Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

The pivotal moment: Randy Go.. ride. away while Ricky Graham .truggle. to re.tart after they cra.hed together. Go.. won; Graham wa. fifth. AMA Grand National Championship/Camel Pro Settes: Round 19 Goss bounces back in Santa Fen By Gary Van Voorhis HINSDALE, IL, AUG. 3-4 Randy Goss showed the drive of a champion with a gritty, never-give-up, come-frombehind ride in the Santa Fe TT National. Goss, involved in an accident with arch rival Ricky Graham at the beginning of the sixth lap of the 25lap event, tactfully picked his way through traffic to grab the lead from Mickey Fay with less than two laps to go and then take the win. Fay, riding the Harley-Davidson 500R of sidelined Jay Springsteen, finished second, a short distance behind teammate Goss. Rounding out the top three was Wood-Rotax-mounted veteran Alex Jorgensen. Terry Poovey, aboard a Honda, scored his best-ever finish in a TT National with a fourth. while Honda's Ricky Graham fought his way back from the accident with Goss which put them both down to post a fifth place finish. The action packed ride by Goss electrified the fans as few, if any, believed he could come back from the spill and win.. It was one week ago that Goss and Graham went into the DuQuoin Mile National tied at the top of the point standings. The Bubba Shobert appeal decision that moved Goss up to first in the Hagerstown Half Mile results, Graham's no points rideat DuQuoin, coupled with Goss' win and Graham's fifth tonight scrambled things around enough that Goss held the lead over Graham, 185 to 161, as the pair left the track. Time Trials 6 After a delay of nearly four hours to groom the track after an afternoon rain storm had left it under water, qualifying got underway at 9:30 p.m. Goss, warming up to the tacky track, cut the fastest qualifying lap with a 40.231 second time. Fay, going out late in thequalifyings,ession..bumped Graham from second spot with Pete Hames and Poovey rounding out the top five. Rick Weir, at 42.717, was the 48th and final qualifier as 62 Experts took time trial laps. Heats Goss took the lead off the lirie in the first of the four 10-lap heats from which the top three finishers would advance to the National. Poovey, not known as a strongTT rider, proved those who thought so wrong as he quickly moved into second to put some pressure on Goss. As the laps wore down, Poovey inched closer and for the final two laps shadowed Goss wiliting for a slip that never happened. Third, behind winner Goss and runner-up Poovey, went to rookie Expert Dan Bennett. That put the Oregon rider, who was riding a Megacycle/Knight/Red Line-sponsored Honda, into the first National of his career. Billy Herndon came within a bikelength of taking third from Bennett at the flag. The heat would prove to be the faMest of the night, giving Goss his choice of starting positions for the National. Ronnie Jones led the start of heat two, but Fay and his Bill Wernertuned Harley were in command for good by the end of the first lap. Steve Eklund, a double TT National winner and the holder of the one lap and 25 lap TT records at the Chicagoarea track, hustled past Jones for second on lap four. At the same time, Honda's Doug Chandler had his chain come off in the infield and he lost two laps before he got going again. Fay, winner o[ last year's TT National. at Santa Fe, led Eklund to the finish while Jones, the 1980 National winner, held 0[£ the last lap charge by Dan Ingram to take third. The third heat belonged to former Grand National Champion Graham. He rolled his factory Honda into the lead off the start and proceeded to stretch that lead and go on for an easy win. While Graham was sailing along out front, Jorgensen, on his Pioneer Trucking/Storz/Macedo Construction-sponsored Wood-Rotax, spent the opening laps of the heat race cutting his way through traffic after a seventh place start. By lap three, Jorgensen was into third via some slick maneuvering in the infield portion of the track. Mike Gilkey, aboard the Lloyd Schwartz-owned Yamaha, fell prey to Jorgensen's charge on la p fi ve and the top three were set. Jorgensen tried his best to close the gap on winner Graham, but fell short. Gilkey was a sa[e third. An erratic start on the first turn of the green light in heat four brought out the red flag. On the restart, holeshot artist Scott Pearson timed the light perfectly and led the [ield into turn one. Ted Boody was on Pearson's rear wheel with Jimmy Filice and Rich Arnaiz a heartbeat behind. The [ront four played rubberband for the first five laps until Pearson and Boody broke away and left Filice in a lonely third. Pearson continued to hold command and took the win with Boody in tow. Filice began to get pressure from Hames in the closing laps and on the final lap Hames got underneath him in turns three/ four. But Hames had built up too much speed and couldn't hold