Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

in tum three, then held the top spot all the way lO the checkers for the only transfer to th e main out of th e Hl-lap race. Ri ch Kin ~ put h is Garvis H o nda T own / Missile Engineering /Shoeil Hickman Racing/RK Chain/Bell In d ustries-ba cked Honda into fir st place off th e line in th e second semi, with Pete Hames and Graham in hot pursuit, . In what turned out to be th e most exciting ra ce of the night King, Hames and Graham put on a threeway battle for th e lead in th e first half of th e race . Graham got by H a mes on lap two and was shadowing Kin g , but King wa sn 't g ivin g Graham any chance to get by. King and Arai/Bel- Ray/Tsubakibacked Graham were running sideby-sid e th rough most of lap three with King h olding a slim edge down the front straight. Graham was able to squeak past King in turn two on lap two, but King kept the pressure on and pulled even with Graham co ming out of turn four. The duo ran neck-and-neck down the front straight to start lap five , then King made a slight m ista ke in turn one and went too high, letting H am es slip into second. Then it was Hames's turn to put the heat on G ra h am . H am es and Graham ran the last h alf of the race side-by-side or less than a bike length apart. Coming off tum four on the final lap Hames pulled even with Graham and they rocketed toward th e line. Graham had just a little extra horsepower and he edged Hames by less than a bike length at the finish line. Last Chance Qua lifier Th e LCQ was controlled b y Hames. He had th e top spot going into the first turn on lap one and never looked back. Randy T exter wa s a clos e second in the ea rly going , but Hames was unstoppable. Hames piloted his Gardner/Wal· ters Brothers/Captain 's Club Harley lO a good-sized lead and took an easy win and the last transfer to the National. Junior National Darr ell Davis jetted into the early lead in the 12-1ap J unior National, but by lap three he had his hands fu ll with a challenge from Steve Aseltine. Aseltine disposed of Davis on lap three and took over the lead, while Villella had a bad stan and was steadily working his way into contention. " . Lap five saw Villella on the move; he took over second and then he blew past Aseltine and assumed the top spot. Fro m that point on, Villella was in control of the race. Aseltine maintained a strong second behind Villella at the flag. Davis held on for third. " I had to start second from th e pole and I got a halfway bad start," said Villella, "then I just worked m y way through traffic. Once I got out front I knew "I could stretch it out, then I wo uldn't have to worry about running into anybody. I just kept it real smooth." National Graham got a n excellent jump on the field in the 20·1ap main event, despite starting on the second row, bu t Chandler was leading the field as th ey went around tum one, with . Morehead, Chandler, Estep and Ca rr filling ou t the top five. The lap en ded wi th riders in the same order. • O n lap two Carr moved by Estep into fourth place and the five riders continued their freight-train formation with Chandler leading, Iollowed by Morehead, Graham, Carr and Estep, all in very close contact, Lap three saw the lead pack sh u ffle, Steve Aseltine (22T) led the Junior National. but Bryan Villella (6 5X) snuck by on lap five and took the w in . . with Mo rehead making his move and slici ng past Chandler in turn one, while Estep m ade a maj or charge and went by Graham and Carr into third spot. Morehead sett led into a fast lead pace on lap four, with Chandler stayin g close and Carr, now up lo th ird again, reeling in th e lead duo. For th e n ext four laps th e order remained the same 'w ith Morehead leading Chandler , Carr, Estep and Graham. On lap eight Morehead began to put a little distance on Chandler, and Graham snuck by Estep into fourth place; the top five places remained the same until la p 14, when Carr suddenly slowed down coming off turn four and dropped way off the