Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

(Left) Winner Ricky Grllham leads Mickey Fay (59) and Mike Kidd (1) in the early going. (Above) Honda teammates Fay, Kidd and Steve Wise trIIded positi~ns in the top four through much of the race. AMA Grand National Championship/Winston Pro Series: Round two Graham, Fay, Wise lead rock 'em, sock 'em o f him. The real fairy tale was Wise, th e man from Pharr , TX, who has just made the switch from motoc ross to road rac ing a nd is a lso ente red in all th e Winston Pro Ser ies TT events for th e year . Wi se wa s sick a ll week and co u ld h ardl y breat h e o n race morning. An yone wh o m ight have gi ven h im a cha nce at th e win had cha n ged their mi nds, especially wh en he didn 't show for practi ce at a ll . Rumo rs had him withdrawing from th e race. Wise to ok one lap of practi ce in time tr ia ls and q ua lifiedl Well back (34th ) but a t least in th e p ro gram. In the pits Wise sai d , " I don't thi n k tha t I wi ll have a ny tro u ble, I just cruised in th e tr ial s a nd q ua lified." Qualifying TT Th ere were n o su rprises in qualifyin g. Kidd qualified hi s facto ry H onda in the fas t ti m e slo t wi th a 29.559seco n d lap. He wa s foll ow ed by Steve Eklund o n a new 500cc Ca n -Am a t 29.595. Fa y (29.77 1) a n d T erry Poovey (29.825) wer e next in line on Hondas, a n d th e two Can-Ams of Alex jorgen sen a nd Sco tt Pearson qual ifi ed 5-6. By Karel Kramer Photos by Dale Brown and John Ranniko Heats HO USTON , TX, FEB . 7 Ricky Graham, ex -rnotocrosser Steve Wise and Mickey Fay put on an electrifying Cinderella show at the Houston Astrodome's Budweiser Wild West Weekend TT. None of th ese riders or this race will be forgotten for a long tim e. Probably more controversy will be heard over this race than any in years. 8 All th e glo'ry should go to Graham o n hi s T ex Peel Harl ey-Dav idson XR750. Graham cra she d in th e Saturday n ight sh ort tra ck p ra ct ice an d broke three ribs, and h e wa s riding a 750, wh ich was not su p posed to be co mpeti tive o n th e tight 'Dome tra ck . Graham led th e race befo re th e first lap wa s co m p leted a nd n ever ga ve it up, despite pr essure from Honda tea m m a tes Mike Kidd , Wise a nd Fay. Fay finished second, Wise was th ird a fter his rear brake fell apart, a nd Kidd DNF whe n a rid er felI in fron t Heat on e got th e crowd roaring as things were go ing accord ing to convention. Kidd grabbed Steve Moreh ead's first lap lead and was running aw ay with th e part isan Texas crowd going wild. Kidd wa s pulIing a tra in o f Moreh ead , Rich ard Arnaiz, Tom McO>ullough and Alex j orgensen.; Sa fety wa s on Kidd' s mind as he pulIed a wa y from th e p ack with wh at looked like very littl e problem . Morehead, o n th e other hand, had ~wo problem s, Arnai z a nd J orgensen. Arnaiz sta yed close and even pushed Morehead a bi t closer to Kidd wh en j orgy closed in o n fourth and began lookin g for th e weaknesses. Back in th e pack Gary Scott wa s riding hard, driving toward th e front wh en h e an d Arna iz co lIided and went all over th e track . Sco tt d id not m ak e th e tra nsfer cut, but worked int o fourth. j orgen sen sq ueaked out a la st lap pa ss into seco n d behind Kidd, a n d Moreh ead took th e fin al transfer spot. Scott Pearson gra bbed th e seco nd heat an d held it to th e n ag th at co u nts, fo llowed by Don " Bub ba" Shobert wh o did th e same . Ronnie j o n es ra n most of h is race in third a nd was th ere a t th e checkered. Wi se got a way six th and wa s spending th e first few laps lookin g for lines a nd chose so me pretty unorthodox lin es in cluding a full -on bermsh ot o ff o f th e h aybal es on the o uts ide of th e front straight. Wh il e th e front-runn ers h eld th eir p osit ions, Wise got o n th e gas a bo u t th e fou rt h lap, a nd th e stadium went wi ld ! He began making up gr ound lik e n oth in g , m aking h is time go in g into th e turns breathtakingl y deep , squarin g th e turns a nd the n launching o ff th e jumps six feet higher in the a ir th an a ny rider of th e night. Whil e in th e air h e would dip th e front e nd to chec k the landing area so as n ot to land on so meo ne, then make a mid-air correction if necessary. Wise and Eklund tangled with Eklund going down. Wise moved into fourth and wa s closing to a whisker's di stance oftransferring, but th e checkered nag wouldn't wait, and he was into a semi. Eklund rode into the infield and, clearl y upset, said to th e AMA referee, "Wise wa s riding out of control - he kn ocked me down on purpose." Eklund said to us, " We wanted a m eeting with (Bill ) Boyce,.he had to be somewhere el se an d I'm the one that gets the shaft." Gary Scott was wat ching th e heat and said of Wis e, " Wha t Wise did (to Eklund) wasn't d irty, but h e sh o u ld n ' t be out there on a motocross bike. What he was doing off of th e jumps is dangerous. He could land on so meo ne. " Wise had realIy started a controversy even though no one gave him any chance (CcmtinlUld to page 14

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