Cycle News

and Oliver.. Oli ver, wh o'd just joined the Wayne Ra iney Ra cin g team two weeks prior to Dayton a, flicked it away in the second horsesh oe o n cold tir es. " I just ma de . a mistake," Oli ver ad mitted. " T he tir es were too co ld. I was having a little problem with the bike - it was runn in g a little bit slow - a nd I was trying to stay wi th the front guys so I co uld draft wit h them. " Ol iver re-mounted in lim place and soldiered o n to a 23rd p lace fin ish'. The seco nd lap was as far as reign ing 250cc G P ch am p io n Jimmy Fil ice . wo ul d get. T he engi ne of Fili ce's Ca mel H ond a RS250 seized go ing irito the Iruernat io nal Horsesho e on the 'second lap a nd he motored back to the pi ts. " On th e warm -up lap it was vibrat in g so violently tha t I knew some thing was wro ng," Filice, wh o 'd been havin g teething troubles all week, said. " O ff the lin e it died a nd I had to pu sh it with my feet. We found the problem an d hopefully we can work it o u t." By the th ird lap Edwards' lap time was j ust off h is qua lifying ma rk of I minute, 57.487 seconds and it would dro p . He a nd D'Aluisio, o n the Dave H arol d-tu ned Yam ah a, had sepa ra ted from the pack wi th Petersen leading Roberts j -; an d J o n Cornwe ll, with Sou th Afri can T revor Cro okes six th o n the Kawasa ki X09-250 in its in tern atio nal debut. By the sixth lap Edwards was under his qual ifyin g time and getting in to , lap record terri tory. Unofficiall y, he was in the 1:57,2 range, but he cou ldn ' t shake his tea mmate. " I figured I'd let Co li n get o ut front and get comforta ble by himself and I' d ha ng back a bit," D'Aluisio said. " I was having trouble getti ng o ff turn five (west horsesh oe) and there was no way I could close. I als o had the tempera ture and tach instrum ents popp ing o ut of their brackets and I kept having to p ush th em back in ." . Edwards felt tha t o nce he survived the. ope ning la ps, th e race wou ld get easter. "T he first coup le of lap s were a bit exci ting becau se it was the first tim e. all week that I had ridd en 'with a fu ll tan k of fuel," he said, " I came into turn one a littl e hot and into the h o rs es hoe turn s a li ttl e h ot, b ut everyth in g wa s recoverable." O n the straig h ts Edwards stood ou t ' beca use he didn' t reall y fit onio the com pact TZ250C. H e had to sit on th e bik e tail p iece so tha t he cou ld tu ck his el bo ws in for aerod ynamic efficiency. "T hey pu t a pad up 'th ere, bu t I still get sore," Edwar ds said. T he gap betw een the teammat es held at jus t under two secon ds wi th D' Alu isio mat ch ing his team mat e's lap times as they d ropped int o the I:56 range. D'Alu isio thou ght he'd mak e his mo ve on the last lap , bu t was fin ding o ut that wou ldn 't be po ssible. " I was go ing for it o n the last th ree laps, but ~ cou ld n 't ca tch him. I knew I wouldn 't be able to run h im dow n o n ' the fin al la p, " D'Aluisio said. " I was having tro uble getting off turn five and there was no way I cou ld close." On the final lap , D'Aluisio was able to use the draft of lapped traffic inthe ch icane to close up , but ra n o ut of track. Halfway int o the race, the top two had pull ed close to 12 seconds clear of the battl e for th ird . Four riders R o berts J r., Co rnw ell, Peter sen , Crookes - con tested it, with positio ns swa p ping cons tan tly. Petersen sa id of th e four machines, Corn well 's was th e slowes t, but he made up time by riding more aggressively th rou gh th e in field. " We' ve been struggli ng all week long, but it was the best we'd run all week long," Cornwell sai d. " It was still off just a little bit, and I wasn 't sure