Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

seemed to have a lock on that spot, but .. then Miller caught H arrell and then p assed h im. O liver too ca ugh t a n d moved around Harrell, but on the last lap, Harrell made his move, reclaiming se cond . And it was a good thing, because Oliver - knowing he had to take . second in thi s leg to wi n the overall entered 'tu m four too ho t, lost the front end and crashed right in front of Miller, who chopped th e thro ttl e tr y in g to avoid Oliver and also lost the front end. Third place was taken by Sadowski, who had passed 18 riders to get there: Martin claimed fourt h, while D'Aluisio bested teammate Walker for fifth. Tebo worked his w ay up to seventh, . with Gray, Sore nsen and Jim Van Vegten roun d ing ou t the top 10 in the second leg. In -the winner's circle afte r the race, Graves' front slick was completely flat, while his rear tire's tread had begun to separate from the tread-ano ther lap, and he p robably would n't have finished. Formula II Performance South's Rich Oliver executed a brillian t race stra tegy which culminated in a fin al straight-away draft pass that earned him the victory, a hair ahead of Southwest Motorspo rts' Chris D'Aluisio and Danny Walker, in the Air Tech Formula II race tha t was sponsored by Samm y Tanner Distri buting. An d when Olive r sw ept a r ou n d th ose d u eli ng tea m ma tes, w ho w er e banging into and leaning on each oth er down the stra ight, his draft shoved D'Aluisio into Walker with such force that Walker, who was on the outside near the tarma c's ed ge, bounced off into the dirt, stayed on the thro ttle, and narro wl y ca p tured third ahead of Ci ne Camera's Jason Pad en. Suc h thea trics were commonplace throughout the race, which fea tu red mu ltip le passes per tum and an ea rly, five-rider dice for the lead. Nick Ienatsch, who hold s the 250cc GP lap record at Willow Springs, was a hea vy favori te to win, and had so me ot her co m p e tit o rs worrie d that he would run away to a soli tary victo ry . And that seemed on the verge of happening, because out of a jumbled start lenatsch quickly took the lead, Walker trailing. But Ienatsch's lead and race came to a crashing halt around the thir d lap in top-speed tum eigh t. "I got up in the air over the bump (in tum eight)," explained Ienatsch, "then the win d caught me." Luckily, both Ienatsch and his stock Yamaha TZ250 survived with little if any damage. And so the battle up front settled down fo r a lap or two, with Wa lk er leading, D' Alui sio second, Oliver third and Chuck Sorensen a few lengths back in fourth. . A bit past the halfway point of thel4lap feature, Paden caught Sorensen, and then the lead trio . With three laps to go, Pa d e n assu med th e lead, and quickly had a two bike length lead. " Pa d en was the qu ick est guy out there," said Walker, "and I thought he was going to go away, and I knew that I had to get around him or he would." So th e wily veterans Walker and D' Aluisio began stuffing ' under Paden, trying to psyche him and break his confidence, a n d it apparently w orked. Walker, D'Aluisio and Oliver passed Paden ente ring turn one to be gin the final lap. "On th e last lap," said Oliver after the race, "I was gingerly riding aroun d, just hoping to stay with D'Alu isio and Walker because my front tire was old, worn out and slid ing a lot. I've definitely got the fastest motor, but I didn't Champions hip point leader Michael Martin (96) leads Rich Oliver (97) and Danny Walker (5); Martin leads Graves by six points. think I was close enough to d raft by but Ch ri s and Danny w ere runnin g in to each oth er, which will slow you down, then I got a double draft off them and pulled it off." In th e winner's circle, runne r- u p D' Aluisio w as joking wit h tea mmate Walker about them running into each other, whil e Paden, who finished fourth, stood off