Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

sleep tha t night, but th e on ly time it really gets to me now is if I get sideways and hav e to yank on the bar s." . Seco nd fastest with a 35.992 second lap was Dan In gram aboa rd th e ESP Racing H ond a. . Poovey and In gram were th e on ly rid ers to log laps un der 36 secon ds, but even Poovey's best was far under the record of 34.548 seconds, 104.203 mph set by Ri cky G raham in 1984. Rain the day before ha d caused the cancela tion of the 600 National and race offic ia ls Opted not to apply calcium chloride because of the threat of more rain. Sunday was overcast bu t enough sun filtered thro ugh the clouds to dry the track out after a morning of wheel packing. It becam e evident during practice tha t watering throughout the day would be requ ired to keep the dust down . " When they water the track th e groove gets slippery an d you have to run up in the rough stu ff," said Parker. Rounding o u t the top 10 q ua lifiers were David Durelle, R ust y Rogers, Ronnie J ones, Mor ehead , Parker, Carr, Ja y Springsteen and Mike H ale. Heats Heat number o ne went to the lin e at 3:08 p.m., a little over an hour aft er its scheduled start, hav ing been delayed by th e tim e spe n t preparing th e track. Polesitter Poovey was upsta ged at the start of the first 10-lap heat by Tim Mertens who pulled the hol esh ot and led Poovey and the rest of th e field at the line for the first three laps. Carr broke away from a di ce wi th three-time Grand National Champion Springsteen 'a n d h ooked up with Merten s and Poov ey o n lap four and the fight for the lead pulled th e th ree away from Springsteen and the rest of the field. But Springsteen didn 't let them break away a nd hooked back up with the leaders on lap eig h t. , At the conclusion of th e white flag lap , it was still anyone's race'. The four riders came down th e ba ck straight on the fina l lap bunched together, but it was Poovey wh o dove into turn three and worked turns th ree-four th e best and th en held off a dr aft pass attem p t ~y Carr to win. Springer go t thi rd to advance to the National alo ng with Poovey and Carr , while Merten s retired to h is pi t area to prep his Bellville Honda-backed H onda RS750 for the first semi. . " I just held it o n longer tha n they did ," said Poovey in exp lanation of his last lap move. ;f.>l l ngram pu lled the holesho t a t the start of th e second heat and for the firs t seven lap s it appeared as though he 'wo u ld score an un ch allenged win. Parker had go tten a terr ibl e start, later admitting he had " fall en asleep on the start gr id, " but he wen t to work in the ma n n er of a true champion a nd .worked his way up to th ird by lap th ree, di spl a ced tea m m a te Kevi n !Athert on on lap four and slowly bu t surely whi ttled away at Ingram 's lead. 10 Parker surprised In gram on lap nine 'when he drafted by him on the back stra igh t to take the lead go ing into turn three and then hold it across the line. " Wh en he caug h t me , I didn't kn ow if I co uld ho ld him off if I too k the lead again," said In gram af ter the race. ';But I did." 'r1 And mu ch to Parker's chagr in , so did yo u ng Atherton , who used Ingr am 's dr aft to pull by Parker for seco nd a t the lin e. , oiMo rehead led the third heat off the line b u t he was flanked by Bill y Herndon and Keith Day on the back straigh t. Ca lifornian Day, riding a .Hc n da , led ou t of turn four an d at th e line for the first two lap s, but o n laps ·three and four it was Mor eh ead in th e 'point positionat the line. Chris Carr (20), Steve Morehead (42) , Dan Ingram (31) and Terry Poovey (18) get four abreast in their fight for second. The rest of the race was a crowd pl easer of the first order. Dave Durelle made it a fou r-rid er fight for the three advancement spots, but th at dropped ba ck to three wh en H erndon lost touch with th e front-runners on lap eight. Morehead led Day and Durell e around on lap nine, but going down the back strai gh t on th e fin al lap he let Day take the lead into turn three, foll owed him o ut of four and tucked into hi s draf t. At first it ap pea red tha t Morehead had ma de a mis take, but at the very last possible second he pulled o u t fro m' behind Day with a sideways flicking ma neuver and draf ted by for the win - with his left fist thrust into th e air. Wh at appeared to be the stra tegy of one savvy vetera n was act ua lly the wo rk of two. " I asked Jay (Springs teen ) where th e track was working after his heat. He told me up h ig h in tu rns three-four. It worked. Thanks, Jay," said Morehead, who finis hed the race wit h a fried rear tire tha t broug ht a fro wn to tuner Mert La wwill 's face. " I burned it off ska ting it sideways," said Moreh ead. Rusty Rogers, th e Ho nd a rid er from Richmond, Virgin ia , wh o had q ualified a su rprisi ngly stro ng fo urt h, followed veteran Ronnie J ones