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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126067
The lead t rio, about how they fin ishe d , give or take an inch. (Far left) The d istraction at Turn Four - and the Man o j Steel rode on. sliding face-down. Winded, she hobbles to a hay bale and the ambulance is called (not needed thankfully) as Gleason wins, Johnson is second, Ridgeway is third. Referee comes pounding up and yells, "You rode it to the max. Diane!" And that she had. The National Pol esitter by virtue of a record-setting h ea t (6 : 19.37, 94.901 mph ), Jay Springsteen switched to an inside pole fo r th e National, wi th teamma te Rex alongside. Steve Eklund, Gene Romero, Ran d y Cleek, J o rgy , Ted Boody and S kip Aksland fill ou t the front row. Beh ind , it's Hank Scott (inside) ,' then Paul Bostro m, Gary Scott, Chuck Palmgren, Darryl Hurst, Steve Morehead, Kenny Roberts and Greg Sassaman. The transfers from the Semis fill the Iour-man third row. Burritto is making little nervous m otions with his throttle hand; Eklund is deep in thought, hands folded; Rex is .lo ose , bearded. relaxed; Springsteen has hand on hip and gunfigh ter eyes. Of the lo t, he looks the most ready. But off the line, it's J orgy once again, crossing ahead of Springe r an d powers hifting . h ard entering tu rn one. Boody's in there with Roberts just behind as abou t ten riders shuffle down the back straight and around the far turn. End of lap one, it's Beauchamp-Jorgy-RobertsBoody-Springsteen for sure and then the mob. Springer got Boody out of turn two , 'aIld the lead four complete lap two as one eight-wheeled monster. By lap three, eigh t riders are in the lead group pulling away. Beauchamp/Springsteen are side-b y-side lik e 01' times, then Boody/Jorgy, . Ekl und, Scott, Romero and Roberts watchfu l-waiting. Kenny is pulling the Yamaha ri gh t down to the cas es in his effort to stay in the draft. The second grouping is led by Skip Aksland. Steve Morehead and Paul with Aldana in there Bostrom sometimes. Meanwhile, Rex and Jay are trading the lead, effectively blocking up the narrow groove. That lasts until the ninth lap when Romero makes his bid, trying Springer inside while Eklund hangs ou tside and screws it on . Tenth lap - surprise! Burritto goes under both factory Harley boys out of turn two. Scoll is now moving u p , Roberts is still dogging to stay in the dr af t, About lap 12, Sco tt is fou rth co ming ou t of tu rn two; the n up t he Trophy Race winner Gleason never knew how close it was. back straight, he's third, he's second, wow - he caught them all napping! Abou t the same time Romero bails in turn three-four, 90 degrees to the track and still hanging on to the bars in fron t of Jay Springsteen (" I think I ran over his front wheel" - Jay). This dropped Jay several p ositions; meanwhile Scott is hard pressed to hold Beau champ . Cr ossed flag and now it's Eklu nd moving up o utside in th e turns, seeing dayligh t on Rex an d -r Oarv , th en dropping bac k again an d again. Now Boody pu ts it to Beauchamp, while back in the se co n d gro up, Aldana enjoys a brief su rge before ' Aksland and Mo rehead pass him again. Lap 18 it's Scott-Eklund-Springsteen (on the m ove again)-Boody-Beauchamp-J o rgy-Roberts. Nex t lap the two factory Harley riders bracket Scott ; G ary recovers an 'edge of speed won the back chute. Then suddenly Gary 's fourth, as Eklund follows the Harley crew around. Somewhere in the shuffle, J orgy joined th e ran ks of DNF alo ng with Randy Cleek, Hank Scott and Pat Marinacci, Going for it, no w it's Sp ringer-Sco tt-E klund in the fmal chase . Steve late r said Gary m ade so me mis ta kes in turn three/four (which were beoming m igh ty slick); so Eklu n d moved into second two lap s fr o m the end. Gary powered back as Paul Bostrom pu t a move on the bunched-up second group to try for seventh. Roberts finally has the measure of Ted Boody after shadowing the lead mob all race. White flag, Springer's go t a length on Scott/Eklund, Gary keeps the stopper on Steve ' for one more lap and he's got second, Beauchamp is fourth, then Roberts-Boody. Skip Aksland squeeked seventh from Bostrom an d Sassaman beat Palmgren by just a bike length among the tail-enders. Jay had gone to higher gearing between heat and final, but with all the traffic the pace was three secon ds off a rec ord. Not that this fazed Sp ringer as mu ch as th e an nouncemen t that he 'd pocketed $4,470 in purse and co n tingencies, He '5 closer 'than ever to that big Nu mber One, and the Cam el Pro pot 0' gold. • Results TRO PHY RACE: 1. Jonn G lea so n ( H-D j ' 2. V er n J ohnson C H6Dfo 3. J . R idgew ay (Trl .. 4 . D an McWhorter Yam) . 5 .. B rad H u rst (H.Ol " 6. Jo h n Genna (Yam). 7 .. Mike My ers (H-O • 8 . Mark Sm it h /Vam ). 9 . B ruce Ha nl on (H-D). 10. D iane Cox H- D). New Record Winning Time 9.28 .65= 92.8 67 m ph . 2 S-M I LE N A TI ON A L CHAMPIONSHIP: 1. Ja y Sp r in gst een (H-O ). 2. Ga ry Soc:tt ( H-D). 3. Ste .e Eklu n d (H-D). 4. Re x Beau ch am p (H-O). 5 . K en Robert s \Yam ) . 6 . Ted Boody (H- D ). 7. Ski p A k sl and Yam) . 8 . Pau l Bos t ru m (H-O). 9 . Steve Moorehead (H- D ). 10. R ic k H o c k in g (H·D). 11. Da.e Aldana ( H-D). 12. Greg Sassaman (H·D). 13. Ch u ck Palmgren (H-C) . 1 4 . D ave Rush ( H-O). 1 5 . Darr yl Hur st ( Yam ). 16. Alex Jorgensen (Nllt). 1 7. H ank Scott ( Vam) . 18. Pat Marlna ccl (Trl) . 19. Gene Romero (H· O) . 2 0. Ran dy Cl eek (H-D ) . W inning T i m e 15.43.55=95.3 8 4 m ph . T O P TEN CAMEL P RO POI N T S Includin g San Jose ( un o f f ic ia l) : 1. Jay Sp r i n gste en 281. 2 . Gary S cott 265. 3. Kenn y Ro b ert s 242. 4. Steve E k l u n d 140. 5 . Rex Beauchamp 120. 6. Randy Cleek 1 1 9. 7. Ted B oOd y 11 8.8. Ha nk ' Scott 11 0. 9. Rick HOCking 9 0. 10. G e n e Romero 86. Diane (66) on the borrowed Harley sets up Johnson (14) one more t ime. 7