Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

missing ou t on the Challenge was Ronnie Jones, who was seventh fastest with a 25.239. Rounding out the top I0 qualifiers were Scott Stump and Rich King. Heats Steve Morehead (42) scored his second straight Camel Pro Series Louisville Half M ile win. Later, Morehead said, "I brushed him as I 'came off the corner. I had the line. What am I supposed to do? Let him go by? That's just part of racing." Morehead, aboard the SponselIer Racing Honda tuned by Skip Eaken, had an almost perfect even ing at the William H. King Enterprisespromoted Camel Pro Series round. The " Findlay Flyer" won his heat, pocketed $10,000 for winning the Camel Challenge, and then won the main even t. T eam Harley-Davidson's Chris Carr maintained his point standings lead with a third place finish behind Morehead and teammate Parker. Carr leads Parker by four points, 62 to 58, with Doug Chandler, who , finished fourth at Louisville, a point down on Parker with 57. Morehead's victory moved him into fourth with 52 points, and Terry Poovey, who fail ed to make the main, fifth with 43 points. Dan Ingram, Morehead's SponselIer Racing teammate, stayed close wi th a seventh place finish and a total of 41 points. Time Trials The moment of truth . Scott Parker (1 ) accused Steve Morehead (42) of hitting him as the two veterans ex ited turn two on lap 11 . AMA Grand National Championship/ Camel Pro Series: Round 5 Rain-delayed Louisville Half Mile to Morehead By Bert Shepard LOUISVILLE, KY, JUNE 4 Moments after Louisville Half Mile winner Steve Morehead took the checkered flag ahead of ru n ner-u p Scott Parker, tempers flared at Louisville Downs, but they had good reason to. It was after 2 a.m. on Sunday J une 4 and , d ' d the program that ha starte at 7:30 p .m. the day before had 6 just ended, due to a five and onehalf hour delay following a 25minute rainstorm. "You nailed m~,". Parker y<;lJed at Morehead, referrmg to a mid-race move by Morehead after Parker had made an outside move i., an attempt to take the lead. Morehead replied, "You had your fro n t wheel on (the groove) and your back wheel off the groove." The afternoon time trials started off slowly with the majority o f the 43 riders on hand waving off their first attempts for one reason or another. Grand National Champion Parker was th e exception as he took his first attempt, a 25. I53-second lap. Morehead was the first rider to break into the 24-second bracket as he logged a 24.909 tour, but fast time honors went ' to George Roeder III - on the Roeder's H -D/Mike's H -D/ Southeast H- D/Eagle Raci n g/ Sart in Trucking Co .lKK Mo torcycle Su ppl y / C a s t r o ll Be l ll H .S . R .I K.M.R.-spon'sored Harley-Davidson XR750. "It really , surprised me. Dad (former dirt tracker George Roeder who won eight Nationals in the sixties) told me to ride the second practice session on the notch a nd we , went to the edge of the notch for the time trial," said Roeder a fter loggi n g his first-ever National fast time. The top six q ual ifiers take part in the $17,500 Ca me l Challenge and joining Roeder and Morehead in that group were Parker, Carr, Poovey and Ingram, who got the last spot with a 25.224 la p . Freshman Harley-Davidson Racing Team mem ber Kevin Atherton missed the Camel Challenge because he waved off what would have been the third fastest lap of time trials. "It felt slow. I messed up in (turns) one and two and thought I could do better." His 25.272 lap the second time out was eighth fastest. Also As the forecasted bad weath~r closed in on th e 23rd running of the LouisvilIe Half Mil e National, an effort wa s made to get the program underway early but almost was for naught as some of the riders had left th e track during the 4 p .m. to 7:30 p.m. "do wn time." Not until 7:30 was everyone located and the first of four IO-Iap heats that would advance the first three from each directly to the National got underway. Fast qualifier and polesitter Roeder led the first heat 's field through turns one and two, riding on the narrow groove as he had done in his second practice session. But Kevin Atherton had other th ough ts: " I planned to go to the top. I grew up (racing) on this stuff and it was easy to ride. I tried a few different lines and then settled down. " Atherton was out front at the start of the second lap and was never threatened as he held the lead to the checkered flag. Roeder took second handily but a battle between Canadian Jon Cornwell and veteran Garth Brow saw the two go at it hammer and tong. Frost Farm Service-sponsored Brow and his Harley worked the bottom of the track whi le Cornwell and his XR750 worked the middle. It was CornwelI who prevailed to take third and the last direct transfer from the heat to the National fina l, leaving Brow, Scott Stump, Dan Knecht, Dave Camlin, Martin Lavoie, Todd Ratliff and Robert Buffington facing a semi ride. , The second heat gave everyone an indication of things to come as Morehead dominated the race on the Sponseller Racing/KK Motorcycle Supply/John Dragoo/Tndy Fuels/ Bell-sponsored Honda. "It's pretty slick," said Morehead. "It will get faster by the main event. We 're trying to get the bike to get into the corner more smoothly: The more speed you can carry in, the more you can carry o u t. You got to keep rolIing through." Morehead led a follow-the-leader affair that eventually saw Jones, on the Garvis Honda-sponsored Honda, take second and R ich King on the Dan Thompson XR750 take third, which left Brian Bonesteel, Donnie Estep, Chance Darling , Steve Aseltine, Charlie Orr and Darrin Erichsen bound for the first semi. The third heat saw the crowd's favorite rider, three -time Grand National Champion and five-time Louisville National winner Jay Springsteen, with the lead at the end of the first lap. Springer was followed across the li n e by Tim Mertens, Rod Farris, Ingram and Parker, all of whom wanted the heat to be their last ride before the National main. By the third lap Farris had Springsteen in h is sights and he got a better drive offiurn two to put his Eddie Adkins-tuned Harley out front. At the end of five laps, half of the race, Farris was on h is way to the win, second belonged to Springsteen, and Mertens was in third, pressured by Ingram and Parker. With just two laps to go Par ker got under Ingra m as they entered turn three bu t time ran out with Parker unable to get by Mertens, who won the Camel Challenge at the Louisville Downs track in 1987, and Parker, like In gram , was semi-bo und while Mertens was headed for the National final along with winner Farris and runner-up Springsteen.

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