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AMA 250(( Grand Prix Series: Final round
Nick Ienatsch (64) passed Doug Brauneck (46) to win his first-ever 250cc GP final.
Brauneck's second-place finish earned him the 1990 250cc GP Championship.
Chuck Graves rode a 250cc machine for the first time at Willow Springs, winning
his heat race and finishing third in the final after suffering mechanical problems.
Ie w Brauneck rules
natsch ins,
By Brian Catterson
Photos by Kai Schwerdtfeger
ROSAMOND, CA, SEPT. 16 .
asty Racing's Doug Brauneck
earned his first-ever 250cc Grand
Prix Championship by finishing
second to Motorcyclist magazine Feature Editor Nick Ienatsch at Willow
Springs International Raceway .
Brauneck, on a Yamaha TZ250,
chased down and passed early leader
Chuck Graves on a Lassak Racing
Aprilia before beingpassed himself by
a hard-charging lenatsch on his exJohn Kocinski 1989Yamaha. lenatsch,
the reigning club champion of the
local American Road Racing Associ' ation, went on to win with Brauneck
a distant second and Graves third.
For all intents and purposes, Brauneck clinched the title during Thursday's practice when series rival Chris
D 'Aluiaio cra sh ed, reinjuring his
recently broken right wrist. D'Aluisio's
DavHar Racing Yamaha seized in fast
turn ' two, causing the crash, and he
promptly flew hom e to West Redding,
Connecticut to mend.
That left only northern Californian
AI Sala verria wi th a shot at challenging Georgian Brauneck for the titl e,
but wi th a five-point deficit he'd have
to win with Brauneck fin ishin g third
or worse. It wasn 't going to happen.
H
12
Brauneck passed Mike Sullivan to
win the first of Saturday afternoon's
pair of five-lap heat rac es, which
determine grid positions for Sunday's
final. lenatsch came from the last row
of the grid to finish second , 2.6 seconds
behind Brauneck. Another local rider
on a year-old bike, Ben Williams,
finished third, while Sullivan faded to
fourth and Oil Technology' Services'
Larry Schwarzbach rounded out the
top five, all on Yamahas.
Salaverria led the start of heat race
two, but Graves used his sign ificant .
local track knowledge to move past and
take the win, finishing 5.5 seconds
ahead of Salaverria. Local riders Lee
Shierts, Tom Paris and Graves' brother
Michael rounded out the top five, .all
but the winner riding Yamahas,
Graves was compet ing on a 250 for
the first time, and said tha t the only
time he'd even ra ced a two-stroke
before was on a 125 in 1986. H is John
Lassak-prepared Aprilia was an absolute rocket, and following the heat race
Salaverria 's tuner Dave Ra y was heard
repea tedly chanting, " We need an
Aprilia .. ."
Brauneck's h eat race time of 7
minutes, 28.850 seconds edged Graves '
7:28.860 by just .01 of a second, an
insignificant amount of time save for
the fact that it earned Brauneck the
pol e position.
Graves ' effort too k a turn for the
worse during Sunday morning's first
practi ce session when his Rotax motor
lunched a crank bearing. The engine
was replaced with one last used by Alan
Carter at Road America in 1989, which
Grav es said had less power and different internal gear ratios, and which
blew a water pump seal during the
final practice session .
Sunday's 250cc GP final was originally scheduled to follow the Super' bike National, but the 250cc riders, led
by Brauneck, petitioned the AMA to
swap the 250 and Pro Twins time slots
so th at the lightweight machines
wouldn't be affected by the notorious
late-afternoon high-desert winds. The
plan worked, because while it was
windy for the 250cc race , it was
nowhere near as severe as during the
later Pro Twins event.
Graves nailed the holeshot to begin
the 20-lap final , but Brauneck drafted
past on the front straight to lead across
the start/finish line for the first time.
Graves outbraked Brauneck into turn
three to retake the lead, but Brauneck
was not to be denied, and moved back
into th e lead before the end of the lap.
Ienatsch began in fifth place, but
passed Williams and Paris to move
into th ird place by lap three. On lap
four, Ienatsch outbraked Graves into
turn three to take second, and set his
sigh ts on leader Brauneck. The next
time around, lenatsch made a bold
move on the inside of turn nine to
displace Brauneck. He then stormed
off into the distance, turning lap times
in the mid-I :27son his way to an 11.28second margin of victory.
