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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126812
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Terry Poovey didn't w in any of the f ive events in the shortened series, but
consistent finishes gave him his third series title.
Jacksonville Half Mile w inner Ted Boody gets help from w ife Terri and
father-in-law Norm .McDonald in winner's circle.
Dayton~ Dirt
of Poov ey o n th e fifth lap an d held
h im o ff for th e win. Chandl er moved
into th ir d wh en teammat e Randy
G oss d ropped o u t with engine troubles on the ei gh th la p , an d recorded
his best fin ish of the season. Pete
H am es moved into second in th e
sta n d ings with a fourth a nd fas t qualifi er Ch ris Ca rr was fifth .
Bra d Furlong , of Centralia , IIIi·
nois, won the Junior fin al a hea d of
Mick ie Fontana a nd Robert Lewis Jr.
a nd th e Novice m a in went to Bri an
Bon esteel with Ran dy T urbe tt a n d
Eric Sassa ma n follow ing.
T he J acksonville race, orig inally
sche d u led for Frida y, March I, was
rain ed o u t a n d resched u led for
toni ght , Mar ch 5. The weather was
more coope ra tive and th e sta nds were
cl ose to ca paci ty a t th e sho rt halfmil e facility.
The 36 Novi ces ran th rough five
heat s to qual ify for th e two Ill-rider
semis wh ich would adva nce th e rid ers to the main. John Resso III took
th e first sem i on hi s H onda with
Turbett secon d and Crai g Est ell e
Track Series
JaxHM
to Boody
By Henny Ray Abrams
JACKSONVILLE , FL. MAR. 5
Ted Boo dy, on the Megacycle
Cams/College BikeShop Honda RS- 750, took over the lead
in th e Harley-Davidson Dirt
Track Seri es point standings with a
hard-fou gh t win o ver Terry Poovey
a nd Doug Ch andler in th e Expert
main event a t th e SupezSports-promoted J acksonville half-mil e at J ax
Ra cew a y. Boody , the 1984 series
winner, took th e lead from th e Gardner Racing/Shoei H arley-Davidson
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Ronnie Jones raises a clenched fist after his third consecutive Expert/
Junior short t rack v ictory at Memorial Stadium .
th ird. The seco nd sem i was won by
Bonesteel with Ron Bertrand seco nd
and Ro bert Dam ron th ird.
Turbett go t th e hol esh ot an i! began
to p u ll aw a y fro m the 10 ride r field at
the beginning o f th e 10 lap fin al , but
grad ua lly Bonesteel, o n th e House o f
P o wer/Mar io Bern ardin i Wo od Rotax , reele d him in a nd p assed him
a t th e halfwa y mark . Dam ron was
pulling aw ay from Bertrand and
Estell e wh en Sassam an mad e his mov e
a nd slid into third. Sassaman on th e
Tayl or White Racing Wood-Rolax
pressed for seco nd , but th e move was
a lilli e too lat e a n d he had to sett le for
third behind Bonesteel and Turbett.
Estell e and Damron took fourth and
fifth , respectivel y.
"T u rns three and four were tri ck y,
but I talked with Junior Dominic
Michaud a nd he was goin g lowhigh-low into three because of th e
ruts . I gave it a shot a nd it worked,"
sa id Bon esteel.
Brad Furlong proved ro be the best
o f th e 10 Juni or s from th e field of 65
th at had tran sferred to the fir st semi
with Rusty Rogers second. The second
semi wen t to Micki e Fontana with
Keith Gregoire a nd Ben Siudara close
behind.
- Siuda ra went do wn on th e fir st lap
o f th e fi na l a lo ng with Brad Furlong,
but, alt houg h Furlong mad e th e resta n , Siudara didn 't , a nd had to be
tak en to th e h osp ital for o bservatio n ,
Furl ong led th e restart with Fon tan a second, Grego ire third, and Lewi s
fourth . Gregoire slip pe d off th e dark
groove a t the halfway po in t lettin g
Ru sty Rogers and Domin ic Mich aud
by wi th Greg G atl iff ge lling past a
lap la ter. Furlon g , unfazed by th e
first la p mi sh ap, sped to the win wi th
Fontan a and Lewi s in lOW.
Pete H ames led th e tri o of himself,
Randy Goss a nd Steve Moreh ead in
th e firs t Expert semi . The tri o ran
a head of a separate battle for fourth
invol ving Chris Carr a nd Dan In gra m . Goss was using a low er line
but Hames was sticking o n th e groove
frus tr a tin g · th e Fr eddi e Spen cer
Ra cing/SuperTrapp rider. But coming o u t of th e last lap Goss slid
underneath Hames and hooked up
bett er for the cha rge to th e £lag winning by less th an a fool. Moreh ead
held 0 11I0 third ahead o f Carr, Hames
a nd the Tex Peel Racing mount of
T om Maitland.
T erry Poovey jumped in to th e lead
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of th e seco n d semi with Boody and
M.J. Sponsell er-sp onsored Rodney
Farris in third a head of Raben Crabbe
on th e Lan ca ster H-D a nd Goss'
tea m mate Dou g Chandl er. Farris wa s
sell in g up Boody o n th e h igh side
a nd went aroun d h im o n th e fifth
lap. A lap lat er Chandl er go t by, but
-Boody was sa fe in fourth. Poovey's
margin at th e end was three lengths
ov er Farris, with Chandler , Boody,
and Crabbe behind.
Once again in th e fin al, Poovey got
th e holeshot, but thi s time Boody was
heading forward a n d not backwards.
Ham es wa s third a nd Crabbe a surprising founh a hea d of Farris a n d
Goss. Goss moved up into third on
lap three wh ile teammat e Chandler
wa s having hi s probl em s gelling past
Crabbe. H ames held off Ingram for
sixth.
On th e fifth la p , Bood y drove
around Poovey for th e lead wi th Goss
on the move in third. T he three
began opening up some .brea th ing
room on Ch andler who fin allv worked
his wa y past Crabbe. On th e ninth
lap Goss' RS-750 began smoking
badly a n d he pull ed out whil e runn ing th ird.
" It just tied up tighter than hell ,"
tuner J erry Griffith s sa id . " It do esn 't
saun a too good."
Meanwh ile Boody wa s ga in ing th e
slig h test of margins on Poovey and at
th e checke red £lag h e had a two
len gth lead with Chandl er third by a
few feet a nd H am es fourth, a bo u t 50
yards back .
H ames had been h oping to do bet ter but sa id th at hi s G ardner, Griswold, Board Racin g H-D " had been
mi ssing a ll weekend. We've been tryin g to get th e mi ss o u t an d I guess
th at 's wh at we'll do wh en we go
home. I got a good sta n , but th e tire
wa sn 't workin g ver y well. "
Chandler said, " It was a typical
sta rt for me. Th e H arleys sh ould be
better on a tra ck like this , so we've
been tr yin g thin gs on th e half miles,
lik e su spension and chassis things.
There isn 't that much passing here
and I wa s surprised to co me from
wh ere I did. If I co uld have gotten
around Crabbe soo ner I might have
gotten Poovey at th e fini sh. "
" I got T erry down the back straigh t.
He was spinning co m ing out of two
a nd I got a beuer drive," Boody explained. " I was having a lot of trouble out th ere. It was slippery and I
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