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Bubba Shobert (67) fin ished fourth, padded his points lead. Here he leads
Springsteen (9 , before he pitted), Goss (6 ), and Hames (3 2) .
Last lap: Chandler leads Boody int o turn one (above), but Boody leads
Chandler (below) exiting the turn. Th is was the race .
AMA Grand 'Nat ional .Championship/Camel Pro Series:
RoundS.
Boody wins at
Ascot
'" By John Ulrich
GARD EN A. CA, MAY II
.
•
T ed Boody turned a last-lap p ass in to vic tory
as p riva teers o n Hondas domin a ted the
Camel P ro Series h alf m ile at Ascot P ark.
Boody ran just behind Doug.Chandler in the
closing la p s of th e 20-lap race,
p assed him , arid held o ff a last corner charge by Chandler th at
sa w th e two ri d ers 'co ll id e
14
whi le dri vin g for th e fin ish lin e. Both
stayed u pright, and Cha nd ler fin ished
seco nd.
SCali Pearson was th ird wit h poi nts
. leader Bubba Shobert fourth". All four
rod e H onda s, Boody a nd Pearson
usin g bikes powered by for-sa le Honda
Racing Corp. (H RC) raci ng engines,
Chand ler o n a 1984 ex -wor ks ma ch ine, a n d Sh obert on th e : T ea m
H onda wo rks b ike. Shobert's fo urt hpl ace fi n is h ad de d a not he r e ig ht
p o ints to hi s ma rg in ove r seco nd-in poi nts SCali Parker.
The first fin isher on a H arl evDa vid son was R od Farris in fifth ;
Rand y Goss was sixth on a H onda
a nd th e rest of the 15-man field ro de
H a rleys.
Qualifying
Th e eve ni ng s ta rted o ut wi th
SuperTrap p /Fredd ie Spe ncer Racing 's Chandl er qua lif yin g fas test, .
ma kin g o ne lap at 2 1.885 seco nds.
H is tea m ma te, Randy Goss, wa s seco nd fa stest at 22.025 seconds . Roo kie
C hr is Ca rr a nd the R &B H arl eyDav idson were third fastest arou nd
th e Ascot ova l a t 22.034, fo llowed by
Fa rris a nd hi s Harley a t 22.1i 3, Lan ce
J ones (H -D) at 22.241, a n d Steve
Ekl und (H -D) at 22.249 . J a y Sp ri ngsteen a nd tuner Pau l C h m iel showed
u p a t Asco t with a new Mert Laww ill
fram e fi tted with Ceria n i forks a n d
O h li ns shocks a nd were sti ll so rt i ng
it ou t when Spri ngs teen q ua lified
seventh fa stest a t 22.2i3. T he new
ch a ssis re p laced the o ne u sed by
Springsteen a t Sa n J ose, wh ere th e
bik e 's terrific wobbl es impressed
everybod y with -Spr ing steens abili ty
to ha ng on. T ha t fra me tu rne d o u t to
'be bo th crac ked a nd ben t fro m Sp ri ngsteen 's crash at th e Sacramento Mile
ea rl ier th is season . Chmiel went o u t
o f h is way to po int o ut th at without
th e help of Mega cycle Ca ms he a nd
Spri ngsteen wo u ld not have been
a ble to hav e th e new chass is in tim e
fo r Asco t,
New o n Springsteen 's H ar leyDavid son was a two-into-one sta in less
stee l SuperT rapp exha us t system . " It
rea lly j u mps o ff th e turn s, " sa id
Spring steen wh en as ked how th e sys- '
tern, wh ich replaced th e usua l dual
pipes, wo r ked. " It h it s h ard . Hopefu ll y it' ll work on th e miles a nd g ive
u s less weight, so the bike won 't be so
h eav y."
Th e to p 10 qua lifi ers were ro u nded
o u t by Alex Jorgen sen o n hi s H o nd a
a t 22.29 1, Sco tt Pea rson (Han) . a t
2~ . 299 a nd rookie Roger Th ompson
(H -D) a lso a t 22:299 .
