Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

~I F o r m ula USAlWr e n che ad .co m N a t iona l D irt T rack Series R o u nd S : C a l-E x po S tate Fairgr o u n d s like that one we had in New York ,' and now we 've had two in a row like that. It feels rea l good. I'm jus t rea l comfortable on the motorcycle right now . I fee l like I can ride anywhere on it. I can go through hole s and ruts or wha tev e r. I just feel rea lly go od on it right now ." S e a tt le Mile wi n n e r J o e Kop p ca me out on top o f a grea t serum with Ba rte ls' H-D/Corbin/YHT's Ja y S p ring stee n a nd Wrenc head .com / HD of Sacr amento 's Chris Ca rr for sec ond place , im pressive e noug h before you consider that Ko pp had to wres tle his Suzuki TL1000 for 20 laps in order to earn th e runner-up spot. As he ran with Springer a nd Ca rr, it was c le a r that Ko p p had straightawa y speed on the other two , but as ha s so often been the case, the bike was a handful in the turns . Kopp would wind up ju st barely edging Springst een at the finish line for second. "I' m really happy with seco nd ," Kopp sai d. "Whe n I we nt out on it in the first co uple of practices , I thou gh t tha t I was goi ng to m aybe be in th e ma in even t. I figu red I' d be in th e LCQ . But in the hea t race , I rea lized that if I co uld just s tay with them in the co rn e rs tha t I had the s t ra igh t a wa y speed to get in fron t of them . We 'v e got power o n them fo r s ure, STO RY A ND PHOTOS BY SC OTT R OUS SE AU SACRAMENTO,CA,S EPT. 23 y only the fifth la p in the Wrenchead .com Sacramento Mile at the Cal -Exp o State Fa irgrounds , Team Harl e y -Da vidson 's Rich King might as well hav e to ssed his hotel ke y at F o rmul a US A s tarte r Scott Zimm e rm a n wh en he fla sh ed down the front straightawa y, because it was clear th a t King was ch ec king ou t. No th ing , ne it h er a s ta r -studded field nor a co bbly raci ng su rface that wa s very non -Sacra m ento- like (see Pa ra dise Lost) co uld stop the Tea m Ha rle y-Da vison rider as he rocketed to an e ver -widening lead in the 20 -lap m ain e ve nt. King mercied the riders, m er ci ed the track an d raced to his fou rth Fo rm ula USAjW re nch ead.co m Na tional win. In fa ct , whe n King ha sn ' t wo n on the ne w circ uit , it is beca use he hasn't been th er e . Tonigh t, howeve r, the Iowa n a nd his Bill Wern e r-wren ch ed fa c to ry steed were an uns top pa ble force. "It fe lt good right from the get- go ," King sai d. "It felt just like it did when we won tha t AMA race in New York. We jus t un load ed the bike, an d it felt good righ t away . I to ld Bill , I said, 'Boy , you do n't ha ve too ma ny nigh ts 8 1 0 OCTOBER 4 , 2000' c ue I e n e vv s Rich King dom inated a Formula USA event the way that few have thi s season, as he smoked to the Sacramento Mile win aboard his factory Harley-Davidson XR750. King led by nearly half a straightaway at the fl nls h. but on a tra c k like this it is a toss -up. I'm really happy tha t I stuck with it . Even after I got second in my heat rac e , I th o ught I was go ing to maybe get a top-five. I could get off tu rn two really good , an d t h at ' s w h a t was helping me out down the b a c k straightaway. It was really fun. I knew they ' re go ing to proba bly restrict us more pretty soon , but he y, that m ight he lp us get through the corners better. This th ing has got a lot of poten tial yet ." The 43 -year-old S p ringsteen , who has p ut together another incred ibl y consistent season in wha t ought to be the tWilight of his ca ree r, was tough as na ils on the inco nsis te nt raci ng s urface, ne ver backing off or slipping into surviva l mode. Instead , the three-time AMA Gra nd Nat ional Champion sha red at least one technique with King in that he rode extrem ely high into turn one before dro p ping on to th e broken-up g roo ve . It wa s cle arly a move t ha t inc reased his m om e ntum a nd sa ved his energy at the same time. "I t was a h e c k of a battl e , " S pring e r sa id . "Chris was right there , an d Hac ker wa s rig ht there. I co uld be at J oe thr ou gh the co rner, but on t he big end t h a t Suzuki wa s fast, m an . I c o uld p ull u p o n h im , bu t I couldn't ge t by him. He would just go flying by me - it fe lt like he was 20 mph faster than me. There were a few ruts down in turn four wh er e yo u r wh e el just wanted to follow th em . I th ought I was down a co up le times down there. I'm happy with third , and we survived the night , but th e st a rt of the day just kind of put a damper on things . Sa cramen to is usually a beau tiful racetrack , a nd wh en yo u' re all fired up to g o racing and th e n yo u ha ve to s it a nother three hours and wa it fo r them to do th e stuff tha t th ey sh o ulda got don e ea rlier , it' s tough. It was all right, though. I had fun. " Ca rr la nded fo urth , runni ng co m petitively all night despite nursing the left kn ee that was damaged afte r he stepped in a ho le at th e Seattl e Mile. Damag e to his med ia l co llate ra l liga m e nt meant th a t he ha d to wear a brace in order to co mpete , b ut it hardly slowed him do wn a s he battled Kopp a nd Springsteen for best of the res t on th is night. Fourth pla ce was good enough for Carr, as it moved h im one step clo s e r to the b ig $50,000 pa yda y offered to the series champion, but he was also critical of the racing su rface. "This was the wo rst I've seen the track in 15 years ," Carr s a id . "My knee wasn 't too bad a t all. I just tried to ta ke care of it, tr ied not to stuff it in a ny of th e ho les ou t th er e. I'm a little up s e t. They had a guy th at has wo rke d on th is tra ck fo r 10 or 15 yea rs, a nd it has alwa ys been good. Now you get a week a way fro m th e ra ce , and he 's not wor king the track a nym o re . You wo ul d have t ho ug ht that they ha d learned th e ir le s so n fr o m In d ia n a p o lis a b o u t p utt ing chemica ls on th e racetrack so clo se to the s ta rt of the race. They ended up ha ving to scrape m o s t of it off. Turn o ne was absolutely ho rr ible . They know they had a lo usy race t rack to n ig h t. I'm just g lad t hat no body got hurt. "It wa s ki nd of frustra ting in the race," Ca rr contin ue d. "Once J oe got straig hte ned u p , yo u cou ld n 't dra ft him . We were a ll ove r him t h ro ug h the turns, but as so on as he po inted the thing , he was pretty m uc h gone. Ob viou sly, I need ed a bette r start, bu t I felt like I co uld ha ve run with King at the front . I nev e r even g ot a chance to see him . I jus t got as far as I could go . I'd like to have as many wins as

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