Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

........ Rod Farris' thi rd-p lace ride came apart when his foot stuck in a hole. almost knoc!,ing him off the bike, He saved it. finished fifth. found to be broken and he couldn' t race. So he rode with th e pain . as best h e cou ld. which turned o u t to be pretty good indeed . Steve Morehead led th e fourth heat . riding as a teammateto Jimmy Filice on on e of two Bayland Racing Harleys prepped and fielded by Eddie Adkins in partn ership with Ja ck Sturgis, tun ed b y Adkins and Denn is Towne. Just behind Moreh ead ca me Sho- . bert, Farri s a nd T om Maitland o n a Tex Peel H arley lik e Parker's. Young Farris passed Shobert and held him off for a co u p le o f laps: th en Sh obert sta rte d to move a nd passed fir st Farris. th en Morehead, running it in low to m ake th e pa sses immediatel y aft er a n no u nce r Rox y Rock wood to ld the a ud ie nc e th at Shobert's low lin e could o n ly work enter ing turn o ne and tha t Shobert co u ld n ' t d o a ny thing wi th th at lin e in tu rns th ree a nd four. By the last lap hobert was clea r o f the battl e behind h im; Farris was just ahead o f Morehead . who was stro ngly cha lle ng ed by Ronni e J ones a nd Maitland. In th e end. tho ug h . Shoben. Farris a nd Moreh ead made it directl y in to th e fin al ; th e rest wer e rel egated to th e sem i-f in al s. ". Semis and Last Chance Qualifier Rog er Th ompson won th e fir st se m i-fina l. beating Land; Filice led the second sem i for tw o turns before Carr and Maitland blew by o n th e ba ck stra ig h t. Maitland worked a high -Iin e a ro u nd the turns, while Carr staved lower . with Fili ce a nd Jones just behind. Fili ce co u ld g ain so me time into the turns. but lost it and more co m in g o ff the turns; Maii la nd pull ed a way from Fili ce a nd Jon es and m ov ed right up to Carr. whose bik e still sh ow ered s parks from the rear brake. Maitland m ade hi s move at th e end o f th e race. driving by out of turn four and gellin g th e last transfer to the final. Carr won th e Last Chan ce Qual ifier. beating J ones a nd Fili ce by a su bsta nt ia l margin ; Land ran secon d for a couple o f laps before Jones, then Filice: worked past. Junior National Brian Atherton (R o n Wood/Perry's H -D! Ara ilHi-Point/Stump In s.! Kal -Gard/NHI ) won th e first six-lap heat race of the Junior National o ver Yamaha 750 rider Curtis Cannon . Aaron Hill fini shed third, Heat number two was a run away for Winki e Freitas on hi s Radial Four Valve Honda 500, Bruce J ohnson pil ot ed hi s Harl ev across th e lin e in second. a head o f Don Roberts. Shell Specialties-sponsored Ca n non ,gdll the/hole~hoain the mai nl trniled by Frei tas: Atherton was fourth off the lin e. Going down the back stretch. Atherton motored past Cannon and Freitas to take over th e lead going into turn three. But he went in a lillie faster than he wanted to and had to let off. and Cannon got the lead co ming out of turn four. The Wood Rotax rider regained th e lead on th e front straight, Atherton was ridin g th e high line around Ascot 's halfmile o va l. and Cannon was trying th e in side for th e en tire race. Freita s (Da ve Bird/Knight Frames/Shoei / Blendza II/Hi -P ain t/Su p erTra pp/ Carlisle) was cl ose in third as th e leaders pulled a way from th e pack . At the fini sh . Atherton held th e lea d. with Cannon in second a nd Freita s third . A di stan ce back . Roberts a nd Ted T a ylor rou nde d o ut th e to p five. Final " Every th in g 's working rea l good," sa id fast qualifi er C ha nd ler as h e wa lked th e track before th e start of th e fin al rac e. " T h e o n ly bad thin g about making it (to th e final ) out of yo u r