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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128629
st aged its ina ugura l ro u nd at Tex as
Mo tor Speedway in Ma y with all the
big nam es present. This time aro und
marked Schnabel's first N atio na l
podium f inish , som ething th at h as
bee n mu c h -n ee d ed to jumpstart a
career which had stagna ted after a
bril li an t rookie season in ] 9 9 6, b ut
now appea rs to be o n the up sw ing.
"I still got a horrible st art: Schnabel sa id . "There were six guy s on the
fron t row , and I think I hit the fi rst turn
abo ut seventh . Th at was n' t good, but I
was patient , and I just tried to rid e it
real sm ooth. Th ose front three started
to get awa y from m e, and I was just
k ind of running b y myself for th e
wh o le race . I had a go od lead on the
othe r guys, and t hen whe n I saw th at
Sp rin ger wen t dow n, I rea lly co ncentra ted on keeping it out of the m arbles.
And we end ed up third, which is a
good finish fo r us . We were the first
750 to nig ht , so who knows if we had a
handicap t here. Bill Powell put together a good b ike, and with We st Bend
H a r l e y h e l p i n g us o u t , you know,
every week we 're getting better. Hopefull y , we ca n go to S p ringfiel d and
improve on th is , but I'm happy w ith
the Wrenchead.com series. They 're
trying hard, and we have to give them
a chance. That's why we came here,
and it helped us out. We got on the
podium ."
Poovey sat on the pole for the 25lap f eat u re , and he w as as good a s
gon e when th e g re en ligh t flashed ,
leading the Bartels' H -D /Corbin/YHTsupported Sp rin gsteen, who was fol lo w ed b y Ada ms Rac ing/CCM ride r
Char lie O rr , Ca rr a nd C onti n en t al
T ires / M ik u ni/ Motion Pro's Greg T y so r.
"I j ust got t he holesho t and t rie d to
ri de m y own race, not spi n it up off
th e co rn ers, " Poovey said . "I had to be
ca reful. Coming off of tw o , I ha d to be
c are fu l t o get stra ig ht up an d down
befor e I nail ed it all t he way . I'd get in
th ere and start feedin ' it , but I had to
pu t my foot on the brake to kee p it
from spinning . T hat seemed to work
good."
Carr made the first of only a few
passes b y anyone in the fie ld during
t he final b y slidi ng underneath Orr
and moving to third place as t hey
p ou r ed off turn two . Sc hn ab e l ran
sixth down the back stra ight as the
field began to settle in , and he q ui ckly
pic ked off Tysor fo r t he fift h spot.
Texas-based ro o k ie Jason Tye r had
his A ll en Racing/KK Raci ng/R oy Plat tel-bac k ed XR7 50 in th e sixth sp ot,
with Bry an Smith shooing his famil y s up po r t ed A TK a l ong i n seve nth ,
ahead of Pow er sp o rt s/Mo ron ey 's H D / A r a i ' s Tim Ea d es , Ron ' s Cyc le la n d /C a rtwrigh t H e at ing and Ai r 's
Brando n C ar t w r i g h t and Br own ' s
Auto /BBRP /Al e x an d er O il ' s Bea u
Brown.
C a rr sh ot und ern e at h Sp ri ng e r
down in t urn s thr ee and fo ur o n abo ut
the seventh lap . By then , Poov ey had
p ul l ed o u t s ev e n l engths o n th e
Ter ry and Chris . Scott and O rbin
Ada ms always have my motorcycles
flying. All I have to do is show up and
ride . J knew that s omebody was
be hind me out there . I didn't realize it
was G reg . I t hought it was a Harley
because it sou nded like he kept trying
to co me around the ou tside. I fi gure d
t hat I w as g oing goo d dow n th e
stra ighta wa y s, so I decided to m ak e
him go around m e, and I gu ess he just
k ind of w ore himself out and let me
go. It was an exc ell ent night fo r m e."
Ditto for fifth-pla c e fin ish er Tysor.
The full-time Continenta l Tires rep resentative from Geo rgi a has been living
his dream eve r since qualifying for t he
AMA D aytona Sho rt Track two years
ago. Steady rid ing has p rodu c ed bette r -t ha n -expected resu lt s fo r t he 4 2yea r -o ld , who has yet to get over the
fact that he is racing with ri ders wh o
ra nk as some of his hero es.
" I' m tickled pink, co nsi dering that I
ought to be asking most of these guys
for th ei r autographs . Charlie is j ust
about as old and tired as me, so we
were just wheezing around out t he re
(Above) Poovey takes a victory lap before t he cheers of a partisan T e xa s crowd.
(Below l This is about as c lose as ru nner-up Chris Carr (1 ) got t o Po ovey (18) as the
two wort