Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Brow and Boody lead Hook, Cornwell, Hames, Morehead, Jorgensen and Mertens in midfield aetion from the National. and went to the finish side-by-side in the closest finish of the day with the advantage, by an inch or two, to Morehead. Pearson and Mertens were joined by Gary Scott in a battle for the lead in semi two. Mertens took command on laps four through seven with Pearson following, and Scott on hold in third. Pearson and Mertens then engaged in some drafting strategy on the front straight to see who would get the advantage at the finish. Scott lost the draft of the front two in the final two laps. Mertens led Pearson through turn one on the final lap, holding off Pearson's challenge in turn three. However, Mertens couldn't contain Pearson's charge to the £lag and he came up two feet short at the finish line in second. Both transferred to tbe National. Last Chance Qualifier Hames didn't wait around in the LCQ. He led from start-to-finish although he was challenged in the late laps by Mike Hilley and then Arnaiz. It appeared Arnaiz might have the horsepower to catch Hames, but he coasted into the pits one lap from the end and Hames cruised to the win and the final ticket to the National. Junior National Chris Carr continued his domination on the mile as he collected his fourth straight National win and third consecutive victory on the mile. Following Carr to winner's circle for the second straight time in mile Nationals was Harley-Davidson of North Texas XR rider Duane Duvall. Roger Thompson, on another restricted XR 750, finished third on the Mike Mockbeeowned and tuned entry. Carr proved convincingly that his Wood-Rotax four-stroke 500cc single was the way to go. "A track like this gives a bike like mine an advantage," said Carr after the race. "I was shifting down to fourth going into turns one and three and that allowed me to get a better drive off the corners. I was upshifting about a third of the way' down the straights." "Chris is really fast, but I'm going to catch up with him one of these days," said Duvall. Thompson's third place came at the expense of rival Don Estep. The two engaged in a drag race to the finish from turn four and Estep pounded his handlebars in frustration as Thompson slipped by for third with scant feet to go. 8 National There was plenty of discussion on tire wear prior to the start of the National with proposals by riders ranging from a full 25 laps to running 12 laps and then stopping the race to change tires before having a second sprint, this time 13 laps, to the checkered flag. It was finally decided that 16 laps would be the maximum the race should go. In retrospect, that was nearly too long for a safe race. "The track surface is very abrasive and similar to running Louisville in the daytime," said Boody. "Louisville's surface would shred the hardest compound you could use in only 10 laps and that's on a half mile. This is a mile so the problems are more than doubled." Boody and Tex Peel hedged their bet and Boody's bike was shod on the rear with a Dunlop Sport Elite (DOT-approved street tire) for the National. Some riders, Terry Poovey among them, chose to alter their engine/ gearing combinations so as not to have as much tire eating acceleration corning orr the turns. Lap money, at $343 per in the shortened KK Motorcycle Supply/Cycle magazine-sponsored National, put $5500 up for grabs. A rider leading every lap could earn $700 more in lap m~>ney than the $4,800 the race paid to WIn. Spare rear tires were a common sight as the 17 riders and crews made their way to the grid. The Hawthorne course, two long, long straights joined by short, tight turns, has the finish line at the end of the front straight rather than in an area near the middle. Thus, an increased advantage to the riders behind the pack leader in a drafting situation. Graham led at the end of lap one and the race was on. Shobert, Goss, Poovey, Chandler, Filice, Parker, Brow, Boody, Hook and Cornwell followed in a string. Shobert challenged Graham on lap two and then took