Heats
C ha n d ler jumped o u t front in th e
first IO-I ap hea t race for sta rt ing grid
posi tion, a nd p u lled a lead . J orgensen
ca me fro m a bo u t fifth 10 tak e seco nd
p lace with Pea rson cha llenging. Pea rso n ran it into th e co rners h ard er
th an Jorgen sen or C ha nd ler, mak in g
up gro u nd in turn o ne a n d turn
three. Bu t Jorgensen a nd Cha ndler '
both ha d bet ter drives off turns tw o
a nd fo ur , an d Jorgense n 's seco ndp lace ri de en ded with hi s bik e sp iiring flames o u t th e ex ha usts and
Pearson blasting past. J or gen sen pitted , out for th e n ight wi th ign i tion
tro u ble; Pearson fin ishe d seco nd to
Cha ndler, ahead of Don H oward (HD) a nd Ra nd y ree n (H- D). ,
Gary SCali got the h ol esh ot o ff th e
line at th e start of the seco nd h eat
riding h is K&KMotorcycle Supp ly/L.
Dicki e/jack Sisemore H arley-Davi d so n ins tea d of th e Hon da he's been
usin g o n mil e tracks. " I still feel mor e
comfortable on the H arley." said Sco tt
before th e h ea t race. "And I think
here th at will mak e a differen ce."
Scali pulled d istance o n hi s pursuers a nd it looked like maybe h e'd
r u n; off)w ith the l\Ifin' like Chandler
d id. Bu t Springsteen ca me from f{fth
10 work past T hom pson a nd R o bert
Land (H -D) a n d to cha lle nge G oss
fo r seco nd . G oss a nd Sp ringsteen
m oved closer to SCali a nd farther
a head o f T hompson a nd th e rest ;
Spr ingstee n went arou nd th e outs ide
o f Goss in turn fo ur, th en ca ug h t a nd
passed Scotl. Goss go t a round SCali,
too , chasi ng Springs teen. Scattgot
in to tu rn two ha rd er th an Goss d id ,
tr yin g to mak e u p time. ga in ing dis ta nce, a nd SCali's fro III wheel hit
Coss' rea r wheel , hard , mo vin g Goss
over a co u p le of feel. T ha t was as
close as SCali wou ld co me to rep ass i ng Goss; a t th e fini sh it was
Spri ngs teen, Goss a nd Sco tt , with
T hom pson fourth .
T he third heat look ed like it belo nged to S teve Ekl u nd in the openin g la p s, bu t local h ero Pete H am es
ca ugh t up o n hi s Ga rd ne r/ G ris wol d/
Board H arley-Dav id son. H ames had
sp ent the da y befor e the race working
on th e dyn o , try ing to ge t m ore
p ow er. Bu t wh en h e go t 10 the track,
th e co m bi na tio n th a t work ed best on
th e dyn o wouldn 't ":ork o n the track;
eac h practice sessio n h e a nd h is tun ers ret urned bi t-b y-bit to th e co m bin ation that wo rk ed so well wh en
Hames won the recent Gardena Gold
Cup ha lf mile a t Ascot.
An yway, H ames ca ught and pa ssed
Ek lund, wh o th en crashe d in tu rn
two, brin gi ng ou t the red flag. Eklund ,
i t tu rn ed out,.wa s sha ke n a nd gene ra lly beaten up and so re bu t otherw ise
okay.
The restart sa w H ames a n d Bood y
in front , pursu ed by Ca rr, who se
H arley had been throwi ng spe ctacu lar showers of spa rks from the rear
brak e entering every turn , in third
ahead o f Pa rker. H ames wa s gelling a
su pe rio r drive off turn four, and
Bood y was ga in i ng with a low line
into a nd around turn s one and th ree.
But the race for th ird was a harder
one ; Ca rr vs, Parker , Park er drivin g
past Ca rr o ff turn four, Carr shooting
arou nd th e o utside o f Parker in turn
o ne, Park er passing o ff turn two ,
Ca rr u ndern ea th into turn three but
Parker drivi ng past aga in off turn
four 10 tak e th e checkered flag and
th e last dir ect transfer to th e fin al
even t, behind H ames a nd .Boody.
H am es had qua lified with a tweak ed
motorcy cle; in practice hi s foot ca ught
a hol e a t th e end o f th e stra igh t and he '
was yanked off th e bik e. The fro nt
forks' we re bent, b ut th ere was no time
lor repairs before qual ifyin g. H e raced
th e heal with th e for ks from hi s spare
bike bo lted in p lace.
.
\Vha t wasn ' t so easy to repair was
h is left foo t an d an kl e, wh ich hurt
a nd q uickly swe lled up; H a mes refused to rem ove hi s bo o t to in spect
th e dama ge, fearin g th at once th e
bOOI was off it wou ldn 't go back on,
io n th a t! th e Ioou or ,ankl<: [wo uld be
