Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Harley-Davidson team , ri der C hris Carr chose the wrong 'tire cut and wound up with a broken steering damper on his way to fourth place. Carr and Parker con tested second p lace in th e opening laps, but by the fo urth lap the first th ree spots were fixed with Carr finishing a di stant second to winner Jones and Parker finishing an equally di stant third to Carr. ~ehind them , T erry Poovey mo ved i n to fourth by passing Felicio on the penultimated lap but all he go t for that was a ticket to a semi. ' Steve Burkholder pulled th e holeshot with his Ed Fisher H onda in the second heat, but at the en d of la p two it was Virginian Rusty Rogers out in front. Rogers stayed there to score his first ever National heat-race win. Rogers, who cut his racing teeth at th e Ri chmond Fai rgrounds in that facility's summertime week ly short track even ts, had to work for the win. Brian Atherton closed on him on th e ninth lap and tried to p ull o££ a pass comi ng o££ of tum four 'o n the final lap, but he came' u p short. Don Es tep , who moved into third by pas sing Burkholder on lap six , took the show position, while Burkholder led all but o ne of his pursuers to a sem i. In a preview of the final, Morehead took the lead coming o u t of turn two on the opening lap of the th ird and final h eat and sa ile d home the winner. Pet e Hames d u plicated More head's run but in second pl ace. Behind the pair was a two -lap di ce for third betw een Dan Ingram, who 'was riding th e Eddie Adkins XR7 50 which is sponsor ed by Gene Grover's Winchester H arley-Davidson, a nd Mike Sponseller-sponsored Rodney Farris. Farris took over third for good on the third lap and opened up a . co mforta ble ma rgin over Ingram , who fini shed a semi -bound fourth ahead of Ti m Mer te n s, Do n ni e Howard a n d tw o- tim e G ran d Na tio nal Cham p io n Ri cky Graham. ' Semis Just as did the heat races, the sem ifi na ls trans ferred the top three' finishers to the National and by the end of the first semi's second lap it was obvious that barring a mi shap the tran sfer ees would be T erry Poovey, Doug Davis and George " J oe" Roeder. While those three circulated wi thout pressure in the top three spots, battles that didn 't cou nt were carried out behind th em. And sure enough, Poovey took th e win, Davis was second and Ro eder third. At the end of the second lap of the seco nd semi it appeared as through a no ther follow-the- Ieader race would ' go into th e books. But after a redflagged start - ruled as an " uneven one" by th e starter - Ingram led every lap and scored th e win, but not wit ho u t sweating it. H is ignition started to give up th e fight near th e end of th e IO-lap race and Graham, aboard the Mert Lawwill XR750 for th e first tim e since the Louisville Na tional , closed to within in ches of him on ,the final lap. Graham 's charge came up short and In gra m had the win , Graham second and Mertens th ird . Ingram's tuner, Eddie Adkins, said, " It (the ignition) hung in th ere just long enough." Ingram 's problems con tinued late r in th e evening when he su££ered a flat tire in the final. Nationat" Morehead, by virtue of winning the fastest heat , took the outside pole posmon up along the grandstand wal l. Joining him on th e front row for th e 20-lap National were Jones, Rogers, Hames, Carr and Atherton. Occupying the second row were . Farris, Parker , Estep - who chose the inside pole for th e second, heat a.nd saw his second-fastest qualifying ' nme go up in a SIdeways dustslewing blast o££ th e line - Poovey, Ingram and Doug Davis . Gra ham, Roeder and Merten s sa t on the th ird row . ' The final got th e green light just a few m inutes over two hours after the dual National program finally go t away, a tribute to referee Du ke Olliges and hi s crew . First o££ the line was Carr, but by the time th e openi ng-lap shuffle was com pleted it was Morehead in th e lead for good. La