Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

00 00 O'l ........ Rodney Farri~ (92) pressure.d Jay Spri.ngsteen in the late stages of the race. but Sprrngsteen held him off to gIve Harley-Davidson a 1-2-3. "When you can race side -by-side and swap the lead with SCally you 're having fun ," Morehead said. " Now that it 's gelling a black line it 'll be follow-th e-leader with th e stu ffing it Into a corner the o nly way to pass. The cu shion is gelling pushed up too far to rid e in. " "Everything seemed to fall into p lace," sa id Parker. " We've still got a long wa y to go. It shoul d' ve been a little fas ter." Graham ch ose th e ins ide pole for the second heat, but a carburetor vent hose came loose all owing dirt in and slowing Graham 's charge. H e would finish eigh th. . The ra ce would be a c row d pl easing win for Sprin~steen wh o led the wh ole way, stretch ing h is adva ntage to almost two seconds o n second place Ronnie J ones by th e end. GF Racing 's J on es was th ree seconds ahead of the SuperTrapp/Blendzall/ Arai Honda of Doug Chandler. Dan Ingram was fourth ahead of Tim Merten s. T he time wa s 4: 15.982 minutes. . Circle Bell 's Scott Pearson jumped into the lead of th e third heat, but by the third lap it was Farris in front with Poovey seco nd and Pearson dropped to third. One m ore circu it and Poovey was on Farri s' tail a nd ?n .the eig hth Iap Poov ey stuc k tight . inside go ing Int o turn o ne making the pass wor k exiti ng th e corner. " I got a little bi t too high on th e stra ight two laps in- a-row," was how Farris exp la ined hi s vulnera bi lity to Poovey's aggressiven ess. " We got it under contro l now . We're not goi ng to do any more du mb stuff like that tonight." The interval from Poovev to Farris was six bike len gths with Pearso n a bo ut 30 yards back. Bryan Villella was third a nd pol esitter Chad Feli cio fifth. The 10 lap time was 4:14.358 minutes. Chris Carr got a bad start in th e fourth and fina l heat a nd it took hi m until just past th e halfway po in t to wo rk his wa y to th e front. Wh en he took the lead, going u nder George Roed er II , entering turn o ne on the SIxth la p , he was tu rning h is fastest laps of th e da y with a 24.9 second clockin g o n th e eighth lap. Roeder would hang onto seco nd abo ut two seconds behind Carr with Don Estep fourth a nd Don How ard fifth . Ca rr 's heat win was th e second fas test at 4:13.988 minu tes. Wh at had kept Carr from getting to the front soo ne r? "H is (Roeder) long left leg," he repl ied. " He was abl e to tak e up a lot of room go ing Into o ne a nd three. It was a matter of getting mom entum and ge tting a drive on him." Semis Belleville Honda's Tim Merten s overtook Scott Stump on the second of I0 la ps in th e first 12-rider sem i and went on to win, although not before holding off a late chall enge from Graham. Graham, who moved into second on the eigh th lap, was o n Mertens' rear fender exiting turn two on the final la p, tried to ge t unde r going o ut of four a nd had to sett le for seco nd a nd a trip to the La st Chan ce Qual ifer. Onl y th e semi winner , Merten s, was into the main. Third went to Dan Ingram wi th Darling fourth, a nd Jon Cornwell 'fifth . The second sem i went to Rabbit Ra cing's Martin Lavioe, who led fro m start-to -finish. At first Rich Kin g pressed , then dropped to th ird wi th Br ian H ard in ta kin g th e runner-up spot. Randy Texter was fo urth a hea d of Chad Felicio. Last Chance Qua lifier Back for hi s third race of th e n ig h t, Graham was quickly into th e lead, heading T exter by five bike lengths going up th e back straight o n th e opemng lap. Ten laps later Graham had a 6O-yard victory and th e final spot in th e IS-rider 20-lap main. Cornwell was a lone seco nd, well ahead of Hardin. Graham 's IO-Iap time of 4:07.884 was by far the fastest 10 la ps of th e night as th e ' trac k beca me fast er. Camel Challenge By the time th e Chall en ge was brought to th e line, a two- foot wid e black groove had encircled the track. Getting to it fir st would be th e key to lead ing, stayi ng o n it wo uld be the key to winnin g. The sta rt and first la p were Gra ham 's wi th Carr second , Howard third, Par ker fourth , Far ris fifth , a nd ·Felicio sixth. Go in g into turn one on the second lap Carr took the lead a nd Felicia pulled off with a fla t rear tire o n th e sa me lap. Go ing into turn th ree o n th e third la p was where th e troub le bega n. Carr was leading, Graham went in hot bumping Carr's bik e and body a nd dropping hi m about 40 yards ba ck by th e time h e reco vered. Howard, who'd blown up hi s transmission in his semi a nd was o u t of the program, a nd just rebuilt it in tim e for . the <;:amel Challenge, fin ish ed third with Farris fourth, and .I~arker, still trying th e high line, ftfth . Gra ha m was a two-leng th wi nner, but Carr im mediately protested a nd soo n after, Graham