Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

.RDIRTTRACK Series: Round 10/11 e Ricky Graham (3) led Grand National Champion Chris Carr (1) acros s the fin ish line in Su nd ay's National. Kevi n Atherton (23) passed Scott Parker (2) for th ird. coming out on to p of a h ea ted ba ttle betw een h imself, Durelle, Jones, Estep, Springsteen, Rogers and Davis. "Th at was a war ou t th e re, " said Morehead . "Bu t everyone rode clean and safe. I was just iii the right place on the last lap. Sunday Gra ha m re turned to h is fa s t- tim e thro ne on Sunday by rounding the track in 37.185 seconds at an average speed of 96.813, well clear of Parker, Ather ton, Carr and Poovey, wh o rounded out the five fastest qualifiers. "The groove is pretty wide for a day r ace, but there's a pretty bad slick spot coming out of two," sa id Graham. 18 Heats Grah am topp e d the fir st h eat race, but by no means in runaway fashio n. Pegr a m , Mo rehe ad a n d BilI y Herndon hound ed h im throu ghou t the race and it wasn't until the final lap that G ra ha m dro p ped th e h ammer and sec u r e d th e lead fo r g ood. Morehead drafted pa st Pegram on the last lap to nab the second d irect trans fer spot. Heat two saw Ha le storm back with a v e ngea n ce a ft e r h is DNF the ni ght before, an d .th e Harley rider st orme d away with a commanding win over Parker, who was never able to match Ha le's spee d . Farris and Dav is finished a distant third and fourth, but out of luck. Ju s t as he did on Saturday ni ght, Atherton trounced his comp etition and scored the win in the third heat with a full stra ightaway's lead over runner-up Davey Camlin. Morehead and Rogers finished off the pace in third and fourth. Springsteen ran strong un til his carburetor fell off. Carr and Poovey swapped the lead several times in the final heat, and it was . t h e defending Gran d Nationa l Champion w ho stood on top in the end . Poovey drop ped off the pace a.bit in the closing lap s, con tent wi th a direct transfer. Semis Farris and Beattie finished a close first and secon d in the first semi, while Gra ham's Team Undo teammate, rookie Expert Brett Landes, charged to a third place finish and qualified for his secondeve r National. Herndon and Roge rs battled too thin-nail for the lead in the second semi, wi th th e win eventua lIy go ing to Herndon. Rogers wa s a painfully close secon d, while Davis held on to fini sh third, despite the na gging pa in in his freshly-stitched chin. Dur elle looked to have the win in the final semi wrapped up , but Springsteen came to life on the last lap and stole the win from under his feet. Jones finished a close third and secu red the final spot in the National. 883 National Graham grabbed the holeshot a t the start of the IS-lap 883 Nationa l, but the re d flag came o u t on lap two when Estep stepped off unhurt in turn one. Graham duplicated his holeshot on the restart, and as they have so many times this season, Springsteen and Jason Aetcher joined Graham up front Together, the three riders began to pull away from the rest of the field in their battle for the lead. but this time they were joined by an unfamiliar fourth party. JDW Masonry/Mitchell Mod esto /Yoko/ Motul/Shoei -backed Matt Wait shadowed the three front-runners and studied their moves. In the closing stages, Wait wicked it up and jumped headfirst into the battle for thelead On the final lap, all hell broke loose. Graham led Wait, Fletcher and Springsteen past the white flag, but as they raced down the back stretch for the las t time, Wait and Fletcher drafted past and into the top two slots. Graham dove hard into turn three and got under Fletcher, but the two riders made contact and Fletcher we nt do wn . Unable to ma ke a decent charge afte r that , Graham was forced to se ttle for second be h ind a n ela ted Wa it, w h ile 'Sp ri n g s te e n fin ish e d a cl ose third. "This is the first time I've been on the box, " said Wait, w ho lives in Lod i , California. "Beating these two cha mpions is incredible. That was the best race I've ever been in." Fletcher took a trip to the hospital to ha ve a deep cut on his hand stitched up. National Graham timed the green light just right at th e start of th e National a nd g r a b be d a hu g e holeshot ahead of Atherton, Morehead, Parker and Carr. Graham , Parker and Carr immediately pulled away from the rest of the field in their battle for the lead, but the red flag came ou t on lap four when Rogers crashed in turn fou r aft er making contact with Jone s. "My bike got real s ideways a n d Rusty hi t the back of me," said Jones. "I didn't feel in control at all, and I knew that some one w as going to hit me : ' Pa rker sa t at the front of the singlefile restart with Carr, Graham, Ath er ton, Hale and Mor ehead behind him. Once u nderway, Par ker, Carr an d Graham resumed their battle for the lead, w ith Gra ha m again leading the majority of lap s past the star t/finish line. Hale and Atherton sha d owed .the front-running trio, just waiting for a mistak e from any of the m. . At the ha lfway mark, Grah am and Carr looked to have a grip on the top two positions, five bike lengths ahead of Atherton. Parker had slip p ed up a bit, and fought to keep Hale from overtaking him as w ell . Parker may ha ve sig hed a brea th of relief on lap 16, as Hale aga in fell victim to mechanical gre mlins . . "I d ropped a valve," said a heart-broken Hale. "I felt really strong, bu t it jus t let go all of a sudden: ' Once free of Hale, Parker appeared to gain a se cond wind and reeled in Atherton. Once again, it was a four-rider war for the lead, an d the remaining laps would see the cat-a nd-mouse wa it ing gam e. Whe n the five-la ps- to-go signal was ' shown, Gr a h a m a gain d r opped th e ha mmer in an a ttemp t to b reak away from the rest. And once again, Carr and Parker appeared to hold each other up momentarily. Carr passed Pa rker for good on the next to last lap and immediately closed the gap on Graham. On the last lap, Carr hoped to pass Gra ham on the b a ck stretch and lead through turns three and four, but Graham slammed the door and held his pos ition . "I knew that I had to get by Scotty or Ricky wo uld get away," said Carr. "I wanted to pa ss Ricky on the back, but he moved around a li ttle on the la st lap ." Carr trailed Graham as they ra ced out of tum fou r and towards the checkered flag, but his draft attempt came up inches sh ort at the line. "T o be honest, I d idn't know who h a d won," ad m itted G ra h am . "I w as w he re I wan ted to be . I think I could have drafted pa st him if I followed ou t of four, but it wa s too risky to try: ' "I thought that I might ha ve won, but the referee told me that they didn't even have to look at the stop-action camera all of the scorers saw Ricky as the winner. But if ifs and buts were candy an d nuts, we 'd all have a Merry Christmas," sa id Carr. "I wanted 'to lead out of four, bu t 1 wasn't able to get there. Ricky rod e a hell of a race: ' Parker led At he r to n as they rac ed into turn three for the last time, but over cooked it int o the turn and slipped off the groove. " It was like a present, " said Atherton later. "I already thanked him for the gift." "I just went in too hard," said Parker, obviously upset to see Graham and Carr pull even further away in the series point s tanding s. " I' v e gotta get it going." For the second day in a row, Morehead came out on top of a ba ttle for fif th, t h is time to pp in g Farris, Herndon and Durelle, Beattie finis hed ninth, ju s t ahead o f Landes, who enjoyed his bes t-ever National finish. "I learned a heck of a lot today," said Landes. "This is the first tim e tha t I've ridden 25 laps on a 7S0, what a change

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