Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

AMA Grand National Championshipl Camel Pro Series: Round 8 . Jorgy jumps to San Jose short track win By Da le Brow n Phot os by D an M ah o ny SAN JOSE, CA, MAY 21 Alex "Jorgy" Jorgensen became the first multiple winner of the 1983 AMA/Camel Pro Series' when he swept his Can-Am into the lead midway through the 25LIap final and . I went on to win the inaugural running of the San Jose Short Track National. Jorgensen fin. . ished 10 fro~t of two Texas terror s, Kaw asaki rider Bubba Sh obert and Tea~ Honda 's T erry Poov ey.. Th e wm by th e Stockt on, Calif., rider netted him a boost in th e p o in t standi ngs whe n points leader Randy G ? SS finish ed sixt h a nd runn er-up Ri ck y C:;raham was well back at 10th . Accordingl y, Alex tha n ked Coors, P ion eer Trucking , jorg( s Cycle a nd Megacycle Cams for th en help. T he race, delayed two week s by t?e weather, was run under clear ski es before a mod est crowd of a bo u t 5000. Th e track looked good in practi ce, but devel oped ruts a n d lat er became slic k wh en m oi st ure work! .d its way to wards th e su rface as th e mght wen t o n. . ' . . Afterfall m g on bad n rnes at Spr ingf!eld, j ay Sp ri ngsteen s.a w hi s bri lha~tlry for a hea.trace w.m end on th e white fla g lap with a seized mo tor. 6 Tim e t rials Onl y 50 rid ers made a n atte m p t 10 qua lify, so all got into th e 60-ride r fiel d. For the first ti m e in recen t . memory, a Rookie Ex pe rt clocked fast time. Northern Ca lifornia 's Don H o ward p ushed his Yamaha arou n d the ova l to record a 17.336; an eyeblink q uic ker tha n th e 17.393 reco rded by Hous ton short trac k wi n ne r Poov. ey. Another northern Cal iforn ia favo rite, jimmy Fil ice, posted th ird fastest time ahead of Sh obert, j ay Springsteen and Rick y Graham. Heats I Tht; first :.t o-la p per sa": .Ho~ard , I ~IOOnch erforfastest quahf1er,~ump mto the lead. That lasted unti l th e second turn, wh ere jorgensen came roaring aro u nd th e o u tside to tak e over. Take over j orgensen did, keeping th e lead for th e remainder o f th e race as H ow ard hung on for second. Third was a th ree-way battle between Daniel Moore, Mike Inderbitzen an d Rod Spe ncer, before Spence r dropped ou t at th e midway po int an d Keith Da y took h is place. With jorgensen and H oward well ou t in front an d National-bound, Moore eventually came up with th ird over Day a n d . Inderbitzen . Yam aha-m ounted Mark Key ca me out of th e h ol e wi th blood in his eye to start th e seco n d heat , but Poovey m ad e experience cou n t and had th e lead a t th e en d o f th e fir st lap. Ri ch Arnaiz an d h is Ca n -Am follow ed Poovey th rough 10 seco nd , a n d the two promptl y di sappear ed . As Poovey stretched ou t dis ta nce on Arnaiz, Arnaiz did th e same o n Key, and the front two were n ot threat ened in their tr ip to th e Nati o nal. Key felt some pressure fro m T ea m H onda 's cagey veter an , Mik e Kid d , a nd from Orego n 's Barry Pelkey. but in th e en d th at was th e order o f fin ish. He at th ree sa w H onda rid er T ed Bood y first ou t of the gate, but o n ly thi rd out ofturn fou r on the same lap as T im Mert en s, also H onda-mounted , and Kawasa ki pi lot Pete H ames fla sh ed by: Bood y di dn ' t ca re for th e . trea tm ern , an d p assed bo th back o n the second lap, but th en went hi gh in turn two and dropped off the leaders' pa ce. Mertens enjoyed only one more lap out front before Hames, one of this year's leading rookies, went past a n d took over for the duration . Thirdpl ace Boody got int o a confrontation with Yamaha rider jimmy Filice th at wen t 10 Filice on th e sixth lap. Filice's mom entum carried him not onl y by Boody, but by Mertens as well to p ut the form er Yamaha factory rider in to th e Nati on al. Fil ice's momentum was such th a t he ca me right up o n H ames on th e last