Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

lead down the ba ck stra ight to try and draft him and get the lead. If Will was in the lead I wanted to be in s e co nd , s o that la s t la p I was pretty h ap p y going into tu rn three behin d Will. We ca me out of turn fo ur a nd he did the old hig h-low and dr ifted dow n to th e bo ttom . That broke t h e d raft, m y mo mentum wa s pulling me out, as he went down . I did n 't get to draft him un til about halfway to the finis h line . It was a s mart mo ve o n his p a rt , that's fo r su re . I thou ght I knew where I wanted to be on that la st lap , but it was rea lly ju st a go -for -it dea l fo r me ." "T hat' s the th ing with S pring fie ld, yo u come her e with a plan , th en it 's never the sa me," Poov ey said. "The motor c ycl e ran gr eat. I knew th at last lap I had a little bit left," said Da vis . "T e rry' s Ho nda is so fast , it did n ' t m att e r wha t I pu t o n h im through the corner, he was going to catch m y draft. Tha t la st la p I ran it int o turn o ne wide open, but what rea lly save d me was Joe pa ss ing him , that kind of s lowed him up. Then they c ou ldn't ca t c h my d raft down th e ba ck stra ight and I had a free run into thre e and four , s o I ra n it t h ro u gh there wide open. I got away e no ugh th e re to no t let th e m g et a run at m e to the line. " "Th at happen ed to m e, her e at a reg ion a l, prob abl y 10 yea rs ag o , " Poov e y sa id. "Ric ky Grah am was th e first one I sa w do tha t a nd I th ought 'Whoa .' I had a c ha nce to bea t h im [Grah am] . It was me , him a nd Timmy Mertens . I had a fa st m ot orcycle a nd had dra fted Ric ky every la p. The la s t lap , h e d ov e t o th e b ott om a n d I chased him down there , but I couldn 't get b y Da vis . You can go fro m th e ins ide t o th e o uts ide t o o , if you wa tc h , eve ry year you'll see it. We d on ' t wa n t any drastic m o v e s or weaving goi ng o n, but yo u ca n m a ke one move . I d idn 't re all y m a k e a move , j u st t o o k a lin e h e d id n 't ex pect. You ha ve to m ake tha t move to where he is n't. They lo se that spli t seco nd that they could d raft be for e the line . That' s wha t yea rs a nd years at t h is pl a c e ca n t e a ch you, h e 'll k now t hat no w. It t a ke s a while to lea rn it , t he p ro ble m is e ven tho ug h yo u know it, it' s hard to ever use it. Th e last fe w laps , you 're tired a nd still run n ing hundre d -mil e -an -h ou r la p s trying to win. You 've got to remember till the wh ite fla g is out, what am I goi ng to do wh en yo u've two on each s ide . It' s like what kin d of st ra tegy do I hav e . You re ally do n't , yo u just let it h a pp en , it ' s a spli t -second deal. Luckily it wor ked ou t in our favor. " Kopp registered a well-ea med second. "I've ridden q uite a few m ile s th e la s t five yea rs, bu t t hat 's th e most I've had to thi nk on o ne ," Kopp said . "T ha t la st couple of la p s , wa s m or e th a n I've th ou gh t in th e thre e hundred I've don e over the yea rs . It wa s like now that I had a s hot , I had to thin k (Above) Woulda, shoulda, coulda: Mike Hacker (67) was in contention for the win until his motorcycle lost its primary cover, spilling oil and causing Kevin Atherton (23) to crash. (Right) Atherton (23) was making his return to racing for the first time since nearty losing his leg in a crash at the Du Quoin Mile. about what I was doing . , s ho uld have had h im c o mi n g o ut o f tu rn fo u r. I cou ld beat him to th e line pretty easy, I felt I had a little bit fa ster bik e th an Will, but not mu ch." Ha rle y -Davidson Motor Co m pa ny 's Rich King once aga in worked his way to a to p five finish . "It seems like we 'r e cons is te ntly in fou rth , no w we ' re even fourth in th e points . We just h ad a litt le b it of a traction probl em , couldn' t get off th e corne rs