off th e li ne a t the start of the fourth and fina l hea t, bu t it was th e you ngs ter taking the lead away going into turn three. Rogers led J ones an d Rodney Farris across the line a t the end of the in itia l lap, but after that he dropped back to an unchallen ged th ird wh ile J ones and Farris fought for the win. Lap after lap , Farris and the Gardner Racin g Harl ey would lead J ones a nd the Garvis Honda-backed Hond a o ut of turn four on ly to see Jones dr aft by at the line. And sure enough, Farris drafted by J on es on the back stra ig h t on the fin al la p, led th ro ugh turns three and four and down the front straight , only to see Jones nip him at the line for the win . " He too k the lead into three and then backed off th e pace, bu t so did I and I followed h im o u t and rep eated wha t I ha d been do ing on the other la ps," said J ones, wh o won by almost a full bike length over Farris with Rogers joining them in advancing to th e main with an impressive third place finish . H onda-mounted Rogers was a postentry and he listed Skip Eaken , Johnny Goad, Bell and Castrol as his spo nso rs. Semis The first of th e two IO-Iap semis, both of which would advance the top two fin ishers to th e Nat ional, required th ree starts. T he first attem p t at a race saw Geo rge Roeder unload in turn o ne. Roeder was o kay, but his bike was dam aged and he scratc hed fro m the race. Once restarted, th e ra ce was on ly two lap s old when rookie Expert Audie Huff crashed hard in turn four. Hu ff's T eam Graybo y H arl ey car twhee led across the tra ck and bounced off th e wall and Huff appeared to have been kn ock ed u nconscious. After being a ttended to by a medical crew , Huff declin ed a ride to the hospital for exa minatio n , opting instead to nurse hi s battered bod y in the pits. Green light number three flashed a nd Will Davi s p ulled the holesh ot. Mert ens drafted by Davis on the back straig ht, as did Scott Stu mp, but lap th ree saw Davis take over second from Stu m p and hoo k up in a race-long fight for the lead with Mert en s. The du o becam e a trio wh en roo kie Expert H ale joined the fray , but chec kered flag time saw Merte ns and Davis finish 12 to advance to the main , while Hale had th e un enviable task of racing 10 more la ps in the Las t Cha nce Q ualifier in h opes of tra ns ferri ng to th e Nat io nal. There wer e n o red flags waved during the secon d sem i and there was no doubt who the wi nner was going to be after the ini tial sorting ou t was over. T exan Bill y Herndon on the Hud ' Ra cing Honda led each an d every lap in a ho -hum race as far as th e front spot wa s co nc er ne d . There was nothing ho-hum about the figh t for second, though, as Michigan's Brian Atherton, maki ng h is first race appearan ce since being seriously in jured last year , at first diced over the advancement spot with Curt Rehmert and th en Rehrnert, Doug Davis and Dave Hebb, - The last lap saw Davis in second -going into turn three , but he slipped off the groov e and it was Rehmert leading Atherton down to the flag. Atherton was in the driver's seat and he used the draft the way it was intended to be used and came up the winner by inches. "It's been a year and three months since I raced," said Atherton, who last year su ffered, am ong other injuries, a broken neck. " I didn't know what to expect, so making it into the National is . . . well , I feel good about it." Atherton was aboard the Honda NR750 owned by Johnny Goad and Ed Fisher, th e bike that rookie Expert Larry Pegram was inj ured on in a p re-race press conference practice sessio n at Sacramento in April. "Johnny said that when Pegram comes back, he'll come up with ano ther bike for me," Atherton said. Pegram, who suffered a broken leg and broken arm, was at the race, using one cru tch for support. Last Chance Qualifier O ther than a first lap cha llenge by Doug Davis and a mid-race hold on the lead by SC Stump, the LCQ belonged OII to the H arl ey-mounted rookie, Mike Hale. The young T exan, who's sponsored by HOI J ammin, Tsubaki, Red Line, Supe rfuels, Bieffe Helmets and his father, Bob , backed up his qualifying for the season- opening National at Daytona and last weekend's San Jose Nation al, with the win to takethe last spo t on the National grid. Jl!nior National Canadian ' J amie Grylicki made his first Junior National win of the year an im pressive o ne. Riding the Honda RS750 that hi s parents purchased from Hank Scott for only the second time, Gry licki posted fast Junior time, 36.932, a time mor e than half a second less than the seco nd fastest qual ifier, Bri an T illson , who posted a ~ 7.486. Gry licki then won the first of two Junior hea ts, holding off cha llenges from And y Tresser and Kris Kiser. Tillson won the second Junior heat, the fastest of the two , in commanding .fashion and then led the first five laps 7

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