Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AMAIProgre s s iv e Insurance Flack T r a c k C h a mpion s h ips R o u n d 3 : Illinois S t a t e Fairgrou n ds (Leftl Springsteen (g l rails the o utsi d e , while Rich K ing (801 and Will Davis (211 take the low road. King used up his tire en route to a third-place finish. Davis did the same and finished sixth. (Below) The factory generation: Winner Springsteen (center) rode for Team HarleyDav i d son in the '70s and '80s. Ca rr's (Ieftl stint came in the '8 0 s and ' 9 0 s . The job n ow belongs t o King (rightl. (Ri ghtl K evin Atherto n m a de an appe a ra nce at Sp ri n gfiel d. St ill o n t he m e nd, Atherton n o nethele ss t o o k a " victo ry lap" of h is q.. ;::- own, much to the delight of the crowd. A so lid restart ke pt him in th e lead pack , and ev en though he never offi cia lly led a lap, he d id have the lead o n different parts of the track . " W e go t a good restart , and i t seemed like I could go where I wanted , when I wanted t o ," Hacker said. "You 've got t o p la y t hose last l ap s just right. I d idn 't play th em too good. "T hose last five laps though, everybody is really going for it. It' s rea lly a learning curve, though . It seems like they' re just out there having fun , then the last fi ve laps they race." Making his 2000 dirt tra ck debut a good one was BF/LFA/Michigan H-D D eal ers -b ack ed N ick y Ha yden . T he part-time dirt tracker was in the hunt a ll day, but like most of the yo unq sters , the la st five laps did him in . " I had a lot of fun runn ing up there, but yo u don 't get a chance to w in th e Sp ringfi eld M il e too often ," Hayd en said . "To sta y right there the whole time and not pu ll it off was a littl e dis appointing . It's all m y fault . M y bike was awe some. I thi nk I had th e best work ing bike ou t th ere." Hayden also held th e lead at vari ous po ints on th e track , bu t only at the line on th e 16th lap and fi ni shed in th e fifth position . It wa s ob viously a sc hool for many of the yo ung er rid ers, and Ha yden has proved to be a qu ick learner. "W ith thr ee la ps to go , everybody stepped it up, and I didn't put m yself in th e rig ht pos ition t o make it hap pen ," H ay d en sa i d . " I wasn 't quite ready , Some gu ys di d som e thing s - BRIEFL y•••• Because of Harringto n's rain out. this was only the second race of the 2000 season, but Jay Springsteen has now taken over the points lead. Dayt ona winner Terry Poovey is a close second , just three points back . • I've got a good chance of being back in the lead after the next race ITopeka. Kansasl ." Poovey said. " It' s a short track.' Several fulltime road racers /part-time dirt track ers made it to Springfield for a little bit of fun, With Roger Lee Hayden perhaps gett ing the most out of it. The youngest Hayden pulled off a podium finish in the Harley-Davidson Sportster Performance Nati onal. Nicky Hayden was fourth in the Grand National. "All things considered I'm pretty happy, I had fun and that' s what we came to do.' said Nicky Hayden. Ditt o for Larry Pegram. " ' enjoyed running up there wit h everybody. " Pegram said . "We were runn ing safe. giving eac h o ther room . I went out the first practice . w e were a little slow . but the next time o ut we were a litt le be tter. By the thi rd time out we were two tenths off . The last practice we were one of the fastest guys. In the heat we got a bad start , but was able to run Chris [Carr] and Kenny [Coo/bethl down , I was just having a ball all day." A five-lap Roger Reiman M emoria l D a sh f o r Cash was held right before the National. Coziahr H-D/Memphis Shades teammates Kevin Varne s and Johnny Murphree finished one-two over Dale Jenneman, M ike Varnes. John Nickens III and Brian Shirley. J .R. Schna bel had a good ride going for a while in the Grand National main event. "We were able to work our way up to eighth or ninth. but there at the end we slipped off and got 11 tho" Schnabel said. " I was hoping to get behind the right person, but I got behind the wrong person and it took me backwards instead of forwards, I just had a hard time pulling out and getting by going into the comers, W ith everybody in a big hne. everybody was getti ng the same draft. It didn't give anybody the opportun ity to pull out and get a real draft pass, because the guy in front of you was getting a draft off the other guy. Instead of following guys around I got inside and moved up some, just when I got up there and started thinking how good we were going to do , boom I started going backwards. It was nice to look up and see the leaders, about fihy yards in front of you, but that fifty yards means a lot." While Nicky Hayden was in atte ndance with his BF/ LFA/Michigan Harley-Davidson Dealers team, the trip was made without team owner Tom Cummings, "TC couldn't be here, " Hayden explained, " His brot her is in the hospital. Our prayers are with them." 20 JUNE 7 . 2000' c u e • e n e vw s used different lin es, stuff I hadn't seen • that they hadn 't do ne the who le race. I learn ed a lot. Nex t tim e, I'll be a little more ready to go there at the end ," Vetera n Will D a v i s b r ou g ht hi s Moroney's H·D/Fast ho g. c o m / Go uld Er ectors Harley home six th . It was a d isappointing finish for Davis, as he Had led more lap s than anyone else . " I was up front a b u nc h , " D av i s said. - I led a lot of laps j ust not the right one. It's no body's fault but mine. I had th e strongest horse out there no doubt abo ut it. I alwa ys thought that when I was killing them in the corners , that if I j ust had more horsepower I c ould run up front. I learned today tha t with m ore horsepower, you don't kill them th r ou gh the corne r s anymore. You get into the corners a lot hotter than you used to, and when you to uch tha t th rottle, th at sucker is ready to go. I guess I sta rte d to lose the tire at the end. It started to be a rea l handful to get back o n th e gas ." D a yt on a w inn er T e r r y Poo vey br o ught h is USC Racing/Fir st Leg al. backed Honda across th e line in seventh p lac e. "T hings were j ust a little too co mpact for m e ," Poo vey said . " I don 't m ind rac ing with any body in o ne o r tw o , but I don 't like it w hen there's six g uys goi ng for it . If somebody m esses up , it's bad for everybo dy. It wa sn 't a Hond a ra ce t rac k at th e en d th ere a nyway. It got too d ry . Those old twingels, they were just getting a hold of the g roun d and going forw ard." USC Racing /L ancas ter H· D's B r y a n B i g e l o w was another of the youngsters who felt he had learned a lot, but wa s still so mewhat disappointed with his eighth·p lace fin ish . "I got a bad start, but worked my way back up ," Bigelow said. "Then on the restart , Gary (Rogers ) sp u n a wheel off the li ne , and I kind of ran into the back of him. That pretty much put m e way in th e back . My dad to ld me to j ust ro ll to the outside, don't go to the ins ide at all. I listened to him and ro de th e outside all d ay lon g . It wo rke d out p retty good for us. It was j ust ki nd of disap po intin g to run in the lead draft and th en fini sh eig hth." C o rb in Ra cin g /Bur k s M ot or · spo rts / Ha rley -Davidson o f M issouri' s Kenny Coo lb eth ended up ninth . "I was ab le to run in. th e lead pa ck un til it counted," Co ol beth said. " I lost the draft with abo ut five or six la ps to

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