was tak en down . " H e came in under me a nd flat h it me. No ifs, ands or buts abo ut it," a n obvio us ly di spl eased Carr said. " I was fortunate to stay o n th e bike." G raham said, " On a rea l slippery track like th at you don 't liketo wi n by stuffing somebody , but that's what happened. You can't really ride Ricky Graham (center) received the $10.000 Camel Challenge check but was disqualified and Carr (second from left) was declared the winner. a nywhere bu t o n th e groove." Asked a bo ut th e coll isio n Graham beli eved th at Carr had sh u t off early for th e corner giving him no escape. H owever, the AMA saw it Ca rr's way and as quickl y as he'd' won th e $ 10.000, Grah am lost it. National The 20-lap final was green-lighted at 10:35 and instantl y Moreh ead was ' th e pacesetter, never to be head ed. Hi s rhyth m was flaw less, hittin g th e groov e entering th e comers consistent lyevery lap with no one rem o tely close to his pa ce. On th e eig h th lap he cu t a lap of 23.9 seconds. The race would be for second. Parker was second early ahead of Springsteen a nd Poovey with Carr fifth ahead of Farris a nd Est ep . Ro eder was just ahead of a fru strated Sh ob ert in eigh th . Graham had slipped off th e groove and was at the back of th e pa ck. Chandler went out ea rly when hi s chain sna pped and La vioe had hi s cra nkshaft fail o n th e seco nd lap. On th e th ird lap Parker al so slid off th e groove, slipp ing to sevent h . H e wo u ld rega in a spo t on th e nex t lap a nd by the o ne-q ua rter mark of th e race the order of th e to p nine was set and the parade, for th e most pa rt, was o n. Morehea d was long go ne, Carr wou ld have to dea l wi th a resur gen t Springstee n , a nd Fa rris, th e first H onda, wou ld ho ld off Poovey who, in turn , had to fight back Par ker's muted charge. Wha tever chance Pa rker had in th e main wa s ended when h is throttl e stuck o pe n. "Something go t dirt somewhere a nd . the throttl e wa s sti cking," Pa rker wo uld la ter sa y. " I' d run it on in th e corn er wi th th e brakes a ll the way o n and th e engine dead and let off the kill button inn th e middle of th e corner . I wa s running with Steve when it first stuck on a nd that 's wh en I ran off the groove." P a r ker wou ld make a run at Poovey a t the end, but cam e u p short a nd the T exa n had fifth . Also mak in g a lat e cha rge was Farris finish in g just half a bike len gth beh ind Sp rin gsteen. " It was .slippery off th e line and I wai ted for a co u p le of guys to mak e mi stakes," Farris exp lai ned . " Me a nd J ay were go ing for th e flag a nd he was on th e groove. I was down in the loose stuff. I go t down too low and ,it wasn 't the righ t line to th e , flag. . Spri ngsteen, back in th e winner 's circle, was , in hi s own words, Steve Morehead gave his w ife and t he checkered flag a lap. "Excited. It 's a good half mile bike, but I need a little po wer .for th e top end· of th e mil es. We go t th e thing to work tonight a nd I' ve been getting help from Al Sta ngler who wor ks at th e factory. T he tra ck go t faster all ni ght. My slow est la p of th e night was in qualifying. Asked wh eth er he felt pressured he said th at he "knew they were on my ass so I never looked back. One tim e going into three Rodney h it me so hard it sta rt led me a nd I was able to p ull some ground on him. I kn ew ' he'd hav e to go o utside of me to get around me." Ca rr was check ing Moreh ead's rear tire in the winner's circle a nd fou nd it was less worn than hi s o wn, although both ran new Goodyears. " H e was hooking up bet ter. I had 15 la ps to catch ' him and I didn't. He goes good on thi s stuff. H e was th e guy to win thi s event." • Results 2Q-LAP NATIONAL: 1. Steve Morehead (H· D); 2. Chri S Carr (H· D); 3. Jay Sprin gsteen (H· D); 4. Rodney Farr is (Hon); 5. Terry Poovey (Hont 6. Scon Parker (H- D); 7. Don Este p (H· D); 8. George Roeder II (H· D); 9. Bubba Shobert (Hon); 10. Tim Mertens (Hon); 11. Scon Pearson (H·D ); 12. Ricky Graham (H· D); 13. Ronn ie Jon es (Hon); 14. ,Doug Chandler (Hon); 15. Martin Lavoie (H· D). TIME: B min .. 04 .900 sees. AVERAGE SPEED: 74 . 242 mph . CAMEL CHALLENGE: 1. Chr is Carr (H·D); 2. Don Howard (H·D); 3. Rodney Ferr is (Hon); 4 . Scott Parker (H-D); 5. Chad Felicio (H-D); 6. (DO) Ricky Graham (H-D). CAMEL PRO SERIES POINT STANDINGS: 1. 8ubba Shobert (55); 2. Steve Morehead (40 ); 3. Doug Polen (32); 4. (TIE) Rodney Farris /Scon Parker (22); 6. (TIE)Terry Poovey/Kevin Schwantz/ Jay Springsteen (20); 9. Rueben McMurter (18)' 10. (TIE) Chr is Carr/Randy Renfrow (16 ). • AMA GRAND NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP SER· IES POINT STANDINGS : 1. Bubba Shobert (75); 2. Scon Parker (70); 3. Terry Poovey (52); 4. (TIE) Chris Cerr/ Steve Morehead (48); 6. (TIE) Rodney Ferris!Jay Springsteen (35); 8. Ronnie Jones (34)' • 9. (TIE) Keith Day/Don Estep (30). 7

• Cover