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00 00 O"l "Wild" W ill Davis (21) topped the Daytona 600cc National Short Track over Indi ana's Dan Ingram (31) . Ingram, Davis and Daytona Dirt Track Series Champion Chris Carr celebrated in the Memorial Stadium winner's ci rcle after the National. AMA 600cc' National Championship Dirt ·T rack Series: ,Round 3 Davis clips Ingram in Daytona ST By Henny Ray Abrams DAYTONA BEACH, FL , MAR. 6 An era ended tonight a t Daytona Bea ch's Memorial Stadium when " Wild" Will Davis wo n the p ostponed Budw ei ser 600cc 'Na tion al Short T rack main event, rou n d three of the 600cc National Series a nd round five of the bbi . d $10 000 D a. reviate .' aytona Dirt Track Senes. 18 T he L ive Wire Electric/ Cox's HD/ Shoei-spo nso red Davis won his first Nat io nal ever o n th e final nigh t of short track racing to be held o n the gro?ve~ Mem orial St adium trac k. It is being replaced by a 10,000 sea t stadi um and will be torn dow n th is summer. "That's it," Davis rep lied whe n asked if win ning here made his first National speciaL " It co uldn 't hav e co me at any better place or at any better time." Davis won $2 145 fro m th e $10,000 series purse. Clinch ing th e $4000 top prize in th e five-event Dayton a Dirt T rac k Series was to nig h t's fifth-pla ce finish er, Chr is Carr, on th e factory H arl ey-Da vidson . Com i ng i nto ton ight's race Carr had to fin ish no worse th an fo u r p o ints beh ind Ro nnie J ones and tha t's exactly what he did, G F-Racin g/Shoei 's J ones finished third in the race behind runner-up Dan In gram o n an H-D 600R borro wed from Brian Ol sen. J ones finished th e series with 64 points to Carr 's 66. In gram fini shed third in th e , series with 53 points. J ones earne d $2000 for hi s series finish with Ingram pocketin g $1100. " I didn 't want to run off th e groove," a n ela ted Carr said . "T hat's so meth ing you don 't want , to do when you have $4000 on th e line." Friday's program was cance lled by rain and Sat urday 's 600cc National was run on Sunday ni ght after th e , roa d races. T he stadium fill ed slowl y for the program and wou ld become.. better th an two-thirds Iull, Track p reparati on began' four hours before th e start of the 7:00 p .m . program and by th e tim e racing began th e track was already grooving up and wou ld get slower throughout th e ni gh t. One hundred riders p re-ente red , th e race but 37 went hom e with 63 goi ng th rough tim e trial s. Gart h Brow, on the Arai /Megacycle/ Sto kes H on da, was fastest at 19.64 seconds. In gram was second a t 19.71 wi th Davi s third (19.76), J ones fourth (19.79), T err y Poovey fifth (19.80) and David Durell e tied for sixth wit h Carr and Brian Ha rd in at 19.81. , In gram was riding Canadian Jon Cornwell's mach in e borrow ed from Brian O lsen. H e had hoped to rid e a T ex Peel 600, but it brok e in practice and O lsen offered him the ride. With no practice at all he wen t o u t o n th e un fa miliar bike and qualified second fastest. " It's a Harley engine and Knight fram e and we set it up as close to mi ne as we co uld. I felt real comfortable on it," Ingram said . T he six fastest riders cla imed the pole positions in the six IO-rider, 10- lap heats races with the wi nner from each heat go ing directly into the 12rider main event. Second through fifth in each heat went to two 12man sem is with th e top two adv ancin g to th e ma in; the last two riders in th e fin al came from th e La st - Ch ance Qualifier. After two red flags for first- la p crashes , Brow jumped v uickly into q th e lead of the first heat , building a 25-yar d cush ion on Hud Racing's Ted Bood y by th e second lap. Brow would fin ish 4.67 seconds in fro nt wi th Bood y well ahea d of George Roeder III , wh o took over th ird from Dave Cook on the fifth lap. , In gram did th e same thing in the second heat , runn in g away from th e mi sfiring Bell evill e Honda of Tim Mertens wh o had built up an early m arg in o n third-pla ced Rob ert Lewis. Ca n-Am- mo u nted Don Wilson fini shed fourth. The third heat ho leshot and subseq uent win went to Davis, wh o easily beat Charlie Orr and Dave Hebb. Steve Morehead was running fourth on th e sevent h lap wh en he wen t ou t in a puff of engine smoke, leaving the spo t to Ro yal Adderson o n a Rotax . Mike Stauffer was one of the 16 Juniors to qualify for the field and, with a borrowed set of lea thers fro m Ronnie J on es, led th e fourth heat -in to turn one. J ones led the pa ck out of turn two and the rest of the way. Stauffer wou ld stay a grea t distance back in seco nd with Sponsell er Racing/ Shoei 's Rodney Far ris ta king th ird ahead of Andy T resser. Fro m th e pole posit ion, Mari oneaux Racing' s Poovey won the fifth . heat by 30 yards over Oklah om a 's Scott Adam s. Brian Hardin was third all th e way with Brian Bon esteel taking fourth from Willie McCoy on the final lap. Poov ey's bike broke a rocker arm in th e race and he ended up with th e fifth fastest heat. Durell e was on th e pol e for th e fin al heat butit was Carr wh o got th e jump and led every lap of the race. Durelle would finish 50 yards behind in seco nd with J unior Kris Kiser third and Chris Evans fo urth. A red flag ca used by two separa te incidents nega ted Stauffer 's hol eshot , in th e first sem i, but wh en they lined up th e second tim e he did it again. Farris went wide aro und Stauffer exi ting turn two on th e seco nd lap ' a nd held on for th e win. Stauffer made sure he would be th e on ly Junior in the 25-lap main event by finishing second in th e sem i and transferring to the National, Ted Boody and Scott Adams finished a distant th ird and four th, respectively . After Junior Kris Kiser was put on th e penal ty line for j ump ing th e start of th e seco nd semi, Charlie Orr jumped ou t front and held on until the seventh lap. Durell e slid under Orr in turns one and two to win the heat and earned a spot in th e main, as did seco nd- p lace Orr. Rob ert Lewis and Steve Labordus finished well back in third a n d fourth, respectively . T he fin al two spots on th e main event starting grid came from the La st Chan ce Qualifi er, wh ere Lewis and Boody ran o ne-two for th e full 10 la ps. Lew is had a co mfortable cushion , bu t Bood y was pressed from behind by Scott Adam s. Bro w ha d the pole for th e fin al with Davis, J ones. Carr, Poo vey, and In gram filli ng o u t th e front ro w. When the green light flashed for th e fin al tim e in Memorial Stadi um, Davis read the sta rt perfectly and led the pack into the first corne r ' with J on es, Carr, Poo vey, Brow , and Orr in pursui t. , As the pack sorted itself o ut on the first few laps, Orr went wide with Carr while th e rest of the field stayed