Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ • ROAD RACE AMA 250cc Grand Prix Series: Round 2 I Despite a practice crash that left him with a sore ankle, Jimmy Filice was still able to win the International Lightweight final. ,- Filice rolls to Daytona '250cc wIn By Henny Ray Abrams DAYTONA,FL,MARS he 250cc Grand Prix Series is only two races old, but it looks like if you want to win the championship you're going to have to go through Otsuka Electronics/Wayne Rainey Racing's Jimmy Filice to do it. After a slow start - while he adjusted to an ankle injury he suffered in a morning practice session crash - Yamahamounted Filice turned up the gas on the eighth of 18 laps to run away with the International Lightweight lOOk, pulling away from Performance Sololth Racing's Rich Oliver to win by 8.282 seconds in record-setting time on a bright, but g\,lsty Friday afternoon at Daytona International Speedway. Venezuelan Luis Lavado was third on the Lucky Strike Yamaha with Canadian Jonathan Cornwell fourth on the Shoei/McBride's Cycle/Yamaha Genuine Parts/ Dunlop /Morganbrae Farms-backed Yamaha. Filice completed the 18-lap, 62-mile race in 35 minutes, 26.189 seconds at an average speed of 108.498 mph, also a record. For winning his second 250 GP T 16 in a row, Filice earned $6000 from the $30,000 purse. Oliver pocketed $3700 for second with Cornwell taking home $2750. . "You don't know how sweet this is," Filice said in victory lane. "This morning, when I threw it away, I thought 'What a novice move.' I'm a little more experienced than to do dumb things like that. We bounced back though." After two of 11 races, Filice leads the championship with a perfect 70 points, 12 better than Southwest Motorsports' Danny Walker who has second with 58. Walker, who was never comfortable with his setup all weekend, finished fifth. His Southwest Motorsports teammate Chris D'Aluisio, sixth today, is third with 55. From the drop of the green flag it was apparent to those watching, as well as those involved, that it was a tworider race. "Out of the first turn I was in third going into the horseshoe," D'Aluisio said. "Jimmy and Rich pulled me out of it. 1 didn't get out of it real good and those two started taking off. When Luis (Lavado) went by, it was 'See ya.' From then on I watched Jimmy and Rich go off in the distance." The front part of the field settled into three sections. Out front Oliver and Filice changed places lap after lap, well ahead of Venezuelan Luis Lavado, third, alone, on the Lucky Strike Yamaha. Farther back, five riders - D' Aluisio, Cornwell, Walker, Andrew Trevitt, Michael Barnes - had the best race of the day for fourth. Filice dropped his lap times into the 1:57's as he adjusted to the awkwardness of riding with a duff ankle. Early in the race he was taking wide, looping cornering lines, allowing Oliver to gain ground by sticking near the apex. "I started going through the comers a lot better with a lot less throttle coming off the comers. Once I felt confident, I put my head down and put some good laps in," Filice said. The good laps were in the l:56-range, lower than he'd qualified, and he split from OliVer as the race neared the halfway point. "Jimmy looked a little sore and a little slower. He was running wide and turning in a little earlier. Once he got going he rode really well," Oliver said. The margin was over five seconds after nine of 18 laps and it would increase, though Filice backed it down at the end. "When I got up to the line, I was a little more nervous than I usually am," Filice said, surrounded by his crew in the winner's circle "I just took my time until I really got going good, and I let my tires get heated up. Rich got by me a couple times, but I really put my head down and I pushed it hard. "Wayne Rainey hired me to win races and we've won two. We need to win some more and win the championship," he added. Like Filice, Oliver had his position well in hand, holding over 13 seconds on tavado on the 10th lap despite saying he felt "rusty" from not having ridden much this year. "He really took off on me when he kicked in the after-burners in the middle of the race," Oliver said. "I tried to hang on, but I just need to get quicker. Basically, he goes into the corners with a lot more speed than I do. It's part bike setup, but it's the way he's always ridden. It was a great lesson for me." The battle for fourth 10 t one of its group when Woody Kyle Racing's Michael Barnes was slowed by an overheating engine with about five laps to go. "The temperature came up and it started losing top end power," Barnes said, though he was able to hold orHo eighth by using the draft on the final lap ou t of the chicane. The riders fighting for fourth jostled and bumped all the way to the final lap, each having a strategy to take advantage of the chicane and draft. Cornwell's was the best -get through the chicane first and break away - and he pulled it off with precision to take fourth. "I got through the chicane better than anybody," Cornwell, who had briefly broken away from the fight for fourth at mid-point said. "I'm just really happy to finish fourth." The fight for fifth was between the Sou'thwest Motorsports teammates, the pair giving each other no quarter and fighting to the end. Though Walker was in fifth for most of the last three laps, his margin at the finish line was only about 15 feet. "I never got the motor going," Walker, who has struggled all season with his setup, said. "I had problems shifting from fourth to fifth all week. Sure enough, 1 was so concentrated on getting out of the wind corning out of the chicane I missed a shift." Like Walker, D'Aluisio found that his machine settings were a little off. "We had no pull off the comers," sixth-place finisher 0' Aluisio said. "I was losing time, especially in the first horseshoe. I couldn't go in deep and flick it in. 1 couldn't get the tire hot enough." Crew chief Bruce Maus felt they were "reasonably close, but we could've missed on the jetting and gearing. It's never one thing, it's always a conglomera tion of how all the pieces work together." Andrew Trevitt, part of the gang of four contesting fourth, finished at the back of that pack, a lapped rider getting in his way on the last lap when he was making a move on D'Aluisio. IJ\' Results 250 INTERNATIONAL L/W 100: I. Jim Filice (Yam); 2. Rich Oliver (Yam); 3. Luis Lavado (Yam); 4. Jon Cornwell (Yam); 5. Danny Walker (Yam); 6. Chris D' A1uisio (Yam); 7. Andrew Trevitt (Yam); 8. Michael 8am~ (Yam); 9. R. Laconi (Hon); 10. Jimmy Mosley (Yam); 11. William Himmelsbach (Yam); 12. Bruce Baldus (yam), 13. J.- Rodriguez (Yam); 14. MarceUo del G~ (Yam); 15. Mike Sullivan (Yam); 16. Miguel

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