p two fin ished with Morehead sett ing th e pace, followed by Car r, Jones, Ingram, Hames, Parker and the rest of the field. Winner St!!ve M~rehead sends the bu~bly flying as he ,celebrates his fourth National victory of the season and the 14th win of his career. As the 15-man field circulated the banked, half-mile ova l, dust flew and partially blocked vision for the backmarkers in turns one and two, while the third and fourth turn portion of -th e track remained dust free, thanks to th e over-wat ering earlier in th e evening. While KK Motorcycle/Dragoo/ Wh eelin' Works/F&S H -D ba cked Moreh ead was doing his thing ou t front, J ones a nd Carr were conducting a dice behind him in e££orts to • secure second. Carr ran turns three and four down low while J o nes too k to the high part of the track and squared o££ the turn. By lap seven , Jones put what appeared to be a lock on the runner-up sp ot and Carr seem ed to be ready to sett le for third. T he next seven laps saw the frontrunners hold their po sitions, but o n lap 14 th e crowd came alive as it was obvio us th at Parker had moved up on Carr and, unless Carr stepped up , th e pace, his Harley-Davidson teammat e would get , by him. "Parker, riding th e Bill Werner-tuned H arley which was running a " twin gle" both pistons firing at o nce - got by Ca rr on lap ,15 and set hi s sigh ts on Jones. " We chose th e wrong cu t on th e rear tire," said a frowning Carr after th e ra ce. Pointing to his steering da mper that was hanging down, broken o££ a t its rear mounting spot, Ca rr sai d, " I proba bly di d' th at o n lap 18 when 1 swap ped ends after th e tire to tall y quit working. " T hree laps after gettin g by Carr, Parker had work ed h is way up to the rear fender of Jones. T hen, with h is vacationing par en ts watch ing, th e H arley factory rider stuck a wheel in o n J ones at bo th ends of the trac k. After th e whi te £lag waved, an d Morehead had nothing to thin k abou t but counting th e victor's cash, Parker set J o nes in turns three-four and came out of four with the lead and wit hin yar ds of the second-place finish. " I' ve said it before and I'll say it again," s aid Parker. " We're giving it IO O-percent this year." , Parker said that while Morehead took crew member Denny La ube wh o, al ong with his brother, John, has' been working with the Morehead/Scott team, for a checkered £lag-waving lap. " H an k and 1 aren 't the easiest people to get along with," said Morehead in reference to the fact that wh en he and Hank show up for a race they always have their race faces on. " So thes e guys have to put up with a lot, but th ey always pitch in and get the job done." Morehead added a touching moment to the night's program when he ended his winner's circle ' in terview with announcer Dave W~rren. "T h is one 's ' for Sm itty," said Morehead. Laurence " Sm itty" Smith is in critical condition in th e Frederick, Mar yland, hospital ; he su ££ered a heart attack at th e J u ly 4 Frederick Half Mil e. "Sm itty" is a -lo ng-time fixture on th e dirt tra ck scene and his name appears 'on the list of rider's sponsors everytime a dirt track race is run , or so it seem s.' As Don Estep put it , " I hope everyone is praying for Sm itty." • Resu lts 20-LAP GRANO NAT"L C'SHIP FINAL: 1. St eve Mo rehead (H-D); 2. Scan Parker (H-D); 3. Ronnie Jones (Hon); 4 . Chri s Carr (H- D); 5 . Pete Hames (H-D); 6. Tarry Poovey (H-D); 7. Ricky Graham (HD); 8. Rodney Farris (Han); 9. Tim Mertens (H-D); 10. Don Estep (H-D); 11. Rusty Ragars (H-D); 12. Doug Davis (H-D); 13. George Roeder II (H-D); 14. 8r ian Ath erton (HoD); 15. Dan Ingram (H-O). TIME: 8 miri. , 15.753 sac. AMA GRAND NAT"L C'SHIP PT STDGS; 1. Scott Parker (119): 2, St eve Morehead (98); 3. Bubba . Shobert (95); 4 . Chris Carr (91); 5. Tarry Poovey (7 1); 6. Ronnia Jon es (68); 7. Rodney Farri s (56); B. (TIE)Jay Springsteen/Don Estap (44 ); 1D. Keith Day (30). 15

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