Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128627
w er e as g o od as th e le aders, but it j u st t ook m e 2 0 laps t o ge t there, I figure tha t we m ad e a sig ni fic ant ga in on th e guys , but it ju s t was n't eno ug h. We just have to go back to w ork a nd see w ha t we can do wi th 'e m at th e next one. " Roeder was ha ppy to run fifth , bu t m ad at himsel f for carving on his rear ti re j ust a little too much befo re the main ev en t. He ran sec ond for several laps, even posing a th reat to K ing for a time, but th e g amble on th e prepa ra tion of th e t ire tu rned o ut t o be a bust , as he lo st th e secon d sp ot to Hac k er in tu rns three a nd four well befor e the halfway po in t. Carr's lat er a c e c harge a lso c o st Ro ed e r t he fourth spot. "It was working reall y good until I c h u n ke d t he t ire, " Ro ede r sa id . " It sta rte d t o ch un k , and the n it st arted wear ing back in and I started hooking b ack up, but by th en it was too late. I was ri ght o n Ric h th ere for a while un til I st arted sl ipp in g an d sliding . I tho ught that it w as working good , bu t I g uess it was work ing t o o good. A t leas t we were here, and they k new we were here. Hopefull y th is is a st ep in th e right direction for us . We 're m o ving fo rw ard." C oo l b eth 's ru n co ul d bes t b e described as consist ent, if a bit lacklu st er. Th e 2 4 -y e a r -ol d w ho ha ils fr om Warren , Connec ticut - not Col ora do - got a decent st art , ne ver rea l ly strug gled and never reall y sh in ed . A fter run ni ng as hi g h as fo urt h place a round la p 12 , Cool beth wound up r unnin g six t h o n t h e g roove a n d m aintain ing th e position as rid er s in front of him fell ba ck while o t he r s st epped up and pas sed him. It wasn' t on e of h is m or e exuberant rides , and afte rwa rd he seemed to ju st be g lad it (Top) King led all but one lap en route t o his third straight Fonnula U5A1Wrenchead.com National Dirt Track Series v ictory. At 10 grand per win, the PACE-promoted series Is affording the Iowan a little extra ga s money_ (Right) Geo Roeder II (66) and Mike Hacker (67) each got close to King during the main event. Hacker actually passed the le a d er before nearly crashing, then rebounded to finish second. Roeder had a tire go bad on him. He was fifth at the finish. (Below) Terry Poovey rolled h is Rota>< to a fine third-place finish. The Texan earned this one, coming from seventh place at the start. the tu rns. In th e heat, J oe [Ko pp] was pulling m e do wn the straightaway, but I was getti ng him in th e co rne rs. I k new I wo uld ha ve to get the ho leshot in th e main event, but we pre tty mu ch kn ew whe re we we re . Thi s is our B eq ui p m ent [XR ], an d we hon estly thought th at we'd be able to run our 660 when we got here, bu t it didn 't seem to be j ett ed right. I kn ew it wa s go ing to be a lon g rac e." B ig e l o w ' s d eb ut in the F ormu la USAfWren ch ead .com ser ie s c ame at Rapid Cit y , but his l Oth -pla ce finish was not up to par with th e consistent to p -fi ves that he has been landing in A M A c omp et it ion . Ins te ad, B ig elow spent m ost of th e night running around 10th place, battling with ultimate l lth p lace fin isher J . R. S chnabe l , who dogged his fo rmer am ateur d irt-track rival to the finish but could not co m pl ete a pass . Desp ite not having righthand man Randy Brady at the track (th e tuner was back in Michigan, building eng ines ) , Bigel ow blamed himself fo r th e poor fin ish. "I went to th e top and th ey passed m e around the bo ttom , th en I went to the bottom and they pas sed m e around th e top ," Big el ow sa id . " Ever y t h ing was good all night. This is the first ti me in three y ea rs that me and my dad cam e to th e races by ourselves. We d id pretty good. It w as j ust my fault for picking some bad lin es, but I was having a b l ast out th ere. It was one of those nights wh ere gu ys j ust seem to was over. " W i t h five l a p s t o go , I l o st m y br ak es: Cool beth sai d. " It's kind of a bum deal , but I'm g lad tha t I was far eno ug h ahea d of anyone el se that it d id n't matter mu ch. We ' re sta y ing pretty consistent out th ere , and that's what it takes. I got a poor start and j ust worked m y way up. It was one of them deals , I gu ess." In d ir e ct co n t r a s t , Memphis Shades/ Coziah r Ha rl ey-Dav idson 's Johnny Murphree seemed to get bet te r w ith ea ch l ap . M u rphree c a me from deep in the pa ck , runn ing fast on a h igh line in turns one and tw o to p i ck off one r id e r a fte r an o th e r , in cluding F&S Harl e y -Dav ids o n ' s W ill ie M cC o y , L an caste r H a rl e yDa v id son 's Br yan B ig el ow and T eam Powe ll / W est Bend H -D 's J .R. Sch n a bel wi t h in t h e seco nd h alf of t h e ra c e. Murphree th en ca ug ht his o ld p al D an Stanl ey on th e la st la p and dro ve deep into turn o ne , sli p pi n g, sliding and wobbl ing around th e outsi de of Stanl ey an d getting a grea t drive off of turn two t o complete a pa ss for the seventh spot j ust before th e checkered flag fell . "It just took me a litt le while to get rolli n g ," Murphree sa id. " I just go t ca ug ht off gua rd at the li g ht, and it took m e a co u ple lap s to g et into a rhythm and start picking off guys. Just before halfway , I found th at good line in turns o ne and t wo . Stan ley and I al ways seem to have a good last-l ap battl e, so I had to get past him , and it was clo se. We had a second- or th ird pl ace motorc ycl e tonight. We have our stuff together a lot right now . Hopefull y we ca n get up there and start running where we belong." St anl ey h ad a smile on h i s face when he recounted the m ove. "Man did that piss me off wh en he did that," Stanley said. "He was w ig gling all ov er alongside me. We hav e suc h a r ivalry out there. But the Harl eys were just hooking up a littl e better out there. A sing le was all we had , but we made it work. Hey , I ran fo urth for over half the race. " Davis was less than satisfied with his ni nth - p lac e fi n ish, although he kn ew going in that his Fasthog .comjRacing for Kid s entry was not up to the cali ber of som e of the other machin es in th e field d esp it e his having won his heat ra ce ear lier in the night and posting a time th at was fast enough to earn him the pole fo r th e fe ature . D av is' holeshot gave him the lead fo r exac tly one tum - t h e f irst o n e - and th en it w as all do wnhill from there, as a lack of horsep ow e r o vercam e a n a b u n d a nce of willpow er in his co meba ck fro m th at nutty softball -game mishap . Dav is was clear - hea de d and c l earl y bummed aft er slipping all th e way to ninth place . "I wi sh they'd have put some water down : Davis said. "We were down on horsepower and we k new that when we got here, but whe n there was moisture in the track, I could make up for it in c ue I e n e _ so 'AUGUST 23,2000 19