Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

00 00 O"'l ........ Steve Morehead (421started the race in front and stayed t here. Chris Carr (2 01 ended up secon d . After be ing declared the winner of the Camel Challenge. Carr held off t hree-t im e Grand National Champion Jay Springsteen in the National. AltA Grand National Championship/Camel Pro Series: Rounds 5/4 Morehead leads Harley sweep at··Louisville By Hen ny Ray Abrams Photos by Bert Shepard Time t rials LOUISVILLE, KY, J UN E 4 Steve Morehead ended seven years of frustration at Louisville Down s by winning the Lou isvill e H alf Mile. Aboard the KK/ Men LawwillzH ank Sco tt/ Dragoo HarleyDavidson XR750 Morehead led a highly poptrlar orange and black sweep of the top .. " three spots with Harley s ChrIS 6 Carr seco nd and four-time Louisville winner Jay Springsteen third on the H-D Motor Co .lBartell's H-D entry. up with H ank Scott an d th e bike ran lik e a cha m p," Moreh ea d , wh o ea rlier this year won th e Ca me l Pro race at Sa n J ose, sa id. ''I've go t a good progr am with Mert Lawwill on th e m ile a nd Hank Scott o n th e h alf m iles." Both th e Cam el Pro a nd G rand National dirt track point 'sta nd ings were upset by th e Louisville resu lts. H onda 's Bubba Shobert, strugglin g with traction problems all night, fini sh ed ninth while Harley's Scott Parker , slowed by a sticking throttle p roblem in th e main , fin ish ed sixth. Shobert still leads th e Camel Pro sta nd ings by 55 to 40 over Moreh ead with Doug Polen third at 32. In dirt tra ck sta n d in gs it 's Shobert 75, Parker 70, and Poovey 52. In addition to finishing second in th e m ain , Carr als o collect ed $10,000 aft er being awarded first pl ace in th e Camel Challenge following the disqualification of Ricky Graham, who won th e race. Carr led th e fivelap race unti l the third turn of the third lap wh en Graham bumped into him , moving him to second. Carr voi ced his di ssatisfaction imm ediatel y after th e race and, sh ortl y th ereafter, th e AMA dropped Graham to six th, moving. everyo ne up a spot. The fin al order read Carr, Don H ow ard, Farris, Parker, Chad Feli cia, an d Graham. The AMA 's deci sion made Carr th e big m oney winner for th e ni ght with 13 ,975 ( 10,000 for th e Cam el Chall en ge win a nd 4125 for seco nd in the National ). Moreh ead ea rned 5990 for th e win plus a nothe r 400 in lap money. Third-placed Sp ri ngsteen took h ome $2840 w h ich was less th an Farri s' Challen ge/fin al to ta l of $4505 a nd Parker 's take o f 3385 for th e Challen ge/final , a nd fast qual ifier award o f $100. M.J . Sponseller- sponsored Rodney Farris brought th e first Honda home i~ fourth ahead of fell ow Ho.nd a pilot T erry Poovey o n th e Manon.neaux Racing ma chine. '. ' " For seven years in -a-row I've had mechanical failures here and never finished a ra ce. But this year I teamed With o n ly 40 riders entered , all were g ua ra nteed to mak e th e progra m but th ree would drop o u t in qual ifying. Parker would be the onl y rider under 25 seco nds taking th e pol e pos itio n for th e first heat with a lap of 24.994 seconds on the rapidl y ch anging cru shed limestone surface. Obviously at home on th e wide-open track , Parker, who'd won here th e previo us two year s, th ought he co u ld use th e cush io n for th e first co u p le of laps of his heat race before th e groove devel oped down by th e guardrail. "Usually if I go good in qualifying, I go good all ni ght long," Parker said. Graham was seco n d fast est at 25.058 on th e Mert Lawwill H -D after cam pa ign in g a Honda for the previous five year s at Louisville. In fac t, th e to p five q ualifiers and 21 of 22 L oui svill e wi n ne rs wer e H arl ey-m ounted a n d Grah am bel ieved it had so me th ing to do with th e H arley's power curve. " It 's a little more mell ow th an th e H onda ," G raham sai d. "T h is is th e m ost unique ra ce tra ck in America because of th e cus h io n , but wh en you see th e black groove below it yo u ha ve to ge t on it. Me a nd Scotty would ride down th ere a ll night lang." Graham was a ppeari ng in hi s first Camel Challeng e as wer e thirdfa stest Chad Fel ici a (25.440 seconds) a n d fourth -f a st est Don Howard (25.471 seconds). Carr was fifth with a 25.484 lap j ust a head o f Farris' 25.490. "There' s no wa y th ey ca n work the tra ck en ough to keep it from groovin g ," Carr said as the tra ck was being groomed a fter th e 4:00 p.m . qualifying. " T h ey soaked the h ell out of it and dragged it, but it's like dragging co ncrete. The sp ray here will kn ock yo u back a co u p le of bike lengths." Carr a lso believed th e Harl eys were better sui ted to Louisvi lle th an th e H ondas, but for oth er reasons. "They run h igher rprns so it's harder for th em to hook up. And th ey a lso run a hi gher gear. We run abo u t 6:30 a nd th ey're more like 6:806:90." Chand le r was seven th with a 25.547 second lap j us t ahead of Cam el Pro Champion Shobert (25.548 seco nd). It was the first time that Sh ob ert ha s failed to make the Camel Challenge. " It's pretty clear that th e Honda doesn 't work here," Shobert began. " We tri ed a different frame from a couple of yea rs ago . Skip (Ea ken, Shobert's tuner ) came up with some different geometries that work on o ther half miles. We'r e guessing on how the tra ck 's going to be in the main. The track changes so much. I've never been able to ride a peagravel tra ck. The bike doesn't work as good and I don't work as good." Filling out th e' top 10 were Morehead at 25.552 and Ronnie Jones at 25.597. Scott Stump was the final qualifier at 27.605. . Heats The first of the four 12-rider, 10lap h eats pitted Parker against Morehead and would be not only the fastest heat of th e night, but also the most exciting. Morehead got th e good start and headed for th e developing groove with Parker going underneath him an d Sh ob ert trying th e bottom of the cus h io n. Chance Darl ing a nd Will Davis were a n ea rly fourth and fifth . On th e seco nd lap, Parker went high, Moreh ead low givin g Parker th e lead as Shobert faded to an eventu a l d istan t third. Davi s would run a di stant fourth before dr opping o u t la te in th e ra ce with bottom end fa ilu re. The following lap Moreh ead went high and Parker low , but,Moreh ead . would soon drop down so that at the halfwa y p oint P arker powered around him on th e outside to take th e lead. The two wer e never more than a bike length apart for the rest of th e rac e wi th Parker taking the win by a wheel and Morehead over six secon ds ahead of Shobert and the last direct transfer into th e main. Fourth through ninth place finishers went to the sem is. Jim Kell y/Perry 's H -D / Ara i 's Brian Atherton was fourth and MC Stuff/ Blendza ll / Bieffe's David Miller fifth.

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