lap, but ran out o f tim e. Boody al so was a last-lap cha rge r, on ly his effon netted him a pass of Mert ens a t th e fin ish line th at was almost too close to cal I. A red flag wh en two riders fell in th e first turn of th e fourth heat negated Sh ob ert 's excellen t stan . However , when th ey tried it again Shobert did it aga in , trailed by Rodney Farris an d Randy Gr een . They sta yed with Sh obert for two laps, only ' 10 see th e Texan pull away. The co m petition betw een Farris on th e Kawasaki and Green on th e H onda was th en jo ined by Scott Parker on th e factory HarleyDavidson. They got into it for a coupl e of laps, wh il e Sh obert mounted a three-quarter s o f a stra igh tawa y advantage. At first Farris was able 10 get som e di stance o n Green and Parker, o n ly 10 be reeled in aga in. It ended with Farris in second and Green passing Parker down th e back stra igh t on th e last lap to 10 tak e th ird. It wa s the fifth hea t th at gave th e modest cro wd of spec tators th eir mon ey's worth . H onda 's Mi ckey Fay g ot o u t of traff ic ea rly wh ile H arl ey' s j ay Spri ngs teen was a little bottled up and took two la ps to break into th e top three. Wh en Sp ri nger ca ugh t Fay o n lap four,wha t fo ll ow ed weresixof the most en joyable lap s in dirt trac k. The two exch an ged p laces a t least once a lap, with Fay working the inside line and Springsteen doing his magic on the outside. With two laps 10 go, the pair came across the finish lin e side by side. but with one la p to go they went across the finish li ne just as Springsteen's motor seized and he coasted off the track. Fay was left to win the heat by himself. ahead of Honda-mounted Garth Brow . Rob Ely and Rick Hocking finished 3-4. The last of the heats featured a holeshot by Honda-mounted Jeff Haney, who led the first two laps. When Haney bobbled going through turn four, Ricky Graham and Randy Goss took advantage of the opportunity and put their Harley-DavidSons into first and second. Graham's number-one-plate-bearing machine stayed in the number one position through lap six, before Goss got underneath Graham in the second turn a n d p assed him for good in turn three. The two stayed that way for their tickets to th e National as thirdplace Haney led home Stephen Hall and the rest of th e pack. Semis After the first start was red-flagged for violations of the starting code (no one was sent to the. penalty line, though ). Tim Menens grabbed the holes hot. At th e end of the first lap. however, Mertens was fourth behind Mink Key, Dan Moore and Mike Kidd. Key led for th e first four laps as Kidd, Moore a nd then Ted Boody sw itched second around on each hip. Then Boody led two laps with Kidd . trailing Key. Kidd, whose experience made up for his still-sore wrist. made his move with four laps to go and went from third to first in one swoop. Mertens got untracked a nd moved to second. almost catching Kidd at the end, but there was only one transfer to the National. Boody a nd Key followed Mertens to the Last Chance Qualifier. Former champ Steve Eklund. feeling poorly as a result of a run-in wi th a tree wh il e cow trailing two weeks before th e event, got as high as fourth in the sem i before pulling off th e track. The second semi also featured a red flag on the first ' start as one rider bobb led in the first turn and Rod ney Sullivan got caught in the confusion and crashed. Sullivan made the 'restart as jeff Haney repeated his ea'rlier holeshot. Rookie of the Year points leader Randy Green . on a Honda. passed Haney and led a t the end of the first lap over H aneyvStep he n Hall and Scott Parker. Parker spe n t the second lap in third, then th e rem aining laps in the lead. stretching out his margin over G reen . H all and Haney to the checkered flag . Onl y one posi tion remained open for the National.

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