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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127720
... . DIRT TRACK :'. •AMA GrandNalional Championship Series' Round 1: Municipal Stadium (Above left) Three-li me Grand National Champion Jay Springsteen won the fastest qualifier and raced to sixth In the Nati onal. (Above) Brett and Jim Landes savor the sweet taste of vict ory . This marks Land es' th ird season as a GNC Expert. (Left - left to right) Runner-up Rich King, winner Brett Landes and third-placed Ronnie Jones were all sm iles after the rain-delayed event. Brieflv~ • • the rac e and put a wheel in on King here and there, but Kin g wa s never in any serious danger . " It was a boring race, actu ally," said King. "I came up on Bre tt a bit tow ards the m iddle, but I could n ' t eve n pressure hi ." irn Jones ro de lik e a man possessed as he swooped p ast Varnes, Price and eventually - Car r - en ro u te to third. "I was planning on staying low , but 1 favor of 600ce Rotaxes, but neltherrnanaqed .to qualify lor the program. ." 'Suspension tuning secrets ottne stars: "Sus, pension' setupis pretty important here," said ' 'Jay Springsteen. '''It has to be set up pretty , soft, so it absorbs all the little humps. Today, before practice, Iunscrewed those little plugs : on the bottom 01 my forks and drained some After his win.Brett Landes couldn't thank his' of the oil ' into a Coke. can. When I thought it was enough: Iputthe plugs back in. It works pit crew - tuner Rick Canada and Bob corray enough. ·We have an all-new,team this .' bitchin' outthere," It must have, Springsteen" smoked to the fastest .heat race win of the year, and I really wanted to do well for them ," ,.night and finished sixth in the National. said Landes. Team Undo's sponsors include 'Audiovox, Quaker State,' Arai, Tsubaki, Fran'• Lance Jones and Mik e Hacker competed at tier Ford, Zoom Cycle, Fox , Motion Pro" Lin- .. Municipal Stadium aboard a pair of J&M Rae. 'dernann Engineering, Harry .Lilly and 'CampIng Produ cts' KTM LC4 600s . The bikes were , .bell's Towing. .. . ' built by Mike Owen of J&M, and are reported. , " . , . Iy' going to ' be produced' as kit racers in the , Su rpnsln~ly , Terry : Poo~ey finished a ,distant near future. "The KTM factory in Ohio is proseventh In the National. After turning m sec-; viding all the support we need," said Owen: and-place -flnishes at t he previous two Day- " 'wh at we are hop ing to ac co mplis h is ' to tona Short Trac k Nationals, many expected , make a production dirt tracker, much like the Poovey to be ' ~ore. of a facto~; "We made a Wood-Ro'tax 600 s. The engine is greaf in bad tire choice , said Poovey: We put .on an . stock condition _ the bike has a lot of potenold ~I re wl~h fresh ly cut edges , and it Just , tial. " Owen predicte d that thezzs- pcu nd didn t work.. Poovey reported that he W con- . rnach ine _ which wil l come . complete with ill ,testt he ~ntlre ,Grand Natlonal Championship upside-downwh lte Power forks , will .cost Senes In 95. around'$ 10,OOO: Formore Information' can- . tact 'J&M Racing Products at 301/349-2259 . D aytona crap 's hoot : As usual , several ' National regulars failed to make the main 'at , Lar ry Pegram debuted his new LA Racing Municipal Stadium and were forced to spec - . . ride at Daytona. As expected, the flashy rider tate durlnq the - 25 -lap ' ma in . Steve had new team leathers, a new, paint job on Morehead , Rodney Far ri s ,. Scott Sl u mp , his bike and anewhelrnet, but the same old St eve Beattie " Mi ckey Fay and La rr y . right boot : This season, however; it isn't as Pegram sat on the ,sidelines... . ' , noticeable. "I painted it black!"'said Pegram, proudly displaying his sp ray can masterpiece. . . Jason Fletcher was on hand as a spectator ' during Bike W eek. "I'm doing a lot better,". Terry Poovey wins the Most Stylish Helmet - said Fletcher, who suffered serious injuries in Award. The quiet Texan competed all week last year's Oklahoma City Half Mile. "I'm actu-' lorig with an all-white Arai Signet helmet. "No, . ally hoping to come bac k to racing at the ' it's not supposed to look like an ,egg," said Poovey. "I switched ·from Bell to Araithis ' Delaware Half Mile."' Anth ony .Rutledqe of Wyoming was the winner 01 the Fletche r- . year, and " didn't have time to get it painted replica Moroney's Harle y-Davidson 883 dirt ' up real nice: Wait until Pomona." tracker that was the grand prize in the Fletch. . . .. ., er benefit raffle. Best an al ogy: Chr is Carr , on the slippery , shari track conditions : "It's real greasy in A pair of road racers returned to their roots at . between turns three and fou r; you have to tip' Municipal Stadium. 250ce Grand 'Prix Series toe through there. It's kinda like if you ran over a big bird turd in the International Horse- : regulars J on Cornwell a nd Danny Walker " " .ditched their more familiar Yamaha TZ250s·ln ··, shoe." ':' . . For his first-ever Grand National win, Bre tt Landes earned $4100 of the $33,000 purse. Rich King took home $2850 , and Ronnie Jones pocketed $1600. . Morehead 's downed motorcycle and was ejected over the bars. Wait l an d ed on Morehead, and the crowd grew dea d silen t as medi cs atte n de d to the pair. Both 'w alk ed aw ay from the cra sh. (See si debar ) K evin Varn es t ook co n t rol on the r est art and l ed every step o f th e way. Tresser finished a str aigh taway behind. Riders w ho didn't m ake th e cu t i n the h eat r aces ha d a .second ch anc e in one of fou r eight-la p sem is. Only th e wi nner wo u ld advance, m ak i n g the r ace action fast and fur ious. K enn y Coolbeth [r., Ath erton, Par ke r and Ted Taylor topped th ei r respecti ve semis and wou ld joi n 'th e res t i n th e Na tio nal. . Fa st heat r ace w inner Spring steen chose to start th e National on the insid e p ol e, a nd h ad Ca rr, Land es, Jo nes, V arnes and K ing lined u p to his r i gh t. A t th e fla sh o f th e g ree n light, Varnes . led th e charge into tu rn one, bu t slipped to fourth behind Land es, King a n d Pri ce. Carr wa s fifth, Davis sixth an d Jones seven th. "When I got the holeshor- I th ought, 'a ll right, here we go: " sai d Landes. " I . was go ing to try and hol d as m any gu y s off fo r as long as I cou ld . If th ey were gonn a pa ss m e, th ey w ere either go ing . to have to do .i t up top, or really smack m e o ff the low line." L and es stuck to his ga me plan an d circl ed th e track down l o w . H ad h e l ooked back, he wou l d have seen K ing d ro pping further and furth er behi nd. It wasn't unti l the w hite-flag lap th at Land es actua lly believed he could win, and even as he raced victorious across the fi nish li ne , he d i d n ' t know w hat a big lead he .had . " I ke pt expecting eve ry one to come barreling past me:' sai d Landes. " I had no i d ea h ow bad I h ad pulled away.) al most lost th e fron t end in one and two o n on e l ap - m an d id m y hear t skip a beat. " Landes took his fa ther, Jim, along on his victory l ap . . Like Landes, Kingstay ed Iow an the track and was never seriousl y ch al lenged . Carr worked pas t Price early in