Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

C lr ~ w :I: '" w '" > '" o I- lr '" b :I: a.. - Terry Poovey (18) is shadowed by Tex Peel Racing's Tom Maitland (3 0 ) early in the race, before the red flag and restart; the two ran th is close f or seven or eight laps before Maitland slipped off the groove and Poovey got away. AMA Grand National Championship/ Camel Pro Series: Round 11 Poovey holds on' for Louisville H M win By Gary Van Voorhis LO UISVILLE, KY, J UNE I The joy of victory a lm os t became the ago ny of defeat for T erry Poovey as the Texan began celebrating his win in the Louisville National by standing up on the footpegs and waving his left fist in the a ir at the Louisville Down s crowd as he exited tu rn fou r on th e final la p . What Poovey didn 't know, 6 a nd was very , very surprised to learn, wa s that Ted Boody was much clos er than h e realized and by the tim e th e two reached th e fin ish lin e - Poovey still celebra tin g a nd Boody sq ueezed down on th e gas tank and throttle to the sto p - th e margin of victory in Poovey's favor wa s no m ore th an two feet. For Poovey the win wa s th e ninth Nati onal victory o f h is ca reer and th e fir st this seaso n under th e Gardnerl Patrick Racing banner. Poovey, o n a Harl ey-Davidson XR750, kept th e Mil waukee brand 's domina tion o f th e Kentuck y half mile track going with th e 18th win for th e brand in 19 yea rs a t Louisvill e. Boody, on the Doug Sterns' Col lege Bike Sh op o f Lansin g , Mich igan , H onda RS750, gave it all he had in a n a ttem p t to becom e th e seco nd Honda rid er since Scott Pear son in 1982 to win a t Louisville. T onight, Pearson ca me hom e a close third o n th e Circle Bell- sp onso red Honda in wh at turned o u t to be a two-part Nati onal. A spec tac u la r acci de n t in vol vin g Peter H ook , Chris Carr and Ga ry Scott o n th e 18th lap o f th e 20-la p National brought o u t th e red flag an d halted th e racing for nearl y 30 minutes while those involved were attended to . Hook went to the hospita l with a cracked sh ou lder, while Scott went to the pits under hi s own power, but with a badl y twisted machine. Carr shrugged off a lacera ted left elbow to make th e.restart on a machin e with the seat taped on and no clutch. The 20-lap National was restarted on th e 17th lap, but under a new AMA rule a minimum of five laps must be run if a National is stopped. P<;>ovey had to go 21 laps to get hi s win. Bubba Shobert continues to lead th e Camel Pro Seri es p oint sta ndings, although hi s eig h th place finish added onl y seven points to his tot al. Boody vaulted in to seco nd via his second place finish - with 91 points to Shobert's 109, wh ile Doug Chandler, wh o d idn 't adva nc e to th e Nati onal , rem ains in third with 82 points. The cus h io n was back at Louisvill e, but after practi ce and tim e tri a ls for 123 riders (73 Experts and 50 Junior s), th e cr ushed limeston e tra ck was main ly a groove. Track prep through o u t th e ni ght allowed adven tu ro us ride rs to run up in th e deep stuff for a few laps after eac h sessio n. Qualifying Boody was th e top m an' in qualifying, but a t 25. 196 seco nds was way o ff th e 1981 track record o f 22.263 set by Steve Eklund. Hook, Poovey, Tex Peel Racing 's Tom Maitland and Doug Chandler rounded out the top five. Tony Pitcock, at 26.707, was the 48th arid final qua lifier in the program. Heats Boody led the first of th e four heats, which would transfer th e top three finishers directly to th e National, into turn one and was still out front at the finish 10 la ps la ter. Boody's ea rly la p competition came from Dan In gr a m , who took the high line to seco n d over Jon Cornwell a nd Lance Jones. Ingra m, on the Sure-Fire Harley, had to ba ttl e Co rnwell a nd Jones d ur in g mi d-race before p ull ing o ut brea th in g ro om as Boody cruised in th e lead. Jones and Cornwell traded thi rd p lace twice in the fina l la ps wi th J ones, on th e Fargo Harley- Davi dson, ge tti ng the fina l upper han d and the last transfer behi nd Boody a nd In gr am. Rod Farris used a roos ter tail-throwing high lin e to steal th e lead away from Peter Hook in h ea t two with H onda's Shobert holding a close third. The three h eld position through the first five laps with Farris pulling out some breathing room. In the final five laps, Farris moved to a comfortable winning margin while