Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

F ormula USAl\Nrenchead . c om N ationa l D irt Track S erie s Round 7 : Emerald Down s ne r Racing /BBRP/ Circle F 's Dan Stan le y was also in the m ix before lo s ing a stator on h is 670cc Rotax a nd d ro pping to th e rear of th e field ' by th e e nd of the first leg. But the pit sto p provided plenty of op p o rt un ity for Carr t o rest h is leg wh ile his c rew of Kenny Tolbert and Tr a v is Sm ith practica ll y tor e his m oto rc y c le apart in the process of d ia l ing it in . Ditto for S tanley 's m e ch anic , Br ian B ill in g s , wh o replaced Stanley 's stator assem bly in th e allotted downtime. Roeder m ad e m inim a l c ha nges , his biggest benefit com ing in th e fac t th a t th e stoppage allo wed him to resta rt right on Ko pp 's tail. Ko p p a nd Ro e de r q ui ck ly s hot aw ay fro m th e rest of th e fie ld whe n th e pa c k , which line d up s ing le file , wa s given th e green lig ht to start leg two . Th e two the n thrill ed the c rowd as th ey s las hed into the cushion mere inc he s from one anoth er in the corners , Kopp was clearly faster on th e stra ights , bu t Roeder could mak e it up by stuffing his XR into the corners. A pa ttern qu ic kly emerged , howe ve r, as Kopp always drafted by Roede r on th e fro nt stra ight, while Roed e r d id most o f hi s lea di n g d o wn the b a c k straightaway and into turns thr ee an d four. T h e n , on the sixth lap , Kop p roared into turn o ne all alone. Roede r s uffe red mechan ica l trouble , thought to b e c a ms ha ft - re la te d , and was forced to p ull off the tra c k. For a ll of his ball - bustin g e ffo rt , he wou ld be c redited with 12t h place. "It' s something in the ca m cover," Ro e d e r said . "S he j us t qu it a nd clan ked all at the s ame time. Man , it is so frustrating , because we 've be en doing it like th is for the last five or s ix ra c e s . We 'v e b e en fast , and then something jumps up and bites me . I didn't know if we were going to win it, but we were going to be right there at the end. I was going to le a d him off tum four, a nd he was going to ha ve to pass me at the line . He was doing that every tim e , but you never know. I was j u s t go ing to hav e to t ry a n d spra y h im down really good . I ju st never got th e opportunity to do that. " Rogers and Carr then p icked up whe r e Kop p a n d Roeder le ft o ff , e n g agi ng in a fu rious batt le for the second spot as th e laps wound down . Rog er was not afraid to stuff it ins ide the c hamp ion , an d th e you ng Cal ifom ia n d id a n excellent job of hold ing his line through turns one a nd two to g ive Carr a lmost a ll th at h e co u ld han dle . Car r was s upe rior as he d rove off th e corn er s from the o utsi de , however , an d that m ade a ll th e differen c e when Rog ers bo bbled off the la st co rne r. Even so, Carr wa s cle ar ly favoring his left leg as he limp ed bac k to the pits a fte r the po diu m ceremonies . "I c a n' t be nd it inwa rd ," Carr sa id. "I jus t found o ne of th em c ra te rs o ut there , a nd it s wa llowed it up . Need - 14 SEPTEMBER 2 7 , 2000' cue less to say , in the second 10 la ps , I d idn 't hit it. I actua lly rode be tt er in the seco nd half. Th e track sta rted to c o me to me , but visibil it y wa s m y bigg e st problem. An ytim e I got ne a r Kopp a nd Roeder, they jus t sprayed me do wn , because they wer e s ide by sid e a lot. I th ink the knee is done. I imag ine that I'll b e s e e ing a do c to r abo ut it th is week. " For Rogers, the last lap wa s a d is aster. He attempted to go around the outside of Carr in tu rns one and two , only to sl ip wide and lose a lo t of gro und . By th e ti m e he gathered it up , S pringste e n was draped all over h im . Rog e rs t h e n ra n low in t u rns thre e and fou r , s crubb in g a lo t of s pee d and giving S prings t e e n th e ch an c e th a t h e wa s look ing fo r. Springst e e n sim p ly swung o ut and s ho t pa st Rogers at th e line , beating h im by on ly a c ouple of inc he s for th e th ird s po t. "It' s o ka y, " Rog ers sa id . "It wa s m y fa ult. I tried to go on the outs ide of Chris , but he hit a hol e a nd ca me up into me , so I had to go high . I tr ied to save it as much as I co u ld , but the n I h e a rd Ja y back t h e re . I ch opped it off in three and four , a nd it was like , 'Whe re ' s he at? ' Oh , we ll. We 'll ta ke fourth. My season has had a few low po ints in the m iddle, but it looks like it might be coming a round a gai n." Coolbe th and Schnabe l ra n in the sa me two spots after the restart, with Coolbeth pulling clear of S c hna be l as th e tw o ran in s ixth and s e ve nt h , re s p e cti vel y . Thank s t o Ro e d e r ' s earl y e xi t , th e t wo young gu n s im p roved to fifth a nd s ixth at the fin is h , b ut Co o lb et h was d e fin it e ly a fa ster "s ixth" in the second leg . " I j us t p ut m y h e a d dow n a n d s ta rte d th in k in g t h at I cou ld b e a t th e s e g uy s , " C o o lb eth s ai d . "T h e tra c k got worse , so then I just coo led it a b it. My eyes a re just k illing me from all the dirt th at I go t in 'e m . 