the"lead on lap three, sweeping past as the field headed into turn one. Goss and Poovey were engaged in a battle for third with Chandler ahead of a Parker/Filice duel followed by a similar one between Brow and Boody. Goss swooped into the lead enter, ing turn one to begin lap six. Graham had led across the start/finish line with Goss holding on the gas a fraction of a second longer. Graham stormed back to first on the back straight with Shobert zipping by both at the end of the lap. By lap eight, the halfway point, the top three had broken away from the rest of the field and established a good lead. Poovey was beginning to feel heat from Chandler with Filice in fifth ahead of Parker as Boody led a six rider fight for eighth. Shobert, Graham and Goss traded positions at will all over the track with Goss letting everything hang out in order not to lose the draft of the Hondas. The electrifying battle, conducted full tilt on rapidly wearing tires, was a masterful display of racing technique by all three. On lap 10, Poovey made his move to reel in the leaders and closed momentarily on Shobert, getting close enough to mount a challenge before dropping back. Parker was the first rider to greatly reduce his speed after realizing his rear tire was giving him little or no traction and was worn to a frazzle. He slowly drifted backward. H is tire blew just after he took tbe checkered flag. Chandler and Filice were moving toward the front and the two were right on Poovey's rear tire on lap 13. Boody was reeling in Parker for seventh with Brow and Hames following. Jorgensen led a pack containing Cornwell, Pearson and Hook, with Mertens, Morehead and Hank Scott behind. Poovey retired on lap 14 with a broken engine. His luck was both bad and good since a check of his rear tire showed it was totally worn out. Up front, the battle raged among Goss, Shobert and Graham in whatever order you like depending on their position on the track. Goss led the start of the final lap, but slowed as he exited turn two and Shobert and Graham moved past. Shobert led into turn three and of( turn four, but didn't hold off Graham's charge and came up about two feet short at the finish. Go.ss was 10 bikelengths behind. Poovey's retirement made tbe Chandler/Filice battle one for fourth and Chandler came out on top of that. Boody took sixth while Hames held Jorgensen at bay for eighth. Cornwell and Pearson rounded out the top 10. The Latest Poop "I worried a lot about the tire problem," said Goss. "I knew Ricky was having problems because he was slipping around in the turns. The groove was quite narrow and if you slipped off into the powder it was all over. I slowed a bit on the final lap to play it safe." "I thought I had enough steam to hold off Ricky at the finish," said Shobert. "I guess I played it a bit too careful on the final lap in turns three and four. We were really running close together out there, but we never touched." "This has to be one of the closest races on a mile I've ever been in," said Graham. "There was a fine line between going as fast as possible and still being able to stay on the groove. When you run that close together you have to trust the other riders. We all knew what we were doing. Nobody was going to make a foolish move because one slip and we would all have been up in the dust of( the groove." • Results The California State Senate confirmed the appointment of William Briner as Director of the State Parks and Recreation Department on August 6. The vote was 21 to 20; off-roaders in Sacramento say that tha closeness of the vote was indicative of OHV enthusiasts' disatisfection with Briner's recent stewardship of the Department. 16·LAP NATIONAL: 1. Ricky Graham (Hon); 2. Bubba Shobert (Hon): 3. Randy Gosa (H·D); 4. Doug Chandler (Hon); 5. Jimmy Filice (H·D); 6. Tad Boody (H·D); 7. Pete Hames (H-D); B. Alex Jorgen..n (H· D); 9. Jon Corn_II (H·D); 10. Scon Pearson (H-D); 11. Garth Brow (H·D); 12. Tim Mertena (H·D); 13. SIeve Morehead (H·DI; 14. Hank Scon (H-D); 15. Peter Hook (H·D): 16. Scon Parker (H-D); 17. Terry POOWl'/ (H·D). TIME: 10 min.