very good ," King sa id. "We turned the tire around a nd actua lly it hurt th e m otorc ycl e for four or five laps . I proba b ly wou ld ha ve be e n better o ff to stay with wh a t I ha d a nd tried to m ix it up . It starte d to come o n at the end, but it was just too late . I wa s getti ng into the corner ha rd e r th a n the le a d er s , bu t I just couldn 't get o ut o f the co rner. , let Chris by one tim e . I thoug ht maybe he co uld pull me up ther e , but he was ha ving tro uble getti ng off the corners too. I thought ' mi ght a s we ll try to do it on m y ow n. I wen t ba c k by h im , bu t it seemed lik e no m a tt e r what' d id' couldn't make up the gro und . It was o n ly a bo ut 10 bike le n gt h s , bu t it s eemed like a m ile. " Be fore the re d flag . d e fe n d in g Grand Nationa l Cha mp ion Chris Carr wa s st rugg ling on his H-D of Sacram en to/ Wren c he ad. c om/Phoen ix Racing -b a c ked Har ley . '" was ab le to m a k e a litt le p rogress fo rward," Carr sa id. "It was so hard t o g et by someone , the n s hake the m off a nd run down the lead group . I got up to King with about 10 la p s t o g o . I was a lot st ronger through the tu rns , but he was faster do wn th e stra ights . He had a little bit b ett er h or s e t ha n we d id . , j ust co uld n' t get b y in th e c orn e r and catch t he d raft o ff th e three guys in fro nt , a nd it see med like we s tayed five - o r six- bike-Ie ngths b eh in d t he whole tim e . Th e trac k narrowed up in thr e e a nd fo ur because it came a pa rt. The track was so hot th at it was rea lly a one -line gr oove. " Carr fin ished fifth, w it h Kopp' s Corbi n teamma te Ken n y Cool bet h traili ng him a t the finish. "It seemed like I c o u ld ru n w ith the m , but I couldn' t draft by ," Co ol beth said. "Whe n I'd pull out, I'd just stop . Th e tra c k kind of broke u p a t the end. It' s all head ga mes p re tty much. " T wo rid e rs invo lved in a vio len t c ra s h in the spring ra c e came hom e seve nth and e ig h t h . Larry Pegram h ad a m echa nica l fa ilure t rig g e r a mu lti-bike p ile up tha t incl uded Steve Beattie . T h is weeke nd also m a rk e d the return of Bea tt ie , a nd he was ab le to get by Jay Springsteen a nd Brya n Bigelow to ta ke eighth . "At le a s t th is time we d idn't ta ke e ve ry b o d y o u t , so it was b ett e r , " Peg ram sa id . "Pa rke r got in fro nt of me, a nd he was having s ome tra ction problems. He e n d - Sp ri ngs teen hooked up a nd the y he ld me up for a little while . I got around th em a nd ra n c ue I e n d own th e le ad group , but once I g ot to th em th er e was noth ing I could do . Every body was j ust in lin e , a n d ' ended up sevent h , but I had a good t im e . Ther e was just nowh ere to go . The tra c k ca me apart so mu ch th at we ha d to run righ t o n th e ra il. You co uldn't ride two a nd three like nor ma l. Yo u h a d t o get bac k in li ne before yo u got to the c o rn e r, ki nda like Sy ra c use us ed to be ." Beattie was just happy to be ba c k on a m ile . "It felt pretty good ," th e Ga rd ne r Raci ng /Wa lters Bro the rs H-D sa id. "I finis hed eig hth, an d I t hink th at' s a ca reer be st for me he re. I c a me o ut h e re not expecti ng a ny thi ng. I ro de safe , d id n ' t try a ny ris ky m ov es . Someti mes I fe lt' co uld ha ve dr a fted by more peop le. It just wasn' t wort h it to me . O n th e re sta rt, I had a c ha nce t o go wit h Pe g ram , bu t I co u ld n ' t clear th e g uys q uick eno ugh to get on h is re a r wheel. I fig u red I h ad t he s peed to run up there if I ha d someo ne to he lp me get there. I th ink the t ra ck b re a k in g up m a d e it a littl e more tec hnical and that helped me. I was ra cin g with Ha yden the re at th e e nd , a nd ' got eig ht h a nd h e got 13 th ." e _ s • S EPTEM BER 13. 2000 33

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