Corky Keener has been cleaning up Eastern half-mile tracks lately and Louisville Downs was no exception. He won his first National going away in an H-D dom inated evert.
Keener, Scott & Kidd
land Louisville National
By Jack Mangus
Markel prepared Harl ey-David son
to the win over fellow Harley rider
sco red
Gary Scott and T riu mp h factory team
me mber Mik e Kid d .
T he co mbination of the two Flin t .
Michigan res idents , Kee ne r an d Markel,
proved un beatab le ove r the Lo uisville
Downs half-mile as Keener set fast
qualifying time at 26 .004 seconds,
turned in fast heat ti me and then plain
ran away from the rest of the 14-man
field in the feature event.
Heats
6
Corky Keener scored his lirst
National victory before a packed
house at Louisville Downs and in
the process gave Bart Markel his
"29th Grand National Championship win ." Keener rode his Bart
Keener won the opening heat by a
bike length over former Grand National
Champion Mert Lawwill, but Mike Kidd
drew the most attention. Kidd had been
set back o n the p en aIry line by star ter
Du ke Pen nell and he t urned in a ten-lap
charge that wo n him th ird place and a
direct t ran sfer to the Na t io nal. Grand
National Ch ampion Ken n y R ob erts
co uld on ly man age a sixth behind th e
three front runne rs, p lus Jo h n Ha teley
and Da rryl Furst.
Charlie Seale won han d ily over Scott
Brelsford but the fight for th ir d was th e
crowd pleaser in the second he a t.
-jimmy Maness, Gene Romero and Scott
Drake waged a running battle that saw
the last direct transfer position
exchange hands on every lap. Maness
took that spot at the checkers over
Romero and Drake.
Harley factory team me mber Rex
