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battle for third. waged by Chris Carr (201. Ricky Graham (31. Terry Poovey (181 and Doug Chandler (101. AMA Grand National Championship/ Camel Pro Series: Rt)unds 13/11 Shobert wins Camel title, Parker marches on at Indy Mile By Ty van Hooydonk Phot os by Bert Shepard INDIANAPOLIS, IN, AUG. 28 Rainstorm s delayed one of th e twin Indy Miles and cariceled the other, bu t Sco tt P a r ker outlasted the 'w ea th er' and his compe titi on to mai ntain the Grand National Championship Series point lead and claim . $19,000 ill Camel Challenge pnze money. 10 The factory Harley-Davidson rider comfortably won the five-lap Camel Challenge, before beating Honda's Bubba Shobert by inches after a racelong battle in the 25-lap National final. Parker won the race, after trading the lead with Shobert on nearly every lap, and gave himself some breathing room in the close GNC points wa r with Shobert and Chris Carr, whose bike broke and did not finish the National. Parker also pocketed $5750 out of the $40,000 purse for his victory. T he ' weekend was certainly not without its high points for Shobert and Carr, however. With his second-place finish in the final, Shobert clinched his fourthstraight Camel Pro Series Champions hip and the whopping $ 100,000 that goes with it. Carr al so claimed a title at the even t, held a t the Indiana State . Fairgro unds, Since th e Camel Pro Series program tha~ was schedu~ed to run Saturday mgh.t, was ramdelayed for one day, It forced the cancelation of Sunday's scheduled GNC and 600cc National miles. With the axing of the 600cc event, Carr clinched the series title because there are not enough races left on the schedule to allow his points lead to be topped. But Carr's weekend was spoiled wit h his DNF in the final, dropping him from second to third in the GNC point standings and dimming his hopes of winning the series championship. With only five races remaining. Parker leads the points race with 188. Shobert follows with 179 and Carr still has 164. When Carr dropped out, in the midst of a fierce battle for third, the last spot on the rostrum went to Terry Poovey, who survived a collision with Ricky Graham. Both riders blamed one another for th e incident, and Graham filed a rough riding protest aga inst Poov ey which was later den ied by referee Duke Olliges. Behind Poovey ca me Doug Chandler in fourt h, who nu rsed home his down-on-power H onda. Fifth went to veteran Alex Jorgensen, making one of his now occasional dirt track appearances. Jorgensen rode the Staab Racin g-sp onso red Honda. Sixth place went to a strangelymounted 'and strangely-attired Scott Pearson. Pearson was one of a handful of riders caught off-guard when practice finally got underway late Sunday afternoon. After it had rained Saturday, and much of Sunda y morning - leaving the track a gooey mess - it seemed unlikely to many pit-dwellers that any racing would take place: Pearson's mechanic was one of them. He left early, leaving Pearson, a n d Pete Hames" without their ' Gardner Racing rides. " H o nest mistake, dumb move," Pearson said. The rains let up around midday, giving the ground crew the chance to cut down the top layer of muck and leave behind a smooth and extremely raceable surface. "The track looks beautiful and it's going to be great," said a pumpedup Carr. Fortunately for Pearson, Steve Morehead also left the track early, to race in a sprint car event. More: head left behind his Mert Lawwill equipment and Pearson quickly formed "Team Borrow," with Morehead's Harley, Sal H offman 's tootight lea thers and one of Chris Carr's helmets. The rain was bad treatment for the riders packing the pits. "So far, this is therecord attendance for riders," said Parker, now a three-time Indy winner. " T here's the most entries so far this year. That's a neat feeling. For some reason, people like coming to Indy. They usually prepare it real good. It's a deep, wide race track. It's got good memories. " There were 58 entries, but not many fans to watch them. The rain sent away many spectators, so that when the spectactular final race was run, on ly a few thousand people were watching in the empty stands. Time trials Bubba Shobert, so often a threat on the mi les, seemed like a good bet to win after qualifying where he set the fastest time of 36.296 seconds for an average speed of 99.184, far off . his own record of 35.211/102.241 set in 1985. "I won my first National here in '82 so I've always liked the place," Shobert said: "It's always been a good track. It's always seemed to be a safe track. When you come to Indy, it seems like the most important thing you have to worry about is if it's going to rain or not. Here we are, the same thing again." Shobert was showing no signs of the crash he suffered the week before in time trials at Hamburg, and he said that only his left foot was still slightly sore. Second fastest was Carr , who hoped to improve on his best finish at Indy - a seventh place in 1986. Carr clocked a 36.362. Next fastest was th e H-D Motor Co .lBell/Tsubaki /Harley O wn ers Group-sponsored Parker, with a 36.548. " It 's starting to groove up," Parker said. "It got down to a hard surface and it's good." , Following him were Bryan Villella, with a 36.583; Dan Ingram at 36.622; and another two-time Indy winner, the Sh oei/ Marioneaux Racing/ Hap jones /Sisemore/Tsu bakisponsored Poo vey, with a 36.716. These top six qu alifiers were headed for the big money. Camel Challenge , later on in the program. Rounding out the top 10 in time trials were: four-time Indy winner Graham, Ronn ie Jones, J orgen sen an d Rod ney Farris. Heats In the first l O-Iap heat race, Shobert started his racing day on the front row outside starting position, where a groove had been formed on the loose track during qualifying. He followed Ronn ie Jones into ' tum one, pulled alongside on the back