Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Cycle News 1985 09 25

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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- (Above) Wayne Rainey (6 0 R ) leads Boody. Jorgensen. Hebb (33) , Thompson (39R ) and Durelle (58) , (Below) Junior winner Bria n Atherton , The 1985 Grand National Champion Bubba Shobert (6 7) leads Rookie of the Year Chris Carr d uring their battle in t he National; Shobert prevailed , fifth wh ile Scali finished a di sa ppointin g eigh th , T he second sem i pi lied H ow ard against Moreh ea d , a nd it was H oward with th e hol esh o t, At the end of th e first la p. th e ac tion up fron t was tig h t with Howard leading Morehead . Samm y Sweet, Da ve Hebb and Chad Fel icio across the line. Howard and Moreh ead began to stret ch a lead on the pack and the duo wer e handlebar-to-hand lebar o n laps four through six . just when Morehead look ed set to mak e a move, his bike coas ted to a stop o n th e stan/finish line as th e pack began lap seven. Howard wa s th en a ble to set it o n cr u ise control to tak e the win over He bb and Sweet. Last Chance Qualif ie r Sw eet led th e LCQ into turn o ne foll o wed by Ga rrison, Ekl und and Bro w. G a rrison passed Sweet going into turn three on th e fir st lap , but Sweet quick ly regained th e adva n tage to sta rt la p th ree. Suddenly, Maitla nd ca me from nowhere to snea k by both Garrison a nd Sweet in turn three to tak e th e lead a t th e halfwa y mark. Maitland began to sell Ie into a co m forta ble lead whi le Sweet, Brow and j o n Cornwell battled for second. Maitland he ld o n to advance to th e National whi le Cornwell took second ahead o f Eklund and Sweet. National The sce ne was set for th e 25-lap Nationa l; Boo d y would have to put in a flaw less performance under extreme pressu re to even sta n d a chan ce of postponing Shobert 's National Championship for another week , The wind pi cked up only minutes before the sta n o f th e National a n d it was something that would p la ya ro le in th e o utcome o f the race . Drafting o u t of turn four wouldn 't be as easy as in th e heats. Farris tim ed the light perfectl y a nd sho t into turn one all by h im self. Ra in ey nudged himself into second with th e pack foll owing three a n d four abreast in turn o ne. At th e end of the first lap, it was Farris , Ra iney, Par ker (fro m a seco nd-ro w stan) , Sh oben, Carr a n d Bood y. Graham was back in th e pa ck a fter a bad stan a n d a t thi s point didn 't seem to be a factor. Ra iney sh ot by Farris in turn on e to start th e seco nd lap and Parker soon fo llo wed sui t. At th e en d of three laps, Ra in ey was h olding his ow n against Park er with Ca rr movin g by Farris, who encountered a fr igh ten ing tan k slapper o n th e front straigh taway. Farris showed hi s h igh to lerance for fea r as h e q uickl y shot by Carr a nd Ra iney to take over second place. Wit h five laps completed, Graham wa s up to sixth and was making up gro u nd in every co rner. Th e top five positions were constantly ch an gi ng as first Carr a nd then Farris would put a wheel inside of Parker. By lap six, Graham had moved by both Ra ih ey a n d Shoben whil e grabbing founh . On lap seven, th e defending Nationa l Ch ampion was cha lle n g.in g Parker for th e lead. On lap II , Parker had stretched out a lead o ver Graham and th e rest o f th e pack an d . it looked as though thi s mi le would be differen t from th e previous pho to fini shes of th e pa st. Gra ham didn 't seem to be in an y hurry w hil e taki ng mental notes o f every thin g happening in front o f him. " Som etimes it's harder to lead th ese things," Graham said. " I co u ld see where hi s bike was working a n d wh ere it wasn 't. I cou ld figure o u t which line was th e best in every co rne r. " Meanwhi le, the race for thi rd wa s a Iour-rnan a ffair. Shoben h eld th e third spo t a t th e end o f II laps, but a blanket co u ld have been thrown over him , Farris, Carr a nd Ra inev. Th e earl y conservatism was apparently gone from Shobert. " In th e beginning when I was back in th e pa ck , I sta rted th inking about points. but when th ese guys started passing me I thought ' H ey, this is stupid '," Sh o. ben said. Sh ob ert definitely didn't have to worry a bo u t Boody who wa s circulating midpack a nd co u ld n ' t do much to improve