wh ich way to go in th e morning sessio n, so we just left it alo ne ." Corn well th ough t that Petersen migh t have been holdin g back and wa sn' t sur prised at ho w well Robert s J r. rode. " But I thin k the th ing that saved hi s baco n was tha t his bike was a miss ile. I cou ld j ust stay in hi s dra ft; I could n 't p ull out," Corn well said. On th e 13th lap , Crookes wen t off th e track in the first turn , but quickly reco vered and was a mem ber of the quar tet wi thi n a a few laps. T he fina l spo t in victory lane wo uld come down to th e ru n to th e flag wi th lapped riders hu nchi ng up the quartet. Ro bert s was sixth go ing into the ch ica ne and wh en h e came out he q u ickly mad e h is move into fo urt h beh ind Petersen after almos t runn ing off the ins ide of the track. " I went up a long the wall, Rob bie was o n the inside," Ro berts sa id. " I stayed behin d him and pull ed o u t a t the end. T hey sai d I got th ird ." "T ha t's pretty.mu ch wh ere I wanted to be, bu t I was hopi ng we were a ll goi ng to get a good d rive off the ch icane , becau se where I was I figured I'd get the best tow off of everyo ne," Petersen sai d. " But no ne of us got a goo d dr ive out of there becau se the slow gu y was in the way, so that kind of screwed th ings up." Fifth went to Cornwell with Crookes sixth, a spot below where Kawasaki te a m m ana ger Kork Ba ll i n g ton thoug ht they sho uld fin ish . T he race for sevent h was as in tense as any on the track. A pack of seven riders ran as one , chang ing pl aces all over the track with riders goi ng fro m sevent h to 12th and back in the co ur se of a lap . At the end it was Two Brothers Racin g's Rick Kirk usi ng the d raf t, and so me crafty ridin g, to finish seventh . . " I let th em all go by goi ng i n to the ch ica ne o n the final lap," Kirk said. " I drop pe d back to I I th or 12t h through the ch icane ' an d came o u t behi nd them. When they spread o ut I went by them." Kirk said his o n ly tro ub le was that h is brakes heated up early, th e lever coming back to the bar. -, He a lso believed hi s Honda was the eq ua l of the other mach in es o n to p speed, bu t dow n some o n accelera tio n . Venezuelan J ose Barresi Pujo l wa s a close eig h th o n a L ucky Stri ke Yamaha, wi th Air T ech-spo nsored Al Sa laverr ia n inth o n an April ia and Danny Wal ker 10th on a Mo to Li berty Yam aha. eN Results 250 G P: I. Co li n Edwar d s (Yam); 2. C h ris O'A lu isio (Ya m) ; 3. Kenny Ro bert s ] r.(Vam); 4. ��� Ro bb ie Petersen (Ya rn ]: 5. J on a than Co rn well (Yam ); 6. Trevo r Croo kes ( Kaw); 7. R ick Kirk (H a n ); 8. J ose Barresi Puj ol (Ya m) ; 9. Al Sa laverri a (Apr); 10. Da nn y Wal ker (Yam); 11. T om Pa ris (Yam ); 12. Bruce Ba ldus (Yam ); 13. Luis Lavado (Yam ); 14. la in Cha ll ino r (Yam); 15. Michael Ant hon y Myers (Ya m); 16. Marcello Del G iud ice (Yam); 17. Jim Sabin (Ya m); 18. Aaro n Tony Slig h t (Kaw): 19. . Clifton Bigon ey (Yam); 2U Ri ck T ripodi (Apr); 21. Will iam H immelsbach (Ya m); 22. john ny Wickstro m (Yam); 23. Rich Ol iver (Ya m ): 21. Eduad ro Aleman (Yam); 25. Ch uck Blackmon (Yam ); 26. Andre Cas ta nos (Ya m): 27. John Fra nce (H on); 28. Joe Pi ttman (Yam) ; 29. Marl in Miller (Yam ); 30. Rene Marti nez Abrez (Yam); 3 1. Perry Melneciuc (Ap r); 32. w illiam Q uinn (Ya m); 33. T'i mo rhy O 'Co nnor (Ya m ): 34. Dirk Ressin (Yam ): 35. Do ug Ca rm ichael (Ya m ); 36. J im m y Moslt'y (Yam); 37. Andrew T revi tt (Yam ); 38. Dan Wisehart (Yam); 39. G reg Esser (Ya m); 40. J im Fi lice (H a n). Time: 35:3 1.322 Dista nce: 18 lap s. 64 mi les Average speed: 108.237 m ph . Ma rgin of victo ry: 1.160 sees. . 25U G P Q UAL: I. Rich Oli ver (1:57. 