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/143880
~ Q.) ..0 o -.J U o second. Graham tri ed the same stra tegy on Springer. Sp ringer hit a hole com ing out of four and his fro nt wheel jumped. Graham went under and into second to stay as lie bro ke awa y far enough to prevent J ay's pa ss procedure. Those three kep t the ir tra nsfer spot s followed by Sh ober t an d Rod Sullivan . T he third heat featured four AMA ha lf mi le winners, three on the fro nt row. Poo vey was fastest around tu rn one and out of turn two. American Honda 's Scott Pearson put the NS750 into second, but Scott Parker went by hi m on the inside. Pearson got sideways in four and Ronn ie Jones went int o third. Parker was all over Poovey, even trying inside lines, a rarity for the most dyed-in-the-wool outside ma n on the circuit. Parker watched Poovey leave as he waited for hi s front wheel to gra b a bite in turn one, an d the tra nsfer spo ts were set. Steve Ekl u nd and his Esp ri t/Castol/Arai/Zanotti Harley are not well known for th eir starts, but th e fo urth heat saw num ber eight lead the field from green. ligh t to checkered flag. Mickey Fay's factory Honda sh u t off Steve Morehead 's drive to the first turn. Kei th Day and Mike Minnig gated in second and third positions. Minni g faded, and Rich Arnaiz came up to ba ttl e with Day in one of the eveni ng's clo sest battles. Morehead was slicing through traffic a t an astounding rat e and move d into second behind Day. Tha t - dropped Arnaiz out of a transfer positi on. Sem is Mertens was the early an d la te leader of th e first semi, as well as every ap in between. Bubba Shobert cam e ' off th e first row to stay in second with equal fervor. Rod Su lli van was the early inhabitant of thi rd position, but was picked off by Brow as he strode thro ugh the pack, pi cking off a rider a lap. His charge fell short and Mertens was the on ly transfer. Fay grabbed the start of th e second semi and provided Honda wi th the ni gh t' s first H onda-powered holesh o t. Anaiz ana Boody filed in behi nd while Pearso n tried to ru n h is Honda around the outside 'on th e cus hi on. Arn a iz led for the length of one straightaway before Bood y went into the lead. F ay put Arn aiz back to thir d and went to work on Boody. Fay wou ld go in deep and low, real low, and Bood y would come out harder. Fay finally made it all the way un derneath in four an d took th e transfer spo t. last Chance Qualifier Pearson lived up to h is holeshot artist legend wi th a bigger than life . lead down the back straight on the first lap of the Last Ch ance Qualifier. Brow, Arnaiz, Sullivan and Minnig filled in behind, but the only position that changed was the important one. Brow went into the lead and took the last transfer to the National. J unior Invitat ional Don Howard jumped to the lead of the Long Beach H onda Junior Invitational. Pete H ames moved past Howard on the first lap and Doug Chandler's factory H onda bumped him to third on the next go 'ro und. Chandler and H ames put on the only race of the night that could equal the Graham/Springsteen battle from the second heat. Chandler wou ld go inside and pass H ames and Hames would repass in the next turn. They switched the lead around twice on each lap, but Hames came out on top of mid-year-Junior Chandler, who has a year as a Junior. Howard hung other on to third position. Nat ional Seven former Ascot half mile winners lined up for the final. Steve Morehead was back after blowing an engine in the heat as he crossed the finish line. Harley-Davidson loaned him an engine. From the blink of the green light, it was an all Randy Goss show for th e National. Scott, Poovey, Parker and Ekl und were away in the top positions and settled into the top five after the initial first lap shuffle. Even though Randy was putting on a great show, all eyes were in the pack where Springsteen, in sixth, was leading Gra ham in seventh . Graham was doing his best to stay with Springer, bu t h is Tex Peeltuned H ar ley did not seem to be hooking up at eit her end as well as the factory H arl ey. Scott was mi xi ng it up with Goss in the early laps unti l he hit a hole that nearly threw him over the bars in turn four. Poovey moved in on Scott and passed hi m . Poovey kept h is drive up, but Go ss was gone. Ra ndy said on the victory podi um, "I saw Poovey comin g through the pack, and I knew that he wanted firs t place rea l bad. Twas just glad that I got out in fro nt and didn 't get in the way of Jay and Ricky." By the time that Poovey move d into the top three, Goss had accumulated a lead the len gth of the backstraight. For the rest of the laps in the record time Na tional, they just spread out. . . Back in seventh position, Graham hadn't gone anywhere, and jorgy " was giving h im fit s. J orgy and Graham swapped seventh twice in the late laps with J orgy playing "keepsies." -G ra ham had h is hands full just keeping a pesky pair of Ronn ie Jones and Mertens off of his back. (Clockwise from above left) Ricky Graham (41) and Jay Springsteen were this close in their heat and the National. Graham gets congrats from Tex Peel. Randy Goss sprays the bubbly for four happy racers. Steve Eklund had been in the upfront-fracas and was mi xi ng it up with Parker in a back an d forth du el tha t cam e into th e last lap with Eklund lead ing. Goss took the win and was all smiles on th e podium. Poovey and Sco tt were second wi th Ekl und and Parker following. Sp ringsteen fini sh ed six th and looked to hi s crew to see if he had won. They shook their heads in th e negative as Gra ham rode aro und the track j ump ing on h is H arley's Ioo tpegs an d holding a loft a number one pl a te! Befor e he coul d get hi s helm et off, he was crushed and waved lik e a toy by Tex Peel. Sp ringsteen joined P eel's death-h u g on Graham and helped him ho ld the p lat e before goi ng to hi s p its. After spraying everyone in sig ht, Graham was modest in the win ner's circle, " I was just trying to keep it on two wheels. I had som eone on m y tail and I could see J ay up th ere, butI didn 't want to risk falli ng ." In the pits, as he sign ed his first autograp h, he scri bbled a n umber 41 on a p rogram. " Gosh dangl I don 't believe that, I' m not n umb er 41 anymore, " he said as he rewro te it, " Yo u just make a straight line like th a t, do esn 't take a college education to figure that out." • Results 2D-LAPS FINAL : 1. Randy Goss (H· D); 2. Terry Poovey IH·D ); 3. Gary Scon IH·D); 4. Steve Eklund (H· D); 5. Scon Parker (H· D); 6. Jay Spr ingstee n (H· D); 7. Alex Jorgensen (H· D); 8. Ricky Graham (H· D); 9. Ronn ie Jones (H-D); 10. Tim Mertens (H· D); 11. Gart h Brow (H-D); 12. Bill y Herndon (Hon); 13. M ickey Fay (Hon); 14. Steve Mo rehe ad (H· D); 15. Keath Day (H· D). TIM E 7:25 .20 NTR FINAL STANDINGS: 1. Ricky Grah am (221); 2. Jay Springsteen (21 9); 3. Randy Goss (188); 4. Terry Poovey (18 2); 5. Scott Parker (17 1); 6. Alex Jorgensen (14 2); 7. Gary Scott (132); 8. 8ubba 119); 9. Steve Eklu nd (100); 10 . Ted 800dy Shobert 1 85); (93); 11. Steve Wise (8 9); 12. Steve Morehead 1 13. M ichael 8aldwin (72 ); 14. Mike Kidd (66 ); 15. Ronn ie Jones (63); 16. (TIE) W es Cooley/Hank Scon /Tim Mertens (62); 19 . Scott Pearson (4 9); 20. Mickey Fay (4 5).- II