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/126620
Winston', Bob Masten (left) and tuner Bill Werner congratulate Jay Spring steen on hi, 31 st National win. AMA Grand National ChampionshipjWinston Pro Series: Round 11 Harrington win Springsteen's 31st By Jack Mangus Photos by Len Breech and Bill King HA R RINGTON, DE, J UNE 12 " T h ir ty-one and counting! " said Jay Springsteen in the Pabst AMA Classic winner's circle after he scored the 31st National victory of his career. The Harley-Davidson factory team rider was the night 's fastest qualifier, won the fastest heat, and then led every lap of the 20-lap feature on the 14 Delaware State Fairgrounds' half mile oval. Series points leader Ricky Graham finished second to all but lock up the lion 's share of the Winston Pro first half point fund payoff. With only next weekend's Loudon road race round and the following weekend's Knox vill e half mile left in the first half of th e season, Graham holds a 24 point lead over Springsteen , 123 to 99. "Un less th e boys in Milwaukee decide to bu ild a road ra cer for J ay to use at Loudon, we're home free," said Graham's tuner and bik e provider, T ex Peel. Visions of the $10,000 were already dancing in Graham 's and Peel's heads. Third at Harrington went to Texan Terry Poovey with Randy Goss and Ted Boody taking fourth and fifth . Lady Luck dealt promoterJay Milli gan a winning hand in that the race was run at all. Dark ominous clouds lingered over the area as practice got underway at 5 p.m. and rain began to fall with only the practice sessions and tim e trials for Jun ior riders, wh o were to compe te in a n invita tio na l race, com p leted. The program was delayed approximately two hours. Time Tria ls Wi th 48 slots open, only 41 Experts time trialed and the fastest of those was three-time Grand National Champion Jay Springsteen with a 25.454 second lap. Springer's time shattered the lap record at Harrington by over a half second. Previous record holder was Dave Sehl who logged a 26.022 in 1977. Rounding out the top fivequalifiers were Boody, Scott Parker, Poovey a nd Graham , all in the 25 seco nd bracket . Slow est qua lifier was Garth Brow. Brow waved off a 26.40 and then got o ut in the loose stuff on h is last qualifying lap and clocked a 27.470. battle for thi rd after winner Scott Parker and Lance Jones locked up the first two spots right from the start. This time around it was a pair of 44's fighting for third: National number 44, Alex Jorgensen, and 44G, Scott Adams. The checkered flag saw Jorgensen take th e transfer spot. Poovey led th e fo urth and final heat from start to fin ish but he had anxious mom ents as his engine started mi ssin g o n the sixth lap. A condenser wire had broken and was short ing out his Conley Motors sponsored XR750 Harley motor. Behind Poo vey all the way was Canadia n J on Co rnwell in second and Tim Mertens in third. Semis Heats Graham led pole sitter Sprin gsteen and the rest of th e field across the line at the end of th e first lap of th e first 10 lap heat, but from th ere on it was a ll Springsteen . Springsteen stre tched his lead to th ree seconds by checkered flag time and Graham was a secure second. Behind th e front running pair a furious battle took place for the third and last transfer position. Rookie Expert Tom Maitland grabbed the spot on the final lap over Team Honda's Scott Pearson and former Grand National Champion Gary Scott. Heat two was Boody's from start to finish with only Randy Goss, another former Grand National Champion, able to challenge. The crowd's attention was again directed to the figh t for third, this time between young Steve Hall and veteran Steve Morehead, who had won the Harrington National the past two years. Hall beat Morehead to the fini sh lin e to grab th e transfer spo t. The th ird heat produced another A light drizzle had started during the final heat and referee Charlie Wa tson and AMA dirt trac ker manager Bill Boyce cons ulted with riders who had participated in that heat to determine if vision was a problem. The gritty " soil" of th e Harrington oval adheres to face shields wh en wet. Told everything was alright, but considering th e threatening weather, it was decided to cut the semis from 10 laps to eight. Scott Pearson, as he usually does, got the holeshot on the first semi 's field and led Morehead, teammate and defending Grand National Champion Mik e Kidd, and Gary Scott across the line at the end of the first lap. Bu t after that it was all Morehead and the Findlay Flyer stretched out a lead that saw him win the race going away. Behind Morehead, Pearson and Kidd hooked up Scott to produce a figh t between a pair of Honda NS750 Sidewinders and Scott 's Harley-Davidson XR750. At the finish line it was Kidd over Scott and Pearson. But only Morehead earned a transfer to th e final.