DIRT TRACK
Round
7
\tly 22, 2OO5
AMA Fopd Qualitg Ch€ckcd FIat Tnack Championship
Srorv
ruro PHoros By Drvt Horr.rrc/rurrRAKforos.com
Joe
Kopp is the lotest to win
a Grand Notional dirt tack
I
t took rwo
restarts
to
get
the
race
completed. but
when
I
the Annie
Oakley Shootout came down to the
final
six-lap
I
du.h to the finish it was Latus Harley-Davidson/Renton
I
Honda,iBeavenon Honda-backed
Joe
Kopp
taking
home his
I second rifle from the Treaty lYotorcycle
Club.
"l
knew if I
got
to turn one lirst, I was
going
to have a heck of
a
good
shot
at
winning
the
thing,"
Kopp
said-
''l
knew
I
could
put
in
six
good laps."
So seven races into the season, there has
yet
to be a repeat
winner, though right up until the last red flag that streak looked
to be in
ieopardy.
That's because last week's winner
Jared
Mees
appeared to have the deep cushion o{ the Darke Counry
Fairgrounds half mile ligured out. Fresh off last week's win, the
Lancaster Screamin' Eagle Harley-Davidson-backed l'1ees was
fast
qualifie;
and the winner of the Iastest heat race of the night,
but he didn't
get quite get
it done in the main event, linishing sec-
ond to Kopp.
Third
place
on the difficult half mile went tol.R. Schnab€l with
defending Grand National Champion
Chris Carr
and Nick
Cummings rounding out the top five.
The day was marred
by
several
big accidents,
including
the
most serious of them that
involved
dirt-track
legend
Jay
SprinSsteen. ln the fourth heat race of the night, Springsteen
crashed his Bartels' Harley-Davidson and was struck by another
rider coming off the second row.
"Springer"
suffered a maior
blow
to
the back and was
transported
to hospital where
they
found
him to have five fractures to the T-7 vertebrae and eight
50 AUcusT 2, 2006
.
cYcLE NEt/ys
I
-
Dorko Count!,
Fqirg.ound5
c.eenville,
oH
iit!a
?.
g,
n
E
I
ft
I
i{
a
-I
'1
I
Robcd Peorson
(27)
ond Joe Kopp
(3)
leod
J.R. Sthnobel
(33),
Chris
Evons
(
I
5
)
ond Tim Eades
l72l
ot the stort of
rhe
GNC holf
mile in
Greenville, Ohio.
,/
Kopp
(3),
here olongside Srhnobel,
be(ome
the
seventh-different winner
of
lhe seven-roce-old
leries.
\
?-
I
A
7
7
7/'
7.
/,'r'
f.\
I