189); 2. Co lin Ed ward, (1:57.487); 3. Ch r is n ' Alui, io (1:57.547); 4. J im my Filice ( t :58.37U); 5. Jon Cornwell (1:58.448); 6. Robbie Petersen (1:58.682); 7. Trevor Croo kes (1:58.749 ); 8. Rick Kir k (1:59.5 15); 9. Ken ny Ro be rts, Jr. (1:59.578); 10. Bruce Baldu s (1:59.612): 11. Dann y 80); 12. AI Sa la verria (2:OO. 2U7); 13. Walker (2:OO. U J im my Mosley (2:00.286); 14. Marcello Del G iudice (2:00.353); 15. la in Cha llinor (2:U .72U); 16. Aa ron O Sl igh t (2:0 I.U84); 17. Willia m Qu in n (2:UI.203); t 8. Michael An th on y Myers (2:0 1.3'13): 19. J ose Bar ressi Pujol (2:0 1.371); 20. T orn Pari, (2:01.419); 21. Doug Carm ichael (2:0 1.432); 22. G reg Esser (2:0 1.7 t 7); 23. J ohnny Wickstr om (2:0 1.944); 24. Andrew Trevitt (2:0 1.946); 25. J im Sabin (2,02.4 17). Canadian Jon Cornwell (49) an d Kenn y Roberts, Jr., (25) ba ttle for th ird place, Danny Wa lker (4) leads Al Salaverria (22) an d R ick Kirk (5) du ring th eir ba ttle , . . ." Secrecy surrounds Kawasaki XOg awasaki debuted their 25Occ .road racer at Dayton a , shrouded in secrecy and uncerta in of its fu ture. T he bik e, dubbed th e X0 9 - th e ninth version of the bike since the proj ectbegan abo ut four years ago - is V-twin , and th at 's about all anyo ne a t Kawasaki will say abo ut it. U nless you sn uc k a peek while the fairing was off, there was no way to know more. And any tim e it wasn' t bei ng worked o n behind clos ed doors in the ga rage, it was hidden . by a cover. Kork Ball in gton, who won th ree World Championships for Kawasaki in the late sevent ies, was con tacted at hi s home in Durban, South Africa, by Kawa sak i and asked to man age the project, " It's a develop ment exercise," Ballington, who com pe ted in th e U.S. until 1988, said. T he project' s goal, Ballington said, i s " to develop it and get it co mpetitive to Gra nd Pri x stan da rd. We haven 't go t any sched u le what ever. It depends on how we go here and what needs fixin g." It was brought to Daytona for the weather and becau se there wou ld be some sti ff com petitio n to measure it agai nst. " It's clear to see we're a bit down o n pow er. What we didn't expec t was for the Yamah as to be so fast th is year. We would've expec ted to be in th e top three with our tim es. But they' re three seconds a lap faster than last year," Ballington K g~ a . . T he bike fea tu red a tota lly new chass is wh ich was deli vered in.the last few months. Its advan tages are that it's easy to set up and it rea cts to fine adj us tmen ts. Kaw asaki had hoped to do a Grand Prix at the en d of the year,' but with th e new GP ru li ng that a tea m has . to co ntest every round, tha t won't be possible. . At Dayton a, the bikes were ridden by Sou th African 250cc Ch am pi on Trevor Crookes and Kawasaki's Australian Su perbi ke Champion Aaron Slight, a last m inute replacemen t for an inj ured J apan ese' test rid er wh o was meant to ride the bike. .Slig h t was de-tuned after cras h ing o n the fifth lap of practice, th en suffered a n engine mal fun ction after six laps of th e next session. What he could tell about the bike is th at it needed a " bit of a pow er spread. It 's just a big test session. We can 't start chopp ing pistons ," Slight said, . Sli ght fin ish ed 18th in th e race, but Crookes was part of a race-long battle for th ird . H e would fini sh sixth, just seconds from third. ' '' T his is j ust a development year . After this race, I don 't know where we go next. Maybe i t' ll just be testing. It 'l l" be whatever the factory decides, and it's prett y ope n," Crookes said. " It' s up to the factory if we do any other races in th e Ameri can championshi p." 19

• Cover