AMA Grand National
Championship/Winston Pro Series
- Round five
SanJose rain
break is Eklund's
lucky break
By Dale Brown
Photos by Felix Adamo
(Top) Corky Keener (62).Steve Morehead (421. Steve Eklund (11) and Rick
Hocking diced f requently. (Above) Gary Scott led Ricky Graham here. but
not at the fi nish . (Below) Freddie Spencer (left) passed Bob Crabbe (74A) to
w in the Junior Invitational.
SANJOSE, CA , MAY 6
Two years ago, Steve Eklund was passed on the
last lap of the San Jose mile, due in part to a
failing battery. This year; a 'b reak in the 25m ile A MA /Winston Pro Series National a t the
Santa Clara County Fairgrounds
due to rain allowed Ekl und to
replace another faili ng battery
on the Za nott i-Castro l Harley-
10
Da vidson. Starting from near-last, he
wen t on to catch the leaders and make
a dramatic last -lap pass for the win.
Second-year Expert Ricky Graham
served notice by ru nning with the
leaders all the way. u ltimately losing to
Eklu nd by less tha n hal f a bikeleng th
a nd edging Gary SCOl! by the same
dis ta nce. The first seven riders were
extremely close.
Defend ing Grand National Cham pion J ay Springsteen lost even more
grou nd in his bid to take a fourth st r a ig h t series c rown . He was
hospitalized for tests in Fl int . MI , after
illness hi t him at Sacramento and
Houston. A urinary infe c ti o n was
diagnosed and further tests will be
run . Springer hopes to be back on the
circu it for Ascot th is week , according
to tuner Bill W erner.
Eklund's win boosted his W inston I
Pr o Series point lead to 19 over Randy'
Goss, who fin ished l Oth, Scott's third
place finish tighten ed up th e race for
second . and he now lies just one point A
be hind Goss.
Rou nd ing out the top 10 at San Jose
were Steve Morehead , R ick Hocking,
Co rky Keener , Ha nk SCOll. Garth .
Brow, Ge ne Rom ero and Goss.
TIme trials
Eklund put in a sizzling lap around
the oval to come up with a 37.12 ยท
seco nd lap time, just .06 off the record
held by Mert Lawwill. Eklund's crew
had been up until 8 a .rn, raceday
morning trying u nsu ccessfu lly to
