Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ DIRT TRACK AM! Grand National Championship-:/C_am_el_P_ro_Sen'es_:_ou od l _ R_ _ _ 9 o O"l O"l ...... ESP Raci ng's Dan Ingram (!II) kept Harley-Davidson's Chris Carr (20) at bay to win the Daytona National Short Track, the opening round of th e Camel Pro Series. Daytona ShortTrack to Ingram By Henny Ray Abrams DAYTONA BEACH, FL, MAR. 10 SP Racing's Dan Ingram, who'd been robbed of a win in the last corn er of the 600 National at Daytona Beach Municipal Stadium the previous night, made sure it didn't happen twice in a row and held off a determined Chris Carr to win the Camel Pro Series season-opener. As he had a night earlier, Ingram got the holeshot and set the pace in front, only to be hounded by a HarleyDavidson factory rider, this tim e Carr. Though Carr came close a few times to getting a wheel under Ingram, the Indiana rider held him off to win, outright, his first National ever. The only other National win credited to Ingram cam e at Syracuse in 1988 when he was awarded the win after racewinner Bubba ' Sh obert was disqualified. "Halfway through the race I was thinking 'I'm leading this thing, I hope nobody gets by me.' And whenever I started to think that way I'd get on the gas sooner," said Ingram after the 25-lap main event. Ingram thanked team owner Mike Sponseller and tuner Skip Eaken along with Honda of Bloomington. E 14 Trailing Carr at a distance was lasi year's Daytona National Short Track winner Steve Aseltine who tried to recover from a bad start, but could never mount a serious challenge to the leaders. Bartels H -D's Jay Springsteen and Camel Pro Champion Scott Parker rounded out the top five. Earlier, Springsteen had thrilled the near-capacity crowd in the 10,000 seat stadium by winning the $17,500 fivelap Camel Challenge. Springer led the top six qualifier s every lap of the way and pocketed $10,000 in winning his first Challenge ever. Added to his fourth p lace.earnings of $1560, Springer netted $11,560 for the night's work . Ingram won $4135 of the $30,000 purse for winni ng the main along with $2000 for finishing third in the Challenge and $500 in lap mon ey. Carr's winnings for runner-up placin gs in the two events totaled $5245. Ingram also finished ato p the standings in the ·three-race Daytona Budweiser/Wiseco Dirt Track Series with 47 po ints. Carr and Aseltine tied for second with 36. . The crushed and packed limestone track was slightly slower, though smoother, than the previous night, yet the riders all agreed that it was not prepared well enough for a Na tional. "It's who can dodge the most ho les and stay on two wheels," said Par ker. " We need to press the issue or get it to where it's a safer track. " My opinion," he . continued, " is that I do not care to come back." Time Trials Steve Aseltine had qualified with a time of 19.555 seconds on Friday night and the closest anyone would come for the Saturday National was 19.624 and that was by Springsteen. "The place is really slippery and breaking up a bit , but it 's better than last year," the unanimous crowd favorite said . Only 58 riders time-trialed so all would make the program. The six fastest riders earned pol e positions for their heats and behind Springsteen came Parker, Ingram, Will Davis , Carr, Rodney Farris, and Larry Pegram. '-' It' s the kind of track you have to be patient on," Carr said. "T hey brushed it off down low and you can't get a driv e off th e cushion." Heats It would turn out that every one of the pol e-sitters would win their heats and the first would go to Springsteen. By the second of 10 laps he'd built up a 25-yard lead on the Marioneaux Racing-sponsored entry of Terry Poovey, an advantage he wou ld stretch to 60 yards by the end. Poo vey wou ld join Springsteen with a direct transfer to the main by taki ng an easy second place, leaving third- placed Rob ert Damron far behind. Springsteen's winni ng time o f 3:22.361 woul d hold up as the fastest of the night and put him on the pole for the main. Harley's Kevin Atherton led teammate Par ker across the stripe for the first two laps, but the veteran chose a lower line in the first two comers on the third lap and powered away. At the end, his winning margin over Atherton would be close to two seconds with Chance Darling third, almost three seconds back. Ingram got the jump on the field in the third heat, taking Garvis Honda Town/Missile Engineering/Shoei 's Ronn ie Jones with him. Jones was never a threat to Ingram, having a problem in getting on the throttle midcorner while Ingram powered away. Though he finished 3.2 seconds behind the winner, Jones was never threatened fro m behi nd with Chris Evans a distant third. The fourth heat wou ld go to Will Davis on the Bell Helmets/Z Galleries/ Larry Gordon-sponsored machine. Davis used a diamond-shaped line around th e track gradually pulling away from J&M Ra cin g/ Bell / KK Motorcycle Supply-backed Morehead to win by more than three seconds.

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