Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

to mak e sure he would be guaranteed a good grid spot in the main to do battle w ith Peoria-speciali st Ca rr. Parker holeshot Grah am and Ri ch King, and after a short battle wi th Graham went o n to a slim mar gin of victory over Graham. King stayed in th ird the wh ole race but was pushed in the beginning by Rodney Farris. But Farris slowed and fin is he d fourth in front of Erik Graybeal. Terry Poovey started sixth an d finished in that position. Ii Three-time Grand National Champion Springsteen came off the pol e to lead Hale, Dan Ingram, Tim Mert ens and Marc Gifford at th e beginning of , the fourth and final heat. Rusty Rogers quickly broke up th at order as he bumped Gifford and began chasing Mertens. , With Springsteen and Ingram running 1-2, Hale fell off the pa ce, allowing Mertens and Rogers to dice for the final tra nsfer spot. But for Rogers that soon turned out to be irrelevan t as he crashed off the TT jump, bringing o u t th e red flag to stop th e race. " I came off the jump pretty hard," Rogers said, " and when I landed the ba ck-end kicked up and the rear tire sp un ou t." .After a single-fil e restart, Springsteen pulled o u t all stops to edge o ut Ingram and Mert en s at th e checkers. Hale and th e rest of the riders wh o didn 't advan ce 10 the fina l o ut of the heat races would hav e to p lace amo ng the top two in o ne of two semis to gain a slo t in the main event. Semis T he IO-Iap first semi was a brutal affair as evidenc ed by three restarts. T he first red flag was brough t o u t wh en Moreh ead and Estep tangled between turns one and two, sending Estep down. Then , after both riders returned, it was Mor ehead 's turn 'to bring out the red flag as he got caugh t in the aftermath of a first turn mistak e by Estell e. Both Moreh ead and Estep ret urne d to their start ing sp ots , how ever, Mor ehead decid ed to call it a day moments before th e green light. J();'When I fell down, I bent the bike pr etty bad," Morehead said ab out the Harley Charlie Ga rdner of Gardner Racing loaned him. " I thought I got everyth i ng working, but my forks wouldn't go up and down. I pulled off becaus e I didn't want to be a roadbl ock." ' With the veteran Expert ou t of the way, and th e riders occu pyi ng th eir o riginal grid po siti ons , the third flash of the green light saw Troy Norris, Estelle a nd Estep lead the field away, but then Estep went down in turn two bringing o utyet ano ther red flag. For th e th ird ti me th e race was stopped, bu t the restart th is tim e was a sing le-file one with position s carried over from the lap proceedi ng Estep 's accident. I That left Norr is a clear race trac k which he pa rlayed into a win. Sco tt Adams pushed Este lle for a short time b efore bobbling and tempo raril y falling off th e pa ce. Estelle joined No rris in ad van cin g to the Nat ional bu t for Adams, his third place finis h wa s not good eno ugh and he would have to win the Last Chan ce Qualifier in hopes of advancing to th e Nation al. I The second sem i saw T erry Poovey cai ne off th e outside of row one to lead Er ik Graybeal and Rodney Farris around th e twi sty circu it. Farris made short work of Graybeal as he took over th e number two spot and then the lead when Poovey's exhaust system fell off, forcing the T exan to the sidelines. Meanwhile, Gifford and Rex Fisher were trying to force Graybeal to make Ronnie Jones (16) was the only rider other than Carr to lead the National. Parker (I) and Jones finished 2-3, respectively. an error as the three fough t it o u t over second. Gr aybeal h eld off their advances to take the spot and adva nce to th e Na tional. Last Chance Qualifier Only the winner of-the IO-Iap LCQ would advance to the National , an d it was Randy Roo se mak in g the first bid for tha t spo t, as he led the start. But it was Gifford wh o soon took comma nd and he went o n to win, desp ite pressure from Hal e, to q ua lify for hi s fir st National start. " It too k a lot of hard work," Giff ord said, " bu t I finally did it. I'm real happy with the way th in gs are turning ou t." Camel Challenge T o no one's surprise, Carr came off the inside pole position to lead Graham , Sp ri ngsteen , Hale, Parker and Jones into turn one. After the jump , however, that tight-knit gr oup soon bro ke apa rt as Gr aham ca me to a su dden halt and nearly took ou t twothi rds of the pack. " I caug ht my rea r (brake) peda l' in th e right-hander and ben t it pretty bad ," Gra ha m said. " When I did tha t, it locked up in a hurry." T he near acci dent handed Carr a two second lead that , at Peor ia, can be haza rdo us to the ot her riders ' bank acco unts. , Bu t Springs tee n who too k o ver second was n't thinking about Carr, ra ther hi s a ttentio n was o n Hal e, J ones and Parker who were ho t o n his tail. Spri ngs teen held second .for three laps befor e bein g twice bitten . " I screwed up in turn three and both J on es and Parker went underne ath me;" Sp ringsteen sa id. " T hen I ran her into turn one too hard and H ale got . me." Carr event ually cruised unchallenged to his second consecutive Peoria Ca me l Challenge vi ctory, a win wo rth $10,000. Jones and Parker let it come down to th e wire with Jones holding the slight edge to pocket $2500. Dan Ingram (31) placed fourth in the National but lost ground to Jones in th e championship points chase. Ingram is third with 87 po ints wh ile Jones is fourth with 82. '

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