The Famous Rider School
The Famous Rider School
For the week before the Camel Pro/AMA national season began at Houston's Astrodome, the Short Track and TT double bill was a press agent's dream.
Entered for what may be his last dirt race was two-time national and three-time world champion Ken Roberts, backed by new teammate and reigning Superbike winner Eddie Lawson. Facing him would be Jay Springsteen, three-time national champ and the winningest racer in AMA history, plus 1983 No. 1 Ricky Graham on the only Harley-Davidson ever to win the Houston TT, versus motocrosser-turned-road-racer and twotime TV star, the outspoken Steve Wise.
Team Yamaha vs Team Harley vs Team Honda.
Place your bets.
And lose your shirt.
It wasn't that quick or simple, of course.
First on the two-day program was short track, for 250cc Singles which naturally has come to mean two-stroke motocross engines in turn-left frames. When the track opened for practice a whole bunch of guys came out and began going fast. Roberts came out and passed them. Springsteen came out and passed Roberts and all of us in the stands said Oboy the stars are out tonight.
But Houston is full of surprises. The track is tricky, hard to read, harder to predict and sometimes bumpy, all of which added up to qualifying times that jumped all over the clock. Mostly in the direction of slower. There were 100 experts entered, with only the top 60 eligible for the heat races, making qualifying all the more important. And, because the track was tricky, the racers had the choice of keeping a botched try when the track was fast, or waving off and coming back to get a better run on a slower track.
Fast time went to Terry Poovey. Last year Poovey was a promising privateer, with talent obvious to those who can see it. One who saw was Gene Romero, former national champ and now manager of Honda’s dirt program. He signed Poovey for Team Honda and this was Poovey’s first national race for a factory.
Second fastest was Randy Green, a first year expert from Lake Stevens, Wash. He has Honda support, earned in part at Houston’s junior invitational last year, with a second in short track and a win in the TT. Third and fourth in trials were former national champions Steve Eklund and Randy Goss. Re-' member those names.
The other famous names? Springsteen qualified 13th on his Aermacchi-based Harley, the old machine with which he won íb< 1982. Graham had a completely revised Aermacchi-Harley, in 20th, while Lawson and Roberts had brand-new, latest-everything, YZ250-powered bikes and they qualified 14th and 39th. Too much power, not enough testing, team manager Ken Clark groused.
The heat races followed the theme. Poovey led until his rear brake broke, which meant he had to make the final by winning semi. Green won going away, Eklund won the third heat. Goss was second in the fourth heat, behind Jim Filice, who rode Yamaha made surplus by the new ones used by Roberts and Lawson. Other heat winners were Mickey Fay, supported by Honda, and Ronnie Jones, a previous short track winner here.
Thus, the final. Green led until experience made the difference, that is, Poovey and Goss passed him. From there it was study in contrast. Goss had no traction so he tucked down low, scooting like the mechanical rabbit at the greyhound rac<&, while Poovey rode the cushion, running up to the wall on the straights, hauling down, clipping the inside, pivoting between the close turns and out to the wall again. Two laps from the end, Goss’ front tire washed out, he slid to the outside and Poovey darted under and away. Green, who held third easily, did the proper rookie thing. When the mike was thrust at him, h^ thanked his dad for all the help.
The TT, held the next day, occasioned some debate. The course uses most of the short track, except it cuts into the infield at the first turn, goes over a jump, a U-turn, another jump, another U-turn, back onto the oval at the second turn and around again. TT offers the widest range of machines in Camel Pro racing: Fours rule the road courses, 250 two-strokes owo* short track, the miles and half miles are property of the 750 Twins. But TT attracts 500 Singles of two or four-stroke persuasion, plus the 750 Twins from Harley and occasionally Triumph.
The Houston doubleheader had lessons in racing luck for famous racers and fans alike.
Allan Girdler
This makes for rivalry. Naturally the two-stroke guys said, Look at that long straight. This is a Harley course. And the Harley guys said, Look at those tight turns, this is designed for motocross.
But those with no emotional involvement said, What a break for the privateers. They can use Can-Am 500s, which they did; of the 12 fastest qualifiers, six rode Can-Ams, four had Harleys and two were on Yamaha 500s.
Those two were Roberts and Lawson, getting the press agent off the hook. Not only that, both won their heats. Graham meanwhile was second to Lawson in that heat, while Springsteen went faster than the track allowed, fell several times, and didn’t make the main event. Steve Wise, the pride of motorcross last year, nudged his way into the main without displaying any two-stroke advantage.
The start was hard to believe. Make that starts. The pack had plenty of space to build up speed for the first turn and the first turn was tight so all 14 riders arrived at the same time. Eklund and Rod Spencer wound up entangled and out came the red flag.
As the field lined up again, Roberts had a request: please would the officials let him start from the back row, all by himself and away from the crowd?
This was something new. The back row is the penalty line. Roberts was told the officials couldn’t give him a penalty without cause. Perhaps he’d care to jump the flag? Roberts said no, because if he did and the starter stopped the race maybe the other guys wouldn’t stop in time and he’d get hit. So Roberts lined up in the pack, the green light went on, the pack arrived at the first turn in a pack again . . . Graham was outside Roberts, half a wheel ahead. He turned in, the bikes collided. Roberts went down on the left, Graham went over the high side to the right. Another red flag.
When Roberts got up he had an arm and a leg not responding to the helm. He was surrounded by team members and advisors pointing out that next month his real season, the world championship, begins and how would he explain to the sponsors, the team, the factory, the press and the fans if a crash in a dirt race kept him from his real job? Hmm, said Roberts, and he took the rest of the day off.
Graham got up reallll slowww. He'd landed so hard his face was bruised despite the full coverage helmet. He ached all over and the bike was mangled. Graham walked into the pits, still moving carefully.
The rules say a rider has eight minutes to make the line after a red flag. Just about eight minutes later here came Tex Peel and crew, pushing the Harley with a borrowed front brake. Here came Graham, still battered but proving that the champion can also be a champion.
Off they went again, this time without mishap. Bubba Shobert and Lawson charged early but faded, and the leaders became Mickey Fay, Graham and Eklund.
Yes, Eklund. He’d had trouble in his heat and had to make the main by winning his semi. Good thing, because in that race he discovered that the secret to the TT was to go high and chop back down for the first turn. “I hoped," he said later, “that nobody had noticed."
They hadn’t and Eklund won. Close behind was Fay, then Graham on the big old Harley with which he scored Harley’s only Houston TT win last year.
Well. We saw famous names, hard luck and winners who came from behind, all part of good racing. Roberts and Lawson are off to Europe. Graham wondered why doing well at Houston always means getting hurt first. Springsteen said he didn’t get sick and wasn’t hurt, so he figures he’s off to a good start. Watch Poovey, who may be just who Honda needed.
“And now,” said Tex Peel as he does every year after Houston whether it was win, place or watch from the stands, “the season starts.” ®
