Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

National, Bartels' Harley-Davidson's Mike Hale set his sights on Carr and quickly reeled in the race-long leader. Hale gave all he had and it was almost enough, but he came u p a bike length too short at the finish. After watching Hale swoop on to Ca rr's rear fender, ma ny onlookers felt that a few more laps would have yielded a differen t result. " Ricky held me up for a long time, but after I go t by him I could see that I was catching Chris," said Hale. "I wish I had one or two more laps, but tha t's racing." Also working past Graham and finis hing a so li d th ird w as Lo ral Lak e Racing's Ronn ie Jones, who enjoyed his best finish of the seas on. Jones stayed with Hale after passing Graham, but lost touch in the closing laps with a fad ing rear brake. Carr's day at the Peori a M.e. clubgro unds was a profitable one as he not only pocke te d $60 00 o f the $37,0 00 purse, bu t the $5000 winner' s check in the $10,000 Camel Challenge as well. For the past several years, race day in Peoria has been extremely hot a n d hu mid, but pleasant 8D-degree weather brought a smile to man y a racer's face. A record nu mber of specta tors - esti mated near th e 14,000 mark - filled th e g rassy h ills id es tha t sur round the famous race track. Time trials During the o ne- ho ur open practice sessio n, Carr performed repea ted skyshots over the jump, leaps that had some onlookers questioning his sanity. "I'd say that's probably the highest I've ever flown off the jump," said Carr with a wink and a smile. "There's a little lip off to the side that can kick you pretty far if you hit it just right. " Carr hit the lip just right when he took to the track for his timed qualifying lap , and the end result was the fastest time of the day. Surprisingly, Carr's crowd-pleasing leaps failed to yield a record time , and his 25.628-second lap was well off his 1989 record of 25.550. Ha le w as a tick slo w er at 26.752, wh ile Jon es, Aztec Ra cing 's Ben Bostrom, Graham a nd Steelmaster's Ha rle y-Dav id son- bac ke d Don Estep turn ed in low 27s and wo uld round out the six-man Camel Challeng e. Rookie Expert Bostro m was especially excited with his time, as he had neve r befor e qualified for a Camel Challenge. "I have a motocross background, and I was able to adapt to the TT pretty well," said Bostrom, who competed in . his first race at the facility in the June 600cc National. "I like this place, it suits my riding style." Heats Carr chose to start the first lO-lap heat race on the outside pole, but got too . much traction on the groove and wheelied off the line. Mother Fletchers-sponsored Will Davis timed the light perfectly and led Atherton and Carr into tum one. Carr dove to the inside of turns one and two and managed to sneak past Atherton, but not without incident, Atherton went down in front of the remainder of the pack a nd took Rich King and Willie McCoy with him. The red flag flew as Davis began lap two. "I go t under Kev in, bu t we ne ve r touched , he must have hit a slick spot or something, " said Carr . "Somebody slammed me, that's all I know," said Ath erton, hinting that Carr did ind eed ma ke contact. King a n d McCoy agreed that the champ had taken Atherton ou t. None of the three riders invo lved in the crash were able to repa ir their bikes in time for the full restart . Tum one was Ricky Graham's downfall In the Camel Challeng e, Graham (3) slipped off the groo ve and let Hale (32) and Carr (1) past. Carr, Davis, Erik Graybeal and Tom Troudt jumped the gun on the restart and were sent to the penal ty line, leaving only TT specialist Mickey Fay on the front row . Fay made good use of his advantage and led ove r half of the race, but Carr raged through the field and forced his way into the lead. Carr went on to win, while Fay held on to second over Davis and the rest. Tea m Undo's Brett Lan des holeshot heat two, but Hale took over in tum two and went on to romp home the winner. Harley-Davidson of Sacramento's Aaron . Hill also passed Landes and finished second, good eno ugh for a direct transfer. Landes and the rest would return in a semi. "I got a decent start and said, 'Sayona ra:" said Hale, who recently" returned from Japan where he competed in the Suzuka 8-Hour endurance road race. "I was getting some harsh landings off of the jump. We need to make a few changes before the main." Veteran Steve Morehead co u ld n ' t stop from laughing inside h is helmet when he blatantly jumped the gun in heat race three and was sent to the penalty line. "I was waving to everyone else to hurry up and join me," said Morehead, who high-fived several AMA officials on his way to the penalty line. "I'm not going that fast today, so what did I have to lose? A start can make it or break it here ." Mike Hale (32) and Ronnie Jones (16) passed RickiGraham (3) near the halfway mark. . The restart saw Jones grab the h o lesho t, but the red flag came out when Chad Barth crashed unhurt on the openi ng lap. Jo nes grabbed another holeshot on the second restart and was ne ver cha llenged. Finishing 15 bike lengths behind winner Jones was Estep, who managed to fend off the repeated char ges of And y Tresser. "I fel t reall y go od, bu t something's w rong wi th my rear brake: ' said Jones. "I ha ve to p ress the pedal all the way down, and even then it doesn't grab too good ." Jeff Annen led the openi ng laps of the fourth and fina l heat, but Graham took ov er on lap tw o and sail ed to a co mmanding win, finis hi n g some 15 bike le ngths ahead of Annen and Rodney Farris. "I felt like a pelican: ' said Graham. "To go over the jump good, you hav e to hit it real fast, becau se if you hit it slow, you swap around. I don't know whether to ha ng it out or play it sa fe. I wasn't very comfortable." Sem is Atherton 's pit crew rep aired his ba ttered machine in time for the first eightla p semi, and the Te xas Harley Davidson/Workman Harley-Davidsonsponsored racer sat on the second row at th e start. Ste ve Baker Kawasaki & Suzuki-backed Dan Stanley nabbed the holeshot and led the en tire way, while Atherton worked through the field and sailed pa st More head over the jump to finish second. Morehead flew low , but 13

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