Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ ROAD RACE WERA Pro Series: Round 6 ~ Chuck Graves (24)oIeads Robbie Petersen (16), Kurt H all (60) and the rest of th e F-USA pa ck on th e opening lap at Pocono. Rich Oliver threw away his chances of victory with a crash in the first race. Petersen prevailsat Pocono By Bren t Plummer Phot os by George Rober ts LONG POND, PA,AUG. 25 or the second straig ht race, Marlbo ro Yamaha 's Robbie Petersen was able to cap ita lize on a no nfini sh by hi s teammate Rich Ol iver to win a WERA Formula USA overall, this o ne comi ng at Pocon o Intern ation al Raceway. Riding a Yam ah a YZR500 V-four, Petersen emerged sup reme fro m a 30rid er field in the only run-what-yo ubrung form of road racing in the Uni ted States. And in similar circu mstances to th e previous round in Brainerd, Minnesota , he took full ad va n ta ge o f his teammate 's misfortune. Oliver crashed wh ile leading the first race, scored zero poin ts and handed th e victory to the hard-char ging Petersen . Petersen fin ished second beh ind his teammat e in the follo wing leg and his 2-1 tally gave him no t o nly the overall win, bu t a 13-po int cus hion o ver Ol iver, 98-85, i n th e series poin t sta ndi ngs . T he cras h in the firs t race cost O liver dearly. Though he came back to wi n the second leg in commanding fashio n, the DNF dr agged him down to 13th overall , an d he left Pen nsylvan ia with a measly th ree po ints for his efforts (WERA pays po in ts acco rd-. F 22 ing to overall fini shing position after both races, un like the two -leg points pa yi ng fo r ma t used in th e World Champ ions hip Superbike Series). Afterwards, Oliver took his lumps co urageously, offered no excuses, and took all th e blame: " I mad e a big mistake, bu t I' d ra ther that I made the mistake than th e bike blow up," he exp lai ned . "Then I don ' t hav e to say 'i f the bike didn 't blow up, I wou ld be leading th e championshi p.' In stead it's, 'Yeah if I didn ' t cras h my brains out . . . . " While Oliver would add n othing in hi s defense, hi s Marlboro crew was bu sy pa ckaging the front fork to be shipped back to the Oh lins factory for unspecified "problems," about which they wou ld no t elaborate. Second overa ll by virt ue of hi s twothree finishes was Ca liforn ia na tive Ch uck Graves, wh o rode a relatively lo nely - thou gh no t unevent fu l pair of races o n his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX R I lOO-based superb ike. Graves was nervo us througho ut, thoug h, as par ts are getti ng a tad worn o n h is trick Suzuki: "The mo tor has been ru nning the same ri ngs since Will ow Springs," he said. " It is really worn ou t, and needs to be rebuilt. But we didn 't hav e an y new rin gs or cylinde rs. " T h i rd o vera ll went to T eam Ham mer rid er, and ex- For m ula USA Cha mpion , Kurt H all. Through out bot h races Hall tus sled with Hammer teamma te Donald J acks. Showing a n absence of team politics, the two diced in grand fashi on with neither giving any quarter. The Val voline Suzuki rid ers were taki ng adva ntage of th e recent rul e change tha t allo ws a meth anol blended fue l (wh ich is sti ll visibl e whil e combust ing ) to be used. Did the met ha no l hel p? " I th ink it was an adva ntage o nce we go t it a littl e mo re dialed in," H all sa id. " We cha nged jett in g after the first ro u nd, (but) it help s when th e temperature is hotter, and while the temp is as coo l as it was here it wasn't a standout type of adva ntage." Surprise, surprise - Oliver domi nated qualifyin g with a combinatio n of a heavy th rottle hand and impressive lean ang les, acq uiring the po le with a o ne- min ute, 33.63-second, 96. 124 mph lap around the 2.5-mi le combina tion infi eld /ban ked oval course . Bo th Mar lboro riders were hav ing a to ugh time with the bumpy Pocono trac k, and the myriad of adjus tme nts avail a ble o n th eir su pe r-se ns i tive YZR500 Grand Prix bikes didn 't make things any easier. Peterse n sa id he wo uld o nly go "as fast as the track will let me," a policy that kept him upright, bu t still fast, throughout the weekend. Petersen was relatively new to Pocono, and as he learned the trac k, h is times steadily decrease d throug ho u t qual ifyin g. H is fina l lap was his best, where he ran a I:34.40, sligh tly behind Oliver, but a good second and a ha lf ahea d of th ird