Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

1{"I£t. fV>° .. ~ ~ 00 00 0') ,......., ~ 00 V C ~ ~ While AMA officials shade the Cycle News Finish Line Camera's monitor , screen with a blanket, Parker and Shobert await their decision. The checkered flag waves and it's a photo fin ish invol v ing Scott Parker and Bubba Shobert, with Farris and Poovey coming hom e next. National Cha mpio n Grah am, Don Estep an d Jim Filice fought fo r the two remaini ng ad vancemen t spots. T aking second was Fili ce behind winner J ones, who sur prisingly ran th e race with h is H ank Sco tt H onda " loc ked in third gea r. It would pull all the wa y to th e stan/fin ish line but th at wa s a l l." Fil ice later scratched from th e main. Third went to Estep , while Graham, who 's had more moments of glo ry a t Springfield than any o the r , rider, wa s semi bound. Shobert was a weso me in the third heat as he led th e field into turn one and im~ediately put hi s stamp on the win. The Camel P ro Series champ fin ished nearly five seconds a head of hi s pursuers. Ba ttling for the two other advancement spots throughou t the race were eve ntual runner-up Farris, third place finisher Morehead, veteran Alex Jorgensen and three-time Gra nd Na tio nal Champion and th e crowd favorite Jay Springsteen. Semis Both IO-Iap semi-finals produced mil e racing at its Iinest. .The fir st semi saw eigh t rid ers - Day, Graham , ' R ich King , Don H oward , Tim Mertens, Davis, Bryan McDo well , and Steve Burkholder - run in a pack for much of the race. McDowell led the o pe n ing lap, Howard the second, Day the third a nd fourth, Howard the fifth and two -time Grand National Champion Graham th e sixth. Although th ey continued to fight it was Day o u t in front a t th e line at th e end of each of th e three rem aining la ps. Day took th e win , with Graham second, King third a nd H ow ard fourth. Mertens fin ish ed fifth a nd was sent packing. T he Belleville, Illinoi s, . rid er said, " I guess I haven 't been myself since T ed (Boody ) died. H e did my engines a nd helped me a t th e races. I really mi ss him." Sem i number two had th e large crowd on its feet. Tammy Kirk, wearing pink leathers a nd riding a pink XR7 50, led th e opening la p a nd th e ch eers of th e cro wd for th e lad y from Dalt on , G eo rg ia , n ea rl y drowned o u t th e sou nd of th e motors. But Jorgen sen put hi s H onda in front on lap two a nd kept it th ere to th e fini sh lin e despite ext reme mid-ra ce 'pressure from Springsteen a nd Pete Hames. Springsteen kept th e heat o n all th e wa y but H ames pulled out of th e race on the eigh th lap w i th wha t a c re w m ember g uessed was ignition system failure. " It j ust went sil ent," he sa id. J orgen sen nipped Springsteen a t the line, Kirk finished th ird a nd Bryan Vill ella took th e fourth a nd final advancement spot. National. The IO-lap heat and sem i races reveal ed that the 9O-degree temperature and th e Springfield oval' s ' ultra-fast corners were ca using tire problems. " L oo k at that, " said Springsteen pointing to his H -D Motor Co.lBartel's H -D-sponsored XR 750's rear ti re. T he right side of th e tire , which had been flop ped after his semi , sh owed that th e h ea t buildup was folding over the tread b locks . " And that 's j ust from a semi ," said Springsteen knowing he faced two and a half times as many laps in the final. Mert LawwiIl, who was tending to the Hap Jones/Electro Heavy Equipment-sponsored XRs of Graham a nd Moreh ead, explained: " Side pressure on th e tread blocks builds up trem endous heat. In the sipe marks, little slits, the heat just coo ks th e rubber a nd makes th e blocks fold o ver on them selves." Although riders said th ere was no wa y th ey could run 25 laps flat o ut, th e racing that followed certa inly