Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

I t .MllllR.-." Northern California 's Scott Gray was forced to park his 11 OOcc To rnado (pi ct u red here), and won ' aboard his 750cc Superbike. Earl Ro loff, shown here in a f ile photo aboard the Kawasaki Terminator, rode his new Yamaha FZR1000 to a third place f inish at Willow. WSMA Budweiser/Toyota/Coca Cola/Formula USA Series: Round 5 Gray dominates at Willow RR By Michael Ross ,u • ,.. .' ROSAMO ND, CA, OCT. 4 Scott Gray had just pitted h is . I I 09cc Yoshimura R&D-backed Suzuki Tornado wi th a fou led spark plug after the last practice session and he wasn 't smiling. Yoshimura technicians quickly rolled Gray's GSXR75 0 Superbike out of th e van; fueled and prepped it just in time for Gray to smoke th e entire Formula USA field durin g th e penultimate round of th e WSMA Series. T wen ty-fou r-year-o Id J ames D0 ma y put in th e best finish of his seaso n w ith a su per b ride o n hi s Yo sh imura a n d Motul O ilsponsored GSXR750 with a second to Gray. Domay had seco nd spot sewn up by la p two a nd finished 10 - seconds a head of third place Earl Roloff. Roloff, th e defending Formu la USA Ch ampion and current points lead er, · was having a tough weekend. Handling problems with ·his Yamaha FZRIOOO Silver Bullet (aka The Silver Snake) kept Rol off in and out o f the pits all weekend. " I've never ridden this bike th e sam e way twi ce. I gotta get it working, but tim e is running out, " la mented the a lways good-nat ure d Roloff. The gr een flag dropped at 2:30 p .m. and Jim Vreek e led the field into turn one. Gra y dispatched th e ' numbertwoplateholder andquickl y opened up a o ne-seco nd lead. Domay went around the outside in pursuit of G ray. . ''I' was scaring m yself but I had to ge t it up th ere," Domay sai d later. " I go t Emde a nd Vreekein turn two." Roloff had gotten a. terrible eigh th place s ta rt. and sliced ~IS wa.y through traffic, Ro loff went in to t!'tIS race with an eigh t-p oint lead which he had to p rotect. By lap three, Roloff . . h . d w!1s pa.st Pero m srxt . Gray turne. hi s quickest lap of th e ra ce o n t~IS lal?; al :2~f1a t .. E~dele~Vreeke.wuh neither rider grvm g an m ch . On the Il:ext lap, J.eff R!'teaume a nd Rob ert . Reinert col h ded m tum one. Both riders went o ff the tra ck a nd crashed h ard ; bru is ed bu t n ot se~t,?usly hurt they were not abl e to rejom th e race. Lap four also saw Gray get into a spec tacu lar feet -off-the-pegs slide in turn five. H e ga the red it up and was right back on the gas. Ro lo ff wa s up to fifth and ch a llenging Vreeke, Emde, riding a Yamaha FZR750 with .an FZR IOOO top end bolted to it , was hanging o n for th ird but got into a full lo ck slide on the next lap and the Em de/ Rolo ff battl e rag ed past. With two laps to go, Gray had a .7 second advantage over Domay but backed off a cli ck turning consistent 1:30s. A ba ck marker shut the door James Domay had his best-ever Formula USA outing, f inishing second behind Gray; Jim Vreeke and David Emde rounded out the top f ive. on Vreeke letting RolofC get past. Emde look ed over hi s sho u lder and saw Chris St eward in his wa kc looking for da ylight. The chec kered flag saw Gray first , th en Domay five seconds later. An other five seconds a nd Rol off came past, then Vreeke and Emde, In . the w inner 's circl e, Gra y popped the traditio na l ch ampagne cork, accep ted th e check for $1000 and moved to wi thin one point of Ro lo fC going into the last ra ce. Gray was finally smiling. Gray th anked Yoshimura R&D, Mom, Michelin, ICRT, Shoei and Phillips 66. Gray us ed · Michelin radial tires. Doma y used a bias-ply Mi chelin o n front and a S I123 . Michelin on ba ck. He is sponsored by Yo shimua R &D , IC RT , Dr. J ohns, Lockhart, AGV 'a nd Motul O il. • Results 1. Scon Gra y (Suz); 2. James Dom ay (Suz); 3. Earl Roloff (Yam); 4. Ji m Vreeke (Yam); 5. Dayid Emde (Yam). 35

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