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/126636
when the heal's time of six minutes, 25.42 seconds was announced. Unofficial stopwa tches had cloc ked Springsteen in a qu icker time; en o ug h quicker th at some tho ugh t Springsteen sh o uld have been aw arded th e fastes t heat tim e a nd co nseq uen tly th e fir st choice o f sta n position for the fina l. " I was cheated ou t of fast hea t lime because the clocks were wron g ," p ringsteen sai d af ter the race . " I had the fast heat , but I was thi rd orr th e pole. Even the H onda g u ys had it by the ir clock s. We asked the referee a bou t ir, H e said it didn 't matter , they'd made th e decision already an d they wouldn 't change it." The first semi shaped up as a battle between National winners J im Filice, Toed Boody and Gary Scan. After getting by early lead ers Rich Arnaiz and Mike Garrison, the trio separated themselves from th e other riders and put o none of th e best sh ow s of th e night. Soon h ad the lead with Boody a n d Fi lice a lte rnating in second. Then, JUSt after the halfway flags .Filice.as he had done in h is heat race. went wide of the gr oov e and lost some space to Boody. Clear of th e threat from Fil ice , Boody set sail for Scott, Coming off the final tu rn, he p ulled a breast of Scan and sudden ly a 12-rid er , IO-Iap semi ha d turned in to a two-man drag race for the flag. With 11,500 fans j u m ping up to ge t a better look at the ac tion , Boody nipped Scott a t th e li ne by- n o more than a coup le of inc hes. Bo th tra ns ferred to the final. The seco n d se mi-fi na l p i rred Ekl un d agai nst factory Harl ey pilot Scan Par ker and a deter min ed Tim Menens. Mertens dis p layed better reflexes an d got the jump as the stan light g lowed green. Eklund. tryin g to make up time, forced hi s way to th e o uts ide and was rewarded by bein g pushed orr th e groove and mo ved back to six th. Park er settled down and passed Mert en s to tak e th e lead w h ile Pete Hames, a rookie hopin g 10 make h is second AMA National in ' as many weeks , was holding a steady third. Within a few laps. Eklund had moved back up 10 fourth and was pressing H ames. T he rookie finall y relinquished thi rd to Eklund after th e former Grand Nat ional Champion had tried several forceful passing techniques. With lime running out, Eklund closed on Mertens, seuing h imself up for a last-lap pass. Eklund pulled alongside Mertens, only to ha ve Mertens close th e door unceremoniously on him a nd hold 0010 secon d. Last Chance Qualifier If Eklund was to have a chance of hold ing on 10 hi s poin ts lead, he wou ld have to win th e La st Chance Qual ifier for the final transfer spot into th e National. Even though his co mpetition would come in th e form of some very eager riders , the cagey Eklund wa s the odds-on favorite 10 ta ke the win. Bu t wh en the rac ers were called 10 the line, Eklund was still in th e pits, h is cre w working feveris h ly on th e rea r wh eel of h is bike. T hey got things back together in sh ort order and Eklund sp rin ted ou t o f th e p its tow ard th e starrin g lin e. Unfortuna tely, he had gone over h is al lo ue d two-m inute grace period a nd an alte rna te was a lready in place. With th at, Eklu n d's night was over a nd he left to load h is van, kn ow in g in a few m inutes that h is ser ies point lead would be h istory. ( With Eklund o u t, th e fin al tr an sfer spo t was up for gra bs and former Honda rider Bill y Herndon showed he wa n ted it as he took th e lead o ff the stan wi th Rod Farris a nd Jim Fil ice in lOW . Farris, who had been rid in g ha rd a ll n igh t. knifed u n der Hern donro take the lead . Fi lice' (ried' [he same move on Farris, but once again slid high into th e loose din a bo ve th e groove. By th e tim e Filice got th e bik e reined in , he had dr opped five pl aces. Farris protected his lead and took th e last-place sta rring posit ion for the fin al even t. National Out o f the 17sta n posi tions for the Na tiona l, 13 were fill ed with p revious m il e winn er s representing a lmos t 50 wi ns on the long tracks. Fi fteen Harley-Davidsons fill ed the ran ks a nd th e two red, wh ite a nd blue facto ry Hondas took the other slots. From th e outsid e of ro w one, Graham charged hi s H arley into th e first turn 10 tak e th e lead. Shobert wa s second, Springsteen third and a stro ngstarring Morehead fourth. By the fourth lap, Springsteen wa s firml y entren ch ed in fir st with Shoben pressing from beh ind. Moreh ead was st ill in third and Poovey's H onda was a solid fourth. Theorderremained th e sa me until th e sevent h la p wh en th e rac e was