Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

second heat foreshadowed Shobert's ' dominance as it was nearly four seconds slower than the first heat. In heat three, winner Carr let some other Honda riders know that he and his factory Harley would be a factor. Carr led most of the race, although he had to di ce with, a nd so metime s , follow , Ingram and the borrowed Honda. Rodney Farris, on another Honda, closed in the fin al laps and freig ht-trained across th e line with Carr and Ingram. Tammy Kirk finished back in fourth , holding off a det ermined Garth Brow. Although one second faster than th e second heat, the third one was still well off the pace set in Shobert's qualifier. The Honda-dominated fourth heat was th e slowest of ,th em a ll. Terry Poovey sh owed some good drafting techniques as h e won th e race with Mertens finishing second and R ich King a distant third. All three rode Hondas. Bria n Atherton stayed close lo the tOP three for half the race, bu t fell back to finish fourth ahead of Rusty Rogers. Heat four saw another mechanical casually when Will Davis' Harley dropped an exhaust valv e. Semis Br ya n Villella and Graham na bbed the top two positions in the I first 1O-lap semi-final race, earning a tic ket to the National. Villella started slowly as Hames, Graham and George Roeder ba ttled up fro nt in the first few laps. Roeder began falling back to an eventual sixth-spot finish as Graham and Ha m es waged a seesaw duel. Meanwhile, Villella was closing in, and, going into turn one on lap six, he was side by side with the leaders. Villella led the next three laps as Hames began droppping off th e pace. Beh in d Hames were Scott Stump and Ted Taylor, who for a moment was busy with some gym.nastics as his Honda pulled a tankslapper. Graham wasn't finished fighting and retook th e lead going into the last lap . The race went down to the last corner where Villella made a move on Graham and snuck by for the win. Behind .th ern camethe five riders h eaded for th e -La st Chance Q ualifier; Hames, Stump, Taylor, Roeder and Dav ey Durelle. The second sem i featured perhaps the day 's most popular winner as Tammy Kirk scored a solid vic tory .over Randy T exter. The woman from Dalton, Georgia, started th e ra ce in third behind Atherton and Brow. But by th e time they reached th e back stra ight on the second lap, Kirk and h er p ink Harley were in command. She pulled away to a small lead on th e n ext la p as Steve Aseltine m oved in on Bro w and Ath erton. ' , Aseltine passed both Bro w an d JAtherto n lo tak e over seco n d an d closed on Kirk o n th e back straight. JBu t Aseltine's sho t a t the to p was ·sh ort-lived as h e slid backwards 'aga in . Kirk stunned th e cro wd a s it .appeared she 'would be j o inin g Asel tine in dropping back when she . slip ped in turn three. But before the crowd h ad a cha nce lo be ' dis appointed, sh e got it to gether a n d ' sa lva g ed the lea d by lap ,ei ght, opening a small gap on secon d lo boot. to As Texter made a ch arge up lo second, Aseltine's da y ended when he crashed between turns three and four. Aseltine's bikedidn't go down with him as it stayed upright for a time "an d experimented with different li nes before falling. Aseltine wal ked , away with a bad bruise on his left arm. ' i Bubba Shobert (1 1 ran away from Scott Parker (1 1 I. Chris Carr (201 and the rest in the 25-lap National. Following winner Kirk and runner-up Texter · a cross th e line · were Brow, Atherton , Rogers , Chance Darling and Wink Freitas, who would get their last ch ance at a National start position aft er th e Camel Challenge. Camel Challenge By lap two o f the five-lap Camel Challenge sprint ra ce, Shobert wa s gone, eyeballing the winner 's $10,000 check and leavin g th e other top-qualifi ers to fight for th e remains of th e $17,500 purse. Poovey and Ingram followed Shobert for two laps before Carr, .usin g the cushion, moved up to second on lap four and stayed there. Poovey tned but couldn't get under Carr and sett led in third to stay, wi th his Honda misfirin g . Finishing close behind Ingram was Mertens a t a distant a n d a strugglin g Parker finished la st. Last Chance Qualifier The last availa b le spot in the National went to Athert on after he won th e Last Chance Qualifier over Brow a nd Ro~ers , The o u tco me o f th e ra ce was m doubt for m ost of it s 1O-laps as Pete H ames an d Ted Taylo r were in contention as well , an d led th e race at times. Taylor was leading a t the sta rt of lap nine but so me h andling p roblems ope ned the door for Atherto n a nd th e rest o f th e duel ing leaders to fly by. _ National Shobert, th e fastest hea t winner , had his pick o f startin g p osit ion fo r th e 25-lap m ain even t a nd he sat on th e second insid e slo t b e tween Ingram and Poovey. Fillin g ou t th e front row were Parker , Keith Day an d Carr. Row two h ad Morehead o n th e inside , n ext to Jon es, Farri s, Chandler, Mertens and King. Behind th em on , row three were Graham, T exter, Kirk, Atherton a n d Villella. ' At the start, Ingram and Parker went into the first turn together, followed by Carr and Shobert. Shobert wanted lo end the drama early and Bub ba S hobert w as fo rc ed to lo ok back t o see his competito rs . Towa rd the e nd of the Natio na l. he had built a lea d of nearly four seconds. crossed the start/fin ish lin e in fro nt at th e end of th e open ing lap. Park er h a d o ther id ea s and picke d off Sh obert in turn one . Carr was in third after dispatching In gram. Park er led o ne m ore lap before th e race for first en ded. By' lap four, Shobert had broken the draft a n d was free and clea r to ride toa co n vinci ng win. Carr closed o n Parker, beginning th e real entertain m ent o f the day with a duel that would not en d until th e checker s. ' Ano ther close contest developed some distan ce behind them a s Ingram , Poovey, Morehead and Jones fought o ver fourth. Jones ' threat never material ized as he trailed , th~n lat er faded to a n-eventu al seven th -p lace fin ish. T he three a hea d o f h im swa pped 'p laces for m ost of th e race with In gr am co ming ' out on tOP, Morehead taking fifth a nd Poovey si xth . Carr a n d Parker were side by side down th e straights and through th e turns. Parker had more m otor than Carr and cou ld draft his teammate down th e a ll -i m p o rta nt front strai gh tto th e flag. Carr co u ld outturn Parker and would retake th e second-place position in the corners. " I felt I could get through the co rners a littl e better than Scotty," Carr said. "He was able lo draft me at will." 11

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