Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

, (A bove left) Winner's circle action finds Springer dousing himself while Gra ham gives M iss Winst on , Susan Callicutt, a Boody and Goss then sp en t much of the 10 laps argui ng over first , but th ey ultimatel y fin ished the wa y th ey start ed. Hall h eld o n to third while th ree-tim e San J ose wi n n er G arth Bro w got.past Kirk to occu p y fo urth. Holeshot honors in the final heat went to Alex Jorgen sen , who led R o n n ie Jones a nd Mi ke Minnig aro u nd the firs t lap . Gary Scott lost li tt le time in movin g himself to seco nd, and that positio n tu rned its elf into first when J o rgy dropped out with mechanical ailments a lap later. Sco tt went on to win han d ily, but seco nd was an in tense dice between Min n ig, Jones and J eff Joh nso n. T hey ba tt led and battled before Minnig wo u nd up with second a n d Ro o kie Expert Johnson took third and made hi s way into hi s fir st Nationa l. Semis The third red fla g of the day went o u t when Frank Wo rd we nt from the seco n d row directly to the lead of the first semi. He was sent to the penalty li ne, and on th e restart, Terry Po o vey was-th e front- runner. P oo vey ran in fro nt all the wa y to the fin ish . Charles Roberts held second for two laps befo re Hank Scott went by. Scott's O h io traveling buddy, Morehead, took over third at th e ha lfwa y point, and th en it was a battle royale ove r the tran sfer. In the end, Moreh ead co uldn' t make the pass stick a n d Poovey and Scott were in the Na tio n al. The second semi went much the sa me way. Garth Bro w was out in fro nt early and was ho lding the same positio n at the ch eck ered flag. Three ri ders - R o n n ie J o nes, Keith Day a nd Rod Sullivan - were the participants in the 'fight for seco nd, and figh t they did. From the halfway point on, J o n es and Day were the p rim ary p art ici p a nts, but they were side by side and exchanging position so o ften that few could keep tr ack. It a ll bo il ed do w n to a 'la st la p charge fro m turn fo ur to the checkered , and J o nes barely won o u t. Last Chance Q ualif ier Moreh ead, the winner h ere in May, wa s having a purely frustrating da y, bu t it seemed things were finally going h is way when h e do m ina ted the first n in e laps of th e Last Chance Qua lifier. Beh ind hi m , Sal H offma n , Rod Sull ivan an d Keith Da y alternated pos itions in a fight for seco nd tha t was soon joined by J ay Beach. Morehead's ti cket to th e National was cancelled, however , when a plug wi re p u lled loose on th e last la p and drop ped hi m to third. Sullivan h ad ex tri cated himself from the fight for seco nd o n the white flag lap, and he wa s the re to take th e win a n d fi nal sp o t in the Nationa l. Bea ch was second wi th Mickey Fa y ta ki ng fo urth be hin d Morehead. Junior Invitational The Junior Invitational sh aped up as a l2-lap East vs. West battle with California's Pete Hames taking the poi nt position in front of New York er Matthew Rozowicz. The two we re never more than a bikel ength a part, a nd usually side by side go ing do wn the straightaways. The battle for third wa s a multi-rider affair with In d iana ri der Dan Ingram alternatel y ta p da nci n g with Steve Karst en , Ro b Ely, H onda 's Doug Chandler and Do n H o ward. In the end, Storz Perfo rman ce/ Bill's ' Pipe's/Coron a R aceway-spo ns o red Hames took a n arro w wi n over Rozowicz. It was a fourride r drag ra ce to th e fin ish line for thi rd with Ingram pulling it o u t over El y and Howard. Chuck Ca rroll took six th ahead of Chandler. National When th ey lined up for th e 25lapper, fast heat winner Graham elected to go for the outside pole. When the light flashed green, Graham went from that position into the lead, with Springsteen, Scott Parker a nd Scott Pearson in tow. Pearson's teammate Hank Scott got a good start, but " I missed the shift into fifth on the b,~ck straight and every body went by. . Graham led at th e conclusion of