Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Cycle News 1995 06 07

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127731

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 15 of 71

.D TTR C IR A K . AMA G National Championship series rand Round 4: Illinois State Fairgrounds Mo rehead, Camlin, Davis, Peg ra m and Eddie A d k ins/ Wi n ches ter H a rl eyDav id s on-spons ored Rodney Farris . From ther e, all th e Michigander had to d o w a s h old off th e hard-ch arging Pegram for the last few laps while trying to set up Carr for a fina l confrontation at the finis h lin e. He w as abl e to do both, bu t he came up short in the final run to th e flag. Still, Atherto n's seco nd- place fini sh marked his first vi sit to th e box since the "old" Kevin Atherton put a lastcomer banzai pass on Steve Morehead to claim second at the 1994 Del Mar Mile. " Every thing worked good today - I could have don e 50 laps tod ay," Ath erton sa id . 'They gave us the five-lap sign, and I th ou ght , ' Ma n, s ho u ld n ' t I be sweating or so m ething? I wa s trying to break the throttl e cables out there at the end." Pegram, too, was able to enjoy his first top-three fini sh sinc e winning the 1994 Mechanicsburg Hal f Mile, but the flashy 22-year -old had to wo rk hard just to earn third place at Springfield . Afte r starting from the back row on a completely unfamiliar mot orcycle, Pegram quickly knifed his way throug h the pack to run 11th at the end of lap one. He drafted his way to th ird by la p three b UI wou ld th en be forced to play on the Springfield seesaw, gaining and th en losing ground to the lead ers until se ttling into a comfortable fou rth in the waning laps of the National. But the earl y-ra ce cha rge paid off when he was able to take advantage of the laterace breakage by the competition to inch his wa y up to Ath erton and Carr. Pegram trailed them across the line for third place by only a few bike lengths: (Left) The 17-rider field rockets into tum one to start the 51 st runn ing of the Springfield Mile. Eventual winner Chris Carr (4) runs just outside of HarleyDavidson teammate Scott Parker (1). (Below) That close: After 25 hard miles, Carr had more than enough left for second-place finisher Kevin Atherto n (23) at the flag. By Scott Rousseau Photos by Bert Shepard and Dave Hoenig SPRINGAELD, II. MAY 28 , ince signing on to race the Ha rley Davidson VR lOOO in the A M A Superbike N ation al Champ ionship, Chris Car r no longer ha s anything to wo rry about wh en he swings a leg over his Harley-Da vid son d irt tracke r. W it h o ne A M A Grand a tio na l Championship under his belt, the "semir etired " 28- y e ar- o ld Ca li forni an no longer has to d eal wi th th e pressure of earni ng crucial poi nts w eek in an d week out on the various m iles, half miles, and TIs tha t make up the Grand ational Championsh ip. H is li mited 1995 dirt tra ck schedule is being run "jus t for fun." If that 's truly the case, then at the 51st running of the Spri ngfield Mile, presented by th e Illino is Motorcycle Deal ers Associ a tion, Carr had one hell of a ball . Th e Pri nce of Peoria became the Sultan of Spri ng fie ld , s ho wi ng up a t the fabled Ill in ois tr ack w hile in bet w een races on the Su perbike sched ule, out-lasting some of his compe tition and out-racing the rest to take home an exciting victory before 14,500 fan s at th e fam ed Memorial Day race. With this , hi s 32nd career Grand National victory and first Springfield win, Carr became the fourth different winner in as many rounds of the AMA Grand National Championship Seri es, and he is now tied with Steve Morehead for fifth in the seri es points standings, with 33 points. S 16 'This is the icing on the cake," said a jubilant Carr while o n th e p odium . "What a great motorcycle race. I'm sure glad we got it in today, because if it had rained out, I wouldn't hav e been able to come back. " Success on the lightning-fast Spri ng. field track is easy and difficult all at the sa me lime . The key to getting around the wide-grooved , tacky clay oval lies wi th kee ping th e w heels in lin e like a road racer and holding the throttle against the stop; the rider who can come closest to ru nning wide open all day long is us ually the wi nn er. The difficulty lies in th e fact that the Springfield Mile brings out the best in every rider who attends it, and those w ho are norm ally not as competitive a t other venues are som ehow able to come to Spring field and m ake thin gs happe n. Lead drafts often swell to 10 rid ers or more, and breakaways are all but non-existen t. Furthermore, the torrid p ace a t Spri ng field pl aces an unholy stra in on engines and tires. If yo u want to win, then you 'd better have a horse that' s both fast and reliabl e. Carr had both and mad e the most of it, running with the lea d pa ck fo r the entire ra ce - so m eti mes as fa r ba ck as 10th place - before heading to the front at about the midway point and then chug gin ' along aboard his Kenny Tolbert -prepared XR750 while his riva ls, inclu di ng fa ct ory teammate Scott Pa rk er, Steve Morehead, Dave Camlin and Will Davis fell by the wa yside with mechanical failur es. To add insult to their injury, Carr also cut the fastest lap of the day in the U8-second blast that averNational, a 3aged ou t to better than 105.2 mph. In the end, th e Valley Springs, California, resident s tood ato p th e w in ne rs' rostrum wit h TCR Racing's Kevin Ath ert on, who finis hed seco nd , and LA Racin g-backed Larry Pegram, third aboard Atherton's backup ma chine (see Briefly). Atherton has vow ed to be a more patient, more consisten t rid er in 1995, and after suffering d isappointing finish es in the last three rounds, the former H-D factory rid er came to Springfield and defin ite ly pra cti ced what h e ha s b een preaching. Starting in sixth place, Atherton maintained his position in the lead draft, which included Carr, Parker, "I was m o vin g fo rwa rd th e whol e race," Pegra m sa id . "We start ed in row three, but I had a good line through three and four. I made most of my pa sses right there." Rodney Farris finished fourth, and in doing so sa lvag ed the reputation of the "ove r 30" riders on the circuit. The 32y ea r- o ld hardl y di splayed the raw aggression for which he is known on the half m iles, but he kept his Eddie Adkinstuned XR750 in the hunt durin g the National. Ironically, Farris suffered from attrition as w ell; a s his competitors pulled up lame, he lost his drafting partners and thus had to go it alone behind Pegram in the closing stages of the race.

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's - Cycle News 1995 06 07