Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

feel even better if that jump wasn 't there." Rodney Farris had th e quickest clutch hand at the start of the th ird heat , and was chased off the lin e by Ronn ie J ones, Graham , and Fay. Graham found hi s way past Jones on the open ing lap, and dove to the in side of turn four to steal the lead from Farris. Jones was nex t to displ ace Farris, as he dove hard er in to turn one on lap five. Jones then set out after Gra ha m, but to no avail. Johnny Goad/Sarah lrby/ Ed Fisher/Johnny DuP ontITX-IO/Matt's Muffler/ Spo rts Racing Gas / Arai-sponsored Graham held on for the win , ahead of Jones and a distant Farris. " I got into the lead and just cooled it," said Graham, a two-time Peoria 'IT winner. " I didn't want to make any silly mistakes and get hurt." "I got off the line okay ," said Jones, fresh off a hometown win one week earl ier at the Oklah oma City Half Mile. "I was ab le to scoo t through the insides of the corners real well." " I felt great," said Farris. " Bu t I slipped off the groove a couple of 'times, and I got passed." Semis Dan McDonnell led the way in the first of two semi s th at wo uld each offer three trans fer posi tions, wi th Rex Fisher and Kevin Ath erton ' in hot pursu it. After sitting in th ird for most of the race, Atherton kicked in th e afterburners and quickly made his way into the point p osition. Ath ert on scored an easy win, ahead of McDonnell and Fisher. " I thought there was two laps left in my heat, but there was only one, an d I had to ride a semi ," said Atherto n. "So as soon as I got comfortable in the semi, I j ust went for it." Davis grabbed the ho leshot in the second se m i-fin a l, but Moreh ead , Aaron Hill and Dan In gram shadowed his every move. Morehead was the first to work his way past, as he ou tbraked Davis entering turn one. Once ou t front , Morehead set sail and cruised to the checkered flag abo ard the Taylor White-owned, KK MC Supply/Sheperd Chemical Co.lF&S H-D /HSRlJohn Dragoo /Bell /Storz/W orks /S u per trapp/Zoom Cycle/Lynch Transportation-backed Harley-Davidson. Hill and Ingram also found their way past Davis and into the final . "This is th e best 'IT track in ' the world," said Morehead, who .recen tly scored the win in an invitational 'IT held in France. " My tuner Mike Wheeler has got the bike running perfect." Camel Challenge Fast qualifier Hale chose the outside pole at the start of the Camel Challenge, next to Fay , King, Parker, Graham and Carr. At the flash of the green light, Hale surged into the lead and never relinquished it as he dashed to an easy win aboard his Bartels' HDlBob HaleiBieffeiMotion ProlTsubaki/Redline/Sam Line-backed Harley 600. Graham and Carr did their best to chase the teenager from Texas but were forced to settle for second and third, respectively. Fay slid out on the first lap while exiting tum two, and Parker pulled off the track on the second lap with a broken shock while running third. "When I landed off the jump it just snapped," explained Parker as he watched tuner Bill Werner install a new shock. Hale greeted th e checkered flag and a check from the R .J . Reynolds Tobacco Company for $10,000, ahead of Graham, Carr, King and Fay, who remounted before being lapped. Hale Scott Parker (I) led Rich King (SO), Ricky Graham (3) and Carr (20) ~t the start of the National, but dropped to second place. became the eighth different Camel Challenge winner in as many races held thus far in 1991. "The track is real slick , I wanted to gas it and get away , but I had to chill," said an elated Hale. "This makes up for that stupid crash many tim es overt" Junior National Wink Freitas blasted into the lead early in the 1O-lap Junior main event, and scored his second Junior National win in a row. After fighting off the early charges of Georgie Price, Freitas went on to score the win with a comfortable margin of victory. Following the Avila Meat Co.lRon Wood / Shoei/Tsubak ilK&N /Kal-Gard/HiPoint-backed rider across the fini sh line were Price and Jeff Annen in close formation , while Frank Kaiser and Michael Butler rounded out th e top five a few bike lengths back. Freitas leads the Junior National series po ints chase with 106 points, ahead o f Eklund, who finished seventh, with 77 points. " Everything went good, I didn't have any real problems," said Freitas. " Once I got out front, I just paced myself and made sure I didn 't crash." National Carr occu p ied the outside pole, next to Parker, Jones, Pegram, Graham and King, while Poovey, Farris, McDonnell , Morehead, Atherton and Hale sat on row two. Hill, Fisher and Ingram made up row three. Parker got the holeshot that he was hoping for, and led King; Carr, Poovey and Morehead through the first two turns and over the jump. Farris en tered turn one in fifth , but sta lled his motor and coas ted to th e side of the track before rejoining the race in last place. " I got a bit chin ' start from the second row , and I looked up and Morehead was practically stopped in tum one," said Farris. " I said 'Ooo h, shit,' and locked it up, but I stalled my bike." Parker continued to lead, while Carr worked past King and set his sights on the defending champ. Graham motored into fourth after dicing with Morehead for a few laps, while Atherton struggled towards the front after starting lOth. On lap six , Carr passed Parker on the front straight, but overshot turn one and dropped back into second. Meanwhile, Atherton had worked into sixth, and began to pressure Morehead for fifth . Twenty-year-old Atherton sailed past 35-year-old Morehead on lap 10, and also found his way past Graham when the ex-champ slipped off the groove coming out of tum two. Just before the halfway point of the 25-lap race, Carr got a tremendous driv e ou t of tum four and blasted past Parker on the front stra igh t, making the running order Carr, Parker, King, Ather ton and Graham. Atherton

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