Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127182
Richard Ol iver (97) lead s the start of the 250cc race followed by Doug Brauneck (46):Robbie Petersen (16) and Danny Co~ (7) . Two-time National Champion John Kocinski extended his winning streak into 1989 with a win in t he Internat ional Lightweig ht race at Daytona. . Northern Californian Richard Ol iver ran a lonely race to finish second on the Dan Kyle-prepared Randy Mamola Rac ing Yamaha TZ250. AMA Castrol2S0cc Grand Prix Series:·Round 1 Mamola Racing's Rich Oliver on the east banking and utilizing his twoand-a-ha lf-second per lap advantage to the fullest, Kocinski won by 43.87 seconds at an average speed of 106.706 mph and pocketed $5500 of the $30,000 purse. Third place saw a four-way battle decided on the last lap, with southern Californian R ichard Moore claiming the remaining rostrum position. Multi-time class champion Don nie Greene came from the bottom of the top 10 to take Iourth, while Cycle magazine staffer Danny Coe took advantage of an incident involving Thomas Stevens and Alan Caner on the final la p to take fifth. The top five were all Yamaha TZ250mou nted. Koci nski left no doubt of his abi lities after wet qualifying saw him log a fast lap time of 2:00.754, nearly four seco nds faster than secondfastest Doug Brauneck (2:04.684) on the J ohn H asty Yam aha. Ol iver was -Kocinski, again By Brian Catterson Photos by Daytona International Speedway . and Bert Shephard • DAYTO NA BEACH, FL , MAR. 12 Team Viceroy Yamaha's John Kocinski decimated the competition to win the 100kilometer International Lightweight race at Daytona International Speedway. The 16 Na tio na l Champion . a n d Kenny Roberts protege led all I second-pfirst half-l ap, passin g but the lace finisher Randy third fastest (2:05.040) though he was suffering from a distinct lack of topend speed. Three-Lime cham p .Greene qualified the McIver Racing entryIourth (2:06.760) with Coe fifth (2:07.799) on a Nea l Sorensen-owned machine. . Qualifying took on added importance when Thursday's scheduled heat races were scrubbed due to wet weather. To save time, the riders wou ld be gridded for the stan on the basis of their q ualifying times. Kocinski seemed unaffected by the damp track ; a nd explai ned the importance of going fast regardless of track con ditions: " I have to go for it . When I ge t to the Grands Prix , they're not go ing to wait for th e track to dry ." Later in Sunday morning 's dry p ractice, Kocinski clocked a blistering 1:57.63. Ko cin ski ' s teammate T ho mas Stevens never Came to gri ps with th e wet surface after missing much of practice due to an ear ly-week seizure.