Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ DIRT TRACK AMA 600 National Dirt Track Series: Round I ~ Ingram, Parker and Steve Aseltine celebrate in winner's circle. Q u ali fier after fi nishing 2:31 sees. behind Mertens. Michigan's Scott Parker (I) p ulled off a last lap pass on Dan Ingram (31) to steal vict ory from the Indi ana rider. Parker nips Ingram at Daytona By Henny R a y Abrams .DAYTONA BEACH, FLA, M AR.9 amel Pro Champion Scott Pa rk er made a mistake going into the final two corners of the Budweiser AMA 600 National ·Short Track at Daytona Beach 's Municipal Stadium and it won him th e race. The Harl eyDavidson factory rider got into turn three too hot, but managed to get his Bill Werner-tuned HCD-600R turned soo ner th an ra ce-long leader Dan Ingr am and hooked up, while Ingram spun ou t of the last corner and Parker n ipped th e ESP Racing-sponso red rid er a t the line by a wheel length. For the near- capacity crowd, it was an exciti ng finish to a n o therwise foll ow-the leader race on a poor ly prepared track, but it was wort h the wai t. " It was all done by accid ent, " Parker said after a victory celebra tio n that incl ude d his tr ademark whooping screa ms. He exp lained that he was abl e to get it sq uared off after slid ing into the cu sh io n a nd took ad vantage of an In gram mi scue. " If I had go ne with wh at I p la n ned I wo uld've lost the race." "Parker's o ne tough co mpeti tor, " In gram said with a measure of respect. Co ugar Gulch Distributing's Steve Aseltine finish ed th ird wi th 600cc National Champion Chris Carr fourth a nd Bartel' s H-D J a y Sp ringsteen fifth . T he last tim e Parker had won a short track Na tio na l was August I, 1980. Par ker ea rned $2 000 fr om th e $1I,000.purse for wi nni ng the seco nd of three rounds in the Budweiserl Wiseco Daytona Dirt T rac k Series. In gr am pocketed $1305 and Aseltine $850. For the fifth race in a ro w, Brian Ti llso n was the win ner a mong Junior riders. After win ning twice in Ocala, T ill son won for the third night in a ro w a t Municipal Stadium and ear ned $280 of the $1000 Junior purse. Jason Fl et ch er wa s secon d a nd Conrad P arsh all n ip ped Bill Newki rk for third. " It's my third win here so I'm not doing too bad at this tra ck," Tillson said. C 26 T ime T rials A combined field of 105 Juniors and Experts time trialed for the first 600 National of th e season with Steve Aseltine the fastest . Aseltine, who won all three races here last year, circled the quarter-mi le limestone tra ck in 19.555 seco nds to earn the pole posi- . tion for the first heat race . Bartel's H D J a y Springsteen was second at 19.564, followed by Carr, Steve Moreh ead , Will Davi s, R onn ie J ones , Ingram, Parker, and T erry Poovey . The cu t-off tim e for th e 60th and final rid er to make the field was 20.687 sees. Heats Six I O-rider heats would transfer two rid ers directly into the main. The third through sixth place finish ers would advance to th e semi-fina ls. Aselt in e jetted into the lead in the first heat with Junior Jason Fletcher ahea d of Kevin Ath ert on and Junior Speedy Kell. Aseltine took off and wo u ld fini sh with a 4.8 5-se cond cus hi on. The runner-up spo t was less well-defined. Fletcher held second for 'the entire race, but slid ou t, unhurt, in the apex of the final corners on the last la p, handing the spot to Kell. Kell had been fo urth, but moved up when Ath ert on fell in turns one and two just past th e halfway mark. . So Aseltine and Kell were in th e main with Randy Texter leading a group of four into th e semis. . Gardner Pacing's Rodney Farris jumped into the lead of the second heat from the midd le of the front row, bu t Springsteen wasn 't letti ng him go. Sp ringsteen got under the Maryland rider and Farri s go t a li ttle wild and went hi gh on the second lap letting the veteran pull into the lead. Farris chose to stay closer to the cus h ion edge of the groove while Springsteen stayed low until later in the race when Farris -rnoved down. T he closest he got to the lead was exi ting turn four on the white flag lap, but he nearly center-punc hed Springsteen a nd had to back off. Springsteen 's winning margin was about two bike lengths with Farris 30 yards ahead of Steve Ekl und in th ird and Aaron H ill. Carr and Terry Poo vey ran one-two