Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

tum one of the l 2-lap main. Bou rr et, who won the regional race here last year as a Novice, steadily increased his lead and at race's end his advantage was 3.72 seconds. Aseltine, who moved into second on th e seventh lap was the distant second place finisher with Vill ella taking over third on the final lap. Estelle held onto fourth with Davis, Aseltine 's traveling ma te, fifth. " T h is morning we arrived late and we weren't sure if we would make the program," Bourret said with a heav y French-Canadian accent, " There is no track with this same kind of g laze where I race . This is ' special. " t- oo ...... O'l National Chris Carr led Harley teammate Scott Parker early during the main event. Carr fin ished fourth, Parker dropped out with a broken fuel ljne . "Wild Will " Davis of North Carolina said•. "I turned in a lucky lap : ' after stopping the clock at 26 .341 seconds to qualify fastest. and Carr. Former National Champions Graham and Springsteen would go on to the semis. Semis 18 On the first of the 10 laps in semi number o ne, T ed Boody dispatched Don Estep and tri ed to run away. Only th e winner would advance directly to th e national. Marioneaux Raci ngv'Shoei z Hap Jonessponsored Terry Poovey moved into second on th e seventh lap, but Boody was a ble to hold him off, even th ough he wasn't riding his . own ma chine. " It 's John Cooper's bike. My bike broke at Louisville and then the (motorcycle ) from HUD Ra ci ng broke at Lima. I'll probably ride this one next week too," Boody said. Graham and Springsteen were matched again in the second semi, however, it was Randy Texter wh o took the win. The Eastern H-D Dealer's Assoc.lLancaster H-D pilot passed Graham on th e second lap and was never headed. Graham and Springsteen were running second and third on the ninth lap when th e ra ce was red-flagged after Chad Felicio crashed unhurt onthe back straightaway. Felicio wheelied coming out of turn two o nly to see the front end of his machine lit erally fall off thereby ensuring a rough landing. last Chance Qualifier Poovey's final cha nce wa s in the Last Ch ance Qualifier and he didn't waste it. H e won th e LCQ to claim th e last spot in th e l5-rider main event. Graham , once again, was a distant second with Rausch third. Junior National The top 24 Juniors o f the 33 who time trialed went into two, l2-rider, six-lap heats with the top six from ' each advancing to th e main. Canadian Bourret made short work of the first heat, lead ing fourtime J unior Na tional winner Ville lla to the stripe. Craig Johnson was third. Brian Caron from Sturbridge, Massachusetts, won th e second heat parade over Aseltine with Craig Estelle third. Bourret chose the outside . pole, with Estelle on the inside pol e, and th e two sped from their spots off th e line for the one-two positions into "It's about the same as the semis," Shobert sa id of the track before the main. "It's just get out front and go for it." "My bike's working good and it's all because of my mechanic Babe DeMay," Pearson offered. " I was hoping to be fourth fastest in qualifyi ng because the fourth heat is a better indication of the track in the final. The most important thing is getting a good start and being smooth. We.tri ed th e Carlisle and the Goodyear rears and they turn ed abo u t identical times. The Carlisle feel s so fter. It doesn't roll Iike th e Goodyear, but we're settin g it up for th e Coodvear." By th e 'time th e Expe rt final was gri dded a t 4:30 p.rn. , the tra ck had developed a n ova l sha pe wi th the gr oove fro m three- "to four-feet wide. Pearson chose one spot in from th e o uts ide pole to sta rt from ; Sh ob ert too k th e ins id e p ol e. From the gra ndstand to the gua rdrai l the order read Da vi s. P earson , Chandl er, Parker, J ones. a nd Shober t. Beh in d th em were Roeder, Moreh ead, Carr, Farri s, Sw eet , a n d Hill. Bo od y, Texter, a nd Poov ey filled o u t th e third ro w. Wh en the pa ck eme rged from turn two Pearson was in th e lead with Sh ob ert, Chandler, Jones, and Davis in hi s draft. Parker was sixth ahead of T exter and Morehead . Carr was back in ninth and looking 10 advance. " I got a bad start and that was it. You can't make up tim e on a tra ck this slippery:' Carr said la ter. Aaron Hi ll made o ne la p before dropping QUI with a flat rear tire. J ones took over second on the fourth lap with a better drive than Shobert coming out of the fo u rt h turn. Chandler ' was just behind, but slipped high off the groove in turn on e letting Parker, Davis, Carr and Morehead past. " I got. a little excited. I tried to win th e race in ' the first two laps," Chandler said, "I was too aggressive ' I came into th e first tum going two mph fast er than the guys in front of me. I did that twice and by then it was too late. " Parker 's troubles