Cycle News

Brian Atherton, on the Ron Wood· prepared Wood-Rotax, had been moving up from a mid-pack start, He passed Hill for third, then grabbed seco nd away from Harrell near th e halfway point. A lap later, Hill al so passed Harrell to make th e top three positions Freitas, Atherton and Hill - th ey ran in th at order from lap eig ht to th e flag, giving Freitas hi s third win in as many National events this year on th e Knight Racing Fra- mes/Da ve Bird Specia lties /Shoei Helmets-sponsored Honda. Final T he final sta rted as had th e first heat ,Sho bert leading out from. chased byj orgensen,Chandler, Eklund, Pear- son, Day and Hames. By th e end of th e infield Shobert had pulled some distan ce, and it looked like ma ybe he'd just pull away and win. j or- gense n bobbled in th e right-hander after th e "IT jump, went slig htly off course a nd dropped back. Entering the second lap j orgensen was fourth behind th ird place Pearson and second pl ace Chandler; Eklund and Hames were fifth a nd sixth, a nd Shobert had an almost three-second lead. Would this race be a mirro r of 1984's, Sh o- bert and Chandler running 1-2 most of th e way? No. j orgensen passed Pearson, Scott Parker (11) left Ascot still leading the Camel Pro Series points. (Below) Shobert on his victory lap, all smiles. drafted past Chandler on the stra ight, set hi s sights on Shobert, now three fu ll seco nds ahead. Lap four. Shobert by two seconds. Lap five. Shobert by a little less than two seconds. j orgensen a lone in seco nd, gain- ing. Cha ndler alo ne in third. just beh ind, a mass of men a nd bikes, Hames, Pearson, Eklund. Parker , Green and Day. Eklu nd passes Pear- son. jorgense n gains on Shobert. jorgense n is gaining, bit by bit , over fou r seconds ahead ofChandler; Hames is himsel f pull ing up, tryin g to catch Chandler; now it 's Eklund alone, in fifth, Pearson tryin g to hold off Par ker and Green. Shobert's lead is one single seco nd. T he ni nth la p. j orgen sen puts together an awesome drive off th e last turn and is past Shobert o n th e stra ight, leading. Day has cras hed and restarted just ahea d of th e lead- ing pai r. Lap II. Lap 12. Now j orgen sen is drawing away from Shobert , bit s-of- a-second here, bits-of-a-second th ere. Both leaders lap Day; j orgen sen has o ne seco nd o n Shobert; tw o seco nds ; two plus.Chandler holdsoff Hames, th en Ii na ll v br eaks free; Hames is well ahe~d of Eklund; behind, Pearson and Parker and Hal e and Goss race, Carr just behind. It 's the 17th lap of 25, a nd j or- gensen has th ree seconds on Shobert. Cha ndler is ano ther seven seco nds behi nd Shobert . T he race seems run. And then Shobert is taking a run at Goss also passed Campbell. Wh ich meant former champion Goss' only way into the fin al was through the Las t Cha nce Qual ifier. Last Chance Qualifier Goss led every lap of the Last Chanc e Qual ifier , cha llenged by Boody but not passed. Sweet and Campbell finish ed th ird and fourth , ahead of Hoffma n and Fel icia . Junior National 8 / Two heat races narrowed the: 24- rid er field of juniors to a 12-man main event. Ro tax rid er Ri ck Albee ~v~~ ~t?P~~~~.I~~i ~~ a~ 4?/!3!J~s.ef?~~~ ' .. but had to sett le for second behi nd Donnie Harrell in the fi rst heat race. Winner of both events at th e Houston "IT/ sh ort track season opener, Win - kie Freitas led the second heat to the chec kered flag; Champion Racing Fra mes-backe d Aaron Hill wa s second. Albee got th e holesh ot at th e start ~ . : ~ .~ of th e ma in event, followed by Har - rell and Freitas. Two laps into the 12-lap race, Freitas took over second place and Albee crashed in th e turn four portion of the oval, giving Frei- tas the lead. Freitas set a bl istering pa ce, and had a 15-second lead by the end of the event. .. jorgense n, noticeabl y ga ining, run- ni ng i t in deeper , harder, faster into th e half mile track's fir st turn , pi ck- ing it up here a nd th ere. T he ga p is two seco nds . By th e 20th lap it 's one second. By th e 21st lap Shobert is on j orgensen , trying to stick in a wheel before th ejump, almost running into th e back of j orgen sen 's bik e in th e esses on th e next lap. Shobert drives up underneath entering turn one but doesn' t get by. He loses ground a t th e infield exit, a nd th e race is surely lost. Last lap. No way can Shobert get j orgen sen. He doesn't gain in the infield , drives o ut onto the last half mile turn too far.behind. And th en Shobert's crossing th e line, sta ndi ng on th e pegs, waving