Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ /C_am_e_I_Pr S r _ _ DIRTTRACK AMA Grand National Championship_ _o_e_ies:_R_oun_d_9 e _ / ! Chris Carr "won" the DuQuoin Mile when the final was red-nagged after two laps due to rain. Carr was awarded the first-place money, but no points. Rodney Farris (92) and Steve Morehead (42) had an epic battle in heat race three, with Farris winning after repeatedly passing Morehead on the inside of the comers. Carr bags the most bucksa r ind u t"a e -o t"DuQuoin Mile By Brian Catterson Photos by Dave Hoenig/Flat Trak Fotos and Catterson DuQUOIN, n, JULY29 ust moment s prior to the start of Sunday's scheduled 25-lap AMA Na tio nal at the . Du Quoin Sta te Fairgrounds, it appeared tha t for the first time in three weeks a Camel Pro Series ro und wo u ld be co m p leted. However, the dark storm clouds that sudde nly appeared over the pos tcardpretty mile ova l as the final was griddi ng just as sud denly exploded in a good o ld-fashioned Midw est clo udburst, a nd the race was red-flagged a t the comp letio n of lap two. T he Illin o is Mo torcycl e Deal er Associat ion 's (lMDA) DuQuoin Mile had been rained out for the second week in a row . With no end to 'the deluge in sigh t a nd the track rapidly flood in g, there was no cha nce o f a restart. AMA offi cial s decid ed to call the race, with th e rid ers to be paid in the o rder they'd q ua lified for th e fin al as per the AMA rulebook, and no po ints to be a wa rded. Their decision ga ve the "wi n" to Harl ey-Davidson factory rider Chris Carr, wh o'd put hi s Kenn y Tolberttu ned XR750 on the pol e by virtue of hi s fastest winning heat race time. Carr earned $4800 of the $38,000 total purse. The fact that Carr was leading th e final at the ti me of the red flag was littl e co n so la tio n to th e Manteca , California, resident: " I wish it had been th e 25th lap I was leading," he sa id, g lum ly, With no points awar ded, there was no cha nge in th e series po int standin gs, a n d Carr co nti n ues to lead teammate Sco tt Park er, 137 to l 24, with ESP Racing's Dan Ingram a distant third with just 76 points. . It was a p ity, really, as th e actio n preced ing th e fin al hinted a t the po tential of a trul y awe-i ns piring fin al on th is, the " Mag ic Mile," the fast est dirt track in the U.S. But as one Camel Pro Seri es reg ular was heard to say, "A t leas t this tim e we got to race." J Time Trials As th e d isappointing turnout of approximately 5000 mostly Harley- Da vidson-ridin g spectators came fili ng through the turnsti les, an equally slim field of 3 1 experts went up against the cloc k. Notab le scratches included threetime Grand Na tio nal Champion Jay Springsteen a nd Canadian National Dirt T rac k Cha mpion Jon Cornwell. Sadly for th ree-time champ Springsteen, he was aga in sick in his hotel roo m wi th a bo u t of the mysterious sto mach virus which has plagued hi m for a decade, while Cornwell was off contesting a round of th e Canadian Na tional Road Race Champ ionship in Sha nno nville, Onta rio. Wh en the dust sett led from quali fying, it was T erry Poov ey wh o had turned the fastest single lap. Riding hi s Mari on eaux Racing Honda RS750, the T exan veteran cloc ked a 36. 188second run at 99.480 mph , but said that th ere would be no hope of a new tra ck record toda y. (T ha t mark, set by Bubba Sh ob ert in 1988, sta nds at 34.377 seconds/ 104.721 mph, and is not jus t a record for DuQuoin' but for all mile ovals.) " If I rem emb er correc tly, th e da y Bubb a set the record it was overcast all da y long, a nd th e track was wet from th e top to th e bottom. T oday, it' s just too dry ," Poovey said. The second best time was turned by the youngest member of the Milwaukee facto ry squad, Kevin Ath erton, wh o clock ed a 36.4 79 o n h is Al Stangler-tuned XR750. Rodney Farris was next best with a 36.600 o n his Gardner Racing H-D , while Atherto n 's teammates Scott Park er (36.608) and Ch ri s Carr (36.615) ro unded o u t the top five. Parker's mach in e was fitt ed wi th a "boom bo x" mu£fler here, desp ite the fact that there a ren' t a ny noise