Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eDIRTTRACK e 0\ Q) § ~ 8 AMA Grand National Championship_S_en_' es_:_Ro_UD_d_5 have to twist my hand back to roll the throttle on." Graham was the 11th of 52 riders to go up against the clocks and he blistered the mile with a 34.362 second, 104.76 mph lap, just off the record Parker set last year, 34.264/105.06. Parker's much anticipated time trial lap was almost a second off the pace, his 35.273/102.06 making him ninth quickest. Joining Graham in participating in the lucrative Camel Challenge race would be the second through sixth fastest qualifiers - Kevin Atherton, Carr, Terry Poovey,' Bret Beyer and Hale. Heats Aaron Hill took ·the point position in the first of four 10-lap heats, but he was quickly gobbled up by Graham, Dave Camlin and Parker. Graham immediately pulled away from Parker and Camlin who were being pressured by Lance Jones for a transfer spot. Graham went on to win while Parker took second over Camlin who just couldn't come up with the horsepower to draft by the champ and was headed for a semi. Jones finished fourth, but was also headed for a semi as was fifth place finisher Davey Durelle, who was making his first appearance since suffering serious injuries at the concluding round of the 1992 Grand National Championship Series at Pomona. "I just acted like Scotty was on my rear wheel," winner Graham said. "I knew I didn't want them to catch my draft." Atherton got a good start in the second heat but the Garvis Honda of Ronnie Jones scooted around to take the lead until the last lap when Atherton took his Texas HarleyDavidson/Workman Harley-Davidson-backed XR750 deep into turn three to take the lead which he held to the finish line to score the win over Jones. The heat would prove to be the fastest heat of the day, giving Atherton the pole for the main. "I didn't know if I could draft him," Atherton said. "I was getting through turns three and four better so I just passed him in three and let him try to draft me." The third heat represented what Springfield is all about - a six-rider lead-swapping pack of riders all who had a chance to win late in the race. Hale led the 10-lap go early and looked ready to pull away when Farris, Will Davis, George Roeder II, Steve Morehead and Carr reeled him in. Morehead took over the point position at the halfway point as Hale drifted back to sixth. With two laps left, it was Morehead, Farris, Roeder, Carr, Davis and Hale. In the pass and get passed battle, Carr led at the line as the white flag was waved. As the tight pack of riders thundered -through tum four, Morehead and Farris got together and Farris laid his Eddie Adkins XR750 down and into the hay bales. Hard on the gas, KK/Shepherd/ F&:S/Storz/Dragoo/Bell/ SuperTrapp/Motion Pro/Zoom-sponsored Morehead bounced off the front straight wall and drafted by Davis to take second behind winner Carr. "There are three or four different lines," Team Harley-Davidson's Carr said. "You have to take what you can get. The groove is getting wider and wider. We put a new tire on and it finally started working late in the race. I got a bad start and it put all the pressure on me." The fourth and final heat race saw' another large pack dueling for the win. Charlie Orr broke on top, but was quickly dispatched toward the rear by Bret Beyer, Steve Beattie, Jay Springsteen, Poovey and Jason Fletcher. Gilco/Texas H-D/Hap Jones / Sisemore / Bell /Tsu baki -backed Poovey and his Honda RS750 took over the lead on lap five only to see Springsteen and his Bartels' H-Dsponsored XR750 go by on the next lap. The two front-runners were joined by Beattie and Fletcher with Beyer running fifth. As the race wound down, Texan Poovey stretched out his lead over the battle for second. As Poovey headed to the finish line the winner, Suburban Motors/Joe &: Wayne Houpt/Bellbacked Beyer got a great drive off of tum four and sent Beattie, Springsteen and Fletcher to a semi Semis Three-time Grand National Champion Springsteen led the first of three eight-lap semis into turn one, but it was Rich King on top at the end of lap one. Roeder held down second over Rusty Rogers, Springsteen, Lance Jones, Don Estep and Jim Sumner. Then Rogers lost his brake and was forced off the pace which was intense as five riders were exchanging the lead position back and forth. When the checkered flag came out it was Suburban Motors H-D/Joe Houpt/ Squirts/Bell/General Eng./Midwestern Anodiz./Sean Oster-sponsored Sumner edging out Jones for the win with Springsteen taking third, the last transfer spot, from Roeder in a photo finish. The second semi had to be redflagged when