Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

~ 00 ...... Jay S p rin g st e e n powered to his 34th National win at the Ascot Half Mile. Ra ndy Gos s finished second . but left Ascot w ith the series po int lead. the seco n d h ea t. T aking th e lead out o f a con gested turn one, th e 1975 Grand Na tio na l Champion soon stretched h is wa y to a 15-bikelength lea d, looking very smooth and con. sistent, Steve Morehead took second, not being able to gain any ground on Scott, but had a co m fo rtable interval over third-pl ace finish er Steve Eklund, whose pri vateer Harley-Davidson didn 't seem to be handling on par with th e leaders. Former Team Honda rider Bill y Herndon, now Harley-mounted, pulled into lead at th e start of heat three, but it was a ll fo r naught as Stephen Hall tangled with a number of riders as he tri ed to sli ce to th e inside of turn one a nd wern down , ca us ing a red flag. On th e restart it was Jeff Haney o u t in front , followed cl o sel y by Ascot sensa tio n a nd first-year Expert Pete H ames. Hall, back in the fray, was in third, just slig h tly a hea d of a h ard-charging Herndon. Mired in m id-pack were Honda teammat es Poovey a nd Kidd , both riding aggressively, but not making a ny headway on the lead ers. The ord er rema ined th e same unti l the n imh lap, wh en Hall 's Harley suc cumbed to m echanical failures and H erndon flashed by fo r third . The two H onda s, in fourth (Poovey) a nd fifth (Kidd), were relegated to th e semi- fi nals. Springsteen was th e obvious ch oice in th e fou rth h eat. Faced with scam op posi tion, he scooted around th e outside of th e pack in turn one to ta ke the lead, and from th at point on it wa sn't a matter o f who would win , but how much Springer would win by. Pitching his Harley over until the cases were dragging and almost scraping his muffl er -mounted number plate in th e dirt, the popular rider from Lapeer, Mich ., kept building his lead until h e was so far ahead th at he was entering turn one as secondand third-place rid ers Frank Word and Garth Brow were still in turn four. Unquestionably out of contention Iorrhe lead; Word a nd Brow waged a private battle for seco nd, with the less-experienced Word taking the nod over Brow, the fall 1977Ascot winner. The outlook for fans pull ing for Team Honda didn 't get any rosier as Hank Scott, usually one of the from AMA Grand National Championship/Camel Pro Series: Round 6 Same old song, Springer breaks the record By David Edwards Photos by Dan Mahony GARDENA, CA , MAY 7 Jay Springsteen was excited. The former three-time G ran d National Ch a m p io n had just sailed to a wire-to-wire win in the 20-lap Ascot H alf Mile National - his first dirt track victory of th e year - a n d he was ecsta tic. " It feels great, " . ' Spnngsteen w h ooped Into a microphone in th e winner's 6 ci rcle , " It feels as good as th e first ti me." Then , turning to th e crowd, h e yelled, " Is Harley-Davidson bad or what?" That Springer co u ld remember h is first win was surprising - this was his 34th Grand National win; one that continues to str etch th e record. On a night that marked the debut o f Honda 's much-heralded, Shadowbased RS750, being bad was good for th e Harley-Davidson factory team. Not only did Springsteen tak e th e win in record-shattering fashion , but teammates Randy Goss and Scott Parker came in second a n d third; the first 1-2-3 sweep for the Milwaukee factory team since th e 1978 Delaware Half Mile National. In addition , Parker blistered the well-prepared Ascot dirt in time trials and hi s h eat ra ce, also setting new tra ck record s in th e process. Springsteen, stymied by failing to • p1ak!1 t~~ !~~t tw~ N5Itip_n_a!.~ _t? e, ?! season, is n ow fourt h in th e poi nts, a nd with two miles a nd two half m iles com ing up in the nex t si x weeks, is lo oking forwa rd to add ing more po in ts to hi s total. Going to Sp ringfiel d, Ill. , how ever , it's teammat e Goss in th e points lead over Bubba Sh obert, 63-52. Time t rials I After some initial problem s in p ra crice with a too-slick turn three, Ascot 's track maintenance crew got o u t th e water truck and the graders and soon had the tra ck manicured into ch am p ionship form . Parker took full advantage of the sm oo th surface and charged his XR750 into the top time trials sp ot, posting a 21.79-second lap and clipping almost two-tenths of a seco nd off Hank Scott's o ld track record. Veteran co mender Steve Mor ehead put in the second-fastest time-trial lap at 22 seconds flat , and in a stro ng showing, J eff Haney was third-fast est at 22.12. The next three sp o ts were filled by es ta bli s h ed AMA stars Springsteen, Ricky Graham and Gary •• ISco~t. , .. . . . ., . . ... .... . .. ~ Team Honda, it s hopes bouyed by Terry Poovey's good showin g a t last month 's Sacramento Mil e, got some hints th at it might be a long even ing. Mike Kidd a nd new team member Hank Scott, aboa rd th e old NS750 s, a p pea red to have handl ing troubles a nd cloc ked lap times over 23 seco nds . Poovey, wh o had run as h igh as third in th e main even t o f th e non-N ational ha lf m ile at Ascot th e ni ght before (befo re pu lling off with br ak e trou bles)o n th e new RS750, was obvio us ly trying hard bu t co u ld do no better th an a 22.85-second lap, m ore th an a second behind Parker. Despite th eir less-than-hoped-for sh o win gs, all three Hondas made th e cut a n d were in th e heat races. Heats Scott Parker co n tin ued hi s recordbreaking wa ys in the first heat race, taking the lead from-the green light and keeping it to the che ckered flag. His time of 3:4 1.02 seconds would hold up as the fastest heat of the night and was 2.64 seco nds faster than the previous IO-lap record, set by Garth Brow in 1977. Defending Grand National Champ Ricky Graham, riding the low line, was second off the start and seem ed content to stay put, finishing a non-threatening distance behind Parker. Randy Goss moved up from a poor start to pressure thirdplace Rodney Farris, then inherited the last transfer slot when Ferris bobbled on lap eight. Veteran Gary Scott, whose only Ascot half mile victory came II years ago on a Triumph, was th e class of .1 L C 1 - ! J " 1 l II II et f : t J II," I J,";~ ; r I ~ > Il » I ' r rrr r r ;1 ' J I1 j~ . J ' ~

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