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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127204
$500 bonus for leading every lap of th e fin al , earne d him $5930 of th e $35,000 purse. H e als o pocketed $ 10,000 for wi n n ing the 17,500 Camel C ha llenge. Pa rk er n etted $3690 and J on es' third a llo wed him to take home $2490. Ti m e Trials Chris Carr (20) leads Ronnie Jones (1 6) . Scott Parker (1) and the rest of t he f ield at the start of the National. A total of 36 riders faced th e clock in tim e tri als. Carr and his Arai H elmets/H ap J ones/Tsubaki Chain /Taka ilAlpine Star/Works Performan ce/ Sunoco Racing Fu el! White Brothers-backed 600cc HarleyDavidson set th e pace with a recordsetting lap of 25.550 seconds. Carr broke the reco rd of 25.574 he set last year. Two-time Grand National Champion and tw o -tim e Peoria TT winner Ricky Graham, a board the Wood-Rotax/ Arai/Matts Mufflerssponsored Wood-Rotax was second quickest with a 26.240-second lap, nearly three quarters of a seco nd off Carr's fast time. Parker was third fastest with a 26.645-second run, a little over a tenth of a second ahead of Ro nnie Jones' 26.750. Tim Mertens' 26.790 was good enough for fifth and Steve Eklund' s 26.823 beat out Dan Ingram 's 26.828 for the final spot in the $17,500 Camel Pro Challenge. Less than four seco nds separa ted the top 35 riders, with the last rider to post a tim e, J ohn Holmes, coming in nearl y 10seconds off the pace with a 34.473 seco nd lap. Heats Scott Parker (1) and Ricky Graham (3 ) had one of the best battles of the day un t il Graham crashed in tum three. Parker ended up second. Steve Eklund (8) came from the back of the pack to f in ish fourth. AMA Grand National Championship/ Camel Pro Series: Round 11 trac k I feel like I'm riding in my own field." Ca rr's first National win of the year came aft er he led every on e of the 25 laps in th e 17-rider final. But his ride was not without pr obl em s, " O n the 15th la p I go t this bi g spray of fuel from my gas tank," said Carr. "T he spray kept ge tting me o n my face and in my crotch. I didn 't kn ow if I was going to have eno ug h gas to fini sh the race." " All I want ed to do is finish in th e top five," said Par ker. ''I'm happy with second. I'm co ncentratin g o n th e cha mp io nship - th at's my main con cern." Scott Parker's second place finish allowed Carr to gain four points in th e series points chase. Defending champ Parker cu rren tly leads Carr 170 to 156 points. Garvis H onda-mounted Ronnie J ones pulled off a clean third after running with the front runners all day long. Steve Eklund was fourth , . one spot in front of Ja y Springsteen . Carr's National victory in front of more than 9000 spectators, and his Carr capitalizes at Peoria TT By Ken Faught Photos by Bert Sheperd . PEORIA , IL, AUG. 13 " T h is is m y track," said Chris Carr shortly after winnin g the 41st Annual Peoria TT National and th e Camel Challenge a t the Peoria Motorcycle Club clubgrounds. " I t so unds egotistical, but my 6 results clearly show it. I've won I five Expert races here and one J unior (race). This is the one Carr sta rted o n th e pole in th e first h eat ra ce with teamm ate Kevin Atherton and Erik Graybeal to his right. Carr grabbed the immediate lead and showed Ri ch King, Graybeal , Garth Brow , and Troy Norris th e way ar ound on the initial lap. Carr immedia tely started to stretch out hi s lead as Ath erton work ed his way through th e pack after a poor start. At th e halfway point, Atherton pulled into fifth behind Brow, and began battling with th e HarleyDavidsion rider. After a quick lap of dicing, Ath ert on flew by Brow and set sail for King. Ath erton played follow -th e-leader with King for a short tim e before making his move. As the clock slowly ticked away, Atherton passed King , ree led in Graybeal , and passed him on the final lap of th e IO-Iap heat race. Carr took th e runaway win in a tim e of 4 minutes, 28.95 3 seconds, with Ath ert on and Graybeal also earn ing spots in th e National. Carr's heat race was th e fastest of th e da y, and would lat er gi ve him first start pick for th e National. The second heat race sta rted off with Grah am ge tting the jump from the in side of the front row to lead Don Este p , Scott Adams, Dan In gram and Aaron Hill on th e first circu it. As Graham slow ly stre tched o ut hi s lead , In gram began working his way up to a top three position. On th e fifth lap Ingram hounded Adams' rear wh eel and was looking for a way aro u n d th e Harle yDavidson rider. Two laps later, Ingram ' slid by and into the final transfer spot, and headed after Estep. The fina l few laps saw Ingram eat away at Estep's advant age befor e the pair crossed the fini sh line a few feet a part in seco nd and third behind winner Graham. Adams finished fourth ahead of a distant Craig Estelle. T he in itial start of the third heat saw Steve Morehead holeshot Jay Springsteen, Ek lund and Parker. Unfortunatel y for Morehead, the race was red-flagged after Willie McCoy went down hard off the IT jump on th e first lap. On the restart, Canadian Steve Aseltine got the early jump and led