Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

and for the fifth time this year Graham was awarded the $100 prize for turning in the fastest qualifying lap . Kev in Atherton, Da vis, Carr, Morehead and Fletcher were in a clump a 10th of a second slowe r, while Ronni e Jones, Tommy Colson, Da vey Camlin . and Scott Buchan were also tightly gro u ped a fracti on o f a seco nd ba ck . Graham's teammate Brett Landes was th e last rider to break the 22-second bracket. Heats Fast qualifier Graham chose to start the first Ill-lap heat race on the outside pole, but Chance Darling won the dash to turn one. Graham wasted little time, though, and took over by the time they raced into turn three. Rex Fisher tried to follow Graham below and past Darl ing, but he high-sided and took Darling out. Fisher was abl e to make the complete restart, but Darling's pipes were too bent to continue. Jones led the re start with Graham and Steve Beattie on his rear fender. Graham got under Jones in turn two and waved good bye, whil e Beattie also looked for a way pa st. Beattie nipped Jones and held on to finish nearly five seconds behind Graham, while Jones, Fisher and the rest headed for a semi. Pat Buchanan holeshot the second heat and planted himself on the groove ahead of Fletcher and Rogers. By the halfway mark, Rogers had taken over the lead with Fletcher in second, while Buchanan held the rest of the field in check. Rodney Farris began to get th e track surface dial ed and qu ickly zap ped Buc ha na n and closed in on Fle tcher, wh o s tr ugg le d w ith a fl a t re a r ti re. Rogers nabb ed the win ahea d of Farris, while Fletche r man aged to hol d on for third. Nevertheless, Fletche r, along with the rest, wou ld have to try agai n. Par ker and Scott Buch a n w heelie d off the line a t th e s tar t of heat three, but Pa rke r recov er ed qu ickly eno ug h to chas e Mike H ale i n to turn on e . Moreh ead and Kevin A the rton cha sed Hale and Parker, and th e fou r rid ers would argue ove r th e lead. Hale appeared to hav e a han dl e on th e lead w hile Morehead a nd Atherton pressured Park er , but th e red flag came out on lap fi ve when Don Estep hit the di rt. Morehead mad e the most of the single-file restart and jumped past Parker. Hale led every lap and not ched the win over Morehead, while Parker and . Atherton finished close, but out of luck. "Once I got into the lead, I started to pole putt. I wasn't about to give up the inside line," sa id H al e . " I s ta y ed a t Springsteen's house last night and he gave me some tips." Davis took the lead from the outside pole in th e fourth and final heat, and controlled the race from start to finish. Springsteen held down second ahead of Carr, who tried everything to get by. A few bike lengths back , Roeder and Hill battled over fourth, with Roeder gaining the eventual edge. Davis grabbed th e win ov er Springsteen and a disappointed Carr, who would have to race in one of the eight-lap semis. .. , >J Semis Jones made short work of the first semi abo ard the Garvis H onda-fielded RS750. "This is the half miler that I won Oklahoma City, Rapid City and Ascot with . 1 feel better tonight than I have all year," said Jones. As usual, the scrap was for the last two transfer positions - second and th ird. Tommy Colson, Roeder and Camlin would be the pla yers, and the Steve,Morehead (42) passed Jay Springsteen (9) en route to third, his best finish of th e series, Springsteen finished sixth. Graham (3) passed early leader Will Davis (21) on lap three. Rusty Rogers (57) ran third early on, but faded to ninth. results would come down to a last-lap pass. Colson held control of the runnerup position, while Camlin performed a wild pass on the outside to eliminate Roeder. Ex-teammates Carr and A therton went head-to-head for a trip to the main in the second semi. Atherton held Carr off throughout th e race, but Carr did pull alongside on a fe w oc ca sions . Atherton grabbed the win and a secondrow starting spot in the main, while Carr and third-placed Fisher would start on row three . Hill earned the win in the last semi final with a great start-to-fini sh romp. Parker closed on H ill in the closing stages, but still finish ed a fe w bike lengths behind, while Fletcher fended off the repeated charges of Landes for the last position in the National. 883 National Fletcher and Springsteen topped the two eight-lap heat races and were joined by James Hart, Hale, Roeder and Graham on the first row at the start of the National. Fletcher timed the start perfectly and controlled the first three laps of the IS-lap race, but all eyes were focused on Graham and Springsteen, who battled with each other from the get-go. Graham wo rked the outside of the groove and passed Springsteen, ·then carried his momentum past Fletcher for the lead. Meanwhile, a great battle for fourth raged between Roeder, Hale, Greg Sims and Robert Crabbe. Bob Buffingfon took a spill in turn four and was temporarily trapped under his bike, but was up and off the track in time to prevent a red flag. . As the laps wound down, Springsteen motored past Fletcher and closed in o n Graham, who rode just above the cushion. "Jay rides the outs ide better than · anyone else in history," said Graham, who fell victim to Springsteen's outsideline prowess. Springsteen railed the outsides of turns three and four on the last lap and nipped Graham for the win. The crowd went nuts and hardly noticed Fletcher, who cruised across the line third ahead of Hart, Hale and Sims. "My bike jumped out of the corners a little better than Ricky's," said Bartels' Harley- Davidson/ Bell / D . I. D . / Performance Machine/O'Brien Plates/ R.C. TruckingIJack Sizemore /Vanson Leathers/Joe Bisha/Cooker-sponsored Springsteen. "I'm only an hour and 15 minutes from home. Heck, I learned to ride here. This is kinda neat. " 13

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