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John Kocinski turned in a masterful performance in Kansas in what will likely be his last AMA National . Thom as St eve ns (5) . Ric h Ol iver (9 7) and Robbie Petersen (hi dden) had a great battle for second place; in the end it was Petersen f inishing second . AMA/Castrol 250cc Grand Prix Series: Final round Kocinski dominates in Heartland swan song By Pau l Carruthers T O PE KA, KS, SEPT. 3 G rand P r ix-b o und John Ko cinsk i b id farewell to U .S. road racin g in fine fashion today a t the all-new H eartland Park Topeka, humiliating th e competition en rou te to his sixth win of the nowcompleted, eight-round series. Kocinski and h is Team Viceroy Yamaha average d 82.935 mph, th e fastest a verage speed of the race weekend, to beat John La ssak Racin g's Robbie Petersen by 1:08.670 a t the newest racin g facility in th e co untry. Kocinski is no w set to emba rk o n hi s World Ch am pi onsh ip career in 1990 after wrapping up hi s third successi ve AMA 250cc Na tional Championship. ' . Third p lace went to Kocinski 's teamm ate Thomas Stevens . The Floridian batt led throughout the 20lap race with Petersen , Rich Oliver and Donny Green e over the runnerup position, but it was the Apriliam ounted Pet er sen ga in i ng th e adva ntage o ver the Yam aha TZ2 50s in the fina l laps. Ran d y Marn ola Racing's Ol iver fin ished fourt h wi th Sp la trnas ter-sponso red Greene fifth. Chri s D'Aluisio , AI Sal a ver ri a , John Hasty Ra cing's Doug Braune ck, Randy Mamol~ Ra,cing's Dann y Coe and Moto-Libert y sCam Roos round ed out th e top 10 fini shers. , . . . . . \\hl1eKocl~skl\,:astheblgwmner O !I th e trac~ , OlIver . c.ashe d th e biggest ~heck as he p icked up th e I ~ ,OOO m Cas tro l cont~nge~cy fo r being ~ he t?P ea.stro~- u~mg. ~Ide! in the champlOnsl~ l p. Kocin sk i ~ fmal t~lI y o~ 136 ~m,ts ea rned him th e titl e with Oliver s 9~ pom ts good eno ug h fa: second p~ ace. Green e s 84 p oints narrowly topped Pet ~rse l~ 's 81 whil e Stevt;ns wound ~p fifth in th e title chase with 74 points. T he majority of the 250cc field accep ted the Heartland Park facility with open ar ms. Although slippery d ue to its newn ess, th e 2.5- m ile circuit combi nes a li llie of everyth ing, from slow chicanes to fast sweepers. " It 's a good tra ck," O liver said on Saturday. " It 's difficult and som e parts are terrifying, we're sliding both ends a lot. But it 's real predi ctabl e a nd thi s place provides a good learning expe rience." Kocinski , wh o is more a t hom e with both 'ends sliding th an th e o thers, was in heaven a t H eartland Park , a nd he mastered th e circu it in its entirety, sell in g th e o u tr igh t motorcycle lap record a t I:47.55 o n th e 19th of 20 laps. Early in th e race week end , Kocinski sai d he was " go ing -to do bette r than 1 ever hav e." Giv en h is pas t reco rd of dominati on, it left ma ny po ndering what th at would mea n. Would he lap th e field ? From th e first practi ce sessio n on , Kocinski was the quickest , turn ing la p ti mes in th e I:48 bracket while the others struggled to turn tim es in the 50s. Koc inski's heat race win over hi s tea mma te Stevens a nd Green e was the fastest of th e weeken d. The 2 1year-o ld clicked off th e five laps in 9:08.827 to beat Steven s by so me 19 seconds. The second heat race was won by Oliver, but hi s five laps were turned in 9:22 .378 minut es, some 13.5 seconds slower than Kocinski's fivelap pace (a n a verage of 2.71 seconds a lap slower). Oliver, however, beat Petersen handily by 8.714 seconds in th e seco nd heat race with D'Aluisio a n d hi s Ca strol/ShoeilGolden C ycl es/D. Harold /Vanson /Phil Fl ack -sp onsored Yamaha TZ250 finis hing third. Even a Sunda y morn in g cras h co u ldn ' t slo w Kocin ski . The Modest o , California , resident plowed into Danny Coe in turn five while attempting what he thought would be hi s fastest lap . Coe escaped the melee wi thout crashing. " Let's just say I paid th e price for th em (corn er workers) not using blue flags (pass ing flags)," Kocinski said. " I've as ked for th em (blue flags) for two years. That 's what happen s wh en you don 't have them . I was o n my best lap. It was my fau lt, but I did n't wa nt to slow do wn ; a flag co u ld ha ve prevented a n acci dent. But I've alrea dy forgotten abo u t it. I'm not mad a t him (Coe) , He was in fro nt and he doesn 't ha ve eyes in the back of hi s head. " While Kocin ski was set o n leaving a mark in hi s fina l race by showing exa ct ly how dominant he's become, O liver 's stra tegy wa s different. " My basis for being here is to finis h a nd ge t second m th e cha mp ionshi p," Ol iver said. " It 's agains t all my ins tinc ts to not race as ha rd as I can, but that's wh at I'll do. " By th e tim e Kocinski reach ed th e fina l two corn ers leading o nto the front straigh t on th e opening lap of th e 20-la p final , his lead was a co m ma n di n g four seco n ds o ve r Oliver, Petersen and Steven s. The Viceroy rider quickl y delved into a low I:48 before turning hi s first 1:47 la p time o n th e th ird go -ro und. R e m a rk a bl y, h is best lap tim e ( I:47.50) would come o n th e 19th lap as h e co n ti n ued to turn it on th rough out th e race despi te the size of hi s lead . While th e race for th e lead was non-exi stent, th e ra ce for second mo re th an made up for it. At fir st it was Oliver , Petersen a nd Steven s do in g ba ttle, but Green e wo uld soon join the tussle by the fourt h lap. T hose fo ur in turn p ull ed clear from D'Aluisio, who turned in an im p ressive, albeit lo nel y, ride to sixth p lace. The race for second saw Oliver lead for seven laps; Steven s lead two ; and Petersen lead II, a nd more importantly, th e fin a l one. Greene got close, but never escorted th e other three. By lap five, Kocinski had stretched hi s lead to over 16 seconds. It grew to 33 seconds on the 10th lap, 52 seco nds on th e 15th and 1:08 on lap 20 - his swa n song now complete. As th e laps wore down, an aggressive Petersen managed to get th e best of the rest, a nd galloped to second pl ace. Steven s, meanwhile, boldly stu ffed it under Oliver in turn 12 on the final lap to tak e thi rd. "I th ought to m yself, 'If I've got to pull a Kevin Schwantz, that's wh ere I was go ing to do it," Stevens sa id. " So on th e last lap 1 did it. H e had to sta nd it up and that was it. " A pumped Kocinski said, " T he bik e was phenomen al and 1 hung it . o u t; 1 rod e flat o ut the whole way. I've never ridd en tha t hard for th at long. 1 still need a lot of work for next year, but th at was a good test of my co nd itio ning." Stevens, wh o will most likely step into Kocin ski 's shoes as th e numbero ne rider on the hi ghl y-su ccessful Viceroy team in 1990, was pl eased with h is third-place finish after enco unteri ng traffic problems th at cost him a sho t a t Petersen . " I got caught up in traffic a nd they got away," he said, " With five la ps to go 1 was a co u p le of seconds down and it didn't look good. But Rich (O liver) had traffic problems and I caught back up." Petersen 's second place was the Zimbabwean 's best-ever finish on the AMA circuit. "I couldn't believe it," he said. " I crashed twice in practice on Frida y, but everything went good toda y. I th ought th ey were going to get awa y early, but I put in some effort and caught them. This is a good way to end th e seaso n." Oliver's plan had paid off - big. "It went according to plan," O liver said. " I was content to follow and I didn 't want to fall off. A lapper p ut me wid e a nd th en sla mmed it on me in th e next co rner, then the tires o verhea ted and I had to take it easy. T om (Stevens) got underneath me, but I didn 't want to lose $10,000 so I left him so me room." Results 20 ·LAP CASTROL 250cc GP FINAL: 1. John Koc insk i (Yam); 2. Robbie Petersen (Apr); 3. Thomas Stevens (Yam); 4 . Rich Oliver (Yam); 5. Donnie Greene (Yam); 6. Chris O'Aluisio (Yam); 7. AI Salaverr ia (YamI; 8. Doug 8rauneck (Yaml; '9. Danny Coe (Yam); 10. Cam Roos (Yam); 11. Dan Walker (Hon); 12. W illiam Himmelsbach (Yam); 13. Martin Miller (Yaml; 15. 8rad Sawy er (Yam). • RACE TIM E: 36 min .. 10.377 sees. AVERAGE SPEED: 82.935 mph. FINAL CASTROL 250cc GP POINT STANDINGS: 1. John Kocinski (136); 2. Rich Oliver (92); 3 . Don Greene (84 1 4. Robbie Pet ersen (8 1); 5. Thomas ; Stevens (74 ); 6. Doug Brauneck (61); 7. Danny Cae (57); 8. Chris D'Aluisio (43); 9. (TIE) Alan Carter / Richard Moor e (41); 11. Cam Roos (321 12. M igue l ; ; DuHamel (31); 13. Jim Filic e (271 14. James Stephens (26); 15. AI Salaverria (211 16. William ; Himme lsbach 1 1 5~ 17. St eve Crevier (11); 18. Ben Will iams 171; 19. Jon Cornwe ll (6); 20 . Brent Van De Stadt (5).