Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ ~ DIRT TRACK AMA Grand National Championship_Seri_s_:_ou_nd_7 _e R ~ Two-tim e Grand National Cha mp ion Ricky Graham (3) ou t-d ueled ru nn er-u p Rodney Farris (92) and third-pla ce finis her Chris Carr (1) in the 2S-lap Grand National. Graham invincibleatLima Half Mile By Don n Maeda Photo s by Be rt Shepard LIMA, OH, JUNE 27 t's a bird. It's a pla ne. No, it' s Ricky Graham. Graham, the man of steel? No, but it seemed as if a chunk of kryptonite w as the only thing tha t could have stopped the 33-yea r-old Californian at the Allen County Fairgrounds. For the second time this year, Graham displa yed the form that carri ed him to the 1982 and ' 84 Grand Nation al Championships as he turned in a flaw less perfo rmance on the Lima Half Mile pea-gravel oval tha t left many of his com petit ors wondering w hat's really under his set of blue, pi n k and white Team Undo leath ers. "It's just a total change in my attitude tha t' s makin g th e d iff ere nce," sa id Graham, who won both the G r a n d National and 883 Series features aboard his Johnny Goad-tuned Hon da RS750 and Douglas Fa y-tuned HarleyDavidson 883 r ace bikes. "L 'rn ju s t putting eve rything I ha ve into what I feel I was pu t on this earth to do - race motorcycles." For Graham, his day at th e Da ve McCarthy-promoted ev ent was perfect from the sta rt. After posting the fastes t qualifying laps of the day in the Grand Na tional and Harley-Davidson 883 Dirt Track National classes, Graham went on to turn in the fast est pa ir of heat rac e win s before storming ho me the victor in both features . The w in in th e Gra nd National race mo ved th e Californian into th e se ries points lead, while he padded hi s lead in the Harley "s tre et bike" series. Graham ea sil y topped Moroney Harley -Davidson's Jason Fletch er and Bartels' Harley-Davidson rider Mike Ha le in the crash-riddled 883 National, but his win in the Grand National final I 6 came after a knock-d own , drag-ou t bat tle that kept the capacity crowd (an esti- . ma ted 1O,00o-plusfans) on their feet. Graham cha sed local favorite Stev e Morehead in the ea rly go ing, b ut the series veteran dropped out on the 10th lap with a fried clutch and left Graha m to contend with pursuers Chris Carr and Rodney Farris . G rand Nation al Champion Carr too k th e lea d a t on e point, but found that not even he could s p oil Graham 's day of perfection . Graham stalked Carr fo r a fe w laps before retaking the lead for good with five laps to go and romping home with hi s 28th-career Gr an d Na tio nal win ab oard his Team Undo /Pan asonic Car A ud io/ Fro n ti er Ford /HDG / Arai/ Fox/Z Galleries-sponsored Honda. But tha t wasn't all th at the crowd had to cheer abou t. All the while, Farris seemed content to follow and learn and on th e ne xt-to-last lap h e p ut th os e lessons to good use. Farris pulled o ff a ma gnificent pass on Carr in turns three and four and held on to take second, the best Grand National finish of his career. "Throttle con trol was the key tonight, and th at 's something tha t I've finally learned ," sa id a n ela ted Farri s, who piloted the Eddi e Adk ins-tuned HarleyDavid son XR750. "I used to be wild and I would crash all of the time, bu t nowada ys I'm rea lly serious about my racing and am using my head a lot more." Though Carr was not as pl eased as Graham or Farris, he was glad to finish on the winner's box, espe cially consid ering that he was forced to qualify via a sem i and started the National on row two aboard his Ken n y Tolbert- tuned factory Harley-Davidson . "I foun d a good line in the semi and used it to catch up in the main, but after I got ou t fron t the line seemed to go away," said Carr. "My bike was set up to run high, so when the line went away I was out of luck. Ricky and Rodney ran a helluva race, though ." Bu t wha t about four-time champ Sco tt Pa rker? The track's winn ingest rider saw his hopes of a fifth Lima win go up in sm oke when his factory H arley-Davidson XR750 "blew up big time" on the third lap. In winning, Graham pocketed $4550 of the $30,000 Grand National purse and took over the se ries point lead , a posi, tion that he has not been in since he capt ur ed th e ch a m p io ns h ip in 1984. Graham leads Carr by a slim two points, 100-98. Tho ugh he was awarded only one point, Parker main tains third wi th 79. "The nea t th ing ab ou t all of th is is tha t it's nothing new ," said Graham. "I d on ' t feel an y ex tra pressure because I've been through this all before. I won the championship as a privateer before I did as a factory rider, so I think I can do it again. Bei ng in the poi nt lead isn't n e rve wrack ing, it's like returnin g home. It's good to be home. " Fo r h is win in the 883 Nati onal , Graham pocketed $1000 of the $5000 BB3 purse, and enjoys a healthy lead in the Ha rl ey-Da vidson 883 Nati onal Dirt Track Championship Series po int standings over Jay Springsteen, who finished fourth, 69-56. Time tria ls Of the 50 ride rs who challenged Gil Dosmegan's clocks and took timed qualifying lap s, Graham was the only rider to rid e full throttle through turns on e and two . And it showed, as Graha m's . 25.496-second lap was well over half a second faster than the next-faste st time an d the only sub-26 second lap. "When you don't let off going into turn one and cut a perfect turn, yo u know that you'll set a good time," said Graham, who still fell far short of th e 24.994 track record set by Park er in 1984. Canadian Chris Evans pu t his considerable pea-gravel experience to use and stopped the clocks at 26.187, while Will Dav is, Jason Fle tcher, Mike H ale, Jay Springsteen, Park er, Greg Sims, Chance Darling and Bret Beyer rounded out the lO-fastest qualifi ers, all in the 26-second range. Carr was 15th fastest at 27.142. Heats Darling grabbed the holeshot in the first Ifl-lap heat race, but Gra ham powered past him on the high lines in turns one and two and waved goodbye to the rest of the pack. By the end of lap two, Graham had pu lled out a IS-bike len gth lead and would eventu ally g ree t th e checkered fla g a full strai gh taway a head. Canadian Na tional Champion Steve Beattie zipped past Darlin g on lap two and finished a secure second, well ahead of Sims, wh o also nipped Darling in th e closin g s ta ges. Graham and Beattie would sit on the front row of the main, as ·their heat rac e w ould be th e fastest of the evening. Sims and Darling, as well as the rest of the pack, would try again in a semi. Parker grabbed a huge hol esh ot in the second heat and led Carr and Beyer in to turn one. Carr bobbled in the second turn, how ever, and slip ped all the way back to sixth. "I hit a ho le in tu rn two and slipped off my line," exp lained Carr. By the thir d lap, Parker had already opened up a IS-bike length lead , while

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