began on the fifth lap as he reached under the gas ta n k thinking the petcocks weren 't turned on . Gradually, he fell back and would drop out with a broken gas line a t the T-junction just above the carbu reto rs. " Yo u' ve got to take the good with the bad, " the championship point leader said philosophically. The end of lap seven came with Carr going past Parker after having passed Davis a la p earlier. . As the halfway flags were flas hed, Pearson was just ahead of Jones, with a 20-yard gap to Shobert, who . had 50 yards on Carr. Parker he ld fifth until the 14th la p when Chandler took over the spot. Davis had his hands full with Morehead and Boody, while. Sweet circled in 10th. The race was decided in tum two on th e 16th lap. Pearson bobb led and Jones made his move. By the time they hit turn three the race was over. "Coming out of turn two I got rea l sideways. I hit Ronnie with the handl ebars and almost went down. I knew I couldn't get back past him unless he made a mistake. You had to slow down going into the comers to go fast coming out, " Pearson said. "I could've won it. I sho uld' ve won it. Babe did a good job." Jones account of the incident was slightly different. " When I went by him on the back straight, he reached out and grabbed my leg. I just kept the gas on. H e wasn't trying to stop me, but he wouldn 't have minded if he did," Jones said. J o nes added that he, " Ra n into him a couple of times. He knew I was there. He slipped just enough (for Jones) to get a drive a nd get by hi m , I'm glad I didn 't lea d the whole way." For the final fiv e laps, Jones managed to open up about a 30-yard gap to the finish. Pea rson was second wi th a bout the same margin back to Shobert in third. Carr was a distant fourt h with Chandler farther back in fifth. Davis took sixth from Boody. " Yo u ought to look at my steel sh oe : ' Sh obert sai d. "It's a lmost broken in half. I'd cat ch up th en I'd drive in too hard and lose all the momentum in th e middle of the turn. My fastest laps were th e last three wh en I thought, 'Ca lm down, don't fall down .' I'd kind of giv en up by that point, I was just sh u tt ing off soo ner. " Pearson had added motivation at the race since it was spo nso red by his long-time spo nsor, Circle Bell Enterprises. Circle Bell owner Bob Bellino is a former East Coast rider wh o set fast tim e a t Middletown in a non-National event back in 1971. " I wa s so cl o se to winning. H av en 't won o ne ye t," Pearson lam ented. After graciously signing personalized autographs for 45 minutes following th e race, Jones sat down 10 explain how he won. • "We changed 10 a different size rim for the main, I think when you rea lly lean it over, the tire rolls off the side if the rim is too wide and you Iighi it going in , We also changed .th e wheelbas e a little bit. In the final I could put it where I wanted and wait for them to make a mistake. I was waiting for the guy in fro nt of me to make a mistake. It may have been the only mistake they made the whole race, but the y made it in front of me. I figured Shobert was too dang smart and he was sitting back in third waiting for us to do something stupid. " • Results 20 ·LAP NATIONAL: 1 Ronnie Jones (Hon); 2Scon Pearson (Hon); 3. Bubbo Shobert (Hon); 4 , Chr is Carr (H·D); 5. Doug Chandler (Hon); 6. Will Davis (H· D); 7. Ted Boody (H·D); 8. Steve Morehead (H·D); 9. Terry Poovey (Hon); 10. Rodney Farris (HOnl11 . Sammy Sweet (H·D); 12. George Roeder II (H·D); 13 . Randy Texter (H·Dt 14. Scon Parker (H-D); 15. Aaron HiIlIH·DI. 12-LAP JUNIOR NATIONA L: 1. Jean Bourr et (H· D); 2. St eve Asettlne (H· D); 3. Bryan Villella (W · R); 4 . Craig Estelle (H·DI; 5. Darell Davis (W· R); 6. Brian Caron (Hon); 7. Kris Kiser (Han); 8. Craig Johnson (Rtx); 9. William Newkirk (Hon); 10 . William McCoy (H· D); 11. Craig Howard (W-R); 12 . Mark Corsetti (W·R). AMA GRAND NATIONAL CHAM PIONSHIP DIRT TRACK SERIES POINT STANDINGS; 1; (TIEl Scon ParkerI Doug Chandler (104); 3. (TIE) Chris Carr I Bubba Shobert (91 ); 5. Ricky Graham (73); 6, Ronnie Jones (72); 7. Scott Pearson (71); 8. Terry Poovey (58); 9. Don Estep (45); 10. Alex Jorgen sen (4 1); 11. Ted Boody (381; 12. Steve Eklund (31 ); 13 . Rich King (241; 14. Sammy Sweet (19); 15. (TIE) Tim Mert ensl St eve Morehead (18); 17. J ay Spri ngst een (16) ; 18 . Pete Hames (16); 19 . Ji mmy Filice (11); 20 . A aron Hill (10). , . J UNIOR NATI ONAL CHA M PIONSHIP POINl1 STANDINGS; 1. Darell Davis 11OB); 2. Bryan Vill ella (104) ; 3. Steve A se~ in e (63); 4. Jon Nunez (55); 5. Craig How ard (44); 6. Eric Graybea l (42); 7. Scon Stump (41); 8. Kevin Atherton (40); 9. Cha nce Darling (33); 10 . Mark Corsen i (29); 11. Kris Kiser (27); 12. Jean Bouret (20); 13. William Newk irk (20); 14 . Kenneth Nan o (19); 15. Reoil Hart (18); , 16. Jay Skidmore (15).

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