Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Charlie Orr (11) led nearly every lap of the Last Chance Qualifier until his brake lever broke. allowing Terry Poovey (18) to earn the final transfer, Morehead, Eklund, Springsteen and Parker. Near the end of th e first lap, Parker took the inside of turn four and dov e past Eklund and Springsteen for third. From th ere Parker jumped into second wh en Morehead mi ssed a shift. Morehead fell from first to fifth as Parker gained on Aseltine. _ Aseltine soon succ umbed to th e pressure of Parker who sto le the point pos ition on lap three. Once in the lead, Parker open ed a small cushion with Ek lund a nd Springsteen working into second and third before the fin ish . The fourth an d fina l heat saw Ronnie Jones co me off th e inside of row on e to lead Rod Farri s, Pete Hames, Scott Pearson and Charl ie Orr. Tim Mert ens immediat ely di spl aced Gruber fo r the fin al to p five spot and then quickl y did the same with Pearson to take command of fourth. Ho wever, Mertens' trip to th e top came to a halt when the checkers greeted Jones, Farris and H am es. Mert ens ended up with a disappoint- . ing fourth. Semis Rich Kin g started th e sem is off by leading Est elle, G eo rge Roeder, Terry Poovey and Rex Fisher and th e . rest of the field off th e lin e. Positions stayed ba si cally the sa me until Estelle displ aced King o n the fina l lap for a narrow win a nd · the pair had qu a lified for th e Nati onal. Roeder was a clos e third , but would have to win th e Last Chance Qualifier top adva nce to the final. Aseltine was the one to wat ch in semi number two wh ere he came from the back of th e pack to be th e last -rider in the semi to qualify. At the start Aseltine, in sevent h, chased Morehead , Orr, Scot t Stump, Pear son , Grub er a n d C ha nce Darling but quickl y began bettering his positi on . As Morehead began to ope n up a small lead over Orr a nd Stu m p, Aseltine set his sigh ts o n Pearson, wh o was running in fourth. A lap later, Aseltine managed to slide by Aseltine and targeted Stump as his next victim . On th e sixth lap of the l O-lap , 12 rider race, Aseltine darted into third spot behind Orr. Aseltine kn ew that in order to make the National he m ust finish at least second p lace. To do that he must pass Orr within the next few laps. With a littl e over two lap s remain ing, Aselti ne did just that and shot into the runner-up positio n. Aseltine ch ased Morehead until th e end, where they finis hed ahead of Orr and Stu mp. Camel Challenge The six fastest riders after time trials were invited to go head-to-head in a five-lap $17,500 race with the •winner collecting more than half of th e Camel contingency. Carr's fast lap earned him his choi ce of th e starting spot and he cho se the inside po le p o si tio n. Gr aham, Parker, Jones, Merten s and Eklund lined up next to Carr, o n hi s right. . Carr once aga in gated perfectl y and set th e pa ce. On th e first lap Carr open ed up a small lead over Eklund, th e form er G rand Nation al Ch ampion a nd wi nner of th e 1976 Peori a TT, as J on es arid Parker fou ght over third. . H alfway into th e race Mert en s was forced back to the pits aft er his chain de rail ed . U p front th e posi tions stayed the same until th e last lap wh en' Garvis H onda/Missle Eng.! Motorcycl e Stuff/Sh oeilCastro l! AXO-back ed Jones passed Pa rk er before the TT J'ump ana Graham shot pa st Eklun in turn three. . ' Carr took th e easy win in a tim e of 2 minutes, 15.524 seconds, ahead o f Gra ha m, Ek l u nd, J ones a n d Parker. " It feels great ," said Carr wh o made almo st $5000 a mi nute, "If they are going to bea t me in th e main, th ey had better be in shape. I'm in th e best shape o f m y life a n d no thing's goin g to sto p me. " " T he re was n o co ntact (w he n Graham passed me)," said Eklund, " Bu t there are pay backs. Rem emb er we've still got th e main to run." Carr 's win was worth $10,000 with second p lace paying Graham $2500. Eklund pocket ed $2000 with J ones and Parker ea rning $ 1500 and $1000, respec tively. Mert ens' sho rt stay in th e Challenge earned him $500. ' Last Chance Qualifier The 10-lap LCQ th at wou ld see only th e winner advance to th e N ati onal sa w Charli e O rr led Roeder, Poovey and Stum p on the o peni ng lap . Posit ions stayed th e same until 'the fourth lap wh en Roeder crashed hard in turn three aft er making a bid for the lead . As Roeder was being checked ou t by medical personnel, th e ra ce was redflagged. After a sho rt delay, the race was restarted with Orr in front of Poovey, Stump and Pearson in single-file order. When th e race got underway, Poovey turned up the throttle and started to pressure Orr. The last lap witnessed Poovey taking the front position as Orr lost hi s brake pedal leading into turn on e. ' At the checkers, Poovey scored th e wi n to beco me the last rider to qual