Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ DIR TTRACK AMA Grand National Championship_ /C_am_el_Pr_oS_en_'es_:_ou_od_lO R _ positio ns were calcula ted by q ual ifying posi tio n in stead of the usual mai nevent finis hi ng posi tions. App roximate ly 7000 spectators attended the event, a number slightly lower tha n last year's 9000. But those who made the trek to the c1 ubgrou nds were greeted with partly clo udy skies, a coo l breeze and pleasant temperatur es in the low 80s. ~ Time T ri als Carr. flanked by Jones (left) and Parker (right) in the National winner's circle. also won the Camel Challenge. He pocketed $14.665 for his efforts . as he wo n both the 25-lap main event and the $17,500 five lap Ca mel Chal lenge at the 42nd annual event . Carr narrowly defeated Scott Parker and Ronnie Jones in th e National after leadin g all bu t two laps. More importantl y Carr 's victory extended his cha mpionship series points lead to 17 over defending Grand Nati on al Ch am pion Scott Parker. Carr has 157 po ints, Parker 140. " I'm taking it on e race at a tim e," Carr said , " but the Ca mel Pro Ch ampi onshi p is always on my mi nd. I'm j ust trying to do my best and hopefully my best by the end of the year is nu mb er one. " Who else but C at PeoiaTT arr r By Ken Faugh t Photos by Bert Sh ep h ard 12 PEORIA, ILL, AUG5 f there was a Prince of Peoria, it's li ke ly th a t H arl ey-D a vid son ' s Ch ris Carr wou ld be cro wned king . Not since Bart Mark el in the early '60s, I has a rider been so do minant at th e Peoria M.e. c1ubgrounds as has Carr. The Valley Spri ngs, Cal iforn ia , resident proved that po int once agai n " H e can have all of Peoria and I'll stick with the mi les," said Parker. "T here are still seven races left and a po ssible 28 points to ga in if I beat Carr at those events . . . and then there's the chance that he may crash. It's really too earl y to talk about the champion sh ip . . . any thi ng could hap pen right now." But in the Ca me l Ch all enge where mo ney is the main motivat in g factor , Carr easily ou tdis tanced J on es to earn plenty of that, $10.000 in fact. Former two-time Grand Nation al Ch ampion Ricky Graham was runnin g second when mechani cal prob lems forced him to pull ou t of the race. nearly taki ng two-th irds of the six-rider field with him. • This was the first Nation al of the last four schedu led ro u nds wh ich wasn 't rained out. Althou gh Carr was credited wit h the win last week a t DuQuoin , no cha mp ionship points ~ere awarded there; money-paying With only 40 riders trying to enter a program that called for 48 riders. it was assured that un less injury or severe mechanical prob lem s deemed otherwi se, that everyone wou ld make the show. But on top of selecting which of four 10-lap heat races th e rid ers would compete in and from whi ch posit ion they wou ld sta rt, tim e trials also served ano ther purpose - to decide whi ch six rid ers would go head-t o- head in th e h igh ly-pro fitab le Ca mel Cha llenge . Carr sto pped the clocks wi th )a 26.6 19-seco n d h ot la p a bo ard hi s To lber t- tu ne d H arl eyKenn y Davidson 600cc sing le. That time was mor e tha n a secon d off h is '89 track record , bu t that was mostly du e to a track made "slower" by rain a few da ys earlier. Jones' 26.995 on his Garvis-backed Hon da earned the Oklah oma rider the second q uickest time with Gra ham at 27.026 and Jay Sp rings teen , with a 27.030 lap , a few ticks off hi s pace. Rookie expert Mike Hale was fifth on the tim e sheet ah ead of fin al Cam el Ch all enge qualifier Parker. " On my lap I went into tum one in th e wrong gear and had to shift up," Parker said abo ut his disappoin ting lap. "Then I screwed up in tum two. but I decided not to wave the lap." J Aaro n Hill. Don Estep . Troy Norris and Erick Gruber rou nded out the top 10 qual ifiers. Harley-Davidson factory team rider Kevin Atherton wasn't able to post a time after burning a valv e i n hi s H ar ley. Atherton , however, still found a spot bear in g h is name in heat one. I Heats ') The first of fOUT heat ra ces go t underway with Hawai i's Kris Kiser, who has adva nced to the Expert class after competing as a Jun ior for the pas t several years, leading Carr, Estep and Craig Estelle. Carr dogged Kiser for two laps before he managed to move int o th e lead and break free. Wh ile Carr was in pursuit, he and Kiser had pulled away from Estep who was hav ing hi s hands full with Ath erton. who had go tten off to a poor.sta rt and ha d to fig ht his way past four rid ers before movi ng in on Estep 's rear fender. Ca rr eventually opened u p a sizeab le three-second cushion before taking the checkered flag in a time of 4 m in utes, 35.2 17 seconds, th e fastest hea t race of the day. Kiser came in second with Atherton squeezing by Estep for thi rd. Norris finished fifth. The second heat was yOUT typ ical two-man ba ttle that wo u ld event ua lly see the underdog come hom e the victor. Will Davis ran on top for the first three laps un til J on es over po wered th H arl ey rid er before stretching ou t a sma ll lead and go ing o n to win. After being disp laced, Davis was lef to conte nd with Hill and Morehead i a clo se thre e-way battle. The po sitions however, remained th e same to th checkers with Davis tak ing second an Hill th ird to adva nce to the main Morehead was fourth and semi bound and Scott Adam s, who came from sixt to pass Erick Gruber, finished fifth . Park er did h is best in th e th ird hea

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