the tightly bunched field exited tum two on the opening lap. In the battle Dan Ingram was bumped and sent sliding up the backstraight where he hit the outside wall, triggering numerous violent flips. Ingram was rushed unconscious to the hospital where he was placed in the intensive care unit and listed in serious condition with head injuries. Hale and his Bartels' H-D XR750 led the restart and stayed out front all the way to score the win. Behind Hale a battle over the remaining two transfer spots - second and third - took place and it involved Farris, Fletcher, Hill and Carolin. In the heat of the battle, Camlin slipped off the groove and fell back, but he recovered and was quickly back in the hunt. At the finish it was Hale the winner with Camlin coming back to take second over Farris on the last lap. Fletcher led Sims and Hill back to their vans. The third and final semi was over quickly for Will Davis as his A&R Honda RS750 dropped its chain off the line. Durelle led the remaining riders off the grid and into tum one but then dropped to third behind Billy Herndon and Canadian Beattie. Tommy Colson and Orr closed on Durelle, but Colson's Harley expired and then Orr dropped off the pace. Beattie took the lead as the last lap started only to see both Hu:d Racing's Herndon and Donahue H·D's Durelle draft by at'the finish. Beattie held on for the last transfer over Orr and Harold Dorsey. Camel Challenge Hale got the holeshot in the five- lap $10,000 Camel Challenge, but the Hondas of Poovey and Graham blasted by Hale's Harley, leaving him to try and hold off Carr. Hale was back in front on lap four only to fall victim to Honda power again as Graham got by and went on to win with Poovey taking second over Hale. Atherton finished fourth with Carr fifth and Beyer sixth. National Graham, Carr and Poovey were a little too anxious at the start of the 25lap points-paying main event, and all three riders were sent to the penalty line. Graham admitted jumping the gun, saying, "I adjusted the clutch differently this year to get better starts, but it has been making me jump. I wasn't worried about.starting on the fourth row, I won from row three in 1983 and I knew I could d~ it again." When the pack got the green light on the restart, it did so minus Herndon. As the field awaited the restart, a bolt fell out of the Texan's R5750's exhaust pipe and wedged between the countershaft sprocket and the cases and his day was over. When the field started minus Herndon, Atherton and Ronnie Jones shot to the front of the 17-man field. But handling problems would eventually drop both of them deep into the pack. After the initial sorting out laps, lap four found Graham out front after a wild charge from the back with Ronnie Jones, Farris, Atherton, Parker, Carr, Hale, Lance Jones, Springsteen and Morehead rounding out the top 10. Graham started to edge away and show the crowd and his pursuers why they call him Mr. Springfield. Behind Graham, Hale, Parker and Farris ran three wide as they waged a furious fight over second place. Atherton had dropped off the front running pace and was drifting back in the pack. "We broke the frame in practice and had to fix it. It was real good all though the heat and Camel Challenge, but during the National it just got worse and worse and I was forced to back way off," said Atherton who eventually finished 10th. Poovey dropped out of the race at the halfway mark when his Honda spun a rod bearing. By that point, Graham had stretched out his lead to the point that he appeared set to finish the race unchallenged. And as things would tum out, he was. "At about the halfway mark, I could see we were not going to catch Ricky and it was a race for second," Hale said. "I just tried to position myself to be able to get it." In his fight to be in the right spot at the right time, Hale found himself bouncing from second to fifth place depending on where he was on the track; the fight for the runner-up spot was tha t furious. Considering all the problems Farris had endured during the day, just the fact that he was in the pack fighting for second was remarkable. "We had to put a whole new front end on after the heat race spill," said the Eddie Adkins/Winchester H-D/Mary & Mac/LarryGordon/Zoom/FoxfBell/ Lynch Trk./Myers Trk./Storz-sponsored Marylander who now calls Winchester, Virginia, home. "We were just guessing on setup, but it worked great." _ Seconds after Johnny Goad/Honda Dealers Group/Jack Sizemore/ Frontier Ford/Z Galleries/Sport Center /Panasonic Car Audio-backed Graham took the checkered £lag, the pack roared across the line so tightly bunched that several riders