Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

to the ru nni ng order on the lap prior to the red flag . Morehead had been lead ing at the time , and he u sed his fro nt-row starting position to ju mp into th e lead at the restart wi th Rodney Farris in tow. The reason DuQuoin is so fast is that it's rea lly four individual corners with short straightaways connecting turns one and two, and three and four, which let the riders keep their cornering speeds up. This is also the reason that the third heat was perhaps the best race of the day, as " Ho t Rod " was consisten tly abl e to get underneath the "Findlay Flyer" down the short chutes, Whi le Mor ehead apexed each of th e four corne rs and drifted h igh o n th e sho rt straights, Farris was able to hug the po le. Farris would lead onto the stra ig hts, b ut Moreh ead wou ld unleash the .fury of his Hank Scottbuilt, SuperTrapp-sponsored XR750 to retake the lead into the followi ng corner. When th e checkered flag flew six la ps lat er , it was Farris who was proclaimed the winner with Morehead a close second. Curt Rehmert earned the final transfer, while Brian Atherton passed Steve Burkh ol der to claim fourth p lace; Burkholder was fifth. The fo u rth heat sa w a face-off between the two top dirt trac kers in the coun try - Harl ey-Davidson factory teammates Ch ris Carr and Scon Pa rker. But they were no t the o n ly o nes in the race by a ny mea ns as Rusty Rogers and Will Davis al so made their presence felt. The race also marked Davis' debut o f the mo tor he'd claimed from Par ker at the Albuquerq ue Mile. The motor had dro pped a valve in New Mexico, sidel ining Parker, bu t it w as rebu ilt by tuner Eddie Adk ins an d Davis prono unced it a flyer. _ " It's prett y sta nda rd, rea lly," Davis said, dow n playin g th e degree of modifications to the Bill Werner-prepared motor for wh ich he'd pai d $17,500. " But that 's good for us because we'll be able to keep it up. H opefully it'll ru n as fast for us as it did for Parker. We'll get o ur money back. " T he motor mu st have some horsepower because Davi s led at th e start. Carr drafted past to tak e th e lead down the back stra igh t o n lap two, and he th en led until lap four, wh en Parker go t by for a lap. !twas then Rogers' tum to lead, whi ch he did for a lap before Carr agai n go t by. Parker kep t Carr honest by taking the lead until lap eig ht, wh en Carr went undern eat h the reigning cha mp betw een turns three and four to tak e the lead for good. Pa rk er fini shed seco nd wi th Davis edgi ng Rogers for the fina l tra ns fer. George Roeder fini shed a distant fifth. Carr's tim e o f 6 minutes, 3.539 seconds was some three seconds faster than those turned by Atherton and J on es, and that earned Carr the pole for the final. Semis A pair of 10-lap semis would see th e top two fini sh ers ad vance to the main while the balan ce woul d be sent to the Last Chance Q ual ifier. Estep led' semi o ne off th e starting li ne and would lead until lap th ree when Ingram, com ing fro m a thirdplace start, laid claim to the lead . Ingram th en sped off into the distance to take what would be the day's largest margin of victory at over three seconds. A battle for th e seco n d transfer positi on was waged by Estep and Mike Hale, both on Harleys, and in the end Hale would go to the final whi le Estep would go to the Last Chance Q ua lifier. Cam lin and Stump too k fourth and fifth. Semi two saw Rogers vi n dica te himself as he led from start to finish on h is FIG Racing Ho nda, despite a big slide on o ne la p while com ing off turn four. Roeder earned the o ther transfer. spot, finishing a di stance ahead of third-place finisher Bur kholder, wi th an equal distance back to Keith Jacobsen. J ohn Holmes edged John Fau lkner for fifth. Kevin Atherton 's brother, Brian, co m peting in just his second race since breaking his neck in Phoen ix, Arizona, in 1989, retired from the second semi when his Harley's crankshaft broke. Last Chance Qualifier The weather had been hot and haz y all day, but as the second semi concluded a storm front appeared on the horizon. A short intermission was planned between the semis and the LCQ, but wit h the skies threaten ing officia ls immediately called the field to the grid. For the riders co ming from the second semi , th is would mean two 10lap races in succession. Estep had raced in semi o ne, and wi th a bre at her between races he may have had an ad vantage in earning the final transfer to the mai n. Ridin g his Steel-Masters H -D, Estep gave it h is all, trading the lead back and forth wi th Burkho lder and Stump and then taking a narro w victo ry o ver Burkholder. Sturn and Camlin finished a close third a nd fourth, respecti vel y, whi le Es .el le rounded o u t the to p five. All but Estep were th rough for the day . Cha nce Darling barel y mad e the grid fo r the LCQ after swappi ng hi s H ar ley's cl utc h p lates for the thi rd time, and despi te a hero ic effort by h is crew he fin ished dead last. National T he skies loomed even mor e o minous now and the wind had begun to pi ck up , so officia ls bumped the J unior Invitat iona l final back to hopefull y allow the Expert fin al to ru n before th e rai ns came. In fact, the a nno uncement calli ng th e Expert fina lis ts to the g rid was made before the start of the LCQ, whic h would have meant 35 laps wi th very linle rest for LCQ winner Estep. As th e sky became b lack er an d lightning bolts began to flash across the skies, thunder was th ou ght to be heard, but th e sound was in fact caused by scores of spec tators fleeing the site on thei r Harley-David son V-twins. Pole-ea rner Carr had his choice of fro nt -row grid pos itio ns, and he o p ted for the o utside with Athert on, J ones, Farris, Parker, Merten s a nd Farri s lining up in order to his left. T hen, wit h heavy rain drops beginn in g to fall , the Rollin g Thu nder Show was give n an op timis tic wave of the gree n flag. Merte ns came from h is ins ide gri d position to snatch the ear ly lead with Carr in second. As th e field came around to comp lete lap o ne, Mert en s cont inued to lead with Carr, Mor ehea d, J ones, Farr is and the rest ho t o n his heels. Carr went under Mert ens in tu rn o ne to take the lead , and he a nd Merte ns crossed the finish lin e togeth er to co m p lete lap two. Mor ehead ha d made some chassis adj us tme nts betw een th e heat and th e fin al , and hi s bike appea red to be steering mu ch bener. But we wo uld never kn ow the o utco me, as it was then , with the rain beginning to fall harder, that the race was red-flagged, The track quickl y turned into a quagmire, the kind of gooe y mud tha t pulls the shoes off your feet as you walk. With no end to the rain in sig ht, th e AMA called off the event, and fans and racers alike left the facili ty in a hurry. Terry Poovey was fast qualifier and transfered to the main by finishing second in his heat after a race-long battle with winner Ronnie Jones and Dave Durelle, Billy Herndon (19) leads Tim Mertens (53), Kevin Atherton (23), Dan Ingram (31) and Scott Stump (77) during heat race two. Atherton took a narrow win. Junior Invitational Eigh teen Junior riders had turned o u t for the Junior Invitationa l, a nd Turlock, California's Steve Rasmussen was awarded th e $420 winner's share of the 1500 purse wh en the fina l was ra i ne d o u t. R idin g hi s H arl eyDavidson , Rasmussen had qual ified fastest and won his six- lap heat race in decim atin g fash ion, setti ng the fast time en route. Honda-mount ed J amie Gryl icki won the second heat race, and he would earn the seco nd place money. Wood Ro tax rider Harol d Do rsey was thi rd. CN Results TIME TRIALS: 1. Terry Poo v

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