fastest qualifier- Graves, wh o clocked a 1:35:90. Hall was back o n [arm, feeling good with hi s familiar 1100 chass is, and was clocked a bit more than a tenth slower than Graves at 1:36.06. At the start of the first leg, Graves pu t his head do wn and took off , hanging on tigh t whi le hi s big Suzuk i [ended off th e two Marlb oro teams ters to lead into tu rn one. Graves held the duo off for ' the first lap , but heading into the bum py first turn , Petersen who actually had a good sta rt for o nce - carried mor e speed over the rippl es and went around Graves for the lead . Ol iver was not far beh in d, and too k Graves in the 9O-degree left-hand tum four, the second to last turn in the infield. Oliver's first flying lap was do wn in th e low I:34s, whi le Petersen was in the m id 34s; conseq uent ly, Oliver was gaining rapidly on his teammate. On th e third lap, Oliver took the lead, which he would hold until the race was sto p ped at the beginning of the fifth lap . Team Hammer's Britt Turkington had dropped his Suzuki GSX RIIOO in turn three o n the third lap and the bike sat in the middl e of th e track for ano ther lap while corner workers helped a woozy Turkington off to th e o u tside of the track. The bike was su mma ri ly moved , but the ambulan ce was then sitting right o utside th e turn , in ches from the track. It was then that th e WERA o££icials halted the race. Fortun ately, T ur kington escaped with on ly brui ses. Wh en the race was restarted, Graves, o nce again , led into the first turn, with Petersen trail in g, th en Hall and Oli ver in third and fourth , respecti vely. Hall was soo n relega ted to fourth, with Jacks settling in o n hi s heel s. Oliver was hungry and he pass ed both Graves and Petersen on the oval's tu rn three - the last turn before the front stra ig ht - with Petersen grabbing hi s d raft a nd a lso motoring around Graves for second. It was th en that things rea lly started heating up. Oliver 's thi rd lap wa s a 1:33.17 , Peterson 's a I:33.44. The next tim e around they cloc ked a I:33.03 and 1:33.50, respectively, as they put som e di st an ce bet ween th em selves and Graves. Meanwhile, J acks was hounding his teammate Hall all around the tra ck, but he cou ldn't mak e a pass stick. Immedia tely beh ind the two wa s AMA Pr o-Twins regular J imm y Adam o on the Gia Ca Mota Ducati 888. Adam o had been trai ling th e pai r since the ope ni ng laps, wai ti ng pa tient ly for a mi scu e. An error soo n materialized , but from Adam o's perspecti ve, it ca me to the wro ng perso n. On the fifth lap , Adam o and h is Ducati wen t skitter ing do wn the front stra ig ht, wh ere it finall y ground to a halt o ut of harm 's way at the bottom of the banking. Adam o escaped with out injury and walked away . It was the next lap that was truly amazing, but not for any spectacular passes o r slides: it was a relatively staid lap until everyo ne with a sto p watch glanced down , and then looked back up in awe. Ol iver had clocked a 1:32.60, just over two seconds under th e lap record. Oliver, thou gh, slowed over a second for his next two laps, on the second of wh ich (the ninth) he cra shed in turn three, a pa rticu larly bumpy corne r tha t featu res a big ri pp le at the turning-while-brak ing entrance, and ano ther smack in the m iddl e. It was the second o ne that levered the front end off the ground of the Marlboro bike, un cer em oni ousl y dumping Oliver. Both Graves and Petersen went int o cruise mod e after seeing the fallen Ol iver, running I:35-36 lap tim es. H all and J acks weren't read y to cruise, th ough, and they didn 't let up. Hall led by no more than a half second throughout the race until the beginning of the last lap wh en J acks drafted by on the front straigh t. . Hall dogged J acks for the entire lap, sucki ng the draft around th e oval's turn three. When the duo rounded the bankin g, Ha ll drafted J acks, and a t the last mom en t, he swung in side and as Jacks let off to prep are for turn one, H all sho t past, appearing to finis h thi rd. No p hoto fin ish eq ui pment was used, ho wever, an d Jacks was officially awarded third p lace. Team Hammer ride r Michael Martin rounded out the top five, followed by Dutch man Racing endurance rider Chris Haldane, privateer Stevie Patterson, Yamaha T Z250-mou nted Willi am H immelsb-

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