to the side enviously watchin g. Performance South' s Chuck Sorensen w as fif t h , w ell ahead of defend in g Formula II champ Kurt Hall. Oliv er took o ver the Form u la II points lead with 55, three ahead of the tie for second between D' Aluisio and Hall. Walker and Sorensen trail with 41 and 36 points, respectivel y. Formula III Entering the Willow Springs round, Grand Prix Imports' local fast gu y and series regular Rodney Fee was the oddson favo rite to win the F-III race. And that would have been the cas e if it wer en ' t for Southwest Motors p o rts' Tommy Hayden, who snuck up on Fee, who had led the entire race, on the last lap and took the lead. Fee tried to draft back around H ayden down Willow 's lo n g front straight, but came up less than a tenth of a second sho rt at the line and had to settle for second. Tommy's brother Nicky was a di stant th ird, ahead of Valvol ine Suzuki's Kurt Hall, who was rid ing team manager John Ulrich's personal bike, w it h Sport Rider maga zine 's Nick Ienatsch fifth. Superstock Vanson Superstock racing got off to a scary start: in the opening race of the weekend, 750 Supe rstock, Valvo line Suzuki's Stevie Patterson crashed in tum eight on the opening lap s, halting the r ace. A crash truck bro u ght Pa tterson's bike in, and he remounted for the restart. . At the second start, Valv o li ne's Chuck Graves took off to a comfortable lead, ran consistent times less than three seconds off his w inning Formula USA pace, and was never challenged. Factory Pe rformance's Jam es Randolph pu t in a sp irited ride up into seco nd, until his clutch fried on the last lap, and he coasted across th e li ne, claimi ng seventh overall . Kurt Hall, who had been stal king Rand olph , earned second, last year's 750 Superstock w inner Andy Milton th ird. An thony Lu po and Tray Batey rounded out the top five. 1100 Su per stock was ne xt, and ju st like last ye a r, this race belonged to ' Torco Oils' Cur tis Adams and his trusty 1986 Suzuki GSXRllOO. Adams dash ed off to a convi nci ng win over Hall 'N'Sti1l's Tray Batey, while Orlando Pa blo, Stevie Patterson a nd Kevin Rentzell rounded out the top five. 600 Superstock say Cycle Racer's Tim Tillman be credited with a 13 second win over current Willow Springs Motorcycle Club #1 plate holder Willie Burr, while Dale Kieffer, Ritchie Thorup and Stevie Patterson rounded out the top five. Future Stars/Seca II Challenge At the start of the combined Future St a rs /Seca II race, two Future stars crashed ou t at the top of tum four, and a red flag halted everyone. The next start go t a w ay smo o thly, except for some bumping in the delayed, second wave Seca II ranks. While Jeff Leona rd and Jerry Evens fo ught fo r the Future St ars vic to ry , Robert Yule pr oceeded to storm away to a four-second lead in the Seca class. On the fift h lap, Futu re Star Don Becklin (w ho is an ex per t w ith o the r clubs) tagged Seca rider Tobi Cohen, and the ensu ing wreck left Cohen with a broken ankle and wrist, in addition to leaving he r bik e in the mi d dl e of high-sp eed turn two . Then Seca rid er To m my McComas collide d wi th Mich ael Dana while contesting fourth with tw o laps remaining. The race con tin ued o n , a nd sa w Leonard w in th e overall and Fu t ur e Stars cla ss over Ev a n s a nd Sean Robbins . In the Seca ranks, Yule slowed because of all of the accidents, allowi ng Tommy Bencha rit to ca tch a nd p ass him. When a red flag finally ended the race,' Bencharit was cre dited with the win, Jason Black taking a close third. (;N Results FRAMIBENDlX/AUTOLIT E F· US A : 1. C h uck Graves (Suz) 3-1; 2. Micha el Martin (Suz ) 2·4 ; 3. Paul Herrell (Suz) 6-2; 4. Chris D'Aluisic (Yam) 5-5; 5. Danny wa lker (Yam) 4-6; 6. Chuck Sorensen (Yam ) 9-9: 7. Scott Gray (Suz) 1Hl; 8. Rich Oliver (Yam ) 1-21; 9. Lee Shierts (!

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