heat ra ce is that yo u d on't g e t an y m ore tra ck time. You just get to watch , sec what everyo ne else is doing. " No w I'm just hoping to get o ff th e line g ood, in th e top th ree. and just g o from th er e." Chandl er didn 't get hi s wi sh, but had th e next best thing - h e was fourth co rning o u t of th e seco nd turn , behind leader Pearson . Shobert a nd H am es. H ames bobbl ed and ra n w id e in turn four a n d Chandler wa s o n h is wa y - Chandler was o u t front bv th e end o f th e fir st lap. Shobert went undern eath Pearson enter ing turn three on th e third lap, passed him exiting turn four. a n d th e order wa s Chandler-Shobert -P earson : rapidl y-gainin g Boody wa s now fourth , Boodv was o n the m ove ; he. too wa s dO\~'n low o n the line that Rock wood sa id wouldn 't work. "After th ey dragged the track (before th e final ) th e bottom (o f th e tra ck ) sta rte d d ry ing out," Boody would ex p la in later , "a nd I h ad it in m y mind th at it probabl y would dry o ut and get fast d own th ere lik e it wa s in pra ctice. There was so much traffic up tOP that th e only wa y I could TUn next to them was go low to the bottom. Next thing I knew I was passing guys and then I ca ug h t Chandler. " Exactly. Boody moved up. gaining. gaining. gaining a bit a t a time; fin ally he was right o n Chandler's rear wheel . right th ere. Meanwhil e . Fa rri s ca u g h t a n d passed Pea rson . th en Sh o bert; Pearso n a nd Shobert battled for fo u rt h, wi th G o ss a n d H am es j us t behind . Sh o bert led Pearson , th en Pearson p asse d Sh ober u privateer rH onda r\IS. Chandier. Boody and Pearson (from left) spray champagne as Miss Camel ducks out of the way. All three rode Hondas. works Honda. and by th e halfway point Pearson looked like he was g o ing to stay in front of Shobert , with a huge gap before th e second pack led bv Maitland and Morehead and inciuding Scott and Carr. Springsteen was last . having pitted so Chmiel could re-install a spa rk plu g ca p th at wa s kn ocked off b y a rock o r a no ther bik e o r a kn ee o r whatever . Springsteen was o n th e gas, ca tch ing last pl ace a nd passing , moving up, ga in i ng. Pearson ca ugh t Farris and chall enged; Shobert wa s behind , a lo ne. Chandler a nd Boody lo oked preuv eve n arou nd th e tra ck, neither g a in in g a ny ad va n tage o n th e oth er, the di stan ce short a nd co n sta nt. around a nd a ro un d a nd around aga in . Bo od y was right th ere in the final two laps; Pearson was just as cl ose to Farris. And Bo od y went past into turns one and tw o a nd th e last lap led down th e back straight , led into turn three; Chandler set up a tremendous drive o u t o f turn four and went for it , ra m m ed Boody hard eno ugh th at bystander s th ought Chandler would kn ock Boodv o ff th e lin« a nd bull hi s ' \'ay pa st to win : but Boody held hi s grou nd , won, a nd rock a ro u n d th e tra ck sta nd in g o n th e pegs, back a rc hed, fist in th e a ir. vict ori ous. Pe arson was third; Farri s ca ug h t hi s Ioot in a h ol e o n th e la st lap a nd nearlv cras hed, crossed the line fifth . pull ed i nto th e p its a nd fell o n th e g rou n d, rollin g in th e d irt a nd h olding h is leg . hi s steel sh oe as ke w. An AMA o fficia l ca m e o ver to see if Farri s was hurt , a n d just a s qui ckl y as he had fallen to th e ground he was up o n his hands a nd kn ees a nd beating th e din w ith his hands and cu rs ing: th en he wa s sta n d ing up a nd rattlin g o ff d et ails o f hi s .race a n d laughing with hi s fri ends in a n exci ted voi ce. pain apparentl y forgotten . "It looked like those gu ys had a hell of a ra ce ." sa id Sh obert. subdued in th e H onda pits, " I just couldn't ca tch 'e rn." Shobert said he saw Boody goin g low . but thought to himself that s ure e no ug ri if he tried it , he'd fall d own . T eam H onda dirt tra ck m an a g er G en e Rom er o qui ckly pointed ou t to Shobert th at he had ga ined poi nts a nd now had a n even bi gger ad va ntage ove r seco n d-i npoints Parker , who fin ish ed 11th. Rom ero tol d Shobert he rode a sm art .,...a(te. ) " C j 1 1 ~ J ,. . 