ens e for Dav is , wh o h ad c hec ked ou t o n th e fie ld. His on ly conso la tio n , pe rhaps . came in knowing th at Formu la USA ru les call fo r "c los e d re ds " , allowi ng only th ose riders involved in th e acc ident to repa ir their motor c ycl e s . Any team making re p airs for a ny other rea s on must start at the tail of the pa c k o n a re sta rt. Furthe rm o re , Form u la USA resta rt ru le s allow the leade r five se conds to re s tart the PACE Motor Sports Director of Dirt Track Operations Bob Moran said. "Now, every time he goes to try and print. it says that the computer is out of memory. We upgraded to a Windows version of the [transp onder] program from the DOS version. We tested it all day yesterday and it seemed to work just fine." The malfunction forced officials to hastily organi ze a series of scratch heats in order to get both classes qualified into the regular elimination heats . With the exception of a few minor on-track incidents. the scratch heats were completed quickly. although the show started one hour late. The program see med to move at a fairly consistent pace from that point forward, with the main eve nts being co mpleted by 10:45 p.m.. 45 minutes iater than anticipated. "I still thought it was a great success," said Chris Agajan· ian (right), President of Dirt Track for PACE Motor Sports. "Being able to pull this thing together within the time frame that we had and running it with a new format, formula. new people and all that other stuff was a huge chore. There is a lot of stuff we have to work on. and a lot of stuff that we have to improve, but we will do that. race after race. I'm happy. c We had to get this one under our belt in order to know what could go wrong so that we could know what to fix." ue I e n e _ S • MAY 17, 2000 13

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