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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127585
d uel wi th Fle tcher for second, Har t Racing's James Hart taking fou rth with Bartels' H-D's Mike Hale finishing fifth. The win was worth $1000 to Graham and helped pad his point lead in the 883 Championship . He now leads Springs teen by 16 points, 105 to 89, with Fletche r holding third at 72 . Springsteen's cut of the purse was $750 with Fletcher taki ng $575. The mos t oppressive heat wave in over 40 years was stalled over the upper Northeast with daytime temperatures of over 100 degrees, and stifling humidity, commonplace in the metropolitan areas. The temperature at Hagerstown wasn't m uch less so a decision was made to de lay p ractice slight ly to keep some moisture in the track and reduce dustiness. Th e s tra tegy worked well, th e track, wh ich has bee n plagued by ruttin g in the {last, was th e s moothest it had been for a while, and d ust wa s only a very minor p roblem for the very back of the pack. Tr ack officia ls we re also able to widen the groo ve by markin g an area several feet ou t from the guard rail that riders wer e p ro hibited to rid e on d uring much of p ractice. The racing p rogram started on time and ran efficien tly to the end. The hea t also d idn ' t seem to deter the spec tators since the grand stand s along th e fron t s traigh ta wa y w ere pa cked solid . Time trials Once practice s ta rted, Pa rk er took every chance available to p ut some laps in and it paid off in time trials as he had the fastest lap of the night, a 24.502 second tour of the ha rd -packed clay th at earned him a $100 bonus. "We practiced on the sa me bike qu ite a bit . Ba sically, w e s ta r ted w ith las t year 's settings and wen t in both d irections. II helps when you get a lot of laps in, especially wh en yo u're struggling," Parker said after taking the Bill Wernertuned m ount to th e fast es t time. H e added that del aying the star t of pra ctice seeme d to help th e track. "It' s rea lly s mo oth a nd by us in g less w a te r you keep the ruts out. I think it was a little dusty in practice, but the moisture will come up as the night wears on." After waving off his fir st a tt e mp t, Graham cam e back later in the session to clock a 24.548, good for second best with more to come. "II feels reall y comfortable. Johnny (Goa d) ha s done a good job se tt ing it up ," Graha m said . After sitting ou t since the Spring field Mile, Poovey w as third fas tes t, fou rtenths of a seco nd behind Graham and good enough for po le position for the third heat. Starting on the pole fo r the fou rth heat would be fourth-fastest Rex Fisher. Kevin Atherton qua lified fifth ahea d of Carr, Harold Dorsey and Morehead. Heats Morehead go t th e jufn p on the 12riderfield in the first of four heat races, Farris, Aaron Hill, and Parker in p ursuit. Parker was using the upper, d us ty edge of the groove while Morehead stayed low and pu lled away. On the second lap Pa rker moved dow n briefl y, then back up, all the while trying to find tractio n as Morehead and Far ris began to pu ll away. Farris took the lead on the four th lap as Parker moved up to third, taking second from Morehead a lap later by d iving un de rneath him in to the firs t turn. Parker continued the cha rge, ca tching Fa rris as the two p ulled away leav in g -Morehead to finish third. On the ni n th lap Parker used the same move on Farris tha t he'd pu t on Mo rehead an d took the lead into one. Farris hung tou gh, bu t Parker took the win. Ronnie Jones moved up from a bad sta rt to take fou rth on the final lap, dropping Cra ig Estelle to fifth. "I got pushed to the fast part, I got pushed to the slow part," Parker said of his va rious strategies. "I sometimes ride conservatively for the first few laps and sometimes that hurts me. That's when everyone is in a major panic. I wasn't sure what was going on so I bided my time and raced my race instead of their race. I raced my lines instead of their lines." The second heat race was effectively over soo n after it started, Graham pulling away at ease, riding well within himself to over a four-second victory over H-D of Frederick's Rusty Rogers. "I was jus t cruising," Graham said after w inn ing what wo uld hold up as the fastest hea t of the nigh t. "I try no t to look back. I was just riding where I was comfortable and wai ting for someone to pass me." No one would, thou gh there was a good race just behind him for seco nd. . Estep was an early second, he and Rusty Roger s b reaki ng a way fro m the field near the halfway point. Estep held the spo t un til the seventh lap when Rogers forced his way pa st and qu ickly buil t up a gap. Dorsey emerged from the pack the sa me lap to finish four th. The third hea t sta rted badly for Carr and Mike Hale , both sen t to the penalty line for ju mping the start. Bu t it didn't seem to deter Hale much, the Bartels' HD rider boltin g int o th ird off th e st a rt and moving up to second on the second la p . But just in front, Poo vey was p ulling away steadily, am assing a margin that no one wou ld be able to pu t a d ent in and w inning b y about threean d-a-half seconds. "Everything went really good. That's th e way it is when you w in, " Poovey said of his deceptively easy victory. Hal e and his Bartels' teammate Jay Sprin gsteen gave chase early with Carr riding down near the guard rail and trying to wo rk his way past Mike Varnes. It would be th e seventh lap before Carr could ge t by and a lap later he was up on Springst een wh o was ridi ng in the middle of the groove. Carr chan ged his strategy for the pass, moving around the ou tsi d e of Sp ri ngstee n in tu rns three and four to take over third. Before long he was up on Hale, but time ran out and H a le to ok seco nd, Carr third, and Springsteen fourth. " Being on the penalty line d idn't help ," Carr said . "I d idn' t ge t a grea t start a nd I was runnin g in fift h until abo u t ha lfway . I 'was changing my lines and I ran ou t of time . I almost caught Hale on the last lap ." - The fourth hea t w ould be a memorable one for one rider, at least. No t only d id Scott Stump lead his first Grand National Cham pionship heat race ever, bu t he hel d on to win and tra nsfer di rectly to the National from the heat for the first time ever. . " It's amazing," the Motorcycle Specialties / Motion Pro / K & N / Tsuba ki/Wimer's Cycle-backed Ohioan said. "I'd never led a heat race and I was just wa nting to ge t it over with. I didn't wa n t somebody to stuff me and take me out of the main event. Every thing was working good . We had old tires on it, old everything. My dad was wrenching h a r d a nd Wa yn e Darling bu ild s the mo tors . II's go t about six races on it." His strategy for the main. "We're going. to fill 'e r up with gas an d go racing." The bat tle for second in the final hea t was bet ween Geo rg e Roeder II an d Kevin Atherton. Roed er II was actually The win at Hagerstown was Rick y Graham's 30th Grand National victory. Steve Morehead's ron to second place was as lonely as Graham's to the win. Terry Poovey (18) couldn't prevent Rodney Farris (92) from passing him for th ird. 9