lap one, but on th e following tour Springer swept by . going into turn three and that was th e end of the battle for the lead. Springer started pulling away almost immediately. Meanwhile, Graham had his hands full with a ch allenge from Syracuse winner Shobert, who ,h ad run past Pearson and Parker. Also up with the leaders was Steve Hall. By lap five Springsteen had broken the draft and pulled well away from the rest of th e pack. Parker had taken second momentarily, with the Graham/Shobert dogfight mere inches behind him. Pearson and H a ll were behind them, and Hank Scott was up to. the top 10. ' From lap six to the halfway point, Graham managed to get second back, with Shobert hanging right with h im . Just past the halfway point, Hank Scott got by Parker to run fourth . Then, a lap later, Graham was back in third and Shobert was p icking himself up in the turn three haybales. "We went into the corner ," said Graham later, " a n d Shobert ran it on in and hit the back of my motorcycle. That's why I drifted up to the haybales and almost fell , and he did fall. I had to shift down to get going again ." Th e final 10 laps consisted of Springsteen running by himself nearlya straightaway a head of the rest of the pack. Graham, H ank Scott, Pea rson and Parker were actively discussing the runner-up slot, with H a ll , Poovey and Brow some distance behind. ' In the final laps it was chiefly Graham and Scott going for second in a pass, d raft and pass again duel that h ad them swapping the order seve ral ti mes per lap. When it came to the fin a l lap, Scott led off of turn fo ur, but Graham used the draft to pull even and nip the Honda ri der a t the line for second, by about a foot. Pea r- lift, son used - the sa me strategy to steal fo urth from Parker. Poovey got around Hall to finish sixth, with Bro w, Mike Minnig and Gary Scott finishing ei g h th through 10th . "The race was wpn by getting into the corners and out of the corners. R icky said that mine would really track coming off the corner and not get sideways, while his would want to cock off and stay sideways," said Springsteen. Asked how he would handle the Ascot clincher, Graham replied, "Hey, I'm just going to go down there and go for it, j ust like I would any ot her race. It's hard to say with the position I' m in - I've never been here before. Ca ll me u p a couple of weeks after Asco t a nd as k me ." Scott was really jazzed with his second consecutive top four finish on the Honda. "I had to ride my butt off to get up there with the front runners, and by the time I got up there I was so tired all I could do was hold my own. I'm happy and I know Honda's happy . The H o nda 's got plenty of top en d and it really handles well." Pearso n was equally ecstatic. " I' m happy - that's the best I've done on a mile all year. I want to thank Da n , Jerry, Gene and Dennis for all their efforts this year, because we 're going towin Ascot, and that's for sure." • • Results . 25 -LAP NATIONAL: 1. Jay Sprin gsteen (H-D); 2. Ricky Graham (H- D); 3. Hank Scott (Hon); 4. Scott Pearso n (Hon); 5. Scott Parker (H-D); 6. Terry Poovey (H- D); 7. Steve Hall (H-D); 8. Garth Brow (H-D); 9. M ike M innig (H- D!; 10. Gary Scott (H-D); 11. Ronn ie Jo nes (H-D); 12. Jeff Johnson (H-D); 13. Randy Goss (H-D); 14. Rod Sulli van (H- D); 15. Ted Boody (H-D); 16. Bubba Shobert (H-D); 17. Ti m Mertens (H- D). . TIME : 15:50.52. AVG . SPEED: 94 .681 mph . , AMA GRAND NAT ION A L CHA M PIONSHI P/ WINSTON PRO SERIES POINT STANDINGS: 1. Ricky Graham (21 4); 2. Jay Springsteen (210); 3. Randy Goss (168); 4. Terry Poovey (166 ); 5. Scott - Parker (16 1); 6. Alex Jo rgensen (134); 7. (TIE) Gary ; Scott/Bubba Shobert (1191 9. Ted Boody (93); 10. (TIE) Steve Eklund/Steve W ise (89); 12. Steve Morehead (84 ); 13 . .Mike Bald w in (72); 14. Mike Kidd (66 ); 15. (TIE) HankScott lWes Cooley (62); 17. (TIE) Ronn ie JoneslTim Me rte ns (57); 19. Scott Pearson (4 9); .20. M ickey Fay (43). 9

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