Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eROAD RACE e WERA Pro Series: Round 5 Rich Oliver (97X) guided hi s lightweight Yamaha Tl250 th rough the rain to his first Formula USA National win . H ere he jumps in front of Mik e Smith. Fritz Klin g (421) works p ast th e spray kicked up by Bob Sandy. Kling mov ed up to second and tried to catch Ol iver, but he fin ished 11 seconds behi nd. Rainman Oliver wins at Grattan By Larry Lawrence GRATIAN, MI, JULY29 ich O liver fin all y won a WE RA Fo rmu la USA Na tional a fter tryi ng to dea l wit h the horsep ower deficit o n his T eam Marlbor o Rob erts Yama ha T Z250 a ll season long. Ol iver had an ally a t C ranan, and that ally was rain, T he rai n tha t fell (sometimes quite heavily) during the F-USA fin al negated the horsep- R 22 o wer advantage of the big Superbikes, and p layed right into Ol iver 's hand. " I never really raced in the ra in that mu ch befor e, but 1 guess I do okay in it," a modest Oliver said af terwa rd. To say that Oli ver did o kay is wi tho u t a doubt an u nderstateme nt. The northern Cal ifornia ride r attac ked the wet course wi th daring aggression; Robbie Peterson (16) ran as high as second in the final before his Yamaha started running on one cylinder late in the race, dropping him to seventh at the finish. where other top riders were backing off the gas , getti ng read y for a tri cky wet turn, O liver dove into the turns testing the gripping power of h is Michelin rai n tires. Oliver pulled away to an II -second victory o ver Michigan Grand Prix Champion Fritz Kling, who was riding an Ameri can Eagl e Ra cing Yosh imura Suzuki bu ilt for j ay Springsteen . Formu la USA points leader Mike Smith led early bu t ha d to sett le for th ird o n h is overpowered (fo r the condi tio ns ) Val voli rre Suzu ki. Many o f th e top F-USA sta rs were absent fro m Grattan . Mike H arth , Tatsuro Arata a nd Ri ck Kirk were all raci ng in th e Suzuka g· Ho ur in j apan , whil e two -ti me F-USA winner SCOll G ray was hom e nurs in g i njuries su ffered over the last mo nths of raci ng. Gratta n, mor e tha n any o ther track o n the F·USA circu it, favo rs local rid ers who race there as ma ny as 10 times a year - ride rs like Fritz Klin g, Ray Yoder and Marty Mill er know Grattan like the back of their ha nd , and it seemed tha t th ey wou ld be tough to beat here . Even though he had never been to G ra tta n before, O liver was looking forward to raci ng on th e twi sty circuit: " I think we shou ld be ab le to do well th ere; it sounds like the kin d of trac k 1like," said O liver when talki ng about Grattan in an interview at Heartland Pa r k T opek a (Ka nsas) two weeks prior. Oliver's pred iction proved to be correct. Du ri n g Fr iday's practice, Ol iver was runn in g near track-record times within ho urs of seeing th e track for the firs t time. H o wever, it was clear th at no trac k records wou ld fall o n the da y of the fin al. It had rained o n and off during the early morning ho urs, and both heat races were run in the rain . O liver narrowl y wo n th e first heat o ver Klin g . Kurt H a ll a n d Andy Fenwick both led ea rly, bu t H all was still leery of rid in g fast in the rai n a fter crash ing and breaking his wri st in th e rain at Sea tt le, Washington. He soon backed off, h andin g th e lead to Fenwick - the track reco rd holder who then fell back wh en hi s Human Race Team Yam aha FZRIOOO began to misfire. Mike Sm ith won the second hea t in a thriller over un kn own rider Peter Kissin ger of H agaman , New York. Kissinger is a frequen t competi to r at Loud on, New H ampshire, bu t has rarely raced outside of the Northeast H is goal for this year was simply to do well at this race, so he made the trip from New York to Michigan to take in a couple of club races prior to the \VERA Pro Series ro und. The practice pa id off, as Kissinger dogged Sm ith the ent ire way and led until th e final turn wh ere a Iitr le too much th ro ttl e o n h is self-tu ned Yamaha FZRIOOO pi tched it sideways. Smith took adva ntage of Kissin ger's mi scue to win by in ches at the fini sh line. Tea m Hammer rid er Britt Turkington would mis s the final du e to a slight co ncuss io n suffered during Saturday's end urance event . j ay Springsteen was a lso schedu led to ride, bu t had to jet of f to race the rai n-delayed AMA Mile National a t DuQuoin , lIIi nois. Road racing teammat e Fri tz Klin g too k over on the American Eag le Racin g Suzu ki. At the start of the final Smith was firs t off the line followed by Ol iver, who got an u nusua lly good start. Once Klin g go t h is Suzu ki ro lling, he moved past Ol iver goi ng into turn one. It was rai ni ng ligh tly o n the firs t lap, but the clouds opened up on lap two . Oliver was having some problems wi th his visor foggi ng up which h indered h im early: " It took me a coup le of lapsao get the vent settings right so the visor wo u ld clear off. Once 1got tha t cleared up 1 was ready to go racing," he said. Oliver's teammate, Robbi e Petersen , ha d injured his an kle in a practice crash, and was ru nning in fourth ahea d of a closely kn it group that incl uded Fen wick, Mill er, Rodd en and defendin g F·USA National Champion Kurt Hall. Kissinger's story boo k weeken d came to an end early in the race when he cras hed in the sweep ing , high-speed turn eight: " I tried to go around the o u tside of a guy there and got o ut on som e slick tar," he exp lai ned. Oliver put a move o n Smith on lap six to take over the lead for good, amazing ly do in g so o n th e front straig h taway . The prob lem for Smith was that hi s big Suzuki would sp in the rear whee l down the entire straigh taway: "There were big puddles everywhere, 1 cou ld n 't stay o n the gas a all," Smith said. -

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