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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126265
[; AMA Grand National III • s t l' l' 0'> ~ (A bove) Ted Boody - center-stage in victory circle for the first t ime, (Below) Boody (121 got past Jay Springsteen, (Leftl Second-place Steve Morehead (42) drafted then passed Corky Keener 1621, Boodywins raCe,takes pointslead H HARRI NGTON, DEL. , j UNE I I a rley-Davidso n teamste r T ed Bood y, in a blistering start- to -finish ride that dropped th e 18 track record by a fu ll eight seconds , sco red his first Nationa l victory of '77 in th e AMA G r a n d Nationa l Championship/Camel Pro Series Fu ll H ouse Cl as sic hal f m ile at th e Delawa re State Fa irgrou nd s Sa tu rday night. The follow-th e -leader affair set the cast for the winner's circle from the th ird la p of the 20-lap N ational with H a rley teams ter j a y Sp ringsteen ta king seco n d fo llowed by the KK Insu rance /KK Supply/F&S Specia l H arley of Steve Morehead. " Hey, I feel so good no w that it's hard to explain ," said an obviously very happy Boody in the post ra ce press confere n ce. "All I thought abou t during the race was beating jay. 1 knew if I did that I would also take over th e points lead. I did both and I can't ask for much more. " T ed th en added , " I don't plan on giving up the point lead without a fight. " Kenny Roberts was a lmost a no show at Harrington. Roberts, in on e of his rare non -Nationa l apperances, chose. the short track at Granite City, Illinois as the place to give his body and short tracker some extra racing ti m e , Unfortunately , bad luck was riding with him . A rider crashed in front of him in his heat leaving Roberts nowhere to go . He crashed , sp ra ini ng th e thumb , little and ring finger of his left hand . " I was go ing to give this National a m iss to give th e hand a cha nce to he al , but hell , 1 ha ven 't ever missed a National before a nd I didn't want to sta rt now ." Rob erts pla ced seventh in his hea t rid ing with th e hand lit er all y taped to th e hand gr ip . (H avi ng th e use of only two fingers to gr ip with , he wr a pped his a lready hea vily-raped han d and hand gri p with ta pe sticky side out to give hi m eno ugh grip to hang on . .The idea work ed , but left him u nab le to strip his tea r -offs off. Th at a nd the fac t t ha t h is chassis wasn't hoo king up worked heavil y on hi s d ecisio n to scratch fro m his semi. National Springer c hose th e o u ts ide (gra ndsta nd) pole pos iti on and rode the high line through turns one-two while the rest of th e field followed last year's winner Corky Keener on th e groove. Keener led across the lin e with Springer, Boody, Morehead and Hank Scott behind. Both Boody and Springer got past Keener on lap two as Corky drifted just a h air off the groove in turn two . Corky go t back past Springer in turn three , wit h Sp ringer taking second back on the start -finish line. As the pair entered turn one on lap three , Springer moved from his high lin e down to the groove shutting t he door tight on Keener. "jay cut it a little too close ," said Keener afterwards , " a nd it • was s' t her "a c;.ass; of h i.! J:tiJp ipd highside or lay it down and avoid an accident. 