Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eROAD RACE woo a Pro Series: Round 4 Mike Smith (6) leads Tatsuro Arata (77), Dale Quar:terley (32), Britt Turkington (28) and the rest of the F-USA field . Arata won hi s first major race in the U.S., topping Smith to win the fourth round o( the F-USA series at Heartland Park Topeka. A surpr sin rata ise Topeka F·USA By Larry Lawrence TOPEKA, KS, JULY8 he nam e T atsu ro Arata will be one that road racin g fa ns in th is cou ntry sho uld be hearing q u ite a bit of in the near future. The impressive 28-year-old topped a tough field 0(' F-USA riders at Heartl and park Topeka to win his first major race in the U.S. Arata rode a Moto Li berty Yama ha FZRl OOO-po wered O WOI to a 4.39second victo ry over points leader Mike Smi th. Marlb oro Rob erts rider R ich T O liver rode his Yam ah a TZ250 to th ird place. a fter ba ttling Yoshimura' s Rick Kirk a n d Oli ver 's o wn tea mma te Robbie Petersen . Ara ta, a sta r in his homeland of j a pan, says he decided he wan ted to race against th e best riders in the world, so with the help of Texas busin essman Sam Yamashita. he came to America . And his trip th us far has been fill ed wi th impressive performan ces. Besides the surprise Arata win. th e story of th e weekend was the use of nitrous oxide on the Yam ah as of the Marlbo ro Robert s team. Ever yone kn ew the team was going to d o something to improve the acceleration and top speed of the TZ250s. The most commo n rumor was that th e team wou ld bore o ut the 250s to 350cc. So it was so mewhat of a surprise to see the blu e nitrous 'bo ttles (often seen o n drag racers) mounted to the bottom of the Marlbo ro Yamah as. At first the Mar lboro team was trying to be very secretive about the nitrous, telling their riders not to com men t to the press. Soo n, however, they rea lized that everyo ne at the track kn ew that th ey wer e usin g " la ugh ing gas ." Accordi ng to Ol iver, the increase o n the dyno amo un ted to 16 ho rsepo wer. Becau se of the 100-degree tem perat ur es at Topeka on race day, the affect of th e ox ygen- rich chemica l was lessened. Arata ha d crashed th e day before in the endura nce race, hurti ng his th umb. But th e inj ury didn't have mu ch of an effect o n him , a nd he p romptly went o u t and wo n the first heat race. Iro n icall y. Arata battled wit h Sm ith and hi s Valvoline Suzuki the en tire race, the same pairing that hit Arat a in th e endurance race th e day before after his cras h. Arata go t hi s revenge by crossi ng th e lin e j us t ahea d of Smith whi le Britt Turkington fini shed third o n anot her Va lvolin e Suzuki. WERA officials later ru led that both Ara ta and Turkington had jumped the start, but the two were fined instead of pena lized a lap. Dale Quanerley took somewhat of a surprise win in the seco nd heat. T he New En g la n der was not a ll that impressive in h is firs t F-USA ou ting at Willow Spri ngs, but Dave Sch losser had the Dutch man Suzuki GS XRllOO ready for th is race. Q uarterley was ma tched u p against Rick Kirk, in h is first rid e o n the Yoshimura Suzuki Superbike, and ended up pr evail in g. Marlbor o Rob erts ' Pet er sen a nd Ol iver fi nis he d third a nd fourth , respecti vely. with Kir k's teammate Scott Gr ay fini shing fifth . Gray had bro ken a couple of fin gers th e week befo re at Road America . " It doesn' t feel good at a ll, " Gray ex plai ned . " I have no gri p . I need to race th is weeke nd to get po in ts so Yo sh imura wi ll keep do in g th is series." It was not a good day for former M ichi gan Gran Prix ch a m pio n s. Defendin g champio n Fritz Kling missed the final because his Yamaha wa s sticking in six th gear; 1986 Michiga n G P cham p ion jim Knipp returned to racing with a sh iny new Honda RC30, but unfortunately the stock radi ator was not eno ugh for the , 100-degr ee heat and he had to pull out early in the final. Smith led the 38-bike field into the tight, left-hand turn o ne. Surprisingl y, everyo ne was tryin g to o utbrake eac h o ther and th e pack went into turn one six abreas t. J Sm ith had anticipated the prob lem : " I was just waiting for somebody to hit me from behind," he said la ter aft er making hi s way through unscathed. "There were too man y bikes trying to 'occupy o ne space at one tim e. Oliver and Petersen go t better than norma l sta rts on their 250s, possibly because of the n itro us oxide, bu t sti ll had to work th ro ugh a lo t of traffi c, T ucked in beh ind Smi th were Ara ta and Quar terley, and the trio proceeded to ma ke an early break fro m the pack. Kirk was stuc k in beh ind a fast-sta rt ing j oe Pitt man, but soo n ma de h is move around the Washington resident and was up in to fourth. Petersen mad e some daring pass es on the first two laps to move himself into fifth wh ile h is team mate Oliver was a litt le more conservative in tra ffic. By lap four, however, O liver had moved into sixth a nd trailed hi s teamma te by two seco nds. By lap five, Smith and Arata wert two seconds clear of a close battle beh ind tha t cons isted of Q uarterl ey, Kirk and Petersen . After a breakfast of baco n and eggs, Quarterl ey was beg inning to feel queasy in the heat, arid the lan ky redh ead was fadi ng fast. O liver, meanwhile, was closing on the third-place battle. T hen there was a ga p ba ck to Yamaha FZR I OOOmounted Brian Bern ard. Kurt H a ll, Gray and Turkington were running wheel to wh eel . the n came Sea ttle wi nn er Mike Harth and Pittman , who was starting to feel the effects of heat exha ustion. (, Two-ti me AMA Superb ike Cham pion Wes Cooley headed up th e next p ack of six riders which incl ude d Bar ry Burke. j im Sabi n, j ohn Hop perstad, jeff Hagan and Andy Fenwick. Burke tried to pass Cooley o n the inside o n lap six. o nly to be stu ffed by th e veteran ride r. Coo ley later pu lled ou t of the race aft er also su ffering from heat exha us tio n. As the race progr essed. Quanerley con ti nued to fade and was passed by first Kirk and th en Petersen and Ol iver. By this time th e gap between th e leading du o . Smith and Arata. to Kir k. Petersen and Oliver had stabilized at four second s. O n lap ni ne O liver moved around Kirk. " Ki r k was holding Rob b ie (Petersen) up early in the race an d that gave me a chance to ca tch them," Oliver said. " H is lines into the turns were slowing me down also. By the time I got aro und him Smith and Ara ta were go ne." Even th ough Smi th had led the entire way it was obvious that Arata was holdin g some thi ng in reserve. just waiting fo r the Geor gian to mak e a mistak e. But by the lSth lap Arata had run o u t of patien ce - he mad e a quick, decis ive mo ve aro u n d Sm ith a rid immediat ely o pened a ga p . Smith tried to give chase, but the sus pens io n o n his Suzuki was set up too low and he d ragged hi s fairing o n th e high -speed tu rn eigh t, nearl y crash ing. From th at point on it was Arata 's race, as Smit h concern ed himself more with the overall serie than one race.

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