ify for the main. Stump' passed Orr for second before the flag, but bo th were out of the pro gram. Chris Carr celebrates his Camel Challenge victory with Miss Camel. The win in the five-lap, six-rider race added $10,000 to his bank account. National As anno uncers Dave Despain a nd Bob Niel son began pump th e cro wd for th e Nation al, it was ob vio us that Carr was th e odds-on favor ite. H e wo uld be sitting on th e pol e wit h Jones; Graham , Parker , Atherton and Farris on th e front row tak ing off next to him. Once the race received th e green light, Carr led th e 17-rid er freight train into th e first turn and down . th e ba ck stret ch an d across th e legen dary Peor ia j ump on the opening la p. J ones was the leader of th e chase crew with Farri s, Graha m, Par ker, Moreh ead and H ames a short di stance behind. As expected, Carr immedi at ely p ut a cushion between himself and Jones and the trail ing pack. Back in the field, Eklund, wh o was supposed to start on the second ro w, was als o moving th rou gh the pack, and was sevent h o n th e second lap. Earlier , Ara i /C i rc1e Bell /G ardn er /I nter Link-backed Eklund was mo ved back to the thi rd row a n th e grid after smo ke began pouring o u t o f hi s H arley's exhaust, making it hard for the o ther riders to see and breathe. . Carr co ntin ued to pull away fro m Jones as Parker began ma king a bid on G ra ha m's third pl ace position . Parker cha sed Graham for six laps before he fin all y managed to snea k by short ly aft er th ey both p assed J o nes on lap eig ht. Graham, however, quickl y retaliated a nd tri ed to reta ke th e second spo t from Bell /Tsub aki /ITT/ AlE of America-backed Parker. U n fortunat ely, Graham soo n found himself on th e-ground after go ing down hard in turn three. H e slow ly got up, but was o ut : of th e race. With Gr aham out of the action, J on es slipped into th ird just as easily as he had been dis p laced to fourth two laps earlier. While J ones was trying to keep up with Parker, Ek lund took command of fourth ahead of Farris, Ingram, Hames, Springsteen, Ath erton and Estep. Shortly before the halfway point, Carr began to la p riders, and King, who had su ffered a front flat tire a la p earlier, was the first to get bit by the blue flag . While Carr blitzed through the field, Parker 'a nd J ones were having to contend wi th th e th ick traffic three seco nds behind th e leader, with . Eklund all alone in fourt h. Ingram forced Farris to p ick up th e pace for fifth , whil e th e rest of th e pack spread o ut. As th e riders started lap 15, Poovey, who was ha vin g a tough tim e on th e TT co urse , dropped o u t of th e top 10 to TUn with Aseltine, Estep, Estelle and Gray beal at the back of th e pack. As th e race wo und down, severa l di stin ct battl es stirred behind Carr's four-second lead over Parker. Eklund was push in g th e h ard-ch a rgin g J on es for third, with Springsteen chas ing Ingram for fifth. With on ly two laps remain ing, two-tim e Peori a TT winner Springsteen man aged to pass In gram, but could n' t pull away. In gram hung nea r and haunted Sp rings tecn o n th e Ilast lap, but fifth went to th e threetimc Grand Nati on al Ch am pi on. As Carr took th e easy win over . Parker, 3.74 seconds ahead wit h an elapsed race time of II m in u tes, 16.993 seconds, far fro m hi s record o f 10:58.387 set last year, Jones collected th ird a sp lit second ahea d of Eklund. " I was lu cky," sai d Carr . " I had just enoug h gas to mak e the checkered fla g. My gas cap came off on lap 15 and I kep t getting sp rayed. I th ough t abo u t puttin g my hand over the hole, but th e co urse was too rough because of the rains they've had here. This is th e roughes t Peori a I ca n remember - bu t they did a good job of ge tting it ready, considering the weather." "We're real happy," said J ones. "The left shock shaft brok e abo u t seven laps from th e end, and I almost went o ver the bars a cou p le of tim es, but I just hun g on. I needed the points and I didn't want to give it to him (Eklund). If he was going to pass me, he was going to have to earn . It. " . Results · . 25-LAP NATIONA L: 1. Chr is Carr (H· D): 2. Scon Parker (H-D); 3. Ronnie Jones (Hon); 4. St eve Eklund (H· D); 5. Jay Spr in gsteen (H· D); 6. Dan Ingra m (Hon); 7. Rodney Farr is (H-D); 8. Kevin Atherton (H-D); 9. Pete Hames (H· D); 10. Steve Morehead (Hon); 11, Steve A seltin e (H-D); 12. Don Estep (W-R); 13. Craig Estelle (H-D); 14. Terry Poovey ( H- D~ 15. Erik Graybeal (W-R); 16. Ricky Graham (W·R); 17. Rich Kin g (Hon). TIME : 11 min .. 16.993 sec. AMA GRAND NATIONAL CHA M PIONSHIP/ CAMEL PROSERIES POINT STANDINGS : 1. Parker (170); 2. Carr (156); 3, Morehead (98); 4. Ingram (93); 5. Doug Chandler (80 ); 6. Poovey (78 t 7. Jones (75); 8 . Farr is (68); 9. W ill Dav i s (58 ); 10. Springsteen (50). 7

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