a p pea red to be flat o ut-p lus. With Filice scratching from th e fina l, 16 rid ers were on th e line in two six-ma n rows and a three-m an, o ne-lady - Ms. Kirk - third row. At th e flash of th e gree n start li ght it was Sho bert leading the Rollin g Th under Show 0 (( the line a nd around the oval on the openi ng lap. T he scorers' shee ts af ter th e o pen ing lap showed th e front runners to be - in additio n to Shob ert - Poovey, Parker, Carr , Farris and J ones. The nex t few laps saw th ose six ri ders form th eir own pack up front with a no the r pack led by Jorgens en a sh ort distance back. Sh obert and Jones cros sed the line , in a dead heat a t th e end of th e eig hth lap a nd Parker, Carr, Po ovey a nd Farris were immediatel y behind th em. T he second pack, now run n in g back o ut of th e front ru nn ing pac k's draft, co nsisted of J orgen sen , Da y, Springsteen , Moreh ead a nd Estep . ,A disappointed Scott Parker, jubilant Bubba Shobert, and happy Rodney Farris accept the cheers of the crowd from winner's circle. Lap II saw Kirk pull out of the race. " We don't know . .. so m ething in th e motor ," said th e Smitty 's /Carlis le /D iamond/Bell / "H i-Poirrt/ Kal-Gard Lou 's Leathers/ Maxie/NGK/Va lvoline-sponsored H arl ey rider. , On th e 15th lap Don Howard coasted to a stop just past th e star t/ fin ish , th e vict im of unreported mech an ical problems, and th e sixman fight up front became a fiveway battle as Carr slow ed dramatically and began to drop back. H e pulled o ut of th e race and into th e p its o n th e following lap. " A spark plug broke," sai d Carr. " I don 't kn ow if a rock hit it or what. I looked down a nd saw fire co ming ou t of th e head a nd I kn ew my da y wa s finished." Carr, who had wo n the 600cc Na tio na l which was run prior to the G rand National fin al , was hopin g to become th e first dirt tracker to win two -National events the same day . Sh uffling of positio ns in th e front run n ing pack a nd th e follow ing pack co n tin ued with five riders u p fro nt and six riders in th e following pack. Moreh ead, who was fighting for a possible six th p lace finis h , sudden ly slo we d o n la p 22 a nd dropped back out of the draft of the second pack. " It went on o ne (cylinder) for a moment a nd wh en it kicked back in it j ust ra n fla t," said the winner of the previous Su nday 's San J ose Mile. He finished 11th . The rernammg three la ps saw Shobert, Parker , Farris, Poo vey and Jones say the hell with tire wear as they upped the pa ce. The 23rd lap produced the fastest lap of the race, a. blistering 103.279 mph lap. The five took their fight right down to the fin al lap and finished in that order. While it was obvio us to all that Farris was third, Poovey fourth and J ones fifth , o nly referee Duke 0 lliges was confident that hi s eyes saw Shobert edge out Parker. Olliges was occupying a platform in front of the grandstands and directly over th e startlfin ish line. Before, the video ta pe revealed th e winner, Olliges sa id, " It was Bubba by a co u ple of in ches." Sh obert a nd Parker ro lled to the lin e where they sa t with their motors r u n n i ng , awa i tin g th e officia ls decision, each hopin g it wo uld be h i m takin g th e c hec kere d fl ag aro u n d the oval. After wa iti ng several minutes without a decision being made, bo th sh ut 0(( th ei r. m otors a n d co ngra tu lated o n e a no ther. Wh en it was an no unced Sho bert wa s the winner, th e H onda fans o n hand cheered while the H arl ey fans groa ned . Parker was clearly d isap pointed. " Sure. I'm disappo inted but I' m not gi ving up. I'll j ust keep going at it, tryi ng hard week af ter week," said Parker wh o wa nts onl y one thing in life - the Number O ne p late. 9

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