Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

GROAD RACE AM! 250ccGrand Prix Series: Round 5 ; Mike Sullivan (74) leads Jeff Fanner (86), Al Salaverria (22) and Ch ris D'Al uisio (ll) in to tum on e of the Miami street circuit. Salaverria whee lies out of the tum II hairpin on the way to his first-ever 250cc Grand Prix victory . The win moves him into second in the series point standings. Salaverria astrong winner in Miami By Brian Catterson "I 8 MIAMI, FL, JULY 22 feel grea t, like I could do it all over again," said Al Salaverria after winning an exha us ting 250cc Grand Prix final at Miami Motorsports Park. The 250cc GP fina l was shortened from the pro posed 33 laps to a still len gth y 25 du e to the weather, bu t the 90-degree tempera tu res and high humidity at the bayside street circu it didn 't seem to affect Salaverria . " I've been working out a lot , running and bicycling, and I think it' s helped my concentration. I used to get hot and brain fade," Salaverria said. T he training must have helped because Salaverria did n't put a wheel wrong en route to defeating the series points leader, DavHar Racing's Chris D'Aluisio, by 5.390 seconds. Hasty Racing 's Doug Brauneck, like D'Alui'sio nursing an injured ankle, finished .a strong third. While Salaverria was fastest throughout Sunday morning practice on his Dave Ray-prepared AirT ech Yamaha TZ250, it was D'Aluisio who posted the fastest heat race win on Saturday to earn the po le position for Sunday's final. . R id i ng his Da vid Harold-tuned Yamaha, D'Aluisio ra n away from runner-up J eff Farm er and th ird place finisher Lee Shiens to win the five-lap affair by 2.860 seconds. Shierts closed on Farmer dramatically in the final co rner wh en th e Floridian nearl y clouted the pit wall , but the Californian was unable to make a pass. Returning veteran Dale Franklin finished a close fourth whi le William Himmelsbach survived a near-highside in the tum II ha irpin to claim fifth. Sa laverria won heat race two in equall y convinci ng fashi on , posting a 2.39O-second margin over second-place Mike Su llivan . Brau neck overcame the pain of his broken left ankle (sustained at a race in Monza, Italy, two weeks ago) to lead the first two lap s, but in the end he settled for third. Martin Miller chased Braun eck home for fourth place, whi le Rick Tripodi rounded out the top five. D'Alu isio's heat race time of six minutes, 45.590 seconds was only .9 of a second faster than Salaverria 's, bu t it was good enoug h for the Connecticutbased rider to earn the po le. The 250cc GP fina l was the last event scheduled for Sunday afternoon, an d with rain showers further delaying the already ru nning-be hi nd program , the . weekend fina le didn' t get underway until after 6:00 p.m. The sp rinkle helped take the bite out of the heat and h um idity, but it was uncomfortable non etheless. Centralia, Washington 's Sullivan put his Insulate Industries Yamaha in the lead at the start, but a big slide on lap o ne let Salaverri a by. Once past, Salaverria was go ne, opening up a lead as large as 12 seconds at the halfway poi nt before traffic and common sense combined to redu ce it. Salaverria turned the fastest lap of the race in the early goings (1:17.26, according to Dun lop 's J im Allen) before backing down the pace to 1:18s. D'Aluisio had go tten off to a poor st art, and was mired behind first Farmer, then Martin. D'Aluisio passed Farmer on lap one, an d on lap two Martin crashed in tum one to p rom ote D'Aluisio to thi rd. A lap later, D'Aluisio got pas t Sulliva n for second. Farmer's race came to an abru p t halt on lap four when he ran off the track in sweepi ng , left-hand tum seven and highsided in a gravel trap. At first, Farmer was allowed to walk back to the pits, but when he go t there and couldn 't remember having won the earlier 600cc Superspon race, he was taken to the hospital where he was diagnosed as having a severe concussion. On lap nine, Cliff Bigon ey crashed at the same location, and the ensui ng waving yello w flags distracted D'Alui sio to the point that he thought the race was being stopped. " I was thinking th ey were redflagging it," D'Aluisio said afterward. "There were waving yellows everywhere, but I didn 't see any bikes. I slowed way down - I turned a 1:22 that lap!" Sullivan took advantage of the situation , passing D'Aluisio (under a waving yellow, D'Alu isio said), bu t D'Aluisio promptly repassed him and set out after Salaverria. D'Aluisio's miscue allowed Salaverria to furt her pad his lead, but the tables were turned on lap 20 when Salaverria got hung u p be h in d a n on-track ambu lance at the tight chicane. At that poi nt , D'Aluisio was able to narrow the. gap to less than four seconds. " I almost had to come to a complete stop," said Sal averria , " I couldn't believe iL" Salaverria then turned up the wick to reestabl ish his lead, and to take the wi n - his first in Na tio na l-level competition - by a comfor table 5.390 seconds. The 20-year-old earned $3830 of the $20,000 purse. D'Aluisio blamed his troubles on poor setup du e to a lack of practice on the slippery track: " My countershaft sprocket fell off after only a lap an d a half on Saturday, and with only three IO-minute sessions that day I had to use the heat race as practice. "AI got a good start - he was going for his first win," D'Aluisi o continued. "I was stuck behind some slower riders, and since I was tryin g to protect my points lead I didn 't want to take any cha nces diving past them." D'Aluisio is spo nsored by DavHar Racin g, Dunlop, Yamaha , Shoei, AirT ech. Ohlin s and Mikuni. Meanwhile, Brauneck had worked his way up to th e front of th e pack, climbing to four th place by lap four before setting it on cruise control to nurse his brok en ankle. "I started slowing down, but after a few lap s I thou ght, 'Wait a minute there's nothing wron g with me.' When I got Sulliva n in sigh t I figured I'd come that far , I could pass him , too ," said Brauneck, livin g up to his old nickname of " Bionic Brauneck" today. "I took two T ylenols before the race and that helped take the edge off the pain." Brauneck is spo nsored by Hasty Racin g, Arai , AirTech, ExtrudeHone, Powerflow, Trak Pads and RK. Brau neck hunted down Sullivan and made the pass to take third place. Behind Brauneck and Sulliva n came privateer Lee Shierts, who 'd contemp la ted passing Brauneck ear lier but op ted to study the veteran 's lines. When the du o encountered traffic, Brauneck simply pu lled away. Sullivan 's teammate Frankli n ran a lonel y race to finish sixth, the final rider on the lead lap . Hi mmelsbach fought off Venezuelan Eduardo Aleman and Floridian J oey Cole to finish sevent h throu gh ninth, respectively, wh ile J im Bonn er rebounded from a hea t race crash to fini sh 10th. On ce agai n, Yam ah a TZ250s were the machine of cho ice as the top 10 rider; and 21 of the 22 finalists were so' eN mounted. Results HEAT I: I. a"is D'Aluisio (Vam): 2. Jell Farmer (Yam ); 3. Lee Shims {Yam ): 4. Dale Franklin (Yam r. 5. Will iam H immelsbach (Yam ): 6. Oifton Blgoney (Vam ): 7. Eduardo Alema n (Yam): 8. Joe Co l. (Yam ); 9. S

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