Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eDIRT TRACK e AMA Grand National Chameionship_ _el_Pr_oSen_' F _ou_nd /C_am _ es_:_in_alr _ o 0') 0') P""""4 .... Q.) ..0 o ..... u o Scott Park er (I) leads Ch ris Carr (20), Ronnie Jones (16), Keith Day (22), Steve Mor ehead (42), J ay Sp ri ngsteen (9) and the rest of the pack at the start of the Nation al. Parker takes the title with style in Sacramento Mile finale By Paul Carruthers . Pho tos by Mitch Fri edm an SAcRAME~rrO, CA, OCT,~7 hann , Resweber , Springsteen and Shobert. Foll owing hi s win in the season fin ale Sacra mento Mile, the nam e Scott Parker can be add ed to the illustriou s list of AMA Gr and National Champions who succeeded in winn ing th e title in three consecu tiveyears. T he Swartz Creek, Michigan, rider captured the series titl e in impressive fashio n as he rode h is factor y Harl eyDavidson to a thrilling win as Satu rday night tra nsform ed in to Su nday morn ing a t the Ca l-Expo Fairgr o un ds in C -alifornia 's capitol city. • Parker came o ut th e best in a du el to the fin ish line in vo lvin g himself, team ma tes Kevin Ath erton and Chris Carr, a n d Garvis H onda Town's Ronn ie J ones. At the line it was Parker, inch ing o ut Ather ton and J on es with Carr, the only rider with a shot at dethroning Parker, bringing up the rear of the lead pack after ru nning wide in the fin al two corners . T he win was the 37th of Pa rker 's 12-year career, positio ning h im o n ly three behind Jay Springsteen 's all- ti me National win to tal of 40. And more importantly, it gave him hi s third Grand National Championship - on e sh y of Resweber's four straight titles. " It felt great to win two, bu t it feels even bette r to win three," Parker said. C 6 " I can' t even see five (a new reco rd ) at this point, bu t we'll take a shot a t four in '91." For his effo rts, Parker cla i med $ 100,000 from R.J. Reynolds and an a dd i tio n a l $50 ,000 from H ar leyDavidson for winning th e title. The 29-year-old also p icked up $7645 in purse money for winn in g hi s sevent h mi le a t th e Ca l-E xpo facili ty an d finishing second in the $17,500 Camel Challenge . T he Camel Cha llenge saw Parker bat tle to the fin ish line with Rookie of the Year Mike Hale..The Master vs, the Kid, and in this case it was the 18-year old high school student from T exas taking the win and the $10,000 that goes with it. Ironi cally, Hale's number 12N - is the same nu mber tha t was used by anot her Texan early in his career, a four-time Nati onal Cha mpion named Resweber. Third place in the dash for the cash went to Carr. T he final cha m p io ns hip p oin t standing s sho w Parker at 249 points, Carr at 229 with J on es finishi ng third with 168. Springsteen held on to fourth in th e cha mp io ns hip with 128 points whil e Steve Mor ehead, six th today, moved pa st th e no n-fin ish ing Da n Ingram to fin ish fifth with 113 points. This was th e race that almost di dn 't happen , at least on Satu~day n igh t. Wh en qualifying began, the first eight ride rs waved off their times, and sudde n ly qualifying ceased. As the trac k temperature coo led with th e comi ng of ni ghtfall, water and calcium (a chemica l used to keep dust to a minimum) started seeping to the surface of the racetrack, making it allbut unr ideabl e. " Mine was sp inn ing all th e way do wn the straigh taway," said Jones, who was one of the first gro up wh o had tried to qualify. With tim e of the utm ost essence, worke rs immediately wen t to work on the track - concent ra ting their efforts on the worst portion of the oval, turns o ne' and two. After the workers did all thev co u ld, the rid ers were sent ou t for a final practice sessio n and the track was give n the thumbs up. " I went faster than I did in practice," Carr sa id after his doin g his laps on the " new" track. And so at 9:00 p.m. tim e trials go t underway. T i m e T ria ls With 41riders attempting to q ualify, it was Parker tak ing the first step toward the tit le by turning in the quickest lap at 37.264 seconds at an average speed of 96.608 m ph , some .244 off the la p record but still a second and a ha lf quicker than Carr's fast time in the April event at Ca l-Expo. , With an l l-point lead over Carr wi th o nly this race remaining, Parker's chances for a third title loo ked solid. ' As is th e case when a championship winds down to the final races, the pressure moves . from the rider to tne tuner, who in this case is Bill Werner.' " You j ust do it the way you always do it an d see what happens," Werner said con fiden tly. " You don't try to reinvent th e wheel at th e last race. If som eth in gd id happen to the bike, he's (Parker) the kind of guy who 'd feel wor se for me than for himself." The secon d qu ickest time of the night went to Hale at 37.359. The p romisin g roo kie was riding a HarleyDavid son tuned by hi s fath er: " He's learning just lik e I am," Mike Hale said of hi s father Bob, " Bu t we're ge ll i ng the re. This is th e fo urth Challenge we' ve qualified for. We keep qualifying good and run our heat race good, but we keep ending up mid-pa ck in the final. So far we haven 't been evalua ting the tra cks well eno ug h as th ey change through th e program it 's just another lesson, but we're .learnin g." Carr was next, sto pping the clock at 37.425 on hi s Kenny T olbert -tu ned H arley-Davidson. Fourth quickest was

• Cover