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/126609
. N ex> en .... _..:=.~ a. -c en 5 w z > ..... <{ (Top) Barry Pries (14 ) pulls away f rom Garry Christenson (3) at Baylands. (Above) Super Stock Light action prepares for the green . (Above right) Rook ie Junior Jeff Gordon swept both heats and the main event. Peterson takes Winter National Pro title By Jerry R. Newray FREMONT. CA, FEB. 27 It wa s Baylands Raceway in the heart of the beau tiful Bay Area playing host to the inaugural Winter National Championship Race Kart races. All the to p Pros in California traveled the distance to match their skills and strength against the other top competitors and the beautiful, fast and demanding high-banked oval track. Some of th e top names in the Open Pros included Winston West sp r i nt ca r and Super Modifi ed Ch ampion Scott Murray, two-time Ba ylands winner Greg Peterson, twotime Grand National Ch ampion Jeff Nel son (spo nsored by Invader Karting) and the very popular T im Meyers. Jr.. sponsored by Performance Kart- ing. With all th ese hea vy hitters in the Pro class, the com peti tion was well above par. The da y before th e ra ces were to be held, th e track held a specia l warmup session, and with a good number of th e racers showing up, it left no doubt in anyon e's mind th at th e track was in excell ent co nditio n. The weather Saturday morning for the ope n ing session of qualifying sa w spectacu la r wea th er. Tempera ture in th e high 60s and blue skies for as far as th e eye co u ld see greeted ove r 150 entrants and the crowd of o ver- (Above) Cliff Maderia (98) beat out Art Billings (88) in the 100cc main. flowing fans . The performan ces in the Open Pros were nothing bu t fantastic. Never in the year at the new track had a kart been under 13seconds for a si ngle lap. All tha t changed in the first part of qualifying as the Open Pros hit the track. Greg Peterson led the way with a hot lap tim e of 12.75 followed very closel y by another brilliant lap time of 12.99 seconds by Tim Meyers , Jr.. with the rest of the qualifiers all the way back to the bump of 13.85. The times were not on ly fast in that class alone, but a su p er lap was turned in almost every clas s. The sch edule in th e program indicated Saturday was just for qualifying and for one heat race, but the decision was made to run the whole race on Saturday instead of both Saturday and Sunday. The Nationa l Weather Dep art ment in the BayArea called for a 60%ch ance of heavy rains earl y in the morning, and track owner Terry Kn iss was forced to make the move. Not many complaints were heard as everybod y was eager to race . T h e qualifying wa s completed with the hea ts starting to ge t paired up . Theopening heat race saw the Open Pros spring into action and with the start ing field of 12 lined up for the p ar ad e la p , th e spectators stood u p to chee r th e Pros arou n d . As the drivers ca me out o f turn four. it was Meyers a nd Peterson picking up speed and ta kin g the gree n flag . Into th e first turn. it was Peter son on th e high side of th e tra ck whil e Meyers chose to stay in the low groove. T he ac tion was very close with Peterson 's kar t ' seeming to have a slight horsep ower edge. Coming from the back of the pack was AI Megenity pulling past Meyers and pulling into second. Whe n the checkered flag fell, it was Peterson with the win followed by Megin ity and Meyers with Murray in fourth. The way the winner would be decided was a total points syste m . the race r with the least amount of points becoming the champion. The second heat of the Pros brought all 12 racers back out onto the track with Murray and Peterson gettin g the green and making turn one ahead of the res t of the field. As the two karts came o ut of turn three, it was Megi n ity moving low on th e track a n d slipping by both karts to grab th e lead. T h ese three drivers moved well o ut ahead of the rest, while the fiel d stayed bunched up. When the checkered flag fell, it was Megenity winning by a len gth , followed by Peterson. Hanging on to thi rd was Murray. The stage was set for the mai n with all the racers and their crews makin g some last-minute changes on th eir karts . With th e event being run in just on e day . due to the len gth of time from the heat races, all the mains would be run under the lights. When th e karts ca me o nto th e track, it was once aga in a ll 12 Pros lined up, and what a super si ght it was as all the karts ca me arou n d turn four. Wh en th e gree n flag fell it was Meyers a n d h is Performance Karting