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Steve Morehead (42) leads the opening lap charge out of turn two. Morehead wound up in 11th place and Scott Parker (1) came outthe winner. AMA Grand National Championship/ Camel Pro Series: Round 9 Parker rolls on at DuQuoin By Jack Mangus Photos by Bert Shepard DUQUOIN, IL, JULY 23 Team H arley-D avidso n 's Sco tt P arker accomplished several things by winning the DuQuoin Mile for the second time in his career. Jus t 17 and a rookie Expert when he scored his first Grand National win at the DuQuoin F ' d P k' S t.ate airgroun s , ar. er .s wm at the southern Illinois 6 facility on Sunday cam e at the age of 27 and as Grand National Champion th e veteran rider's XR750 now ca rrie s the sport's most co veted number one plate. H e moved into sixth pl ace, ahead of former Grand . National Ch ampions Dick Mann and Ri cky Graham, in career Camel Pro Seri es wins with 25. And he became th e third winningest rid er o n the long mil e ovals with 14 first pl ace finishes, breaking a tie with threetim e cham p J ay Sp rin gsteen . Only Bubba Shobert and Graham have scored more !?ile wins. The race, hke most all Camel Pro Series mile events, ca me right down to the wire. Grand National Champi on Parker, Chris Carr, Ronnie Jones and Rodney Farris all had a sho t at it, but it wa s the Parker in front at the finish line. Parker's being th ere, for hi s fifth National win of the year, brought angry words from teammate Carr aft er the checkered flag was waved. Carr , who finished th ird behind runner-up J ones, was in fur ia te d a n d h e a nd Pa rk er exchange d sho u ted an gr y words as th ey walked to the victory ros tru m. Once up o n the victory ros tru m , Parker appeared to be unconcerned about Carr's anger, but Carr told the crowd, "I deserved to win today. There's a lo t of bumping and shoving going on this year, and if they (th e officials) don't do something . abo ut it I' ll have to start doing it myself. I prefer good clean racing to tha t." Parker responded to that by saying, "He says I shut the door on hi m, but he ran into the back of me. If I did shut the door on you , Chris, I'm so rry." The crowd booed Carr's comments and cheered after Parker's. Parker 's victory was th e first by, a H arley rid er at DuQuoin since Hank Sco tt won on XR in 1984. Hondamounted Bubba Shobert had won th e last four DuQuoin events. With th e win, Parker picked up the winner's share - $5370 - of th e $40,000 purse and padded his points lead in th e pursuit of th e $100,000 bonus that goes to th e Camel Pro Seri es champ. Going into the event, Parker had a seven-point lead over Carr and the 20 points awarded to Parker, against the 13 Carr earned, giv es th e Michigan rider an 14-point lead over the Californian, 134 to 120. With a crowd that appeared to be half of what watched Park er win in 1979 on hand, th e day's program was la te in starting a nd a rash of crashes took the racing well into the evening. Despite several high-speed get-off's during th e day, no one was seriousl y injured, but each caused a delay and that added up to a long da y for all. T ime Trials Although the previous weekend's Spri ngfield Mil e, promoted by th e Ill in ois Deal ers Association as was' Sunday's race, drew a full field of 48 Experts, on Iy 36 riders took la ps that were clocked by timer Gil Dosmegan at DuQuoin. , Parker turned in the fastest lap at 36.102 seconds at an average speed of 99.717 mph, far off Bubba Shobert's record of 34.377/104.721. The remaining three heat race po le positions were ea rn ed by the next three fast est qualifiers - Steve Moreh ead (36. 128), T erry Poovey (36.183) a nd Doug Chandler (36.270). Roundingout th e top 10 qualifiers were Doug Chandler , Jones, Springsteen, Will Davis, Doug Davi s and Graham. Heats Announcer Dave Despain started the race program by requesting a moment of sil ence in memory of long-time AMA referee Freddie Ephrern, the 1988 AMA Sportsman of th e Year, who had passed a wa y on Wednesda y. _ Parker o p te d for th e o u ts id e (gra ndsta nd side) pole posi tion for th e first of four IO-Iap heat races that would see the top three finishers advance directl y to the main event and the fourth through ninth place fini sh ers advance to a semi-final race. The green starting light flash ed and it was Will Davi s leading th e field through turns one and two . But going down th e backstraight, Parker pulled off the afternoon 's first pass, uti lizing th e draft to take over the lead for good. Parker ' opened up some room on th e field over th e next few laps and it appea red as if he would sail hom e the winner by a wid e margin. Davi s, wh o held second at the co mp letio n of th e first two laps, was