Brauneck had no desire to match
Ienat sch's pace.
" Wit h the wind here it takes a bit
of a specia list and Nick (Ienatsch ) is
just that. I could see wh ere he was
going probably 50 feet deeper in to turn
two than I was, taking advantage of
the headw ind. I got into a cou ple of
big slide s in turns eight and nine and
decided that it was just too risky ,"
Brauneck said.
" My tuner Steve Bigansky did some
serious engine work this week, and we
juggled the internal gear ratios. After
that, we made one jetting change and
on e suspension change; that's the real
hom e track advantage," Ienatsch
explained.
Surprisingly, Brauneck didn't feel
like celebrating - though his mood
had little to do with racing.
"This is the shallowest, most hollow
victory I've ever had," 'a sullen Bra uneck said. ' "This championship cost
me dearly. I've lost the absolute love
of my life, my lifestyle, everything."
Brauneck explained that his singleminded championship quest resulted
in him breaking up with his long time
girlfriend, and that he was now living ·
on the road in his van, with all his
possessions in storage. He was not a
happy man, and hinted that he may
not defend his number I plate.
Ienatsch, on the other hand, was
ecstatic, so much so that he later lost
his voice.
" I can't believe I won. It's the kind
of thing where it just seemed too easy,"
lentasch whi spered. "This is all I've
been working for. Ask anybody. This
is all I've been thinking or talking
about.
" Doug Brauneck was this guy that
I've been .in terviewing for six years; he
was one of my heroes. I though tthere
was no way I cou ld beat him. But I
spoke with him at the riders " meeting
this morning and I realized that maybe
I could beat him."
Following the race, lenatsch 's
helmet bore a taped-on message that
read "Size XXL ." lenatsch is spon. sored by Del Amo Yamaha, Dunlop,
RK Chain, Motul and No leen Racing.
Graves was pleased with his thirdplace' finish, bu t knew that he could
have done better had it not been for
his mechanical problems.
"The interna l gearing was all
wrong," Graves said. " I could only go
down two gears instead of three for
turn one, plus we went up one tooth
on the rear sprocket for the headwind
on the fron t straight and I was maxed
out way before turn eight."
Tuner John Lassak was impressed
by Graves ' performance, saying, "I
think he's got a lot of potential."
Graves thanked his sponsors Lassak
Racing, AirTech, Ohlins, House of
Wheels, VP Fuels and Bieffe,
Williams moved up to fourth wh en
Paris crashed in turn five on lap 16,
and he was surprised to fini sh tha t
high after battling with and disposing
of Shierts and Salaverria.
"They had motor on me. 1 thought
I'd just hang, but I found that! could
go through turn two better than Al and
turn one better than Lee. I passed them
both in one lap," Williams said.
Shierts managed to beat Salaverria
to finish fifth , saying, " It was the
hardest race ever. I know I could have
done better, but my overall position
in the point standings was way more
important than just th is one race."
Shierts ended up tying Sullivan for
fourth in points.
Salaverria was disheartened, but
realistic.
"I'm pretty sore from last weekend
(when he crashed in his heat race at
Topeka), and I sma cked my knee in
turn two on Friday. I lost the fron t
end in turn eight a couple times from
the wind. This weekend went pretty
bad , but I learned a lot this .season.'
Salaverria was assisted at the track by
former 500cc MX World Champion
Brad Lackey, who's helping to manage
th e 20-year-old road racer.
Schwarzbach ran alone all race long
to finish sixth, while Canadian Rick
Tripodi overcam e a battle with Sullivan to finish seventh, Sullivan
having crashed out on the second-tolast lap.
Californians Mark Schubert and
Scott Conaway rounded out the top 10.
Canadian . Jon Cornwell was still
recovering from a crash two weeks ago
at Shannonville, and didn't do himself
any good by also falling in practice
here; he backpedaled to .finish II tho CI'I
Resu lts
HEA T t: I. Doug Brauneck (Ya m); 2. Nick
Ienatsch (Yam): 3. Ben Williams (Yam); 4. Mike
Sullivan (Yam); 5. Larry Schwarzbach (Yam ): 6.
Jo na than Cornwell (Yam ): 7. Rick Tripodi (Yam):
8. Peter Wensloff (Yam ); 9. Michel Lava llee (Ya m).
Time: 7 min., 28.850 5