• 1.763 aeeo. AVERAGE SPEED: 95.71 mph. 12-LAP JUNIOR NATIONAL: 1. Chria carr (W·R); 2. Duane Duvall (H·D); 3. R_Thompson (H·D); 4. Don Estep (H·D); 5. David Miller (H·D): 6. Ken May· nard (H·D); 7. Mike Arthur (Rot); B. Chad Felicio (W·R); 9. Tim Ha"""on (H·D); 10. Monte Hill (H·D); 11. Joel Green (H·D); 12. Brad Furlong (C·A). TIME: 7 min.• 48.11 B aeeo. AVERAGE SPEED: 92.284 mph. AMA GRAND NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP/ CAMEL PRO SERIES: 1. Randy Goss (198); 2. Ricky Graham (181); 3. Doug Chandler (144); 4. Tad 800dy (138); 5. Scon Parker (135); 6. Alex Jor· gensen(108); 7. Bubba Shobert (1 OS); 8. Terrypoov· ev (80); 9. Mike Baldwin (77); 10. Steve Morehead (74); 11. Pete Hames (71; 12. Jimmy Filice (56); 13. Scon Pearson (551; 14. Hank Scon (541; 15. (TIEl Steve Eklund/Gary Scon (48); 17. Wes Cooley (471 18. Rich Schlater (421; 19. Kanny Roberts (401; 20. Jay Springsteen (39). JR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP: 1. Chris Carr (249); 2. Don Estep (165); 3. Duane Duvall (147); 4. Roger Thompson (1381; 5. Mike Arthur (106); 6. David Miller (841; 7. Chad Filicio (72); 8. Randy 8ird (52); 9. Jim Teves (42); 10. Robert McDonnell (39). 12-LAP JR NATIONAL TI: 1. Chris Carr (W·R); 2. David Miller (Honl; 3. Mike Arthur (RotI; 4. Bob Russell (W-RI; 5. Chad Filicio (W·RI: 6. Jeff Jones (Vaml; 7. Monte Hill (Hon); 8. Bruce Vought (C·A); 9. Louis Gerencer (H·D); 10. Robert Lewis (Rotl; 11. TIm Parkens (Yam); 12. Wade Csmlin (Yaml. (Continued from page 2) IN MEMORIAM: AFM racer Joe Ghadiri died late Thursday in the intensive care unit of Santa Rosa Community Hospital after colliding with another rider in turn three at Sears Point Raceway on July 29. Cards and letters can be sent to hiS family c/oAFMNorth, 1I34Crane,Ste.F-6, Menlo Park, CA 94025. A few issues ago we reported that three American motocroasers Phil Larson. Eric Eaton and Eric McKenna - would be going to Europa for three final500cc Motocross Grands Prix. Only Larson made the field in the July 22 round at Hawkstone Park in England, after the other two riders suffered minor injuries before the race began. Although Larson didn't place in the points, he was doing onehanded leaps over a double jump that only five other riders were able to clear. Dave Thorpe (Hon) won the August 5 500cc MX GP in Femme, Belgium, with a I-I score, while Andre Malherbe (Hon) finished second overall after a 2-3 day. Georges Jobe was third overall with a 4-2. Malherbe leads the championship chase over Jobe, 346 to 325. Thorpe holds third al 309. One round remains in the series. 1979 500cc World Motocross Champion Graham Noyce sent shock waves reverberating through his native England when he announced his retirement on July 23. After leaving KTM midway through this season, Noyce had picked up a ride on year·old works Hondas, but then he missed the British GP and made the annoucement. Noyce was quoted by Britain's Trials and Motocross News as saying, "I sat down late last week and realized I was going to the GP at Hawkstone without any real chance of winning. I decided that it was time to pack it all in." Sam McDonald came from the seventh row to win the Pocono F-2 race on the RS250R Honda v-twin. McDonald's bike suffered an ignition failure in his heat race, forcing him to start from the back; he was 12th on the first lap, f"1fth on the third lap and took the lead ~n the fourth lap. The overall win at the August 5 125 MX GP in Kuopio, Finland, wem to Michele Rinaldi (Suz) by virtue of wins in both motos. Corrado Oaddii (Cag) finished second overall with a 2-5 tally, with Jeff Nilsson third with an 11-2 score. Maddii retained his point lead over Rinaldi, 299 to 269. The point standings in the AMA Formula One Championship Series after the August 4 Pocono round are as follows: 1. Mike Bald· win (77); 2. Wes Cooley (47); 3. Richard Schlaeter (42); 4. Kenny Roberts (40); 6. Randy Renfrow (38); 6. Doug Brauneck (36); 7. Art Robbins (23); 8. Nick Richichi (22); 9. (TIE) Randy Mamoia/Freddie Spencer (16).

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