Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

affair for the majority of the 10 laps, bu t rookie Expert Mike Hale emerged from the fray to tak e the runner-up spo t o n h is H arl ey-Da vidson. Sim ilarly -mo unted Aaro n H ill fin ished third wi th Scott Pear son and T ed T a ylor ro u ndi ng out th e top five finishers. Sixth fastest qualifier Atherton was left on th e line in the thi rd heat race wh en . hi s H arl ey's co u n te rs h a ft sproc ke t sp u n lo o se. The White Pigeon , Michi gan, resident wo uld be forced to attempt to q ualify via th e semi. Heat numb er four go t underway with a light sp rin kling of rai n, a nd ended with an exci ting four-rider race to the lin e. At the flag it was Moreh ead j us t nipping J ones, G raham a n d Farris . Cha rlie Orr, meanwhi le, was a dis ta n t fifth ahead of Chandler and his ill Harley. "T he motor just sta rted dragging," Chandler said. " It star ted in qualifyin g and just got worse. We'll run with 'em when we get a good motor. The thing's easy to ride. " Chandler was using a 1989 bottom en d with new heads after hi s '90 motor had blown up at Ascot last week. Springsteen 's quick heat put him and second p lace finisher Hale on the fro nt row for the National with Parker (6:09.502), Morehead (6:09.743) and Carr (6:09.937) joi ni ng them. Semis Davis and h is Eddie Adkins-tuned Harley grabbed the hol eshot in th e first 10-lap semi that would send th e first iwo to the Nati on al. At th e end of the firs t la p, though , it was Corn well lea ding Mertens with Davis th ird. Davis reversed the order a lap la ter, but at the end of the second lap the North Carolinian encountered a giant slide in turn four. " I thought it was all over," Davis said later. "I thought I was dead. " The miscue allowed Inderbitzin to join the leading trio , but he would fade to finish fo urth. Meanwhile, th e Cornwell/Mertens/Davis ba ttle would go the distan ce. with Davis coming back to take the win over Cornwell; Mertens was third and would go to the Last Chance Qualifier. . Pearson grabbed the holeshot at th e start of the second semi , but Farris drafted past on the backstraight to lead the pack at the end of the first lap. Atherton, who started from the second row , was fifth after one lap; he would ga in a po sition a lap until taking th e lead for the first time on the fourt h go-arou nd. ,Fro m there it was a race-long battle between he and Farris with Pear son and Ted Taylor du eling over third. T he race for the lead came down to the last corner with Atherton gett in g in too hot and drifting wide, all owing Farri s to take the win . Pears on topped T aylor for thi rd. Last Chance Q u a lifier With a sligh t sp rin kle of ra in again falling, the LCQ got underway with Pear son nailing the holeshot . Pearson , ho wever, would give way to Mertens , Taylo r and George Roeder II .by the fourth lap, and on the fifth lap the red flag was shown du e to rain. A few minutes later the rain ceased. The single-file restart saw T aylor inch past . Mertens into turn on e, and quickly a four -way battle for the last transfer spot ensued between Mertens , Ta ylor, Roeder and Pearson. That lasted until the final corner when Pearson slowed when his chain jumped off the spr ocket. The Escalon, California, resident promptly raised his hand and stayed on line exiting turn four. All hell broke Ronnie Jones (16), Chris ~rr (20), Rodney Farris (hi dden ), Jay Springsteen (9), Steve Morehead (42) battle for second. Parker (1) and Kevin Atherton (23) were this close at the finish of the five-lap Camel Challenge; Parker won $10,000. loose wh en he was hit from behi nd by Kenny Netto, sending Pearson to the ground in an horrific-loo king crash. Fo rt u na te ly, no one was in j u re d seriously; Pearson suffered an inj ured knee and a slight con cu ssion , and Netto, who didn 't crash , hurt his arm when he glanced off Pearson. Ahead o f the mel ee, Bell evi ll e Honda-backed Mertens he ld off Taylor and Roeder to take the win . "Somebody hit me and th e chain came off." Pearson said later. " I stayed on line and raised my hand, and he (Netto) said he didn 't see me." Camel Challen ge Wit h a $17,500 pa yout up for grabs, the second Camel Cha llenge of th e season turn ed ou t to be a five-lap thriller . Mor ehead grabbed the holeshot as Ath erton got cau ght napping to trai l the pack into tu rn on e. As the field crossed the line for th e first time , Graham and hi s green Honda led tile fra y from Parker, Springsteen (wh o won the first Camel Ch allenge of the year at Daytona), Morehead, Carr and Atherton . A lap lat er it was Morehead's turn to lead aga in. On the third lap, th e hard-riding Atherton was in front for th e first time. As the pack started the fina l lap, it was a two-rider race up front between Harley teammates Atherton and Parker. Morehead, Carr, Springer and Graham gave chase, but had lost touch with the leading duo. At the finish line it was Parker edging Atherton to take home the $10,000. Atherton earned $2500 for second with Morehead ($2000), Carr ($1500), Springer ($1000) and Graham ($500) rounding out the field. 11

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