weren't sure of where they finished. One of the most surprised when the results were announced was Springsteen, who thought he might have been third but was credited with sixth. Surprised or not, it was a jubilant Hale who took second with an equally elated Farris third. Parker, who had the lead in the battle for second at one point on the final lap, was dropped to fifth by his Harley factory teammate Carr. Morehead trailed the pack in seventh, while Lance Jones continued to make his return to racing after a long absence impressive with an eighth place finish. Beyer dropped Atherton to 10th on the final lap. o¥ Results TIME TRIALS: J. Ricky CrAham (34.362 seconds); 2. Kevin Atherton (34.676); 3. Chris Carr (34.791); 4. Terry Poovey (34.875); 5. Bret Beyer (35.091); 6. Mike Hale (35.139); 7. Ronnie Jones (35.145); 8. Lance Jones (35.160); 9. Scott Parker (35.273); 10. RKh King (35.351); 11. Steve Morehead (35.419); 12. Steve Beattie (35.471); 13. Don Estep (3S.S08); H. George Roeder II (35.606); 15. Billy Herndon (35.630); 16. Aaron Hill (35.634); 17. Devon Pritchard (35.685); 18. Greg Sims (35.685); 19. Will DAvid (3S.702); 20. Charlie Orr (35.818); 21. Jay Springsteen (35.818); 22. Rodney Farris (35.822); 23. Rusty Rogers (35.832); 24. Davey CAmlin (35.855); 25. Davey DureIIe (35.871); 26. Ted TAylor (36.144); 27. Mike Dillon (36.150); 28. Jason Aetcher (36.152); 29. Danny Koelsch (36.255); 30. Brett Land.. (36.338); 31. Dan Ingram (36.355); 32. Tommy Coloon (36.429); 33. Jim Sumner (36.437); 34. Patrick Buchanan (36.679); 35. Rex fisher (36.698); 36. Keith Day (36.710); 37. David Lloyd (36.721); 38. Chance Darling (36.732); 39. Dave Hebb (36J64); 40. Jesa Roeder (36.883). HEAT 1: Ricky Graham (Hon); 2. Scott Parker (H·D); 3. Davey CamJin (H·D); 4. Lance Jones (H-D); 5. Davey Durelle (H·D); 6. Aaron Hill (H·D); 7. Jim Sumner (H-D); 8. Tommy Colson (H·D); 9. Devon Pritchard (H-D); 10. BriAn Kromroy (H·D); II. Vidor Browne (H·D); 12. Jess Roeder (H·D). Time: 6 minutes. 00.15 seconds. HEAT 2: 1. Kevin Atherton (H-D); 2. Ronnie Jon.. (Hon); 3. Rich King (H-D); 4. Greg Sims (H·O); 5. Billy Herndon (Hon); 6. Rusty Rogers (H·D); 7. Dan Ingram (Hon); 8. Pat Buchanan (H-D); 9. Dave Hebb (H·D); 10. Ted Taylor (H·D); II. Harold Doney (H·D); U. Ray Knapp (H·D). Time: 5:59.48. . HEAT 3: 1. Chris Carr (H-D); 2. Steve Moreheild (H·D); 3. Will Davis (Hon); 4. Mike Hale (H·O); 5. George Roeder U (H·O); 6. Brett Landes (Hon); 7. Mike Dillon (H·D); 8. Gordon Schopieray (H·D); 9. Chance Darling (H·D); 10. Rodney farris (H·D); 1I. Rex Fisher (H·D); 12. Ian Segedy (H·D). Time: 6:03.32. HEAT., 1. Terry Poovey (Hon); 2. Bre' Beyer (H· D); 3. Steve Beallie (H·D); 4. Jay Springsteen (H-D); S. Jason Fletcher (H·D); 6. Charlie Orr (H·D); 7. Don Estep (H-D); 8. Danny Koelsch (H·D); 9. Scoll Stump (H·D); 10. Keith Day (Hon); II. David Lloyd (Hon); U. Bart Schmulbach (H·D). TIllie: 6:01.68 SEMI 1: 1. Sumner; 2. L. Jones; 3. Springsteen; 4. Roeder; 5. King; 6. Rogers; 7. Estep; 8. Hebb; 9. Fisher; 10. Day; 11. Knapp; 12. Schopieray; 13. Kromeroy. Time: 4:52.94. SEMI 2: 1. tale; 2. Camlin; 3. farris; t. 'Fletcher; 5. Sims; 6. Hill; 7. Taylor; 8. DiJJon; 9. Uoyd; 10. J. Roeder; 11. Pritchard; 12. Koelsch; 13. Ingram. Time: 4:55.00. SEMI 3: I. Herndon; 2. Durelle; 3. Beattie; 4. Orr; 5. Dorsey; 6. Darling; 7. Buchanan; 8. Landes; 9. Stump; 10. Segedy; 11. Schmulbach; 12. Browne; 13. Colson; 14. Davis. Time: 4:56.98. CAMEL CHALLENGE: 1. Ricky Graham (Hon); 2. Terry Poovey (Hon); 3. Mike Hale (H·D); t. Kevin Atherton (H·D); 5. Chris Carr (H·D); 6. Bret Beyer (H·D). Time: 3:03.84. 25-LAI' NATIONAL: 1. Ricky Graham (Hon); 2. Mike Hale (H· D); 3. Rodney farris (H-D); t. Chris Carr (H·D); 5. Scoll PArker (H-D); 6. Jay Springsteen (H·D); 7. Steve MoreheAd (H·D); 8. Lance Jones (H· D); 9. Bret Beyer (H-D); 10. Kevin Atherton (H·D); 11. Dave Durelle (H-D); 12. Steve Beattie (H·D); 13. Ronnie Jon.. (Hon); 14. Dave Cam lin (H·D); 15. Jim Sumner (H·D); 16. Terry Poovey (Hon); 17. Billy Herndon (Hon). Time: 14:51.07. AMA GRAND NAT'L C'SHIP SERIES POINT STANDINCS (After 5 of 21 rounds): 1. Chris Carr (74/2 Wins); 2. Scott IIArker (65/1 win); 3. Ricky Grah.m (64/1 win); 4. Mike Hale (44); S. Steve Morehead (32); 6. Rodney fArris (31); 7. (TIE) Dan Ingram (1 win)lJay Springsteen (29); 9. Kevin Atherton (26); 10. Terry Poovey (22); 11. Ceorge Roeder 11 (21); 12. Rich King (19); 13. (TIE) Dave Camlin/Ronnie Jones (18); 15. Will Davis (14); 16. Lance Jon.. (13); 17. Roger Durkee (11); 18. Jon Cornwell (9); 19. Garth Brow (8); 20. (TIE) Bret Beyer/ Aaron Hill (6).

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