Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

that I clipped the bales coming off of turn two at the pit exit. It downshifted my bike and threw me up on the handlebars. I grabbed fourth again, but Chris had put a little distance on me. Then I go into three and four and he had messed up. We were just right there. I came down the straightaway and saw his hand go out. I thought if you don't screw up for half a lap you just got yourself a win." Carr was gobbled up by three more riders, but held on to finish fifth with his XR750 now an XR375. "I was going to finish the lap - I had one carburetor left," said Carr. "When you're not going into the corner all that hard because you're not that fast, I needed to make up time in the middle. I just ran it in there on one cylinder and rolled through the middle of the cor- ners the best I could. The thing that concerned me was if somebody else was on my line going in, like into three. I wanted to let them know that I wasn't going real fast at the end of the straight- away, but I'm going to go like hell through the middle of the corner." Despite Carr's effort, his pace left him vulnerable to the horde that was giving chase, and the Harley-Davidson wrecking crew of Rich King, Bryan Smith and Jared Mees were all able to take advantage. Second place went to Harley- Davidson Motor Company 's King with Smith and Mees rounding out the top four. Carr was fifth followed by Shaun Russell, Kenny Coobeth, J.R. Schnabel, Johnny Murphree and Robert Pearson. As for the championship, Carr 's problem closed things up a bit at the top. The defending champion now leads King by seven points, 67-60, with Smith third on 54 points. Coolbeth is fourth with 52 points. At the start of the 25-five lap National, Screamin' Eagle/Lancaster Harley-Davidson's Jared Mees got the holeshot with Hacker, Carr and Coolbeth side by side and right behind him. When the pack hit turn three the red lights flashed on as Coolbeth hit the ground. "I hit a hole and it put me over the bars," Coolbeth said. "I got it gathered up, but I was way low coming into turn three and the rear slid out. It was a pretty easy crash actually. I was just worried about people running me over." Then the rush was on to get his XR750 repaired for the restart. West Virginia Motor Speedway Mineral Wells, WV Round 5 July 8, 2006 JULY 19, 2006 • C Y C L E N E W S 22 AMA Ford Quality Checked Flat Track Championship MY OWN RACE 80 Rich King 2nd Place "I don't know how I finished second, I just did it," said Harley's Rich King. "I started out a little bit tough. I caught a rock in qualifying and gouged up my collarbone. I was sore all day. I found a good line in the main event and started rolling and ended up in second. On the second restart, I had a good jump off the line. I thought, 'Man I've got something for them.' Then I missed a gear – it happens – but second is good. I was running lower than everybody else through the turns. I just had a tough time getting my motorcycle to work up high all night. I felt a lot better down low. When the low line came in I just found some traction down there and went to the front." 42 Bryan Smith 3rd Place "I was looking for a podium finish," said Smith, who got just that with the demise of Carr. "Obviously, I would have been happier with a win, but I'll take a third ahead of Carr. We're right there in the points - I can't fall back at this point. I just need to go out there and win one. I felt pretty good, but I couldn't match what the leaders were doing off the restart. I couldn't run their line. That's what was separating them from everybody else - they had kind of a special line. Me and King had our own little line, I thought I might be able to get him. Luckily Carr blew up and got us up on the podium. It's one of those things. We were fast right out of the box and we didn't real- ly change much all day on the bike. We came here and Rich, my mechanic, had it set up good." 21 Jared Mees 4th Place "Waiting for the restart Johnny [Goad] took some gear off, he took a tooth off," Jared Mees explained after finishing fourth. "It's a damn good thing he did. We went from dead last to fourth in five laps. I was pretty upset. If we would have been in that fourth start- ing spot where we were suppose to be, it could have been ours. Live and learn. We're having some rough luck this year so far with a flat tire last week leading it and this week the starter thing. It's tough. We're going to take everything we can and gather as much points as we can and move forward. I'm proud of the fourth place, but I just keep thinking, 'Dang it if we wouldn't have had that problem where would we have been.' I was struggling a lot with the gear we had on prior to the red flag. It was a good thing I got a good start at the beginning. I was able to make some ground in the beginning, but I was struggling. When we took that tooth off it was like night and day. It was a differ- ent motorcycle." 28 Shaun Russell 6th Place "I just needed a few more feet to get by Chris [Carr]," Shaun Rus- sell said after coming up a whisker sixth. "He apparently had motorcycle problems. It was a pretty good race. I had to start from the third row. To get up in the front was pretty good. I was hoping to gain a little bit on the restart, that didn't really happen. I was kind of disappointed in that. Sixth was pretty good. I would have liked to have made it out of the heat race and been on the first or second row. I got a really good start from the third row and was able to pass a bunch of people early. That helped out, because it seemed like once things got going the pass settled down a little bit. I was struggling a little bit in practice. In the beginning of my heat race there we a few spots on the track that were giving me some fits and I wasn't comfortable. That slowed me down a little bit. I got that figured out. I just missed out on making it out of the heat race. I had to ride a semi and I got things going there. Unfortunately, that put me on the third row." 31 Kenny Coolbeth 7th Place "It was all right," said Kenny Coolbeth of his post-crash race. "I got back up and I kind of struggled throughout the whole race. I just kind of plugged away, I was just struggling for some reason. I don't know what we could have changed. I just wasn't comfortable for some reason." 33 J.R. Schnabel 8th Place "We won our heat race and were running strong in the main," said JR Schnabel. "The first 10 laps we were running strong in fourth place and looking at moving forward. Something definitely hap- pened, we've just got to find out what. The restart helped me a little bit. I ended up making up one spot. It's not a ton, but actually on the restart on the first lap I was up to sixth and I started ninth, so I made up about three spots by taking a low line through one and two." 20 Johnny Murphree 9th Place "We were top-five, speed wise," John- ny Murphree said. "The changes we made before the main event were great, but I missed a shift on the first start then the tran- ny was just junk. On the restart, I babied the thing. I did everything I could do to baby the thing to get it to go. I was lined up sixth and everybody blew by me. I was just done. I was just ready to fight - I had already come from dead last by 25 lengths once. Then I had to do it all over again in five laps. We got back up to ninth, we were lucky to get where we got." 27 Rob Pearson 10th Place "This was my first twin National this year; it was real good," said Rob Pearson. "After the first practice we were, like, second fastest. I was a lit- tle better when the track was tacky. When it grooved up, I was struggling getting it hooked up off the turn. I've barely even sat on this Harley since DuQuoin last year. I like being back in the main event and dicing it up with those guys. It's a shame that we couldn't have been there on the Yamaha, but it broke early enough that we got on the Harley and got that thing working. I was kind of just getting readjusted. The Yamaha and Harley feel kind of different. I felt more comfortable as the main event went on. I was trying to get off the starting line with the Harley, which is one of the biggest differences. The Yama- ha kind of pulls off the starting line a little bit better. Physically, I felt fine; mentally, I needed to pick some better lines. I think I started to do that at the end. Hopefully, next time I'll be right there from the beginning."

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