Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

O ctober 21, 1992 З Ж Ж Ї Ї DIRT TRACK AMA Grand National Championship/Camel Pro Series: Final round Chris Carr (left) and tuner Kenny Tolbert (right) discussed their race strategy after practice. Carr was in a relaxed, but focused mood, while Tolbert seemed a bit nervous. At the finish, Springsteen enjoyed a 10 bike length lead over his younger Bartels' teammate, Hale, who edged Beattie by inches. After his missed shift, Donahue made a brilliant recovery and salvaged fourth. "These things are a lot of fun," said Springsteen. "They just need a little more steam. They handle pretty good for a stock-framed bike, and they do ever ything just like they should." National Fast heat winner Graham sat on the outside pole position, with Parker, Carr, Roeder, Herndon and Morehead to his left at the start of the 25-lap National. Graham put his pole position to work and led off the line with Parker and Carr latched to his rear fender. Parker wasted little time and blasted past Graham on the backstraight. "I knew that I had to win in order to have any chance at the champion ship," said Parker. "I didn't want to race with anybody, I just wanted to get away and hope that some people beat Chris." Carr also displaced Graham on the second lap as they entered turn three, and missed the acrobatics performed by Graham, as he negotiated turn four. Graham grabbed a handful of throttle and nearly spun out in four and looked like a sure high-side candidate when he let off the throttle. "I wanted to relax on the opening laps instead of berserking it," said Graham. "I eased it into three and Carr got past, so I thought that I'd better gas it on the way out! I don't know how I saved it; I was sure I was going down." Another rider that was sure Graham would go down was Roeder, who was running fourth. "I saw Ricky swap and thought, 'Oh no!' Then I tried to figure out where he was gonna land so I could miss him," said Roeder. Graham didn't fall, but in the scare dropped to fourth, behind Roeder. Meanwhile, Parker already enjoyed a 10 bike length lead at the start of lap three, as did Carr over Roeder, Graham and Atherton. Atherton zapped Graham and Roeder on lap four and set his sights on Carr, but his charge was cut short on the fifth lap when he spun out in turn four. "I don't really know what happened," said Atherton. "My adrenaline was going and I guess I gassed it too hard." Atherton was able to keep his motor running and rejoined the race in last place. With Athertron all but out of it, Graham was left in third with a clear track between himself and Carr. Lap by lap, Graham closed the gap and by lap 12 was breathing down Carr's leathers. "It took me a while to recover from that tank-slapper," said Graham. "But I wanted to catch Chris and get between him and Parker." Graham dogged Carr for two laps before motoring past in tum three, but Carr wasn't giving up that easily. Can dove to the inside in tum one on the next lap and drifted high, nearly making contact with Graham. Graham rode higher yet maintained his advantage. "It was no big deal, I've been in his situation before," said Graham. "He probably didn't even know what he was doing." With that, the top three positions were set and Parker led the field by almost a full straightaway. Graham circulated the track 10 bike lengths ahead of Carr, who seemed content with third and rode carefully to the finish. Parker wheelied across the finish line victorious, but it was Carr — in third — who was undoubtedly the happiest man on the track. "I did what I came to do, but unfor tunately, so did Chris," said Parker. "The whole night went perfect for me, I was fastest in time trials, I won my heat and I won the main going away. I had no idea where Chris was throughout the race, I could only just hope. All I can say is that I can't beat him when I don't ride the same number of races." "After Ricky passed me I looked back and didn't see anyone, so I just tried to ride out the rest of the race," said Carr. "The last few laps were the longest of my life." Tolbert, Carr's mechanic, felt the same. "Those were the longest 25 laps of my life. No, I'd say that this was the longest day of my life," said Tolbert. "I could see the holes on the track reaching up and trying to snatch Chris off his bike." A heated battle raged over fourth. Pegram, Springsteen and Roeder swapped paint repeatedly as they argued over the fourth-place money, but it was Roeder who emerged on top of that 14 сюьеи-сиигье evem. uo hot anemptmese maneuvers, uress propeny ror your ride witn a helmet, eye protection, long-sleeved shirt, Iona trousers, gloves and boots. Yamaha and the Motorcycle Safety Foundation encourage you to ride - ----------__ _ _ ЛМК !r—Г7) w ؛؟،e׳y an^ reject the environment. For further information regarding the MSF rider course, please call 1-800-447-4700. Do not drink and ride. U.I.D Ln H is illegal and dangerous. Specifications subject to change wfthout notice. ©1992 Yamaha Motor Corporatran, U.S.A. (Cypress, CA 90630)

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