"We got a decent start, got off running about 6th, then moved up to 4th and I was kind of hanging with the front group - Bigelow, Hayden and Schnabel. Then I leaned it over too far and knocked it from third gear to fifth, and took me about a half a lap to kind of get that all squared away and back into the proper gear. By then those guys had about a straightaway on me and I pretty much stayed at that distance for the rest of the time. It's the type of track where its hard to make time back up when you lose it, so it was just one of them things. We were fourth and glad to have it over with (laughs.)"
"The last lap played out pretty good for me. King was leading into one, and I was second, and was able to run by him down the outside on the back straightaway and melted off into 3 and 4 and beat him to the line. It was close. I ended up beating Springer by about a half a bike length at the line. Apparently he and King had got together right about the penalty line on the last lap and they had a little moment of excitement but we had a clear run to the checkered flag and it worked out good."
You did a reverse lap at the end, maybe could you let us in on what you were thinking when you were doing that?
"It's a way for us and me to salute and remember Will Davis. He was a great guy and I probably enjoyed time off the race track with him more than I did on the race track, playing golf, teaching schools and all that kind of stuff. I got to know Will pretty good over the last four or five years. A big part of us is missing now because he's gone, I figured doing the lap in the way that would remember him and to keep his name in the minds of the fans."
You also clinched the championship with that race although maybe not the way you wanted to do it.
"No, I certainly didn't expect that we would have the opportunity to clinch things this weekend. Going into Sedalia, I thought well, maybe I can do real good at Springfield but have a chance to clinch it in New York the next week, but with Kopp out with injuries and him not even being able to compete, it just kind of accelerated the process that we felt that we would have been able achieve anyhow, we just achieved it sooner rather than later."
"Well, again, I hate to sound like a broken record but, it was another typical Springfield race although the race track was a little bit greasier in the main event than it was the day before. The tire temperatures were running pretty hot so they went out there and cooled off the racetrack with a little more calcium chloride. The track was really greasy in the main event and slowed the pace down quite a bit and made the racing that much tighter and that much closer. Having anticipated what they were doing, we were able to make a few changes to the motorcycle in the main event and were able to take the same motorcycle to victory lane again, two days in a row."