1 " .( ~ r l JQ l Rockwood handed P earson th e mi crophone and invited him to list his incredible number of sponsors (P ea rso n co m p la ined last week that all his sponsors weren 't li sted in the o ff ic ia l race program s for AMA even ts). Even Pearson co u ld n' t rernem ber all his sponsors but named qu ite a few anyway, including Circl e Bell. Shoei. Super'Trapp. Hap j ones, :\Iegacyd t', Carlisle, Knight , Hi -P oint, NO , Pro Fuel. T subaki, Red Line a nd o thers. "I kind o f bobbled in som e ruts g oing into turn o ne th e last lap. " sa id Chandler. " T he kn obs o n m y tires ch u n ked o ff. I was tr ying to run it in hot a nd run down low , but it didn 't work. I alm ost had him in th e last co mer, though , but he didn 't q u ire gi ve m e e noug h ro om. " Boodv wa s surrounded on th e victory Slaild by autograph seekers: his pits. m anned b y lon gtime friend Ri ch Plueger, were cro wde d . "I got tired," Bo od y sa id between autographs, " I was just racing so hard I was getting tired . and I th ought to my self I would res t a few laps. I sa w him getting a lillie sidewa ys and kn ew h e was g etling tir ed , too. I went a co u p le o f laps. rested , a nd th en 1 kn ew I co u ld Will. H e went fo r me an th e last lap a nd we hit pretty hard but I was a ble to keep it under co nt ro l." • Results 20 LAP FINAL : 1. Ted Boody (Han ): 2. Doug Chand ler (Han) ; 3. Scott Pearson (Han); 4 . Bubba Shobert (Han); 5 . Rod Farr is (H·D); 6. Randy Goss (Han ); 7 . Pete Hames IH-D); 8 . Tom Ma itland (H·D); 9 . SIeve Morehead (H· D); 10 . Gary Soon (H·D !: 11. Scan Parker (H· D); 12. Don Howard (H-D); 13 . Jay Spr ingsteen (H- O); 14 . Chr is Carr (H-O ); 15 . Roger Thompson (H· D). DtSTANCE : 20 laps /l 0 miles TIME : 7 minutes. 27 .878 seconds OUALlFYlNG : 1. Chandler. 21 .885 sec.; 2. Goss. 22 .025; 3 . Carr , 22 .034; 4 . Farr is. 22 .173; 5. Lance Jones (H· D) 22 .241 ; 6. SIeve Eklund IH· DI 22 .249; 7 . Springsteen. 22 .273: B. Ale x Jorgensen (Hon) 22 .291 ; 9. Pearson. 22.299; 10 . Thompson. 22 .299 . 20·LAP JUNIOR NATIONAL: 1. 8rian Athenon CW ); 2 . Curtis Cannon (Yam); 3 . W ink ie Freitas ·R (Han) ; 4 . Don Robens (H·D); 5 . Ted Taylor (RlX); 6 . Adam Sabedra (Hon); 7. Frenk Garcia (Hon); a. Peter Goddard (Hen) ; 9. Tim Skov (W -R); 10. Bruce Johnson (H· D): 11. Aaron HiIlIH·D) ; 12 . Don Myers (H·D) . AMA GRAN D NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHtP / CAMEL PRO SERIES POINT STANDtNGS: 1. Bubba Shoben (82 );'2. Scott Parker (63) ; 3 . Doug Chand ler (61) ; 4 .(TIE) Randy Goss /Soott Peerson (54) ; 6 . Ted Boody (521; 7 . A lex Jorgensen (47); 8 . Ronnie Jones . 143); 9. Pete Hames 139); 10 . Chris carr (37) ; 11. (TIE) Steve Eklund/Jay Spr ing steen (35) ; 13. Terry Poovey (331; 14 . Jimmy Filice (25); 15 . Freddie Spencer (20 1 16 . Rod Farris (t 7); 17 . (TIE) Mike ; Baldw in/Ke ith OaylTom Maitland (161; 20 . Hank Scott (t 3). JUNIOR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINT STAND INGS : 1. W inkie Freitas ( 12 1); 2. Brian Atherton (1 09 ); 3 . Aaron Hill (5 9); 4 . Curtis Cannon (5 7); 5. Ted Tayl or (39) ; 6 . Adam Sabedra (351 7. ; mE) Tim Skov/Fran k Garc ia (3 6); 9 . (TIE) Randy lRbOse/Kelth Gregoire (27\ ) t :. 1-5

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