Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127142
00 00 0") ~ Winner Steve Morehead (42) leads fourth-place finisher Chris Carr (behind) and Rodney Farris (9 2) who wound up f arther down in eighth . Scott Parker (11) and Ronnie Jones waged a late-race battle that saw Parker squeak by for the runner-up position. to the fu ture a n d skipping the Hagerstown Grand National Champ ionship race to co mpete in the Laguna Seca Na tional Championship Road Race, Parker 's second p lace finish moved his series-leading points total to 119, 14 over Shobert. "We wanted to get a lot of points and we almost got as many as you can get ," said H -D Motor Co.lBell/ Harley Owners Group/Tsubakisponsored Parker. Time Trials Checkers fly'for Steve Morehead. who led w ire-to-wire to take a runaway w in in the Hagerstown Half Mile. AMA Grand National Championship Series: Round 8 Morehead all the way at Hagerstown By Jack Mangus Photos by Bert Shepard HAGERSTOWN, MD, JULY 9 Steve Morehead was first off the start line and then first across the finish lin e at th e 20-lap Hagerstown Half Mile final at Hagerstown Speedway. The stellar performance by the I5-year vetera n of Grand Na tional competition marked his fourth win of . the season and 14th of his 14 career in National competition. "Yeah, the most I ever had before was two in a seaso n a?d now"we'~e won four already this. year , s~\ld More head. Then refenng to bike owner/tuner Hank Scott, Morehead smiled and said, "Hank's got 17 National wins so we'll just have to wait and see if Hank slows this th ing (Harley-Davidson XR 750) down wh en I get near his number of wins." _ Scott was quick to comment, " I won't slow it down, but I' ll chalk up th e wins on my record too. " While Morehead's finishing position was set almost the moment the green starting light flashed, second pl ace was decided on the final lap. Runner-up honors went to H arley's Scott Parker who nipped by Ron nie Jones. Getting set ba ck a position was obviously a disappointment to GP Racing's Jones, who said, " I didn 't know Scottie was coming up on me." J ones had held second place from the sixth lap until th e final one when Parker completed a late-race charge that moved him past eventual fourth -place finisher Chris Carr and then by Jones. . Morehead, in addition to co nt ingency prizes , pocketed $4000 in purse money, $400 in lap leader money, and a performance incentive award of $250. Prior to his commanding performance in the GNC fi n al , Morehad finished fifth in the 600 National and that earned him $315 which brought his night's earnings to $4965. With defending Grand National Champ io n Bubba Shobert looking Once again a slim turnout of riders J . went up against timer Gil Dosmegan's clocks and when the 36 riders who did mak e the trek to Hager- a stown had had th eir shot, it was GF Racing/Gill·Pacer/ShoeilMegacycl e/ Li llie R&D/ Kn ig h t/Racecrafters / AXO /Castro l-back ed Jones earn ing himself $100 for th e fastest lap, a 24.699-second tour of the ova l. Donnie Estep was second fastest with a tim e of 24.720, and Morehead was third fastest with a 24.860 lap. Eleven riders lo gged sub-25 second laps and, other than the fastes t three, th ey were Rod n ey Farris, Brian Ath erton, T erry Poo- n vey, Chris Carr, Do ug Davis, Pete Hames, Dan Ingram and R u sty Rogers. Don Wilson was the " cu t-off" man ') - cut-off in quote marks because all 36 riders who took time trial lap s made the program - with a 25.029 ) lap. n Heats The first of three 10-lap , l2 -rider heat races that would advance the top three finishers to the National final, and the fourth through 11th place finishers to a semi-final race, got underway over an hour afte r the advertised starting time, Practice was delayed when the ambu lance arrived ' la te and then the program was delayed when the track crew overwatered the oval in turns three-four. Perhaps the most vocal of the riders who too k laps prior to the start . of ·the heat was Chris Carr: "They (vocal spectators and some of the other riders lined up for the heat) ') say go turn lap s and dry out the wet spots. I say rather then us run very expensive motorcycles in the wet stuff and chance going down , let them (the track crew) take one of their certainly less expensive trucks ' out and dry it out." What Carr wanted, Carr go t, bu t only after sand was a pplied . .. . When the green ligh t flashed on the first heat it was Chad Felicio wi th the holeshot, but tha t only las ted tem porari ly as Jones was in front for good by the end of the opening lap.