pace. " I think it was some kind of electrical problem, " said Carr. Carr went on to finish the race with a badly sputtering engine, but ended up in 15th spot. Morehead continued to lead , but Chandler started lo close in on the Harley rider on lap 15. Morehead, who was running smooth, consistent lines, held back the advances of Chandler for the next three laps as Graham was running a solid third, but was some distance behind the leaders. : On lap 18 Chandler was within striking distance of Morehead, but couldn't get any closer than a few bike lengths on the final two laps. Morehead took th e victory while Chandler settled into second and Graham nailed down third place. Pearson and Es tep rounded out the top five positions at the checkered flag. "This is great, the people here are great, I really like racing here," said Morehead, "I know this track really well since I have raced cars here before and I knew how the track would shape up. I'm rea lly happy to win. " Chandler said, "I got a really good start. I th ought that would be th e most important thing at this ra ce track. I came off the line and I figured I would get some pressure, then Steve went by m e. I thought I could tuck in behind him and follow him but he .p u t five bike lengths on me rea l Steve More'head (4 2 ) and Alex Jorgensen (4 4) finished first and second, respectively, in the first heat. 'q u ick. On this kind of ra ce track it 's almost impossible lo make it up. "T oward the end I started getting something to work, but it was just too late. I'd like to have won it , but I can't kick second place for nothing, I beat the guys that I really needed lo beat. " Third place finisher Graham said, " I was on the back row and I just happened lo get a real good start. I was dicing with Don Estep for awhile and by the time I got by him Morehead and Chandler were a lmost a straightaway ahead. I got through th e traffic, but there was no way I could have caught them. . " I' ve been riding a T ex Peel Harley-Davidson th e last few races, but it seems like since I rode for Peel, he made a lot of changes to his Harley an d I just couldn't ada p t to th em . So thanks lo Dennis Harris and m y brother Troy, we put the Honda back together and it's as fresh as it can be. I'm looking forward to • th e rest of the races." Resu lts 2Q.LAP NATIONAl: t . St eve Morehead (H-Dt 2. Doug Chandler (Hon ~ 3. Ricky Graham (Hont 4. Scon Pearson (Hent 5. Don Estep (H-Dt 6. Pete Hames (H-Dt 7. Scon Parker (H-D); a Sammy Sweet (H·D t 9. Ronnie Jones (Hont 10. HanltScon (Hen); 11. Dan Ingram (H· D); 12. Alex Jorgensen (Hon~ 13. Terry Poovey (Hont 14. Brian Athenon (H·D~ 15. Chris Carr (H·D). 12·LAP JUNIOR NAn ONAL: 1. Bryan Villella (WR); 2. Steve Aseltine (H-D); 3. Darell Davis (W-R); 4 . Kevin Athen on (W-RI; 5. Ronald Beavais (Rtx~ 6. Jean Bourr et (H·D); 7. Craig Estelle (H· Dt 8. Brian Caron (Hont 9. M ark Corsetti (W-R ~ 10. Chance Darling (H· Dt 11. Reeil Han (Rtxl; 12. Kris Kiser (Honl : A MA GRAND NATIONAL CHA M PIONSHIP DIRT TRA CK SERIES POINT STAND INGS: 1. Dou g Chandle r (120 ); 2. Scon Parker (11 2); 3. [TIEl Chris Carr/ Bubba Shoben (911 5. Ricky Grah am (86 ); ; 6. Scon Pearson (82); 7. Ronnie Jones (78); 8. Terry Poovey (60); 9. Don Estep (551 10. Al ex Jorgensen ; . (441 11. (TIE)Tad Boody/ Steve Mo rehead (38); 13. ; Steve Eklun d (3 1); 14. Sammy Sw eet (26); 15. Pete Hames (251; 16. Rich King (24); 17. Tim Men ens (18); 18. Jay Springsteen (16); 19. Hank Scon (13); 20 . [TIE) Rodney Farri s/Jim Filice (11). JUNI OR NATIONA L CHAMPI ONSHIP POINT STANDINGS: 1. Bryan Villella (124); 2. Darrell Davis (121); 3. St eve Aselline (79); 4. Jon Nunez (55): 5. Kevin Athenon (51); 6. Craig Howard (44); 9. 7. Eric Graybeal (421 B. Scon Stump (4 ; Chance Darling (381 10. Mark Corseni (35); 11. ; Kris Kiser (30); 12. Jean Bourret (29t 13. Craig Estelle (23); 14. Reeil Han (22); 15. William Newk irk (20); 16. Kenneth Nen o (19t 17. Brian Caron (16); 18. [TIE) Jay Skidmore/Craig Johnson (1St 20 . Jeffrey Jones (13). n 7

• Cover