Hook, on the Ha l' s Harley- Davidson-sponsored, Brent Thompson-tuned XR found plenty of competition for second from the Pyra m id Bu ildersl North Texas Harley-Davidson-sponsored XR750 of Sammy Sweet. The two finished in that order behind winner Farris. Shobert, with a " ba d cho ice of front tire, " slip ped back to six th. Freddie SpencerlSuperTrapp Raci ng 's Ra ndy Goss was fourth a fter clawing his way through traffic. The third hea t belonged to Poovey from start to finish. Harley-Davidson's Sco tt Parker and Gardner/Griswold l Board Racin g' s Pete Hames diced over second whi le Jay Spri ngsteen, on th e other Ha rley team bike, was all over the track tryi ng to fi nd a sty le of riding to cope with th e loss of his brake on the first lap. Poovey split for th e win , while Hames got some breathing room in th e fin al three laps after Parker had tak en second a nd just as quickl y lost it . Springsteen moved in and hounded Parker for third in a gr eat last lap dice that went in Parker 's favor by half a bike length. Parker is now riding eq u ip me nt tuned by Sp ringsteen's former tuner Bill Wern er a fter a mutuall y agreed upon sp li t wi th Tex Peel due to co nt ractu al p roblems. Maitl and , used th e sa me Tex Peelprepared engine that Bood y used to win last year's Louisville Nation al wh en Bood y rode for Peel , flew to the win in heat four to post th e fastest time o f th e heats a n d tak e th e pol e for th e National. The battle for seco nd in th e last h alf of th e ra ce was th e o ne to wat ch as Pearson h ad his hands full , holding off th e cha llen ges o f Chris Carr a nd his R&B Harley-Davidson a fter Carr and Steve Morehead h ad a battle for fourth in th e first five laps. Pearson held off Carr and gained some room in th e fin al lap as Carr slipped slightly off the groove. Of note, wa s th e eig h th place finish a nd atransfer to the sem i of Camel Pro Series Champion Ri ck y Graham. Gra ham, st ill on the mend from a broken left femur two months ago, was p laying it safe. Semis By th e end of th e heats, a light rain was falling a nd th e sky was pi tch black . Reports of continuing bad weather put th e program int o a hurry-up mode. Shobert ga th ered in the one transfer to the National wi th ' a win in sem i one aft er a n earl y lap dice with cushion riding Don Estep. Cornwell came on to finish a closing second. Springsteen topped the second semi, but fought problems with a sticking throttle as well as having Morehead lurking behind for the entire distance, with Gary Scott then moving in to make it interest ing, but unchanged in the final two laps. Last Chance Qualifier There was a raging war between Gary Scott and Morehead in the LCQ over the one spot in jhe National rema in in g. The two bumped and banged each other in turns one/two and three/four and beca me the focus of attention as they traded the lead. Scott dove u nderneath Moreh ead enteri ng tu rn three o n la p eigh t, th e two banged togeth er once again , and Mo reh ead was off the groove wit h Scott breaking free. Mo rehead coasted to a halt o n the last lap an d Scott went on to win. " I saw Moreh ead on th e side of the track and h e shook a fist at me and I shook one a t him, " said Scott. "I slowed to go back a nd see if he needed a ride to the pits a nd not to go back and fight as some people m igh t think. As I went to turn around, Ji m my Filice hit my front wheel and went tumbli ng down the track. The accident was my fault and unfortunate. I never d id see Morehead because I hurried back to the pits to get ready for th e National. " Filice was uninjured. National The threat of bad weather continued and the Juniors sat in the pits as the Nationa l was called to the line before the Junior portion of the program. "The tra ck has ch an ged a lot from m y heat race," sa id Boody before the start. "Now, the stra tegy is to stay on the black line and don 't made any mista kes because passing is a real chore. Jus t about any rider who gets the lead is going to be a problem, but if Poovey is out fro nt we've rea ll y got our ha nds full." "I 'm still taking it eas y," said Poovey. "My ribs sti ll hurt, but things are better than at Springfield. Actually, m y doctor didn 't want m e to start racing until the Lima Nationa l (June 29 ). The bike is the n ew one that Carl Pa trick and th e crew put together just

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