Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126050
oody • .nglneers. ontiac short rack victory y Gary Van Voorhis ONTIAC, MICll., J UN E 5 I don't believe it," said AMA rand NationalfCamelPro Series on tiac short track winner Ted oody as he tried to shake hands, move his gloves, wip e his sweat ained face and a th ousand o ther ings at the same time. "That had be the easiest race I've ever on. We (Team Vista Sheen and tuner art Markel) spent all our time working the bike for the IT and did very tie on my short tracker, thinking we a much better chance for success in e IT. Something worked." As a mctown favorite and popular ichiganrider, Boody 's victory wa s well ceived. Unfortunately , there were only scant handful more. spectators in tendance ' than there were at Friday 's ent, For the second night in a row and other healthy handful of National ints, . Rand y - Cleek put his I-Ray /Shawnee K&N Yamaha into cond place. "I should have won the ational. It all slipped awa y when I got the gas a little too hard coming off e line and th e tire spun instead of tting traction." Steve Droste made his way into the ational winner's circle for the first e t his year and, as luck would have his tu ne r/spo nsor Tex Peal was not ere to see it. " It's too bad, but he had work. I fee l good, real good ." Kenny Robe rts ' l l th placing wi th th Gary Scott and Rick Ho cking on e sidelines on ly served to tigh ten the andings further. Only ni ne points parate the top six riders with Roberts the precarious top spot. ophy Race "1 just needed to move up o ne more ot t o the Na tio nal ," . m oaned Chuck Imgren after putting his Dan Gurney sponsored Yamaha into the winner's circl e. Palmgren, a master at the bump and slid e, the bash and bang and the art o f ve ry seldom giving up position once it is . in his grasp, o u t banged Corky Keener fo r the lead afte r the pair spe nt two lap s engaged in everything but sittin g on each other 's bikes, It was the closest racing of the evening. Keener and his Harley 250 fin ally dropped to fourth, but not without a struggle by both Terry Po ove y an d Steve Gulledge. National More than one rider was saying he wish ed he had a set o f the new Goodyears fo r the National , but their removal from competition kept· the wis hin g to just, that. Ou t ' cam e the Pirellis, the Carlisles , the regular Go odyears and lots of razor blades. It was conceded that without a good start' (read that also front row) that a rider's chan ces of doing business were slim. Randy Clee k, Billy Labrie , Steve Eklund and Joe Powell were racing in their second National of the weekend with Ted Boody (on the pole) , Hank Scott, Dave Hansen, Steve Elo, Steve Droste , J.R. Rawls, Brent Lowe , Mike Gerald, Jimmy Mayo and Kenny Roberts getting their first taste this weekend. Roberts , sh ari ng the back row (o f a three row start) with Billy Labrie was less than satisfied with his bike 's performance and had worked his way through gearing changes amounting to six teeth between practice and . the National. Red, yellow, green. The starting lights ticked 0 ff their Christmas tree sequence an d Ted Boody : like a kid o n Christmas mom, erupted , off the line. Suits of armo r or football gear wo uld have been appropriate for 's urvival of ·the massive traffic jam that took place in tum one . Boody broke to the front fro m turn two with Elo, Scott and Cleek only inches behind; the big 20 lap train ride had begun. Boody inched away for breathing space o n lap two as Clee k o ut powered everything else to take seco nd wi th Elo third; Droste and Rawls trail ing. Scott slipp ed off the gro ove and lost gro un d. By lap five Boody had ab out five bike lengths o n Clee k With Droste now in third fo llowed by Elo, Rawls and Gera ld. The to p six were alread y set, with Labrie and Eklund ab out re ad y to swap for seventh an d eighth. Rookie of the East, Boody, gassing. Roberts, in ninth, was fo llowed on the eighth lap by Scott, Powell, Hansen , Mayo and Lowe . Two laps later llank moved past Kenny with Powell following the ac t o n lap 12. Mayo dropped out leaving Dave Hansen to d ue l with Brent Lowe for possession of 12th, a battle which Hansen won on the final lap .· The racing fro m abo ut m idway on was like a chess game. The strategy was to mak e no mistakes and lose no gro und to the opposition while keeping th e pressure on. The laps ticked o ff and the field went round and round to th e checkers. Later someone in the crowd m illin g aro und th e Vista Sheen pits ' asked Boody's tuner Bart Marke l how he liked winning hi s ' ~th ~~ic:t?"_ 1'!"!t! ,!na1. "Ir's a helluva lot less work doing 'th e riding than the wre nching," said Bart. , • Results 2 0- LA P N A TI ON AL , 1. Te d Boody 20 (B ul). 2 . Randy Clee k 16 (Yam) . 3. St eve Dros te 13 (Yam) . 4. S te ve Elo 11 (Ya m ). 5. Ji m Ra w ls 10 (K aw ). 6. Mike Ger~d 9 ( Y am). 7. St e ve Ek lu nd 8 (Yam) . 8. B ill y La brie .., (Y am). 9. Han k SCott 5 ( Y am). 10. Joe Pow ell 4 (Y am). 11 . K enn y R obe r ts 4 (Ya m) . 12. D ave H ansen 3 (H us). 14 . Bre nt Lo we 2 (B ul). 14. Jimmy Mayo 1 (Bul ) . Ti me , 4,5 1. 7 8 EX PE RT T R O PHY RAC E: 1. Chuck Palm gren (Yam) . 2. T erry Poov ey ( Bul ). 3. Steve G Ulled ge (Yam ) . 4. C ork y Keene r (H- D ). 5 . Jay Sp r ing steen ( H ooD) . 6 . Mike Jo hnson (Ya m ). 7. M ike K l dd (BU ll ' 8 . Sco tt Bul). 10. Ra der (B ul ). 9. Edga r Ingram Bubba R ush ( Bul). Time : 2 :57.03. POINT STA ND IN GS INC L PONTI AC TT & ST : 1. Roberts 59. 2 . Hocking 56. 3 . G. Scott 55. 4. H. Scott 54 . 5. Randy Cleek 52. 6. Steve Eklund 5 0. 7. Jay Spr in gsteen 46. 8. Rex Beauch am p 3 1. 9. Billy Labrie 24. 10. oT~doo ~o.o~y 2-:', . . . oo 11 l