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00 00 O"l .-I Alan Carter (2) leads J immy Filice (65), Doug Brauneck (46) and Kork Ballington early in the 250 Grand Prix final at Mid-Ohio. John Koc inski won his fifth race of the year at Mid-Ohio. collecting $3065 for his efforts. He now leads Thomas Stevens by 14 points. AMA/CaStrol 250 Grand Prix Series: Round 6 Kocinski wins again at id-Ohio By Brian Catterson Photos by Bert Shepard LEXINGTON, OH, AUG. 7 Team Nordica Robe rts ' John Kocinski climbed another ru ng on the ladder towards re peatin g as 250 · G rand Prix National Champ ion .by winning his fifth race of the series at the Mid- Ohio Sports Car Course. The 20-year-o ld, Little Rock Arkansas native ' . .. '. '. no'(\' living m Modesto, Cali- ·8 fornia, has won every race that he's finished this year in America. Kocinski's .team mate Thomas Stevens kept his dre ams of winning the championship alive by finishing a solid. second, running alone and wheelymg for the crowd for much of the race after working his way up from a poor start. Third place for the third straight time went to Hasty Raci ng 's Doug Brauneck, like the Nordica Roberts riders also Yamaha TZ250-mounted. Brauneck fought off the challenges of Jimmy Filice, AJ Racing's Andy Leisner and Lassak Raci ng 's Alan Carter to claim the last step on the victory rostrum. , . Carter's teammate, Road America winner Rich Oliver ran in second at the start of the final, but retired when his Yamaha's transmission stuck in fourth gear. Kocinski now leads Stevens in the point standings by 14 points, 100 to 86. Even if Stevens wins at the last round of the series at Sears Point in October, Kocinski o nly needs to finish eighth to reclaim the title. Either way, Team Nordica Roberts is sure to score the championship, since th ird-place Rich Oliver is now out of the running with just 56 points. The weekend got off to a ba d start for Kocinski as he was involved in a collision with Kazunobu Yoneda during Friday's practice. Kocinski tried to go around "Kaz" on the front straight but the two collided, with Kocinski 's knee. ~itting Yoneda's ~an~lebar and lifting the Japanese nder s front wheel off the ground. Kocinski didn 't fall, but Yoneda di d. Though unhurt Yoneda was u nable to compete. ' Sa turday afternoon's heat races got underway with Kocinski lea d in g wire to wire, defeating Oliver by 5.83 seconds - a little over a second per lap in the five-lap affair - at an average speed of 88.686 mph. Filice held third, with Carter fourth and Kork Ballington, competing in his first National since breaking his wrist at Loudon, fifth. The race was a rather dull parade, with the top five playing follow the leader from start to finish. The second heat was a bit more exciting, and was won by Stevens after he diced with Leisner most of the wav. Stevens led at the start but coming out of the carousel on lap two, he got sideways and Leisner passed him down the straight. One lap later, Stevens was back out in front and led till the finish. Chris D'Alusio initially held third but was passed by Brauneck on lap three, and had to settle for fourth. Stephan Crevier of Canada passed William Himmelsbach and Marten Miller for fifth. Stevens' margin of victory Was 3.6 seconds, with an average speed of 86.735 mph. Stevens' slower heat race ti me gave the pole position to Kocinski. Sunday afternoon's final started with O liver ge tti ng the holeshot and Kocinski going underneath him in turn one to take the lead. Filice got a . good start and he ld third, but Stevens and Brauneck got o ff the lin e slowly. ' At the end of the first la p, Kocinski led Oliver, Filice, Carter, Ball ingto n , Stevens, Leisner, Brauneck and Richard Moore. carter soon got past Filice for third, and Stevens began to work his way through the pack, passing Ballington on lap two, Filice on lap three, and Carter on lap four. Kocinski, meanwhile, was pulling away at about a second per lap, working on the 1:36-flat lap barrier, trying to get into the 35s. Kocinski set a lap record here last year, and this year broke that by two seco nds; tuner Bu d Aksland clocked him at a best effort of 1:35.53. Kocinski was recorded by radar on the b a c k straigh t at 139 mph. With Stevens clear of fourth place, a ha rd -riding Carter ba ttl ed with F ilice; Ba ll i n g ton , Leisner and Brauneck. Leisner was ba tt li ng the hea t, his Aprilia 's temperature gauge rea di ng as high as 780 centigrade when it usually runs between 55 and 65, while Fi lice seemed to have found a solution to his nagging front en d cha ttering pro blems. Mu lti-ti me F-2 champ Donnie Greene held nin th , slightly out of to uch with the pack in front of him, but riding well, certainly better than at Laguna Seca where he retired while racing for l Oth, Moore fo llowed Greene in l Oth, trying to regroup after a Sunday morning practice ' crash. O n lap six, Carter got sideways in the carousel and dropped two positions. Bra u neck seized the opportunity to put some daylight between himself and the following group. Kocinski, meanwhile, was already lapping traffic. Oliver's race came to a disappointing end on lap nine, though he di d attempt .to rejoin the race before again pulling into theri ts. His bike would not shift out 0 fourth gear. "I probably broke my toes trying to unstick it," O liver said. With O liver out and no chance of catching Kocinski, Stevens suddenly had nothi ng to gain by p ushing it, a nd rode the rest of the' race watching his p it board signals, gassing it onl y when the interval shrank. Meanwhi!e,. he started doing wheel ies remin iscent of Kenny Roberts at L a g una Seca. The s pectators between turns 12 and 13, origina lly n u mb ered about a dozen, but grew to a crowd as reports of Stevens showmanship circulated. . O n lap 12, Carter again resu med third p lace, passing Brau neck down the front straight. Crevier, who suffered a miserable start, was working his way through the pack form 14th to an eventual eighth-place finish. He was riding hard, as shown by his once taking to the grass down the length of the start/finish straight when he ran afoul of a backmarker. Just two laps from the end, Carter went down in the carousel when his Yamaha seized. "It went full sideways and I just went likea rocket," he said later. Ballington started to fade back , a result of a broken shift linkage. He circulated the remaining few laps in third gear. . Kocinski motored away to the wi n with a more-than-comfortable 29.26second margin of victory at a n average speed of 88.964 m ph. "The track was getting greasy; I lost the fro nt end once," sa id Kocinski. Aside fro m that and a broken steering damper , the o nly o ther troub le Koci ns ki h a d wa s p assi n g ba ckm a rkers, a p roblem expressed by many of the frontrun ners. "I dropped the clutch too fast a t th e ' start," said Stevens. "When Oliver broke, my pit board sai d 'plus eight', then 'nine', then '14'. I knew I couldn't catch J oh n , so I just did some wheelies." "The bike was vibrating bad and my hand and foot ' were falling asleep," said Bra u neck. "If Carter hadn't fallen, I would have made a desperate attempt to get round him on the last lap." • Results 250 GP: 1. John Kocinski (Yam) 2. Thomas Steven s (Yam); 3. Doug Brauneck (Yam) 4 . Jim Filice (Hon); 5. Andrew Leisne r (Apr~ 6. Don Green e (Yam); 7. Kork Belli ngton (Hon); 8. Stephan Crevier (Yam~ 9. Chr is D'A lusio (Hon); 10. Richa rd Moore (Yam). POINT STANDINGS : 1. John Kocinski (100); 2. Thoma s Stevens (86); 3. Rich Oliver (56); 4. Doug Braun eck (541; 5. Richard Moor e (4 11; 6. (TIE) Cart er/ Leisner (361; 8. (TIE) Crevier/Greene (35); 10 . Kork Balli ngto n (28).