Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Steve Morehead celebrates his $10.000 Camel Challenge win. Scott Parker (1 ) ran away w ith his heat race. giving the field a preview of what to expect in the main event . The swingarm broke on Chris Carr's factory Harley-Davidson in his heat race. His crew welded it together and Carr came back to f inish second . AMA Grand National Championship/ Camel Pro Series: Round 10 Parker long gone at Albuquerque Mile By Jack Mangus Photos by M itch Friedman Time Tria ls ALBUQUERQUE , NM, AUG . 6 G rand Na tion al Champion Scott P arker ran away wi th Su nday's Albuquerque Mi le at the New Mexico State Fairgrou nds. The win was the sixth of the season for the Harley12 Davidson factory team rider and he has won all five mile races run so far this year. " I got a good sta rt. I kn ew everyo ne was going to ma ke a mad das h for th e top (of the track ) on the opening la p. It was great racing up in the cush ion," said Parker. Park er 's teammate Chri s Carr finish ed a distant seco nd despite a tro uble-fill ed day and he fell four more points behind Parker in the point sta ndings, 154 to 136. Fin ishin g third and preventing a sweep of th e top four pl aces by memb ers of th e Harley factory team was St eve Morehead , aboard th e Sponselle r Racing H o nda . More head 's.day was sweetened by a victor y in the $ 17,500 Camel Challenge, a win worth 10,000. Fourth p lace went to three-tim e Gra nd Na tiona l Champio n Jay Spri ngs teen, who led Harl ey's fresh ma n team member Kevin Athe rton across the fini sh line at th e Agaja n ian Enterprises-p romoted event th at drew a n estima ted 7000 specta tors. Parker earned th e w inner's share of th e $33,000 purse, 4420, wh ile Carr poc keted $2935 for second a nd Moreh ead added 1910 to his day's tak e for fini sh ing third. Un like th e o nly previous Camel Pro Series race run on th e Albu- ' q uerq ue oval, a 1976 race that had to be ca lled a t 16 laps du e to dust, a bea ut ifu ll y prep ared track offered op tim um racing co ndi tio ns . The work of trac k wi zard H arol d Mu rrell , the da y's racing was cond ucted o n virt ua lly du st-free conditions a nd th e turns offered riders a choice of lines. " Haro ld did a grea t job building the tra ck a nd hi s friend Sherry pi cked u p the o ther half of th e task o n hand," sa id G en e Rom ero, wh o raced in th e 1976 event and was back in hi s job as' Agajanian Ent erprises' vice-president of marketing. Riding the BiI! Wern ertuned XR750, Parker jumped into the. lead at the very start of the race. Onl y 31 rid ers went up aga inst tim er Gil Dosmegan 's clocks and wh en tim e trials ended it was yo ung Ath erton, ab oard th e factor y XR7 50 that was pr epped by former racer Phil Dar cy a nd Ath erton's father, with the da y's qui ckest and fastest qualifying lap, a lap run in 39.9 11 seconds at an a verage speed of 90.200 mph. Athe rto n was th e on ly rid er un der 40 seconds a nd his effo rt sha ttered th e previous lap record of 43.29 seconds which was set by Romero in 1976. Long, long straig h ta wa ys co nnected by tigh t turns were th e reason for th e qualifying times being wa y below th ose recorded on other mile tr acks o n th e Camel Pro Series sc he d u le . Pract ice ses sio ns were foll owed by carbure tor sessions as crews tr ied to sort ou t jetting th at wo u ld wo rk a t th e m il e-high alti tu de. Carr, who qua lified second q uickes t/ fastest a t 40. 179/89.603, sai d, "The altit ud e (5300-feet) makes th e motors ru n soft. They're perh aps 10percent down on horsepower. These are the longest straights I' ve ever ru n on. The motor really gets revving at th e end of th e stra igh ts. T he loose nature of th e track is di fferent th an wha t we're used to run ni ng on th e miles. It looks like there'll be two , mayb e three lin es in the corners. The rider wh o wor ks th e corners the bes t will be th e win ner. Pa r ker wa s third qui c kest at 40. 191, Mo reh ead fourth a t 40.497, a nd to the del igh t of the cro wd Tammy Kirk qualified fifth fastest , at 40.508, to earn o ne of th e six sta rti ng spots in the Ca mel Challen ge. The last spo t in the " dash for cash" went to 1979 Grand National Ch ampion Steve Eklund with a time of 40.851. T erry Poovey, Dan Ingram , SCOtt Pearson and Sp ringsteen rounded out th e top 10 qualifiers. Heats Ath erton sa t o n th e pole for th e first of four IO-Iap heat races th at wo uld see th e top three finis hers from each ad vance directl y to th e Nat ional fina l. Other than com ing o ut second best in th e mad das h for turn o ne, Atherton had the ra ce under control all the wa y. He opened up som e breathing room by riding up in th e cushio n in turns one/ two on th e second lap and sailed home with a co mfortable lead. . Harl ey-mounted Darling ran second to Ath erton o n the opening two laps but was dropped to third by Sponseller Racing 's Ingram , aboard th e Skip Eakens-tuned Honda, on lap three. Ingram kept Atherton in SIght but after closing th e gap a bit in th e middle laps of the race the Indiana ri der had to settle for second. Darling fought over th ird with SC Pear son from lap three to Ott th e checkered flag that saw Darling take the fina l advancement spot and Pearso n take fourth, bound for a semi-final race. Garvis Honda-sponsored Ro nn ie

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