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U nder near perfect weather conditions, the Mount St. Helens Motorcycle Club capped off their Grand National weekend with the Bob Lanphere's Beaverton Honda-backed short track on the new Castle Rock Race Park quarter-mile oval and Coziahr Harley-Davidson/National Cycle's Johnny Murphree had the track wired to take his first victory of the season. There was a big, wide and smooth groove all around the Castle Rock Race Park short track, but the bottom was def- initely the fast way around and Murphree was glued there, his longtime traveling buddy, Shaun Russell, doing everything in his power to try and dislodge Murphree - but to no avail. "If you didn't get off the bottom, there wasn't any passing," said Murphree. "It was good for us, because I got the holeshot in the main event. Maybe it was not so good for the quality of racing. The speed was so great. Once you get out front, you can't really run your own race. You can run your own race, but you can't really ride your own lines and carry a bunch of speed and try to turn fast laps. You've got to keep everybody from going by." The first rider to give Murphree fits was fast qualifier J.R. Schnabel. But Schnabel's race came to an end on the third lap, his Yamaha coasting to a stop. "J.R. broke, lucky for me - he was up my butt," said Murphree. "He would have made room to pass. Luckily, it was my buddy, Shaun behind me. He'll probably say he took it easy on me because he felt sorry for me or something. It was great to see him second." Russell was the one picking up the challenge and he rode on Murphree's rear wheel for the remainder of the race. "I never really thought I had a shot at him [Murphree] on the outside, but I was just hoping that he would make enough of a mistake to give me enough to get by," said Russell. "I thought that I could get into the corner harder than him. If he would have made a little mistake, I could have maybe got enough up alongside of him. I really had no chance, but up the inside - that was my only option. I tried the inside a couple times and lost more ground than I gained." Quality Checked Certified Pre Owned Ford's Chris Carr, Zanotti Racing/A&A Racing's Jethro Halbert and Latus Harley- Davidson/Renton Honda/Beaverton Honda's Joe Kopp were just a hair back having their own battle. In the end, it was Kopp taking the final podium spot, with Carr fourth and Suzuki-mounted Jake Johnson (the winner of the Castle Rock TT the night before), rounding out the top five finishers. Halbert's race, meanwhile, came to an end on lap 11, as he coasted into the infield off turn four. Scott Powersports/ Schaeffer's Harley-Davidson's Raun Wood, American Suzuki/Parts Unlimited's Johnson, Moroney 's Harley-Davidson/ FastHog.com's Bryan Smith and American Suzuki's Kevin Varnes were in a string behind. Johnson is the points leader in the sin- gles-title chase with 83 points, nine clear of Joe Kopp's 74. Russell has 60 and sits in third place with two races remaining. Murphree, Russell, Carr and Kopp were locked together at the halfway point. Johnson, Smith, Bettencourt Honda's Kenny Coolbeth, Wood, Reiman's Harley- Davidson/Gutterridge Harley-Davidson's Josh Toungett And Burks Motorsports' Rob Pearson filled the top 10 positions. "I thought it was Chris [Carr] behind me," said Murphree. "The reason I thought Chris was there was, they were trying inside, outside and back and forth. It was two different totally strategies and it ended up being two different people. There were two different noises. With the motor pitch, I could tell it was some- body different. I was just trying to keep my eye on the inside hay bale coming off. Just making sure that no matter where I was in the middle of the corner or how bad I screwed up or how good of a cor- ner I cut, that I didn't let my momentum carry me wide. I didn't get sideways and drift off. I just wanted to make sure that I hit that mark every time." As the top four riders battled for posi- tion, Johnson and Coolbeth closed in. Carr took a shot at Russell on lap 20, but only left the door open for Kopp, as Kopp rolled around the outside and into third. "I used up a lot of laps chasing Chris," said Kopp. "I could see the outside was kind of working for me. They were pro- tecting the inside more and more. Chris kept peaking over his shoulder and seeing that I was coming. He kept getting tighter and tighter and actually giving me more room on the outside. I didn't have much room on the outside there around this sweeper, but my handlebar was, like, in between his rear tire and his fender. I kept telling myself, 'This is Chris Carr, he's going to be smooth.' I was banking on him not stepping out a little bit. If he would have stepped out, I would have went down in a heartbeat. I thought I had a shot because they were battling each other hard. I got on the outside of Shaun [Russell] once, on the last lap or two. He apologized on the podium and said he was sorry for blocking me." "You really have to turn sharp to get underneath the inside of him [Murphree]," said Russell. "That was all I had. He was doing his job. He rode a good race and didn't make any mistakes - that's what you have on a little track like this. At the beginning of the race, when I got alongside of him and realized that I wasn't going to be able to do anything fol- lowing him, I was moving around on the outside. I never really saw anybody and didn't really hear anybody putting any pressure on me. I just kept trying. With five laps to go, Joe must have caught up to us. I saw a wheel on the inside of me and thought 'I've got to stay on the inside.' That was kind of the end of my racing as far as passing went. I had to just stay where I was at. It's unfortunate. I thought we had a chance to win, but second is certainly better than I've been over the last couple weeks, especially last night." The top six positions were set, but Josh Toungett's race went south on lap 23 as he dropped from seventh to a 12-place finish. Pearson, Mack Daddy Racing/Pro Honda Oils/4&6 Racing's Henry Wiles, Raun Wood and South Co. MX/A&A Racing/Tucker Rocky's Mike Rush filled out the top 10. An unusual number of riders dropped out, as attrition was a major factor. American Suzuki/Parts Unlimited's Kevin Varnes, Moroney's Honda/FastHog.com's Bryan Smith, Jethro Halbert and J.R. Schnabel all failed to finish the 25 lapper. CN C Y C L E N E W S • AUGUST 23, 2006 39 Castle Rock Race Park Castle Rock, WA Round 5 August 13, 2006 AMA Grand National Singles Championship STORY AND PHOTOS BY DAVE HOENIG/FLATTRAKFOTOS.COM Johnny Murphree (20) leads the way in the Castle Rock Short Track en route to winning his first race in almost two years. Joe Kopp (3) was the only rider able to make any passes, the Washingtonian coming through to finish third behind Murphree and Shaun Russell.