Throwback Thursday: Elite riders in the Camel Challenge
Larry Lawrence | March 30, 2017
Photo by Mitch Friedman
Back in the early 1990s tobacco money meant nice paydays for a lot of the top AMA Pro racers. . One way they could earn extra bucks was through the Camel Challenge. The special money race ran before the nationals and featured the top six riders from timed qualifying. This photo from the 1993 San Jose (Calif.) Mile shows one of the most decorated starting lineups of any Camel Challenge event. From left to right are Mike Hale (32), Ricky Graham (3), Scott Parker (2), Kevin Atherton (23), Jay Springsteen (9) and Chris Carr (1).
In ’93 the Camel Challenge paid a $10,000 purse, with $5000 going to the winner. If a rider could string together a number of Camel Challenge wins during a season, it could make a major impact on the income they could make.
Ricky Graham (the only Honda-mounted rider in the field) came out on top in this race. He was a privateer, riding for Team Undo at this point, so the Challenge cash went a long way.
“We don’t have a lot of big sponsors, so this money will go right back into our team’s race effort,” Graham said after the victory.
Parker came back to win the national later that day on the factory Harley-Davidson.
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