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fastest. followed by Mike Kidd. In all, only 40 riders showed up for the allowed 48-rider field with Anthony Russo taking the last spot with a 26.115 second run against the clocks. Heats (Abovel Scott Pearson gets the drop on the National field. with Randy Goss (131. Mike Kidd (721 and Gary Scott in his wake. (Belowl Hank Scott heads up a heat race, over Corky Keener (621 and Steve Morehead. AMA Grand National Championship/Winston Pro Series: Round nine • Goss boss at Middletown By Gary Van Voorhis MIDDLETOWN, NY,JUNE 10 Randy Goss, in record breaking fashion, scored the first Winston Pro Series National win of his career with a green-light-to-checkered-flag ride in the Middletown Half Mile. Hank Scott scored a solid second place finish while Garth Brow made his second' winner's. circle appearance in three Nationals after an easy 16 third place ride. The trio were Harley' Davidson XR750·mounted as was the rest of the National field. Goss carved a big chunk out of Winston Pro Series points leader Steve Eklund's edge as Eklund and Jay Springsteen were relegated to fighting their duel for supremacy over eighth place with Springst.een coming out on top. Goss closed to within five points of Eklund (100·95) while Springer remains third with 80 points. "It's been a long three years waiting for this," said a refreshed Goss after the event. "It was the horsepower I had that won it for me. Larry Johnson, my father·in-Iaw, and I worked better than 15 hours a day for the past week practical!y rebuilding the entire bike. It paid off. Things are really starting to fall in place, and I hope ·that it . keeps up through the_rest of the season." The track, which last saw National action in 1977 when Mike Kidd won, had changed little physically. There is never any question of whether Middletown will groove up. The only question is how wide will the groove be. This year it was one rider wide providing a get·out-in-front, make-no· mistakes·and·you-should·be·able·to-win type of racing. The weather also entered into the picture with the program being flopped . the National running before the Trophy Race - because of the threat of rain. Qualifying Randy Goss let everyone know that Middletown was his type of track with a 24.450 second run in time trials which shaved a half second off Hank Scott's 25.066 record clocking in 1977. Rookie of the Year candidate Charlie Roberts made his presence known by timir".g second fastest at 24.502. with Hank Scott JUSt a tick behind at 24.515. Californian Ricky Graham continued to show that he has adapted to east coast tracks hy timing fourth The first heat served as a practice session for Goss as he picked his line after grabbing the lead as the field exited the second turn and never looked back. Mike Kidd waged a steady challenge. but Goss was glued to his right inside line. The real race, and some of the best racing of the day, was between RoY candidate Wayne Rainey - who had decided not to go home to California when tuner John Reed showed up to bolster his confidence - and Jay Springsteen. The hattie for third lasted nearly eight laps with Rainey continually holding off Springsteen's charges. Two laps from the flag, Springer found enough daylight to stuff a wheel under Rainey in turn three and forged ahead. Rainey trailed by only two bikelengths at the flag. "Hey, that was a helluva race." said Springsteen later. "Rainey rides the hell out of thaI Yamaha. The kid is good." The second heat rooked to be well in the hands of Charlie Roberts until a sour engine saw him slowly work his way backward from the lead to seventh place. Garth Brow seized the opportunity to open some breathing room although Gary SCOtt and Billy Schaeffer had other ideas. Rick Hocking also entered the action. but in the end it was Goss, Scott and Schaeffer transferring. It took three restarts to get the third heat off cleanly; one of those on the penalty line with the rest of the start line creepers was Steve Eklund. He was not happy. "I was drawn off by the rest," said Eklund later. He was nursing a swollen right hand after crashing in a race on the Wednesday before the National. Hank Scott, Corky Keener and Steve Morehead motored off at the start with Eklund and the rest lef~ to fight for scraps. Eklund managed to finish a closing fourth, and blamed having to race in the semi on the bad luck that always seems to strike him when he races in New York: "I thought I was going to hurt myself when I started sliding toward the wall in turn one," said Terry Poovey after heat four. "My bad luck can't get any worse, can it?" he asked. The main bearing in Poovey's Doug Sehl owned/tuned mount had tied up as he hit the start/fmish line on lap three while leading. With Poovey out, Scott Pearson grabbed the lead and hung on. Ricky Graham dropped Skip Aksland to third with five laps remaining and set out after Pearson. Pearson's style looked a little ragged, but he explained that running in the fuzz between the groove and the slippery part of the track was the only place the bike would really work. At the flag it was Pearson by a hair over Graham. Semis The two spots to make the National grid a J4·rider affair were all that was left to be decided. The first·semi was a follow·the-leader affair with Mike Minning, on his Don Tottorellisponsored XR leading the Shell Racing Specialties Yamaha of Wayne Rainey to the flag. The final semi proved to be a show of how Steve Eklund rides when the chips. are down. Eklund gobbled up everyone in front of him in two laps and then dropped leader Ted Boody to second with an inside line pass coming off turn four on lap three. From there it was business as usual for Eklund until the checkered flag.