black -flagged because Ted Boody's engi ne was throw ing a lot o f oil into the ai r and su bseq uen tly on to th e other rider's faceshield s. With Boody ret ired , th e race was resta rted in sin g le file to begin the eig h th la p . Sh obert was caught n a p pin g a t th e restart and co uld onl y wat ch helpl essly as Spri ngsteen an d Graham rocketed away into the lead. "When the green came on, I wasn't even in gear," Shoben said a fter th e race, "so I was sixth going into the firs t tu rn ." Spri ngsteen a nd G raham, racing inches apa rt, p us hed the mselves 10 a fai rly sizea ble lead unt il th e last few la ps when Sh obe rt a nd G oss began closi n g for their last -lap cha rge. T hen on th e w h ite- flag lap, with the four riders flash in g by th e start / finis h li ne, Graham was shown the black flag and a board with a number I cha lked o n it. Graham co n tin ued o n , later claiming th at he saw th e flag. but co u ld n ' t make OUt who it was for as he was in th e process of pulling out o f Springsteen 's dr aft at th e time. Going in to th e fin al turn , Shoben pas sed a surprised Springsteen 10 take the lead and held on for h is third National victory-all on miles. Springsteen got back on th e gas to salvage second and Goss o u tgu n ned Graham 10 finish in th ird. With Graham 's ousting from the top-four, Poovey was moved to fourth with Hank Scan fifth. After th e race, referee Hu tch in s expla ined wh y Graham was blackflagged . " We spoued G ra ha m o ili ng an d ga ve him th ree laps to mak e sure wh ere th e o il was coming from ," he sai d. " La st lap or first lap , the man was o ili ng, very defin itely oi ling. I wou ld ha ve love d to let Ricky race that last lap. I would have lo ved not to have had 10 make that decision. bu t it wa sn ' t fair to th e other rid ers. Ri ght or wrong , that's exactly wh at I ex p ressed a t th e rider 's meeting. . " No matter wh at decision you mak e you 're never going to ma ke everybody happy. If I ha d let h im ru n, I'd ha ve all th e other rid ers holl ering a t me," Naturall y, Gra ham d id n' t see it qu ite th at wa y. After spending some tim e in h is mot orh orn e cooling orr, he told hi s side of the a rgu men t, " If I was th rowin g o ff eno ug h oi l to be dan gerous, th en I ca n see a reaso n fo r th e black flag ," he sa id, " Bu t the oi l was n' t co ming ou t o f m y o il breather - that would have ca used a big mess. A drain p lug ca me loose an d th ere was a slig h t mi st whi ch was bu rn in g off th e exhaust pipes. It was ca using some bl ue smoke and they thought'i t was a big oi l prob lem . I look ed at th e ot her bikes' n u m ber p lat es and it - • .-4. lo-< 0- < (Top) Ricky Graham and Springsteen were this close for 16laps. (Middle) Randy Goss and Shobert waged their own battle until Shobert swooped to the win, (Bottom) Graham shortly before being black-flagged, didn ' t loo k li ke they had m uch o il o n th em . I don 't think it was un safe," Graham al so di sa greed wi th th e timing o f the black flag , saying that if the officials were goi ng to ta ke h im o u t of the race. the y sho u ld have thrown the flag when they first no ticed the oi lin g pro blem . "I do n 't th ink it was a ny mor e da ngero us to ru n o ne more lap. They said I ra n six laps -with a litt le bit o f o il co m in g o ut a nd then th ey say I can' t go o ne more mi le. We've protested, so we'll see wh at happens. " Gr aham was awarded l Zth position beca use he was not disqual ifi ed, sim p ly sto p ped 24 la p; into the race . According 10 referee Hutchi ns , G raham could h ave been disq ualified for ig noring th e bla ck flag , but th ere was so me quest ion a s 10 whether or not Graham co u ld have seen it. Results ·NATIONAL: 1. Bubba Shoben (H·D); 2. Joy Springsteen (H·D); 3. Randy Goas (H-D); 4 . Torry Poo""y (Hont 5. Honk Scon (H-D ); 6. Scon Parkar (H· D); 7. Gory Scon (H-D); 8. Rodney Fa"ia(H·D); 9. Keith Dey (H-D); 10. Ti m Menena(H·D); 11. St8\/1lHall (H-D); 12. Ricky Grehem (H·D); 13. Ste"" Morehead (H-D); 14. Alex Jorgensen (H· D); 15. Ganh Brow (H·D); 16. Mike Kidd (Hon); 17. Ted Boody . ·CAMEL PRO SERIES POtNT STANDINGS : 1. (TIE) Randy Goss/8ubba Shoben (47); 3 . Ste.e Eklund (46); 4. Terry Poo.ey(37); 6. AlexJorgenaen (36); 6. Ricky Graham (33); 7. M ickey Fey (28); 8. Eddie Lewson (26); 9. Jey Springsteen (24); 10. Scon Porker (21); 11. Kenny Rabens (20); 12. Ronnie Jones (19); 13. (TIE) Ted Boody/Scon Pearaon (16); 16. Ste""Wise(14); 16. RandyG reen( 13); 17. (TIE) Ste.e Gerve ia/Gary Scon (I I ); 19. (TIE) Da.id Aldana /Honk Scan (10). -Results/ Sta nding s Unofficial pending protest. II