Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

sail home the winner with Morehead taking second. While Parker and Morehead dueled up front, a three-rider fight was taking place over third and it involved Pete Hames, Atherton and George Roeder. Hames and Atherton had gone at it throughout the race with Hames taking the low line through the turns and Atherton riding up high. Roeder joined the battle and slipped past the pair going into turn one on the white flag lap. As the three exited turn four headed for the checkered flag they were side-by-side with Roeder on the inside, Hames in the middle, and Atherton riding along the grandstand wall. As they crossed the line disaster struck as the three collided and Hames went down hard. From his vantage point in the announcing booth above the grandstands at the line, Roxy Rockwood said he saw "Hames reach over and pat Roeder with' his left hand." Roeder, whose Harley had its air filter knocked off in the incident, said, "I felt something hit my right leg." Atherton, who stayed on two wheels as did Roeder, got squeezed into the wall and hit his foot on the track access opening in the wall. "I stubbed my toes and my knee hurLS a little, but other than that I'm alright," said Atherton. Roeder took third to advance to the National, Atherton was headed for a semi, while Hames, who lives in nearby Palmdale, California, was tended to and taken to the hospital where he was released, reportedly bruised but otherwise not injured. The time on the second heat was 3:45.63. The third heat belonged - all the way - to Winchester H-D/Manassas H-D/Z Galleries/Ed Adkins/Norm Farris/ShoeilFaball-sponsored "Hot Rod" Farris. The Cockeysville, Maryland, resident, who would be celebrating his 26th birthday the following Sunday by competing in the San Jose Mile, took the lead at the flash of the green starting light, on lap four had opened up a gap on the field, and then sailed home the winner in 3:46.1 I. Crowd favorite Springsteen got the best of a nearly race long duel with pole sitler Davis to take second behind Farris, and then Davis got the best of a late lap dice with Tim Mertens and Keith Day to take third. As the field crossed the line at the end of the first lap of the fourth and final heat race, it was Garvis Hondasponsored Ronnie Jones out front with pole sitler Carr right on his rear fender and Scott Pearson in third. Marioneaux Racing's Poovey dropped Pearson to fourth when Pearson stumbled in tum three and the Texan dove under him. Poovey was racing with a handicap. "I tore ligamenLS in my left knee at a race at Devil's Bowl Speedway in Texas a couple of weeks ago," said Poovey who won that race, "and I'm trying to use my left foot as little as possible." The finish order was set on the fourth lap when Carr nipped Hondamounted Jones at the line to take over the lead. The field strun~ out behind leader and eventual wmner Carr, runner-up Jones, and third place finisher Poovey who rode "feet up" as much as possible. Pearson took fourth with former Grand National Champion Steve Eklund fifth in the slowest heat of the night at 3:46.66. Semis Only the winners of the two 10lap semi-final races earn a transfer to the final and the man in that seat at the end of the first semi was Harley-mounted Don Estep. King Ronnie Jones (16) and Chris Carr (20) at close quarters. Jones finished fourth, 'Carr 11th. pushed Estep through the opening laps and held the point position on laps five through seven, but he had momentarily stumbled in turn three! four on lap seven and then on the following lap he stumbled too much and went down in the same spot and Estep took the lead, the win and the transfer to the National over Last Chance Qualifier-bound runner-up Atherton and third place finisher Charlie Orr. The track continued to "slow" and the time for the first semi was 3:49.62. Pearson was first off the line at the start of the second semi but the Californian was quickly gobbled up by the field and was back in fifth as the field exited tum two and headed down Ascot's back straight with Mertens in the lead. Honda-mounted Mertens quickly opened up a winning margin over a three-man fight for second that saw Eklund, Day and Steve Aseltine use , every inch of the track trying to gain an advantage. Aseltine, the winner of the Camel Pro Series opener at Daytona, dropped out of the fight on the ninth lap. "A carburetor fell off," said a dejected Aseltine. Mertens took the win and Eklund edged Day for second after Day went high in turns three/four on the last lap and Eklund squared off the corner and got the drive to the checkered flag. Junior National Only 25 Junior class riders posted for the first Junior National Championship race of the year. With a program that called for two 12-rider . heat races, the turnout was enough to provide a full field. Texan Mike Hale was fast qualifier at 23:364 and he led the first sixlap heat race all the way despite pressure from eventual runner-up Dan Stanley of Bellingham, Washington. Audie Huff of Peoria, Illinois, finished third. The second Junior heat, which like the first one would advance the top six finishers to the final, was won handily by northern Californian Art Tresser. Ohioan Larry Pegram took second after taking that spot away from eventual third place finisher Kris Kiser when the rider from Hawaii went high in the fifth lap. Rodney Farris (92), Will Davis (behind Farris) and former champ Jay Springsteen dueled in. their heat race. Farris finished third in the National. Stanley, who reaps the benefit of help from former World Champion road racer Steve Baker, who operates a dealership in Bellingham, led the first three laps of the 10-lap final, but Tresser took over the lead for good on the fourth lap. With Tresser, Stanley and Hale holding the first three positions, it appeared as though the finishing order was set when the halfway flags flew, but Hale dropped out of the race with a mechanical problem on lap seven. That left a four rider fi~ht for third involving Huff, Kiser, Mike Eadie and Pegram and the battle continued right down to the finish line where Huff took the show spot behind winner Tresser and runnerup Stanley. ABC Body Shop/Kendallsponsored, Wood-Rotax-mounted Tresser, who carries a "Ill" behind his family name, said, "I've been waiting for a win like this. My dad was a flat tracker. I started out mOlocrossing but switched to flat tracking and this is where I'm going to stay." Last Chance Qualifier After lap four of the 10-lap LCQ it appeared that Keith Day had the last available transfer to the National in his hip pocket as the rider from northern California opened up a 7

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