Cycle News

VOL. 51 ISSUE 8 FEBRUARY 25, 2014 P101 to the track announcer for everyone to hear, "I'm gonna beat that boy," when asked about facing the red-hot Stevens. You could instantly see the smiles on the faces of the riders and fans who heard that. There was no love lost between Stevens and Russell. Stevens was ascendant, earning a ride with Team Suzuki Endurance and then just a few weeks earlier breaking through with his first big Na- tional victory - the aforementioned win over Polen in the AMA 600 Supersport race at Road Atlanta. Russell, on the other hand, raced with rival endur- ance squad Solmax Racing and had set the track record at "Little Talladega" the day before in the endurance race. The two racers had met very few times head to head up to that point. A bit of a wrench was thrown into expected show- down during qualifying. Russell inexplicably ran a front slick on his Hurricane during Saturday's heat race. He explained he didn't have time to change it before the race. So WERA forced Russell to start from the back of the grid – not ideal in an eight-lap sprint race on a tiny circuit. The Honda-paying C Production final started off with Stevens taking the early lead with the ever-steady Kurt Hall shadowing him. Hall, rarely spectacular but always a contender, had beaten Stevens just a few weeks earlier at Roebling Road Raceway in Savannah, Georgia, so while certainly not as vocal as Russell in his feelings about getting the win, Hall had to be quietly confident that he had a good shot. He was right. As the short sprint final progressed Russell was slicing through heavy traffic at an unbelievable rate. As Stevens and Hall battled wheel to wheel in the mid- dle stages of the race, Russell found himself having a hard time getting around the always tough Ewerth, Bray and Tysor. Finally, with a couple of laps to go, Russell forced his way into third, but it appeared he was too far back to catch the leading duo. As the race came to the end Russell was clos- ing fast, while Hall was probing, looking for a way around Stevens. It came down to the last lap. Hall had his chance to get Stevens in the final set of turns. Stevens ran just a tad wide in a turn losing precious momentum, all-important in 600 Super- sport racing. Hall had an opening, but just as he started his move underneath, Stevens quickly re- covered and moved over and slammed the door. "I had one chance to pass him on the high- speed sweeper," Hall explained. "He went a little high in the corner and lost his drive. If I would have been a little more aggressive, I think I could have forced my way into the lead. I have to give Thomas credit. He had the presence of mind to come over on me, keeping me from passing. It was a good move." Stevens took the victory by inches, continuing to be the hottest Honda Hurricane rider in the country. "It was sweet revenge, getting Hall back for beating me a couple of weeks ago," Stevens said to the announcer, seemingly purposely keeping from responding to Russell's earlier trash talking. "He [Hall] is a very underrated rider." Russell, meanwhile, had very nearly made up the gap on the leaders and had them in sight on the final lap, although they were agonizingly just out of reach. He slammed his tank and shook his head in frustration when he crossed the line. Even though he'd finished third, the race had to be a confidence booster for the first-year expert, knowing he ran faster laps than the leaders in the closing laps in his quest to chase them down. The battles between Stevens, Russell and many more of the contingency money chasers would continue for years to come, both in front of tens of thousands of fans at AMA Pro Road Races and many more times in front of maybe a couple hun- dred fellow racers at local club races across the country. It was a training ground like no other. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives STEVENS WINS "LITTLE TALLADEGA" SHOWDOWN PHOTOGRAPHY BY LARRY LAWRENCE

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