at the end of the first lap and set ou t on a race of their ow n. With Carr in fro nt, and able to guard his li ne, Poovey was hel p less and had to settle for a hard-fought second. Brya n Villella was third the entire dista nce and Larry Pegram fourth . Steve Morehead led the fourth hea t for the first two la ps with Rich King second and Parker th ird. But crossing the finish stripe on the third la p Morehead, on the inside, and Parker, on the outside , made a sandwich out of King and when the trio exited turn two Parker was in the lead and driving away. When the checkered flag fell eight laps later Parker had won with a 2.71 sec.' margin over Morehead who had about 30 yar ds on King. By the second turn of the fifth lap it was evident that, barring a problem , Will Davis was the winner. The only question was the margin of victory. It would be 4.84 sees, over rookie Expert Mik e Hale, last year's top Junior. Davis ' winnning time of 3:20.716 would stand up as the fastest of the night and put him and his Eddie Atkins-tuned Harley on the pole for the main. Ingram won the sixth and final heat as impressively as Davis had won the fifth a nd almost as quickly. His time was 3:20.971 mins., but his margin over second-place finisher Ronnie Jones, was slightly under three seconds. T hose two went to the main with Rob ert Damron and Dan McConnell and Junior Conrad Parshall into the semi. . Semis Only the winning rider from each of the two semis would advance to th e fina l and that rider in the first go was Steve Eklund. Eklund led from th e sta rt and the only scare he had was wh en h is exhaust came loose on the fifth lap, eventually falli ng off a few laps later. Still, he would win easily with Dave Durelle a distant second. Ti m Mertens sped into the lead from the outs ide pole at the start of the second semi and cruised into the main. Ri ch King fough t to get into second place, but never mounted a challenge and had to settle for the Last Chance Last Chance Qualifier By the second lap of the LCQ, King was in the lead and on hi s way to th e final spot in the IS-ri der main. Villella made a run on Kin g on the ei gh th of ten laps, but crossed the fin ish line ab out five lengths adr ift. Junior main Bill Newkirk chose the outside pole for the Junior main event, run for the to p twelve J uniors who didn 't make the Na tional main. He jetted into the lead but by the fifth of 15 laps Brian T ill son was testing him low . On the sixth la p Tillson p o wered under New kirk in turns one a nd two an d ha d ' smooth saili ng to the line. " I wis h I had n ' t falle n down in m y hea t race so I could be in the National, but this is O K," the La conia; New Hamp shire, resident said. Newkirk was drop ped ' to third by .jason Fletcher on the seventh la p trying to avoid a cras h in turns three and four and looked to ho ld the third spot until Conrad Parshall wheelied past him at th e start-finish line to take th e final step on the podium next to Fletcher. National Before th e start of the 25-lap main event, a n umber of ri der s di d a wa lking inspection of the heavily rutted and dusty tra ck. " I' m j ust looking at these holes," fast hea t winner Da vis said. " An ybod y that finds a smoo th line and finds traction, that's the deal. " "T he bumps will bite yo u," last year 's winner Aseltine said. " They're everywhere in (turns) three a nd four and there's one real ba d on e in two." Twelve Nationa l numbers, tw o rookie Experts, a nd one Junior rider lined up in three rows for the 600cc National with Da vis choosing th e inside pole o n the front row . The gr een light flashed with Ingram leading the charge into turn one along with Parker, Carr, Springsteen, Aseltine and Farris. Davi s was the first out, having fallen in the first corner. Five laps in and the order hadn' t cha nged among the front-runners wi th everyone waiting for the o thers to make a m istake. There was no question it would happen because th e track was rutting up so badly that the ridi ng ap peared sloppy and un po lished when, in fact , th e riders were figh ting . just to stay uprigh t. " T he whole way it was back and forth ," Parker said. "He'd make a mistake and I' d make a mistake." At the halfway mark it was still - - - - - - Contin ued on page 31

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