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Q(") 00 0') ~ r~ (1) ..c o .... u o Har!ey-~avidson riders Ricky Grahem and Jay Springsteen congratulate each other on their 1-2 Ascot Half Mile finishes. Defending National pion Graham dominated the race. the lest west coast National of 1983. setting new records in qualifying. his heat race and the finai. AMA Grand National Championship/Camel Pro Series: Round 32 Graham cracks the record book at Ascot By Dale Brown Photos by Dan Mahony/Wizard Racing Photography GARDENA, CA, SEPT. 24 On the 25th anniversary of the Ascot ~alf Mile National, defending Grand National Champ Ricky Graham went on a Shermanlike march through the track's record book en rouLe LO a wire-to-wire win in the 20-lap National. Graham set one-, 10- and 20-1ap records as he Look the win to keep his 6 hopes alive in the title race. However, dogging his heels through the race were Harley-Davidson factory teammates Jay Springsteen and Randy Goss, both of whom still lead Graham in the point standin/!;s. Goss, who was actively challenging Graham for the lead until his right footpeg broke off, now has a 27-point lead in the standings over Springsteen, 279-252. Graham's win boosted him into third with 249. The runnerup in points coming into Ascot, Bubba Shobert, had a variety, of U'ou- bles and could only manage a 12th for 246 points. Goss is now in the position of being able to clinch the number one plate with a win or runner-up fimsh at the Springfield Mile on October 2. This was Graham's first win at Ascot, and the first half mile National win at the facility by a Californian since Alex Jorgensen did it in 1978. From the winner's circle, Graham said, "It seemed like we'd always make liule mistakes here, the wrong changes. Tonight, though, we didn't change a thing after we set the records and everything worked out fine." Auendance at the ].C. Agajanianpromoted event was listed as a packed 9,244: - • , Time trials The Easyriders/Shoei/CastollTex Peel/H-D/Wiseco/ND-sponsored Graham gave an indication of what kind of night it was going to be when he wiped out the existing track record of 21. 79 set earl ier this year by Scou Parker. Graham set himself well clear of the field with a 21.41. A surprise second ("I think my best half mile qualifying before was an eighth") was Honda's Mickey Fay, riding one of the four RS750s. Fay turned in a 21.820 to just barely beat out Springsteen's 21.824. Goss took the remaining pole position with a 21.84. In the fastest field Ascot had seen, six riders w€re in the 21-second bracket, and only two of the 46 riders making qualifying runs missed the 22-second category. Heats Graham shot out in front of the first heat immediately, and for the remaining 10 laps, put nothing but real estate between himself and the field. Steve Eklund, Bubba Shobert, Tim Mertens and Ted Boody were the initial followers, but the baule over.the two remaining transfClTssoon ChamJ became a three-way fight between Eklund, Shobert and Boody. Eklund was pressured but never passedufor second, but Boody took third dray from Shobert with a turn-three pass on the seventh lap. After that ShCilOert fell back a bit and the top four positions were set. With a time of three minutes, 39.79 seconds, Graham lopped two seconds off Parker's previous record. Under the heading of "Leader, laps 1-10," Honda's Terry Poovey matched Graham's performance, although his time was almost lour seconds slower as he took the second heat. Teammate Fay trailed him at the end of a lap, followed by Don Howard, Billy Scou and Rookie. of the Year Doug Chandler. Scou rook third on the second lap, but by the halfway point he was being threatened by Chandler. Chandler passed Scou on the sixth lap and his momentum almost carried him pasLFay on that same lap. The rookie grabbed second for good on lap eight. Scou stayed up with the leaders, but his fourth didn't transfer him to the National. Springsteen was the third rider to lead his heat start to finish, as he maintained a steady distance over Honda's Mike Kidd. Oh-so-hot-th~se past-few-races Jimmy Filice ran third the first half of the heat, but rookie Matt Rozowicz made his presence known on the sixth lap with a turntwo pass of Filice. Filice closed it up on Rosowicz once on the eighth lap, but it was for naught and tbe recent San Jose Mile winner was Left to try again in the semis. In the fourth heat Randy Goss made it four in a row for wire-to-wire heat race winners. Behind him was