Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

M iguel DuHamel (1 7 ), Alan Carter (2), Donnie Greene (3 ) and Robbie Petersen battle over second place. National Champion John Kocinski was in a class by himself. topping Greene by over 19 seconds to take his second victory of the season. AMAjCastrol 2S0cc Grand Prix Series: Round 4 . Kocinski wins, Oliver crashes By Pau l Carruthers Photos by Henny Ray Abrams LOUDON, NH, JUNE 18 T ea m Vi ceroy Yamaha's de fe n di n g . N at ional Champio n John Ko ci n ski returne d to pre-injury form today, streaki ng to a 19.4 1-second win at the New H amp shire International Speedway. . ., . . KOCInskI s runaway WIn, hIS first since br eaking his right . . wrist at Road Atlanta 10 May, was m ad e even swee te r by pre- Loudon point I~ader Rick Oliver 's cras h and resulting non-score. For tunately, Oliver esca ped hi s turn 10 crash u ,!~urt: .but h is 20-point lead over Kocin ski IS no w o n ly a memory as the two rivals ar e now tied a t 56 poi nts each. Second pl ace tod ay wen t to a rejuvenated Donnie Gr eene o n th e Sp tatmaster-s po nso re d Yam ah a TZ250. Greene rode a determined race , holdin g off Canadi an Miguel Du l-lam el, also TZ250 mounted, a t the flag . Kocinski's teammate, Thomas Stevens, st ill feeling the effects of a partially-se pa ra ted sho u lder , fin ished fourth. England's Apriliamo unted Alan Ca rter inherited fifth after h is J ohn La ssak Racin g teamma te Robbie Petersen was docked a lap for p assing Steven s under a wavin g yellow flag. Petersen fin ished ninth with th e pe nalty. Dann y Coe, Doug Braun eck , James Stephens, Petersen and Ca m R oo s round ed o u t th e top 10 fini shers. Practi ce ' ac tion co n firme d that Kocinski was indeed back to top form. After losing while riding in pain a week ago to Oliver at Brainerd, Kocinski proclaimed him self " 75% fit " while his physiotherapist Dean Mill er upped that figure to 95%. Mill er al so mad e th e trek Eas t to mak e sure it stayed that way. " It' ll be tough th e next two races," Kocin ski said pri or to th e final. "T he swelling comes up wh en I rid e. It 'll never heal if I keep beating up o n it. I just need so me tim e to get it rig ht. It's a lot better, th ough. Las t week it was abo ut 50% righ t." T he first heat race sta rted under overcast skies, but th e track surface was dry. Oliver too k th e hol eshot and co nseq ue n tly th e vic to ry o ver Gr eene. Carte r finished th ird ahea d of Stevens. Oli ver would go o n to cras h du ri ng Sunday mornin g's practice sessio n, saying th at he was ge tting used to sliding the tires o n th e now hot track surface aft er " riding o n rai ls" in the ea rlier sessio ns and heat race wh en th e track was coo ler. The second heat race saw Kocinski pull away at th e start to even tuall y beat Petersen by so me nine seconds. South African Petersen had made a wrong gearing choice and would fix it for th e fin al. Petersen had also di scovered that one fork leg had dropped 8mm in th e tripl e clamp at Brain erd . Now he kn ew wh y it wouldn't turn as usual. T hi rd p lace in h eat two , th e q uic ker o f th e tw o heats , wa s DuHam el, ahead o f Richard Moore and Doug Brauneck. Th e 250 cc fin al sta rted with Kocinski ge tting a flyer of a start, leading th e pack into turn one. H e wo uld go on to open an immedia te lead wh en Oliver ra n wide on the exit of turn four, losing hi s dri ve and any rea listic sho t of raci ng wi th Kocinski . T he Ran d y Marn ol a Racin g rider di dn' t, however. give up. "John was ta king it easy o n th e first lap," Ol iver said of the turn four inci dent. " He j ust parked it and I just missed ru n ni ng into him from behind. I had to go in to first gear. G etting th rough th e others was crazy." T hose o thers at th is poi nt happe ned to be Petersen , Carter, DuHamel and Gr een e. A tig ht ly-kn it bunch th at wo u ld p rovide some of th e best racin g of th e weekend - whil e it lasted. It o n ly too k a cha rgi ng Oliver two la ps to ge t back into second p lace, a n d h e sta rted a cha rge a fte r Kocinski , o ne in retrospect he probably wishes he hadn 't tried. H e wo u ld trail b y so me tw o seco nds wh en he hi gh -sided th e Yam aha exiting turn 10. " I p lanned to run cool and wait for 20 laps or so to see if he'd gel tired," O liver said later. " I just mad e a mistake. It went so quick. I jusi wanted to run th e pace at 8s and Set wh at wo uld happen ." The race for th e lead for al practi cal p ur po ses ended with Oliv er's crash. Nobod y else would ge near Kocin ski as he jammed toward th e checkered flag. Behind him , however, things wer getting interest ing, Petersen , Cartel G reene and DuHamel cont inued t· do battle, cha nging po siti on s repeal edly in a h igh-speed sh uffle. Steven: meanwhile, was on th e move fro r a poor start and he wo uld even tual l join in th e battl e, albeit fro m the real DuHam el in itia lly made a sma! break from the o thers. but he wa qu ickl y j oin ed b y Greene an together th ose two would leave th o thers behind. In the end, Gr een e go t th e bene of the Canadian , whose pl anned las la p a ttac k never mat erialized. " I think th e la st la p was m quickest," Gr een e said later. " It wa working good; we ge t a littl e bette each race. Maybe by Sea rs Point we'I be number o ne again." '" was pretty mu ch counting 01 getting him on th e la st lap,' DuHam el said. " I was going to down th e hill into six , but I didn' get a good drive. He rod e good." Carter began to fad e after Steven s got by him for fourth, and th e Brit would lat er say he just go t tired. Petersen wo rked hi s way back up to try a last la p pass o n Stevens, but the Vicero y rider wo uld ge t him two turns later, and th en Petersen wo uld suffer the blunt of a o ne-lap penalty. Coe and Brauneck had a battle that lasted throughout, with Coe getting th e better of th e J ohn H asty-backed rider in th e fin al lap s. -Ano ther to go by th e turn 10 wa yside was Californian Richard Moore. Moore, wh o's been o n th e road bv himself for two weeks, claimed he' was just too tired from the tra veling and the hard work in volved with being his own mechanic. " I th ou ght I was go ing to die," he said. " I' m serious, I thought I was going to die in th at on e (cra sh)." • 1I, Results 250cc GP, 1. Joh n Koci nski (Yam); 2. Don Graene (Yam); 3 . M igu el DuHamel (Yam); 4. Thomas Stevens (Yam); 5. Alan Carter IApr); 6. Danny Coe (Yam); 7. Doug Brauneck (Yam); B. Ja mes St ephens (Yam); 9. Robbie Petersen (Apr); 10 . Cam Roos (Yam); , 1. W ill iam Him mel sbach (Yam); 12. Ben Will iams (Yam); 13. James Bonner (Hon); 14. Ste phen Darcy (Han); 15 . Lawrence Hanlow (Hon). AM AICASTROL 250cc GP POINT STANDINGS, 1. (TIE) John Kocinsk i/Richard Oliver (56); 3. Donnie Green e (47); 4 . Danny Coe (35); 5. Robbie Petersen (32); 6. Miguel DuHamel (31); 7. Alan Carter (28); B. Richard Moore (27); 9. Doug Brauneck (26); 10. Thomas Stevens (1B).

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