1 set it down, but it scared th e hell out of me knowing there were II riders right behind . Sure I'm mad , but it's on e of those things in racing ," Corky was up and in a ction quickly , un hurt and a ha lf lap down on last pl ace . . T he cras h b y Keen er determ ined th e winner's ci rcle visitors wit h Boody, Sp ringer and Mor eh ead set to claim the cha m pagne , On ly Hank Sco tt m a d e a ny signi fica nt m oves through th e pa ck comi ng fro m 10th on lap one to fou rt h on lap seven d ro p pi ng Mik e Kid d to fifth. T he narrowness of th e groove a nd th e deep and bumpy cus hion kept eve ry one o n th e g roove from t he halfway flags on -.jth on ly Gary Scott (" T he bik e just wouldn't hook up in th e comers.") moving up to eighth when Garth Brow slid off th e groove , Keener slipped int o 13th position three la ps from th e flag , Steve Storz, Bood y's tuner, began a cra zy dance of happiness over his and Ted's first National victory as a team when th e checkers ca me out. St eve hopped on the back of the bike after Ted's coo l off lap a nd the pair screamed " N u m be r O ne , the next champ ," and Boody's gonna do it" while working their way to th e winner's circle where Steve got a champagne shampoo. " I a lm ost c a u g h t Ted when he slipped off the groove early in the race , but I d id the same damn thing and he _:g,o.! a~;ry , ~ }~~d_la'y ~~t!:':.":.a rd~ .. "Hey,. ya can't win 'em all. " "Alright you gu ys, " commanded Steve Morehead in the winner's circle, " C olu m b us is my turn to win , Understand!" • Results TOP 10 QUALIFIERS: 1. Dave Sahl 26.022. 2. Jay Springstean 26.191. 3. Mike Kidd 26.295. 4. Corky Keenar 26.362. 5. Stev a Eklund 26.672. 6. Doug Sahl 26.648.7. Scon Drake 26.736. 8. Billy Kennedy 26.761. 9. Phil M cDona ld 10. Ted Boody 26.858. FIRST HEAT: 1. Dave Sent. 2. Chuck Palmgren. 3. Gary Scon . 4. Doug Sehl. 5. Bill Burbank. 6. Rex Beauchamp . 7. Ed Ingram. 8. Phil McDonald . 9. Alex J orgensan. 10. Ray Leg"",. SECOND HEAT: 1. J ay Springst ean. 2. Garth Brow . 3. Ted Boody . 4. SIeve Eklund. 5. Bill Eves. 6. Joh n zs.rn . Johnson . 7. Ken Roberts . 8. Greg Sassaman. 9. Steve Freeman. THIRD HEAT: 1. M ike Kidd. 2. Scon Draka. 3. Keith Hawlay. 4. Bill Scheeffar . 5. Skip Akslan d. 6. Terry Brow . 7. Albert Gende. 8. Olane Cox. 9. Maurice Fraser. 10. Donald Go$$. FOURTH HEAT: 1. Steve Morelleed. 2. Corky Keener. 3. Hank Scott. 4. W illie Crabbe. 5. Ricky Campba ll. 6. Norm Carr. 7. Jay Ridgeway. 8. Billy Kennedy . 9. Brent Lowe . 10. Dave Singleton. FIRST SEMIANAL: 1. Doug Sahi. 2. Steve Eklund. 3. John Johnson. 4. Steve Freeman. 5. Ed Ingram. 6. Rex Beauchamp. 7. Donald Go$$. 8. Phil McDonald . 9. Bill Burbank. 10. Greg Sassaman. 11, Ray Legary. 12. Ale. Jorgensen . SECOND SEM IFINAL: 1, Bill Schaeffar . 2. Willia Crabbe. 3. Billy Kennedy . 4. Rickey Campbell. 5. Jay Ridgeway. 6. Norm Carr. 7. Skip AksJand. 8. Dave Singleton. 9. Terry Brow. 10. Albert Grande. 11. Diane Cox. 12, Brent Lowe. 12-LAP ,TROPHV RACE: 1. Willia Crabbe. 2. J ohn Johnson. 3. Si eve Eklund . 4. Norm Carr. 5. Ed Ingram. 6. Jay Ridgeway. 7. Rex Beauchamp . 8. Billy Kennedy. 9. Steve Freeman. 10. Rickey Cam pbell. 2Q-LAP FINAL : 1. Ted Boo dy IH·D) 20 pIS. 2. Jay Springsteen IH·D! 16 pt . 3. Steva M orehead (H-DI13 pts . 4. Hank Scon (Vam) 11 pts . 5. M ika Kidd (H·Dl l0 pIS. 6. Doug SehI IH·DI g pts. 7. Dave SehI IH-D! 8 pIS. 9. Garth Brow IH·DI 6 pIS. 10. Scon Drake 5 pIS. 11. Bill Schaeffar IH·DI 4 pts. 12. Chuck Palmgren (H·D! 3 pIS. 13. Corky Keener (H-D! 2 pIS. 14. Kaith Hawlay ITril 1 pt. CAM EL PRO SERIES POINTS : 1. Ted Bood y 2. Jay Springst ean 78. 3. Kenny Robarts 67. 4. Gary Scon 54. 5. Steve Eklund 52. 6. Corky Keanar 47. 7. Steve Morehead 42. 8. Hank Scon 29. 9. Gena Rornaro 28. 10. Ml ke Ki~d ~7. ... " » eo.