his line with the end result being Filice beating him to the flag for third. Semis Chandler, an alternate for the [irst semi, got into the [ield when two riders scratched. Scott Parker, eighth in his heat after a get-off, like Chandler was looking to take the win since only the victor in each of the two semis would go to the National. Ingram led [rom the start with Chandler, after a bad start, closing in the final laps. Parker took himself out o[ contention in a crash. Initially, Tim Mertens and Herndon had a duel for second until Chandler made their battle one for third. Chandler's night ended on the final lap when he challenged Ingram for the lead over the smaller of two infield jumps, hit a tire that was serving as a track boundary marker, and cartwheeled off the track. He hit hard, but was quickly up and then left the track for a nearby airport where he had a chartered airplane waiting to take him to Penns)'lvania for Saturday's Pocono Road Race National and then back to Chicago [or Sunday's Hawthorne Mile. Ingram and his Babe DeMay Harley went on to win and advance to the National. Hames was in command of semi two from the exit ofthe infield on lap' one to the checkered flag. He took advantage of a five-rider duel [or second, which was led by Jon Cornwell, to pull away to a comfortable margin of victory. Last Chance Qualifier Herndon finally put it all together in the LCQ to earn the last'ticket to the National. The Texan held command of the front running position from start to finish. Parker charged his way to second and was beginning to reel in Herndon when his third get-off of the meet ended his night. Junior National Chris Carr, aboard the Ron Wood Racing 560cc Wood-Rotax. began his tOlal domination of the Junior portion of the program in time trials when he qualified over 1.3 seconds faster than the next quickest rider. Carr added to his credentials as the top Junior on the circuit by winning his heat race by a margin o[ victory of 12 seconds - picked up in a short six lap race. The l2-lap Junior National was another runaway [or Carr. So much so, that he was wheelieing and waving to the crowd from the second lap on. "I guess it was just my night," was the understatement from Carr following his third straight Junior National victory. National The hour may have been after midnight, but there weren't any riders yawning on the grid for the National. Goss selected the grandstand pole position with Graham, Pearson, Poovey, Eklund and Fay alongside on' the front row of the 6/6/3 rider grid. Graham took command on the start, followed by Fay, Goss, Pearson, Poovey, Eklund and Gilkey with the rest o[ the field following in close order. A battle for the lead quickly developed among Graham, Fay and Goss with Goss moving to second with an infield pass of Fay on the third lap of the 25-lap race. Goss immediately began to close on Graham, hounding him throughout the fourth and fifth laps. As the pair approached the entrance to the infield on lap six, Graham lost the front end and slid down. Goss, right on his rear tire, had no place to go, hit Grahan and also went down. Fay alertly avoided the tangle and took over the lead while Goss and Graham struggled to untangle themselves and their bikes. "Ricky hit a slick spot and went down in sort of a slow motion thing," Goss would relate after the race. "I had to stand on his bike to get mine up and while I knew that was preventing him [rom picking his bike up, I said to myself, 'Hold on, Ricky, mine's first!' I had the clutch in when I went down and had kept the engine running. I didn't know what position I was in when I got back racing, so I just gassed it. I got out of shape a few times, but then I got it all together. " "I just wanted to make things interesting," quipped Graham later, but he wasn't smiling when he said it. Graham hurried to start his .bike with help from the Honda crew. They partially blocked the track and hampered a few riders, most noticeably Herndon. Graham got back underway in about 12th position. Fay, in a pre-race interview said he felt he would win the National for the second year in a row. He looked set to do just that as he quickly opened up a comfortable lead following the Goss/Graham collision. Behind leader Fay came Poovey, Eklund, Jorgensen, Pearson, Gilkey and Goss with Goss moving to fifth one lap later via a display of masterful passing in the infield. The positions remained the same through the 10th lap, although it was now a four-rider clump of Poovey, Eklund, Jorgensen and Goss following Fay. Goss was charging and onlookers were speculating as to just how high up in the running order he could possibly finish. On lap 14, the champ picked up two positions to move into third ahead of Jorgensen and Eklund and set his sights on Poovey, the only rider between himself and leader Fay. While Goss was on the move, Gril-

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