Larry Pegram Just Missed the Indy Mile Final on Ducati Flat Tracker
Team Foremost Ducati’s Larry Pegram took to the dirt once again at the Indianapolis Mile race on August 29th choosing a Ducati powered flat tracker to take on the ubiquitous Harley’s. Pegram narrowly missed the final after some bad luck in the heats.
Pegram’s mount for the Springfield Mile was a modified Ducati Sport Classic but for the Indianapolis Mile the machine was equipped with a specialist dirt track frame so confidence was high. To qualify for the final, riders had to finish in the top 3 in their heat or failing that finish in the top 3 in the semi qualifier. Unfortunately Pegram was forced to lay the bike down in his heat to avoid a collision with his Lloyd Brothers team-mate for the event.
Larry Pegram:- “I was running fifth for the last three laps right behind Joe Kopp (Beulah Park’s runaway winner) and Aaron. I am pretty sure that I could have definitely drafted by Joe if he was behind a Harley, but Aaron’s bike was fast enough to pull Joe along in his draft. Going into turn 3 on the last lap I knew I needed to get Joe to go directly to the main. I ran it in there really hard on the outside of Joe and when I went to bring the bike back down on the groove I was going to run into the back of Aaron. I did not want to chance knocking Aaron down so I laid it down.”
The bike damage was repaired in time for the semi-final but Larry had to start from the third row in 18th place. In only 8 short laps (39 seconds each) Larry worked his way up to 4th place and missed the main by one spot but took the disappointment philosophically.
“I am obviously disappointed to not make the main, but making a Grand National Main is a very difficult thing to do. Laying it down in the heat race put us behind for the semi. I would be more disappointed if the bike wasn’t so good. We all worked really hard building this bike in a very short time. It would be unfair to say that it has potential to run up front because I think that it is already capable of racing at the front.
link: Flattrack.com
Pegram is hoping to put together enough support to compete next year with a full-time rider. There seems to be Ducati fever in the air in the dirt track community as we recently reported on a Ducati 749 powered flat tracker.
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