Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

GDIRT TRAC AMA Eastern Regional Championship_Dl_' es_:R_ou_nd_l K rt_Tra_ck_Se_n_' ~ Oklahoman Ronnie Jones (16) walked away from Larry Pegram (72) alter an early challenge and won by more than a straightaway over runner-up David Durelle. New Jersey's Georgie Price took the lead in Thursday's Junior main event on , the fourth lap and then held off runner-up Clint Vahsholtz to score the win . • ones romps to WIn By Henny Ray Abrams DAYTONA BEACH, FL, MAR. 7 n order to go forward, .Ronnie Jones had to go backwards. back to the old 'style frame that had helped make him one of . the most dominant racers in the history of the Daytona short tracks . Alter talking his sponsors, Garvis Honda, into getting him one of the new Knight Frames 'wh ich has older style geometry, Jones used it to devastating effect, romping to a masterful win in the opening round of the I 32 Eastern Regional Championship Short Track on the sloppy and reworked Municipal Stadium track on Thursday night. " It feels just like the old place," Jones said, after beating Donahue HD/Suburban H-D / Al Muth H-Dsponsored Dave Durelle and Larry Pegram (Eaken-Sponseller Racing/ White Bros), by nearly a straightaway in the 15-lap main event on his first outing aboard the new Garvis Honda/ _ James Hart turned in the fastest heat Wednesday night and then won a red-nagged semi before leading the Junior final from the second lap to the checkered nag. Missile Engineering/Motorcycle Stuffsupported Honda. "This year I feel way more comfortable with the way the bike 's working. The new kids, like Durelle and Pegram, like a lower center of gravity. In the old style frame , the engine sits up," said Oklahoman Jones. Unlike the first night of racing which was strictly one-groove, tonight's competition was wide open, riders running three and four abreast through the turns. The track was dug up Thursday afternoon and calcium ch loride and water were added. Unfortu nately, too much water was added, effectively delaying the start of the prog ram for the half-filled stadium by about an hour and making the track's surface sloppier. But there was no question that the racing was mu ch improved. "It was 100-percent different ," according to Junior Clint Vahsholtz, who finished second to George Price . in the Junior main tonight. "It was a lot slicker last night and the lower lin e was better. I knew I couldn't get around him on the high side, but I'm just happy to be in the winner's circle two nights a row," the Vahsholtz Automotive-backed Coloradan said. Price had passed Vahsholtz on the fourth of 12 laps, going high around him to set up a high-low battle that lasted the entire race. Price stayed up in- the cushion using a wide arc to get a drive down the straights and diving far into the turns. Vahsholtz stayed ' low , using less cornering speed, but, ultimately, not getting the drive. Third place went to Donahue H-D's Tony Donahue with Western Hills Honda's Patrick Behrle fourth ahead of Mike Varnes on the Penn State' Cycles/White's H-D-sponsored H-D 600R. In the first of six Expert heats, Jones finished second to Texas H-D /Hap Jones/Bell's Terry Poovey, unable to cha llenge due to a misfire. "We changed the jet, the plug, a bunch of things and it started to work, " Jones said . Durelle would have the fastest heat, though, by just .037 seconds over Poovey. In the first of three Expert semis, Jones was untouchable, again using the low line to effect, earning the fastest o semi win and the choice of starting spots. He took the inside pole for the final, jetted into turn one first, stayed low on the track, about eight feet out from the cones , and was never headed. "That's where I was riding all night. I wasn't going to move," Jones said. Pegram was an early aggressor, but found that as the race wore on he was moving the cushion higher and higher until there was none left. His bigger problem would be in fending.Ioff Durelle, which he did until the fourth tum heading for the white nag. "I was rid ing the cushion until I blew it off the track, " Pegram said. "I was only a few feet from the hay bales then. I just .ran out of race track." Pegram also said his Iaceshield was . fogging and he didn't find a way to clear it until there were on ly about five laps to go. "I knew where I was gaining and where I had to pass him," Durelle said. "Every lap I would get under him and gain two or three lengths on the straight." The battle for fourth was the best of the night wi th two veterans, Steve Morehead and Terry Poovey, bumping and banging in every turn. Morehead, on the Taylor White/Shepard Chemical Co.lKK Motorcycle Supplybacked Harley-Davidson, was away sixth with Poovey farther back. But by the fifth lap they were side by side, neither giving an inch and taking the fight to the nag, with the decision going to Poovey. Rodney Farris was a lone sixth ahead of Willie McCoy. For Price, a J un ior class rider, the night was a vast improvement over the previous night. On Wednesday. he'd been run over, necessitating a ride in the ambulance with a suspected sprained knee. _ If it was bothering him tonight, it didn't show, as he took his heat win and the fastest semi win before going on to dominate the Junior main. He attributed part of his success to a change in steering geometry. "Last night the triple tree was outfurther and the front end tucked under," the Dorsey Builders/D&:G Cycles/Bell-backed New Jersey rider ·said. "We pulled them in , about three millimeters, and it helped going into the comers,"

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