1 go t be lt e d pretty good the first couple la ps, but I'm happy. It [the progra m ] wa s d iffe rent to n ight , but I' m g la d • e n e vv s th at they did it th at way, because we wo uld have .never made it a stra ight 20 laps . The Suzuki ra n good , and we 'll probably try it once aga in next week a nd see wha t happens ." Sc hnabe l was happy with s ixth but a b it m iffe d th a t C o o lb et h h ad d ropped him so q uic kly. "I felt better in the second le g , but Coo lbeth still pu lled away fro m me ," Schnabel sai d. "I d idn 't feel so good in the first leg , but the second leg 1 d id, a nd he still p ulled a wa y , so he mu s t h ave h ad a good line , too. If Ro e d e r h adn 't bro ke , we wou ldn ' t ha ve mo ve d up, but we had a goo d bike to night. Maybe we should hav e don e better, bu t we hung in there and d idn 't c rash. The bike staye d togeth e r, a nd we got some good po int s . It was a good nigh t. T hey d id a goo d j o b w it h th e t ra ck . It wa s a good show." All en Ra cing' s Jason Ty er im pro ved from ninth to s eventh befo re Jay Springsteen 191 put In another strong performance, fi nishi ng third after making a last-lap pass for the spot. Ja son Tyer (12N) fi nished seventh, while Jess Roeder (941 was eig hth and Bryan Sm ith (84XI was 10th. th e finis h, getting by Las Vegas H-D's Jess Roeder a nd Stanley. "Th at's be tter than 1 tho ugh t we 'd do ," Tyer sa id. "I was nervous whe n I ca me in he re and found out tha t they were only taking 12 guys to th e ma in event, but we c aug ht a b re a k in th e he a t ra ce an d got a fro nt -ro w start. T he n I m issed a shift off the line in the s e c ond leg , a nd th at c o st m e a lot. I go t by J e s s , a n d I ran Bry a n down . I wa s work ing o n Sch nabel , but I didn 't have a nyth ing for him. These guys d on 't pla y arou n d h e re . Yo u gott a h ave ba lls to ru n around th is pla c e , bec ause it gets roug h ." Roeder, Stanley, Smith and Russell rounded out the field in th e s e cond leg , but Kopp was definitely th e man They're all fast, but it seems like the Corbin Racing/Burks Motorsports Suzuki SuperTrackers being ridden by Joe Kopp and Kenny Coolbeth seem to have a clear edge on the track, thanks to the preparation of former Will Davis and Steve Morehead mechanic Dennis Town. The North Carolinian. who took his wrenches to the Burks Motorsports camp after Davis left the TCR squad at the end of 1998, was once skeptical of the entire production-based-engin e dirt-track program. Nonetheless, it seems that the 'Zooks under his cha rge are the ones to beat, something that Kopp has proved via ba ck -to-back AMA/SuperTrapp SuperTracker titles, with the Seattle win being the icing on the cake. According to Town, however. the reality is that he has done very little to ma ke the TLIOOO motors dirt-worthy. "There really isn't that much that we've done to the motors ," said Town. who has exte nsive hands-on experience with both Honda RS750 and Harley XR750 engines. "They're pretty stock. They've got a little tinkering here and there. but we don't have any cams in them or any special stuff. These things are just really fast down the straightaway, but we still are not getting through the comers as good as the 750s." Town sai d that he thinks the Suzuk is present a wealth of untapped potential. "We really haven't had that much time to work on them," Town said. "When we race them in the AMA SuperTrackers. we really don't have that much practice time, and plus, we're concentrating on the 7505 when we go there. We've been going fast enough as it is, but this winter we're going to do a little more research on them . try some different stuff with the frames. There's still a lot of potential there. The good thing is that one of our motors has bee n running for two years, and we've never had it apart . It's got 16 races on it, but it runs like new."

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