restrictions call ing for its use. Wh en asked wh y, Parker 's tuner Bill Werner said tha t the bike is too ligh t to meet th e AMA's new-for -1990 ru les, and hi s o ptio ns are bolting a lead weight to the fram e ra ils or runnin g the lar ge mu£fler. " I' d rather bolt it on up here than down the re," Wern er said, di splaying a lead weigh t fro m hi s too l box. " Besides, it was still o n there from Sp ringfield, so I thought why cha nge it?" Whe n asked if the boom box mad e a horsepower d ifference, Wern er replied that yes, it made some extra ponies on top at the expense of some on the bottom: "If Scotty can keep hi s corneri ng speed up it'll be ben eficial ," Werner explained, " But if he ha s to get on a nd off the throttle a lo t we'll have to try some thing else." It must hav e worked, because th e boo m box stayed put. T o hel p determine if Parker 's bike is living up to its potential , Werner has been experime nting with a system which records rpm for playback later. A far cry from the high-tech on-board diagnostics em p loyed by several Grand Prix roa d race teams, Werner's system is made for car use by a company called Autometer. It consists of a pickup which measures rpm off the tach drive, with the data stored by a sm all tape recor der mounted behind the rightside number plate, and protected by a zippered n ylon pouch. These features, in combina tion with th e 15-year-old Morris magnesium whee ls fi tted to Parker 's bike (in contrast to th e wire-spoked wheels of the co m peti tio n) make Werner appear to be an innovator, but Carr and Athert on dism iss Werner 's tricks as mere "mind games. " The balance of th e top-l O qualifiers were Curt Rehrnert on hi s Union City (O hio) H-D, Tim Merten s on his Bell evill e Honda, Ronnie Jones o n his Garvis Honda, Dave Durell e on hi s Don ahue H-D , a nd Dan Ingram on the ESP Racing Honda. Durelle's XR750 had lost its primary drive sp roc ket in practice, but it was fixed in tim e for qualifying a nd th e lack of practi ce didn' t a p pear to hamper his effort. Heats Th e late arrival of th e medical h eli copter (req u i r ed to transport injured riders because the nearest hospi tal is some 23 m il es away fro m th e so uthern Illino is race faci li ty) dela yed the start of pract ice by an hour, but by th e time th e heat races ca me around th e show wa s a lmost back o n sche d u le. Less th an a ha l£hour after the scheduled sta rt, the first of four, 10-la p heat races th a t would a dvance the top -three fi nis hers directly to the main event was g iven the gree n flag. Ironi call y, it wo u ld on ly h a ve taken a bo u t 15 of th ose minutes to co m p lete th e N ati onal before th e rains ca me . The first heat race was a battle between J ones and Poovey, with Durell e also making hi s presen ce felt. Poov ey led most of the race as J ones a ttem p ted to get aro und on th e high side. Each lap, Jones was able to chall enge Poove y at the finish line, and o n th e lap that it counted Jones led Poovey across to take the win. Durelle finished third to take the fin al transfer spot. Behind th e lead trio, David Camlin, Don Estep and Mike Hale battled back and forth for fourth, and in the end they finished in that order. The second heat race offered a glimpse o f classic mi le racing as six riders vied for the lead. Atherton, Ingram , Mertens , Billy Herndon, Scott Stump and Craig Estelle ran lik e a freight train until lap nine when Atherton pulled out a small advantage. Merten s tried to draft p ast Atherton at th e stripe, but he came up just short, with Herndon earning th e fin al transfer on his privateer Honda. Ingram, Stump a nd Est ell e occu p ied th e fourth through sixth pl acings. Heat race three saw th e onl y cras hind uce d red flag of th e day when on la p five Doug Davis lo st th e front end and p lowed in to a section of unprotected guard rail. Davi s was d own for quite so me time, and though he was taken to th e hospital for observation he was pronounced o kay. The restart would see the field go six laps, lined up single-file according

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