Doug Chandler, a 17-,..-o1li rookie, display. the style that put him in the winner'. circle. (Inset) Randy Go..
AHA Grand National Championshipl
Camel Pro Series: Round U
BooJrie fireworks at
Santa Fe ST National
By Gary Van Vooritis
Photos by Bert Shepard/Silver Shutter
HINSDALE, IL, JULY 22
Doug Chandler, in only his second National
start, became the first rookie Expert to win a
Camel Pro Series race in over two years when
he put in a superb ride in the 23rd annual
Chicagoland Shan Track. National at San~ Fe Speedway.
Honda Support pl"Ogram rider
Chandler of Salinas. oili£ornia.
8
at two months shy of his llkh binbday, is also oneohhe youngest arional winners.
.
To add to me signi 6C3nc:r ofrookie
dominance, T.). Houghton, another
first-year Expert. finished serond in
the National. hwas lhefirstsucb 1-2
rookie Expert (inish in lhe mrmory
o( many seasoned observers..
Third went to Randy Cass. whO is
making a very slrODg bid D his
second championship and riding
every event as if it was the last arion·al of the season and lhe ritJt was on
the line. Goss put in a briIIianti."; ~,
Fourm and fiflh places went lO
Steve Eklund, the 1976-78 triple
winner here, and Bubba Shobert
Notably absent from the Nalional
we.re defending Camel Pro Series
Champion Ricky Graham, who failed
to advance out of his heat race into
the semi and thus became an inslant
speClator, and Jay Springsteen, third
in the slandings going into the nighl's
event, who had a bout with his recurring stomach illness and leflme track
before practice Slarted.
The absence of Graham and Springsteen, coupled ~ith Goss' third and
Shobert's fifth-place finishes, served
to shuffle the top four in the slandings, with Goss breaking away from
last week's tie at the top with Graham
and eSlablishing a I!I-point cushion,
1951O 182. Shobert moved past Springsteen to mird in me standings with,! .•
161 to 156 point edge. Scou Parker,
the 1980 National winner at Santa Fe,
failed to make me National, but held
OulO fifth at 1!l2 points.
To say the program at Sanla Fe was
run in haste because of threatening
weather would be an underslatement.
Only one hour, 26 minutes elapsed
from the staging of the first heat to
the wave of the final checkered flag.
Credit for the lightly run program
goes to Duke Olliges, the AMA's
Central Region referee, and his crew,
plus the hardworking Maywood Muslangs M.C.
Qualifying
Texan Houghton, aboard his Nava
Helmets-sponsored Yamaha, took the
top spot in qualifying for the 6Q-rider
field with a time of 15.46] seconds.
Ervin Smith, Garth Brow, Jimmy
Filice and Sanla Fe regular Dave
Hebb filled out the lOp five.' Dan
Schmidt was at the other end of the
ladder and was me 60th qualifier.
One rider with an uncharacteristically poor qualifying run was Graham, who barely made it at 59th (astest. Graham, his left knee.rapped in
Ace bandages ,alter a. WI in pr~l,ice,
prior to the rain-out of the Wednes(
day night National Warm-up, was
a bit stiff although that wasn't the
problem. "We've had some gearbox
problems," said Graham aIler qualifying. "The transmission wants to
jump out of gear unexpectedly. The
key is making it lhrough tonight and
collecting a few points. If we can do
mat, the rest of the season should be
no problem."
In all, a field of 65 riders was on
hand.
Heats
By the halfway mark in the first of
six IO-lap healS, 1981-82 winner Alex
Jorgensen had pushed into the lead
and he then began to stretch it out'
over Houghton. Three-time winner
Eklund had slil1)ered through traffic
into third and was desperately trying
lO dislodge Houghton from second
since only the top two finishers would
go to the National. Can-Am rider
Jorgensen didn't budge from me lead
and neither did Houghton, leaving
Eklund to try to qualify from a semi.
Ervin Smim, on me Sure-Fire/Mike
Eades·sponsored Honda, and Chand·
Jer immediately went at it in me
