Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Steve Morehead (42) topped Terry Poovey (18) in the 20.lap main to score the lion's share of the $10,000 Expert purse. Poovey (18), Morehead (42), Ted Taylor (75), Chris Carr (1) and Wink Freitas blast off the line at the start of the main. Morehead slides away with Hamburg Short Track win By Bert Shepard 24 HAMBURG, NY, AUG. 1 7·18 " w e didn 't m ak e a ny m istakes a nd the race track was better for us toda y th an it was last night," .ex p lai ned Steve Mo reh ead aft er scoring the Ex pert win at the Hamburg 600cc National. Morehead was referri ng to th e fact that the -race had tak en tw o days to co m p le te. Promot er J ay Milligan and th e Eri e County En gineers mad e the maximum effort to baule th e wea the r Saturday n igh t, but lost. Three of th e four hea ts were co mpleted before th e event was wash ed out for the even ing a t 11:30 p.m. T he rest of th e program resume d a t 9:00 a.I'n.. Sunday morning. Veteran competi tor Wink Freitas continued to dominate th e Ju nior divi sion with his sixth win of the seri es. Freit as, like many o f the j u nior racers, d id double duty a nd ro de both events. T wo o the r juniors from Cal ifornia, Cory Perreault and Jeff Ekl und also mad e th e 600cc National. Frei tas was third behind T erry Poo vey in the 600cc National event. Seri es lead er Chris Carr was th e fastest q ua lifier, stopping th e docks at 24.081 seconds and ea rn ing a spot for his Arai/Hap J ones/Sunoco /Yok o / Knigh t/Itt-backed factory Harley on the pol e in the first heat. T erry Poovey's 24.257 put h im on the center of the groove for th e third heat. while Steve Moreh ead 's 24.269 set the field in the fourth heal. Juniors Wink Freitas, Jeff Eklu nd and Bill Newkirk clocked th e next three fastest times on the groove. Dan Ingram and Chance Darling sa ndwiched Junior Brent Armbruster to fill in th e 10 fastest qualifiers. T went y-seven of th e 46 racers sq ueezed into the 24·second bracket. The small tu rnout o f co m peti tors allowed th e . J u ni ors a cha nce to rid e both th e Expert a nd Junior Nati on als. Moments before the sta rt o f the first heat race, the first round of rain began to fall. After approxima tely three hours o f tra ck grating a nd wh eel packing, th e first heat was brought to th e line. Carr followed Dan Ingram. Brian Tillison a nd Steve Beattie at the end o f th e first lap. Ingram was doing h is best to escape, while Carr worked his way past Beauie a nd Tillison. At th e halfway mar k, Carr had di spat ch ed Bea u ie and Tillison in turn one and set after In gr am. In gram 's lead shran k quickly , but time was ru n ni ng o u t. At the white Ilag, Carr was on Ingram 's fender a nd took co ntrol of th e race off th e last tu rn . Carr, Ingra m and Beat tie tra nsferred directly to the ma in, whi le th e other riders head ed for a semi. Ted Taylor disappeared from' the seco nd heat o n his Y-Wea r/ Arbuckle Pa ving/Hap Jones/ Mo tio n P ro lTaylor T rucki ng-bac ked Harley, a nd won by over four seconds. Cory Perreault go t under Bill Newkirk in turn one to put hi s claim o n second place. Newkirk 's slip from th e gr oove als o a llo wed Donnie Estep a nd Chance Darling to accom pa ny Perreault. The groove was developing quickly, and di ctated a follow-the-leader affair. Estep closed on Perreault at th e flag to steal a direct transfer to th e ma in . As Terry Poovey selected th e outside pol e for th e third heat, a very light mist started. Eklund got th e jump and led after th e first lap, while Poovey applied th e pressure from second place. Pat Buchanan had con tro l of third, with . Duane Veeder and John Russo in close formation . As the laps increased, so did th e rain. With five completed and five to go . th e order was still Ekl undo Poovey, Bu chanan . Veed er , John Ru sso a nd Mik e ' Varn es. Eklund yielded to Poovey o n th e eig h th lap. The victory was Poovey's on th e T exas H -D /H ap J on es /Bell /Darcy/Sise· m ore/H ot J ammin / T subak i H -D . Eklu nd was a ble to hol d on to th e seco nd ticket to th e main, but Bucha na n had his snatched away by Veeder a t th e last moment. " It was like ice out there ," said Poo vey. T he ra in increased to a full scale wash , a nd th e o fficia ls decid ed to come back early on Sunday a nd finish th e program. O n Sunda y morn in g , the fourth heal was set into motion. Les Washbon and Freit as bea t Moreh ead to th e first tum, but it took th e Findlay Flyer on ly a lap to gel ou t fron t. Moreh ead slo wly pulled away from th e field to turn in th e fastest o f th e four heats. On th e fourth lap, Freit as took seco nd from Washbon. La rry Pegram worked o n Washbon, but 10 no a vail. Mor eh ead, Freit as a nd Washbon headed for th e rnam. Price stol e th e holeshot in th e first semi, with Ch ance Darling on hi s rear fender. On th e th ird lap, Darling forced his H-D R.S .V.P ./South East H D/ Ara i/Simmons ConsUMC Specialti es/Tsubaki /K&N /Tom Nolan / Cycle Crasft-sponsored Harley into th e point position with an inside mov e o n Price in turn o ne. The gr oove co ntinued to develop. and Steve Beauie and Scott Sehl both went down in sepa ra te in cid ents. Darling held on to hi s ticket to th e ma in , while th e oth ers headed for th e La st Ch ance Qualifier. The seco nd sem i was a battle of wills on - the narrow groove. Aaron Hill grabbed the holeshot on his Ara i/ Tsubaki/Kal-Gard-backed Harley but co uld o nly hold the lead for a lap. Pegram looked lik e a sure thing until he slipped in turns three and four and ga ve th e lead back to Hill. Pegram regrouped a nd closed o n Hill but ran o u t o f ti me. Pegram 's chance o f ca tch ing series point lead er Chris Carr was down to o ne mor e try. Ever the optimist, tuner Skip Eak in mused, "You sure ar e getting a lo t of practice, Larry." Pegra m gated the Eaken-Sponsel ler/ KK M·C Supply/ Arai lTsubak iiSmith Opt ic s /Su n oco /MS· USA -backed - Honda perfectly. T he event and his

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