Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Cycle News 1981 06 24

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126526

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 9 of 79

H8nk Scott (14t atIIyed with R8nc1y Goa (1 t until the final comer then drafted him. Ulking the win by mere inches. AMA Grand National Championship/Winston Pro Series: Round II By Gary Van Voorhis Photos by Dave Despain and Van Voorhis INDIANAPOLIS,lN,jUNE 14 Horsepower and strategy played important roles in the outcome of the 25-lap Indy Mile Nation-al as the 132,000 feet of high-speed ballet came down to a game of inches between Hank Scott and Randy Goss. It was nearly h h II too c Iose to ca, b ut w en t e c~ecker.ed flag w~v~d ~co~t s~ot hIS fist mto the atr m JubIlation and Goss Imew he was six inches shy of . Ga~ S~ott c~mplete~ the trio in ":Jnner s' arcle WIth a sohd thIrd place Tide away from the raging battle that was going on in fourth. Steve Morehead and Mike Kidd filled out the top five after dropping Scott Pearson to The win marked Scott's 12th career National victory and his eighth on the mile. In addition, the win vaulted him from 12th to sixth in the Winston Pro Series point standings, Jay Springsteen still leads the points tany, but his lead has been cut to 13 points over Steve Eklund - 94 to 81. Springsteen time-trialed, but scratched from his heat. He had complained of sickness, of possible food poisoning, upon arriving at the track and grew sicker as the day wore on.. Meanwhile, Eklund was having his share of bad luck. He had hurt his back and ribs earlier in the week at Santa Fe and was heavily taped. The rough track didn't help things and neither did a back row start - on a . three row grid - for the National. He rode to a cautious 10th and that coupled 'with Kidd's fifth puts Kidd just one point shy of Eklund in the race for second in the point standings. The National, a late addition to the Winston Pro Series schedule, drew a slim crowd in comparison to the double Nationals run at fair time in August. Time Trials Scott Parker set himself up as the crowd's pre-race favorite by showing the rest of the 63 rider field around the Indiana State Fairgrounds track. Parker knocked off a 38.567 second lap. but that was a good bit short of Hank Scott's blistering :!15.283 track record. Gary Scott, jimmy Filice, Terry Poovey and Ted Boody rounded out the top five. Ronnie Edgens had the dubious distinction to be 48th qualifier at 40.817 seconds. Heats Some of the best racing of the day occurred in the fiTtt heat where Scott Parker and Randy Goss were going at it wheel-to-wheel. Then Bubba Rush, Garth Brow and Ted Boody moved in. The position swapping was such that one could be leading out of tu':'l two and be fifth going into turn three. All but Boody led at one time or another. just past mid-point Parker coasted to a stop on the back stretch. "The engine blew, but it was hell while it was mnning, " Parker would say later. Inches separated winner Goss from Brow and Shobert at the flag. The fight for second was so close that Brow thought he had third until the National line-up was posted. "If you think that was a heckuva race," said Hank Scott, "wait until you see what Gary and I do in the National." Hank and Gary took the outcome of the second heat right to the finish line with Gary outsmarting Hank and slipping by on the right side while Hank looked over his left shoulder to see where his brother was. Mike Kidd sliced through traffic to place a solid third. Ricky Graham, who took last year's daytime National at an over 100' mph pace, was out quickly with ignition problems. The third heat saw Wayne Rainey come out on top of a four-way battle, taking Tim Mertens and Jimmy Filice along with him to the National. The fourth rider in that battle was Freddie Spencer riding his factory Honda for all i~ was worth, and then some. It appeared he was short on the right combination to come off the corners quick-

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's - Cycle News 1981 06 24