Throwback Thursday: Cow Palace TT 600cc National (1988)
Larry Lawrence | January 5, 2017
Mitch Friedman Photo
San Francisco’s Cow Palace was long a hotbed of top-notch off-season racing starting in the mid-1960s. Most of the time the Cow Palace events ran on the bare polished concrete floor of the arena, but in January of 1988 dirt was brought in to host back-to-back nights of AMA 600cc National Dirt Track Series racing. On Saturday, it was short track and on Sunday TT racing.
This Mitch Friedman photo shows the final of the TT National on Sunday. Ricky Graham leads over the jump with Keith Day (22), Bubba Shobert (1) and others giving chase.
The 25-lap final was a slam-fest with riders falling left and right on the tight confines of the Cow Palace floor. In the end the race came down to Graham and Shobert. Graham led for 23 of the 25-lap race, but made one mistake, ran wide in a turn allowing Shobert to shoot underneath to take over the lead. Shobert held off Graham to win the race and sweep both of the weekend’s finals.
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