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AMA 600 National Championship Dirt Track Series: Round 8 - Carr tops Graham at Peoria TT . By Bert Shepard PEO RIA, IL, JUNE 12 . H arley-Davidson's Chris Carr continued his dominance of the 600 National Series wi th a win in the Peoria TT. It was Carr's fifth straight win in the series. . Carr took the lead at the start of the National final bu t had . , to battl e with RIcky Graha~ and Pete H ames. T he lead trro On the opening lap. Chris Carr leads Pet.e Hames. Dan Ingram. Ricky Graham and the restof the field on the way to his fifth-straight w in . became a du o at the mid-point of the race when H ames was sidelined with a flat tire. Graham pressured Carr . all the way and finished right behind the series point standings leader. Dan Ingram took third, his best ever finish at Peoria. The win gives Carr a h uge lead in the series with 119 points, more than double the 54 points of second. place Hames, who garnered one point for "finishing" 14th in the final. ยท . I TIme tria s . . . Carr proved hIS quick practice times were no fluke as he was the only rider to drop into the 26-second bracket. Carr's 26.405 was close to his Pe~ria record of 26.018 seconds which he set In 1986. .Graham, Hames, Do n. Howard, TlmMerte!1s ,I~gram, Billy !'Iemdon and RIch Kmg were all In the 27 second bracket. Colorado's Shad Rei~k.e was the .46 th and final qualifier, H Andy Tresser (10 Y). Chris Carr (20) and Ricky Graham (3) race 't o the flag on the last lap. Tresser was fined for not letting the leaders by. Chris Carr crosses the finish line w ith Ricky Gra ham right beh ind . Andy Tresser (10 Y) was in the process of being lapped and finished sixth. 28 eats . T?e program f~llowed the no:mal National format In that three nders from each heat would transfer to the main event, with the last three starting spots in the main going to th e Winners of the two seml -~I!1al races and the Last Chance Quahf~er. Carr tptallY dominated the first heat as his command of the track and an obviously quick motorcycle proved too much for Charlie Orr and Ki~g. . . . . " This ISan expenmental engme, said Carr's tuner, Mike Camphouse. " Wha t a place to experiment - here and at Dayton (Ohio jlast night. Ron' Wood set up this engme really tight: t~ere's less than"three-thousandths piston clearance. The large crowd of spectators witnessed one of the worst crashes in recent memory on the opening lap of the second heat. Herndon and Andy Tresser tried to occupy the same space over the jump and Herndon went down hard. Steve Labordus and Gary Davis "cleared the blind jump and found they had now.here to go an? also went down. DaVIS ended up with a b:oken collar bone and su~pected rib dama.ge. Labordus received ~he mo~t ~ttentIon but w~s re lea~ed wit ho ut Injury. ~hlle DaVIS and Labordu~ ' we~e being ten.ded to , Herndon. hu;.ned .hls broken bike back to the pHS. If Billy makes any money today, som e of it is mine," said Charlie Orr. "Most of th e stuff on his bike is mine. " Herndon pulled the holeshot on the restart, but Graham quickly gathered him up and went on to win. Tresser and ' Herndon picked u p ~h~re they lef t of~ and Herdo n Fi nis hed second with Tresser, a . Junior class rider from Cal ifornia, h oldin g the remainder of the field at bay ~o take third. and a spo.t in the National, The hkeable Cah fornian would be the only J unior to make the mam. . H eat number t~ree got off to a slow start when Donn~e Harrell brought out the red flag with a get -.off In tum one. Hames.put th~ Charlie Gardner H arley-Davidson In front of Dan Ingram on the restart and was never headed. Hlinois rider De l. Beck earned hIS trip to the mam by keeping a very persistent Geo rge Roeder behind him for 10 laps. Belleville Honda-sponsored ,Mertens dueled with Howard for the win in the fourth and final heat and it was Mertens leading Howard across the line at the finish. Behind the leading duo, Scott Adams kept Kevin Atherton at bay for his trip to the main. Atherton would have a long and frustrating day, finishing one spot out of an advancement position all day. Semis Michigan's Brian Hardin had the lead in the first semi for exactly one lap as Erick Gruber took over th e point positio n at the start/finish lin e at the end of th e initial lap and was never headed. The win advanced Gruber to the main, while ru nnerup Kris Kiser, Hardin, Kelly Larkin, J on Champlin and Bob Damron were headed for the LCQ. Kevin Atherton and Aaron Hill tried to be in the same place at the same time at the start of the second semi, and Ath erton ended up taking a soil sample. George Roeder ma de the most of the restart and went on to win and advance to the final. Runner-up Hill, Atherton, Tim Stults Craig Estelle and Craig Johns~n were LCQ bound. La st Ch ance a.ua1"1"ier I It was Aaron HJ11 who made the most of the LCQ, and the most was required for only the winner wou ld advance, to . the National. Shoei/ K&K/O Redly Signa/Slats-spon sored Hill held Atherton off to take the win. Pro-Am While Hill and the rest of the qualifiers prepared for the Nationa l, Mike Hale and Audie H uff went at it in the Pro-Am main. Hale slow ly pulled away to take the win over Huth. R ick Kn u th held the rest of the field off to take third place. N ti a lona I Carr chose the front straigh t groove from which to start the race from with his H -D Motor Co .! Shoei/Hap Jones/R.S. Taichi/Tsubaki-backed Harley. After the other