Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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o 00 0') Nobody deserved it more. Ronnie Jones led all the way at Santa Fe for his second National win of the year. It was Jones' first race since his brother David was killed at Louisville. AMA Grand National Championship/Winston Pro Series: Rounds 11-12 Jones, Labrie score popu lar • wins By Gary Van Voorhis Photos by Bert Shepard/Silver Shutter HINSDALE. IL , JU NE 20/ CO LUMBUS. OH , J UNE 22 It was a runaway weekend for Winston Pro Ser- ies riders Ronnie Jones and Billy Labrie as each scored their second National win of the season. Jones did his trick in the Santa Fe TT while Lab rie won the Charity New sies Half Mile h . 1 f h ffl ' . T ere w~s p enty o. s U I.ng In the POint standings with La brie benefiting most as he moved to fou rth from eig ht h via his win a nd a ninth in the 11. Hank Scott lost ground as he went into the week end with a 22 point lead and came ou t with only 15 in hand . Ste ve Morehead, second in th e standings go ing in , came ou t th e sa me wa y. Grand National Champion Steve Eklund cam e up with a good weekend as he added 24 poi nts to his meager 13 to climb from a tie for 27t h in to a tie for 15th. Santa Fe 6 Ron nie J one, . by virtue of a wire to wire ride , p icked up his second Na tional win of the season in the 25·lap Winston Pr o Se ries Sa nt a Fe 11. The ba ttl e for second wen t to the wire with Ricky Gr aham leading Steve Eklun d by less tha n two bik elengths to th e flag. Fou rth place saw Rod Spencer pu t in a solid ride with Jeff Haney hanging on , lite rally , for fifth . No matter who you were rooting' for , J ones' win was a popular one . It was his first ride since his brother Da vid was killed at Lousiville and his mother was in the stands watching. " I only wish th a t David were he re to see me," said J ones in th e winner's circle in an emot ion choked voice , " I feel he's wa tc hi ng . I won th is one fo r him , Few had picked an y Ha rley-Davidson rider to do well , but tha t didn't bother Graham . " I concentra ted on getting a good sta rt, rid ing a good line and getti ng the best drive off the corners I could, " said Graham. "The dri ve wasn't as goo d as I would have liked, but it , was en ough." Tex Peel , the wrench behind Graham's Klotz-Wiseco mount, had to replace a valve broken when the bike was first started up. Defending 11 champ Eklund had to settle for a hard fought third place to celebrate his 25th birthday. " It 's a start," said Eklund after reflecting on his problem plagued season so far. The re ign ing Grand National Cham pion had only 15 points to this po int. "T he fans are great. I'm glad I was able to do so well. " TIme Trials Wednesday night's Na tional Warm· up winner Scott Pearson was right back in the groove on his Harry Lillie tuned Yamaha 11500, clocking a 41.591 second lap. Randy Goss , Graham , Jones, Bubba Shobert and Eklund all broke into th e 41 second bracket. Steve Pfalzgraf rounded out th e 48 ride r field with a 44.574 second run. Heats Opinion was about evenly spl it on whe th er the len gthening of the track by adding an additiona l infield straight and another jump was good or bad. On track preparation , it was unanimous - 100 dusty, too dry and too slick. The first hea t saw Bubba Shobert left on the line with electrical problems as Hank Scott, Ted Boody and Steve Morehead went for the lead. Pearson, . from a penalty line start, was third by lap three. Pearson powered past Boody for second as the pair exited the infield on lap five and got Scott the next lap as he powered down the infield straight, From there on it was all Peason. Boody moved past Scott on the final lap , Randy Goss wasted little time in wining heat two as he led green light to checkered flag . Scott Parker, rid ing the sidelined Jay Springsteen's factory Harley, put in a su pe rb ride holding second for eight laps before Steve Eklund mo ved around . The third heat saw Graham and Alex Jorgensen exchange holeshots on the start and restart. Graham qu ickly asser ted hims elf on the second green light and grabbed th e lead for good with Mike Kidd holding off Jorgy to the flag . (Top) Jones. IAbove) Mike Kidd ran second. but DNF. Heat four was even more accident prone as it took a pa ir of restarts for Ronnie Jones to finally get a lead that would hold up. Rod Spencer quickl y settled into second, lea ving Honda teammates Mickey Fay and Jeff Haney to debate third after coming from the penalty line . Fay threw a chain two laps from the finish and third belonged to Haney. Semis The remaining two slots on the 14 rider grid went to the winners of the two semis . Gary Scott used a stuff-itunde pass on Wayne Ra iney to win semi one . Scott was apologetic for Rainey's unfortunate crash; Rainey wasn 't overly happy. Billy Labrie, aboard a Yamaha fac tory mount, romped home in semi two, Trophy Race Yamaha-sponsored Rick Hocking had little to bother him until the closing la ps of th e T rop hy Ra ce when Joe Peterson moved in close in the final la ps. " I spent Thursday in bed with my left ankle packed in ice," said Hocking. - I twisted it badly in Wednesday's event. That took a bit off m y edge. I should have bee n in th e National." National "T he main will be no fun at all. It 's going to be 25 long, long laps and a lot of hard work ," said Gary Scott. Jeff Haney, nursing swollen hands, wrists and forearms from a heat race crash (red flagged) was optimistic. "I 'm in the National , I'll figure a way to hold on ." Winston Pro Series points leader Hank Scott jus t wanted to finish . " I'm out to get some po ints , isn't that what it 's all about?" What it was really all about was Ronnie Jones grabbing the lead off the line on his Viper Racing mount and never looking back for 25 laps. If he had , Jones would have noticed that nothing behind him was constant. Kidd, Goss and Graham quickly scrambled to the front from the 6-6-2 starting grid in a fight for second until Goss lost the front wheel in a turn and went down. He was quickly up : but now in last. Four laps into the National, Graha was hounding Kidd in second whil Pearson, Eklund, Jorgensen , Spencer • ~!rker , and Hank Scott moved in.