his position . By th e 20m ile mark, Graham had reel ed-in Parker to set up a sho wdo wn . The two crossed the line side-by-side to co m p lete la p 20 and Graham tried un su ccessfull y to take th e lead away from Parker on the inside of turn on e. Th e fight for th ird co nti n ued as th e leading duo pulled a wa y. Carr, Sh oben a nd Rainey had pulled cle a r o f Farris, wh o was now waging a baili e with j orgensen . Graham 's p ati en ce p a id off o n th e fin al lap as Park er go t sideways exit- jng tu rn two. Th e H onda pi lot took advantage of the mistake a nd shot b y on the backstraigh t. Parker, h owever, wa s right th ere in turn s three a n d four while looking for a slin gshot 10 th e finish . With th e un coo pera tin g wind , Parker sell led in behind Graham a n d tried in va in to pu ll out o f his draft a t th e finish line. Grah am took th e win by a bikelength. Third p lace went down to th e wire, but Sh ober t edged Carr whi le Ra iney finished fifth . j orgensen cro ssed th e li ne a head of Farris, Springsteen , Chandler a nd Boody. Graham wa s jubilant in victory as th e H on da ca m p ce lebra ted th e win and th eir second co nsecu tive Grand National Championship. Junior National With o n ly a two-point cush io n in th e point lead he has h eld all season, Winkie Freitas qualified his Honda ahea d o f rival Brian Ath ert on's Rorax by a sca nt o ne -tenth o f a seco nd . Ath ert on, how ever, reversed tha t order by posting a fast er hea t race and securing his spo t o n th e pole. As th e light turned green , Freitas grabbed the holesho t. As th ey headed on to the backs traigh r, Ath erto n too k co m ma nd and never look ed back. Frei tas , meanwhile, didn 't a p pea r to have en o ug h to cha llenge Atherton and instead had hi s hands full just h olding down seco nd pl ace. Athert on co n tin ued to pull a way, a n d a fter three laps th e o rder read Athert on , Bryan McDowell, Freitas a nd Aaro n H ill. Six rid ers were going for second: the n o n lap six d isaster struck Freitas . With the pack bunched toge th er in turn one, Frei tas appeared to get cen ter-pu nched by a no th er rider - in obvious pain , he pulled off th e tra ck. It was th e fir st time all season that Freitas hadn 't finish ed a m ain even t. With Freitas out, Atherton went on to take th e win a nd a co m fo rta ble IS-po int lead in the jun ior National Championship points chase with only two rounds rem ainin g. The duel for secon d pl ace in th e 12-lap main went down to th e wire, with Bru ce j ohnso n edging McDowell and Tim Skov, Fift h place went to Wad e Cam lin. - Results 25 ·LAP NATIO NA L: 1. Ricky Graham (Hon); 2. Scon Parkar (H- D); 3 . Bubba Shob ert (Hon); 4 . Chr is Carr (H· D); 5. W ayne Rainey (H· D); 6 . Al a. .Jcrgensen (Han); 7 . Rod ney Farr i s (H· D); B. J ay Spr ing · steen (H- D); 9 . Doug Cha nd ler (Hon); 10 . Ted Boody (Hon ); 11. Don Howard (H-D r. 12. Scon Pearson (Hon) ; 13. Tom M ait land (H·DI; 14 . Pet e Hame s (H- D); 15 . Dave Hebb (H· DI; 16. Roger Th ompson (H- O); 17. J im m y Filice (Hon) . TIME : 15 :5 3.61 6 A VERAGE SPEED: 94 .44 mph. 12 · LA P JUN IOR NATIONAL: 1. Brian Atherton (W- R); 2 . Br uce Johnson (Alxl; 3 . Bryan McDowell (W-R); 4 . TIm Skov (W · R); 5 . Wa de Camlin (H· D); 6 . Pet er Goddar d (Hon l; 7. Lee Washbon (C-A); 8 . Ted Taylor (Hon); 9 . Robert Damron (Rtx); 10 . Roben McDo w ell (H-D) ; 11 . Aaron Hill (H· D); 12. Winkie Freitas (Hon). A M A GRA ND NATIONAL CHA M PION SHI PI CA M EL PRO SERIES POINT STAND INGS: 1. Bubb a Shobert (2491: 2 . Ted Boody (205); 3 . Scon Par ker (17B); 4 . Doug Chandler (177); 5 . Ricky Graham (1 45); 6 . Scon Pearso n (132); 7 . Chri s Carr (125); 8 . Jay Spri ngsteen (107); 9 . Ronnie Jones (961; 10. M ike Bal dwin (89) ; 11. Hank Scon (B3); 12 . St eve M oreh ead (Bl ); 13. Randy Renfro w (801; 14 . (TIEl Ala n Labrosse /Alex Jorgensen (761 16. Pete Hames ; (71 ); 17 . Dan Chi vington (651: 18 . Rich Schlachter (6 3); 19 . (TIE) Randy GosslTerry Poovey (62). JUNIOR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINT STAN DINGS: 1. Brian Atherton (290); 2 . W ink ie Freit as (27 5); 3 . Aaron Hill (130); 4 . W ade Camlin (76 1; 5 . Br ad Fur long (67); 6 . Les W ashb on (661; 7. Don Myers (65) ; 8 . Curtis Cannon (60); 9 . TIm Skov . (56); 10 . Frank Garcia (52). ., 7

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