his fis t, jubilant. Chandler is second , Hames third, Eklu nd fourth. First Fay went out, with a broken bike, then Carr's Wood-Rotax broke its chai n; Poovey was well back. hi s .. ~ ~-~ ~ . Honda smoking. "He got into a slide, " said Shobert, breathless as he pulled off his helmet. " He was coming across my front wheel so I went high and he went down low where he hadn't been run- ning all night and slid down. It's sli ck down th ere." Shobert rook hi s place on the win ne r 's s ta nd, a flow er garland aro und hi s neck .Over in th e shadows of th e pits, j orgen sen sat on an ice ches t, wiping hi s face with a towel. A crowd swirled around Shobert and hi s pits and th e winner 's stand, Sho- bert th anked hi s sponsors, named Bell and Fox a nd Honda and hi s mech anics. " I fell off th e pace for a while. I thought he was gain' too fast and I wouldn't be able 10 ca tch him," Sh obert told th e crowd through th e loudspeakers. "T hen about eight laps to the end I saw him sta rt to make mi stakes, thought maybe he was get- tin ' tired. I thought it was time to go for it , a nd I caught up to him. I went high and he went low where we weren't running all night, and it's slick down th ere. He lost his fro nt wheel. It's not the way I wanted 10 win it but I' Il take i t any way I can ge t it. " I' ve been riding th e last few weeks with Kenny Roberts," Shobert co n- tinued, "and he taught me a lot." " I screwed up," jorgensen said, subdued in th e pits. " I cha nged my line to try to hold Bubba off - ran in a pl ace I didn 't ride all night, hit a slick spot." j orgen sen had sponsors to thank too , but not over the loud- speakers - Pioneer Trucking, Hi- Point, Storz, Works Performance. But perha ps th emost amazing sto ry of th e ni ght was th e one told by Pete Hames, 20, a victim of a hereditary form of arthritis that ca uses his joints to swell up and inflame periodica lly. Hames came off six weeks in th e hos- pital prior to Houston, rode hurting, had a flare-up th at died down before th e Daytona dirt tra ck races, and has been substantia lly healthy since .The day before th e Asco t 'TT he was sti ff, he sai d, but he was fine on race night; his biggest surprise was fin ishing third in th e race . '" just conce ntra ted on keepin g up with Doug and even- tu ally pulled away (from th e guys behind)," Hames said. " I kept talk- ing to myself. telling myself " ai n't tired,' to keep up the pace." Hames thanked his sponsor, Roger Griswold; mechan ic Ben Board; program spo n- sors Ralph Ketchie, Cla ude Ball and Porter 1\1uffler; he rode a 560cc Rotax/ Harl ey-Davidson with a Knight chas- sis and Har ry Lill ie engine. Eklund was fourth, his 660 coa ted with oil from an un-named leak ; j ones was fifth , Parker sixth, ahea d of j orgensen , Coss, Arnaiz and a de- tuned Pear son, who had problems with his often-inj ured righ t knee. - Results 25·LAP FINAL: 1. Bubba shoben (Han); 2. Doug Chandler (Hon); 3. Pete Hames (H·D); 4. Steve Eklund (W-R); 5. Ronn ie Jones (Hon); 6. Scott Parker (H-DI; 7. Ale. Jorgensen (W-RI; B_Randy Goss (Han); 9. Rich Arnaiz (H-O); 10. Scon Pearson (Han); 11. Terry Poovey (H-D); 12. Gary Scan (Honl; 13. Randy Green (Han); 14. Rick King (Honl; 15. Keilh Day (Han); 16. Chris Carr (W-R); 17. Mickey Fay (Honl . Time: 18 min .• 30.80 sees . CAM EL PRO SERIES POINT STANDINGS; 1. Scan Porker (371; 2. Steve Eklund (35); 3. Ale. Jar · gensen (321; 4. Bubba Shobert (31); 5. Scott Pear - son (3D);6.Rondy Goss (271; 7. Doug Chandler(261; B. Terry Poovey (22); 9. Ronnie Jones (211; 10. (TIE) Pete Hames/Freddie Spencer (20) : 12. Mike Bald - win (16~; 13. Tim Mertens (12); 14. Randy Renfrow (111; 15. Rich Schlachter (10); 16. Mickey Fay (9); 17. Jeff Haney (BI; l B.WesCooley (7); 19. (TIE)Rich Arnaiz/Doug Brauneck/ Chr is Carr/Jon Corn well (61 . 12·LAP JUNIOR NATIONAL: 1. Wi nkie Freitas (Han); 2. Brian Atherton (W-R); 3. Aaron Hill (Vaml; 4.Don Harrell (Han); 5. Randy Roose (H-D); 6. Frank GarciaJr.(Han ); 7.TerryWahl (H-D); 8. MartyZirbel (Tri ); 9. Tim Stults (Han); 10. Harold Raggio. Jr. (Rot); 11.Rick Albee(Rot); 12. CurtisCannon (Yam). Tim e: 9 min .• 18 .131 sees . JUNIOR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINT STANDINGS: 1.Winkie Freita s (60); 2. Bria nAther- ton (29); 3. Curtis Cann on 1281; 4. Keith Gregoire (27); 5_(TIE)Frank Garcia/Aaron Hill (26); 7. Randy Roose (231; 8. Rusl y Rogers (14); 9. Tim Stults (13); 10. Don Harrell (1 1). . .. '. .. . /" ~

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