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GROAD RACEWERA Pro Series: Round 4~."..--,.,-Performance South 's Chuck Sorensen, R-eal Racing's Robert Miller and Gray rounded out the fifth row . Meanwhile, series regular Joe Brett Williams was nowhere to be found. Williams had tangled with Miller in a tum one practice crash, and was hospitalized with a suspected broken foot. e Chuck Graves won the Formula-USA overall at Willow Springs International Racew~y after posting a 3-1 tally in the two-leg race. Graves the big winnerat W illow By Brent Plummer Photos by Mike Doran ROSAMOND, CA, jULYlD-ll o r the second year in a row, Valvoline Suzuki's Chuck Graves proved that he is the master of Formula USA racing by again scoring a dominant win at the California Cycle Jam at Willow Springs Raceway. In doing so, Graves pocketed -the $5,000 winner's share of the $17,560 Fram/ Bendix/Autolite Formula USA purse. Graves earned the win via 3-1 placings in the two legs. Michael Martin, Graves' Valvoline Suzuki teammate, finished second overall by way of second and fourth place finishes. The final podium spot went to Torco Oils' Paul Harrell. However, Martin still leads the points chase over Graves, 54 to 48, with Southwest's Chris D'Aluisio and Danny Walker, who finished fourth and fifth, respectively, trailing with 43 and 37 points each . While Graves was favored to win, he knew a win wouldn't come easy . "The field for Willow was pretty impressive, they had a lot of quality riders with good equipment, In fact , this was the best field I've ever seen for a Formula USA event." On hand Willow Spring's four-stroke lap record holder Scott Gray, who has run lap limes at the southern California road race track in the low 1 minute, 25 second range, faster than Graves has ever gone. Also present was Yoshimura's David Sadowski, who through a series of coincidences was using the Suzuki GSXRllOO-based Yoshimura "Big Papa" engine which had propelled Gray to his lap record nearly two years ago . F 24 Unfortunately, an epic Graves/ Gray/Sadowski battle never took place . Gray had planned to run a new "Big Papa," scheduled to be completed by Yoshimura sometime before the Willow weekend . Unfortunately, the bike wasn't ready, leaving Gray to pilot his ex-Muzzy Kawasaki ZX-7R superbike, Alas, that machine was mired in Gray's hometown (Santa Rosa , California) in pieces, a new frame being installed to replace 'the previously bent unit. Gray was down to Plan C: Bolt as many trick parts as possible to a Supersport-Spec GSXR1100 and go racing. Consequently, Gray was off the pace, finishing seventh overall. And Sadowski fared little better. "In the first race an (engine) case bolt which had oil behind it broke off - I don't know why, I didn't build the motors, and it might have been torqued on too tightly - and sprayed oil." Sadowski was leading the first leg when the bolt broke, forcing him to pull in, relegating him to 28th position, and forcing him to start on the back of the grid for the second leg. Many other National-caliber riders were present and equally impressive, and judging who was the fastest after Saturday's quartet of 12 minute practice sessions (there was no Friday practice) was difficult, while little information came out of Saturday evening's qualifying heat race other than that winner Sadowski was blazingly fast, Graves was dialed and sandbagging - not wanting to show anyone, especially Sadowski, how fast he could go Graves, cruised to an easy second in the six-lap heat-and that most everyone else needed more practice to get up to speed. "This is a terrible weekend," said points leader Martin 'after the heat race. "I just can't get the suspension dialed, and I'm not happy with my riding, either. I don't know why, but I just can 't get up to speed." Even off-pace, Martin earned third in the heat race, and would fill out the front row next to Sadowski and Graves. All three were piloting Suzuki GSXR11DO-based machines. Del Amo 's Bruce Tebo, who lives a . few miles from the track and was one of three local heroes (the other two being Paul Harrell and Robert Miller) who had a chance to win, was on the inside of the second row, flanked by Southwest Motorsports' Danny Walker. Sixth in the heat race and heading up the third row was the second Southwest rider, Chris D'Aluisio. Harrell and Rich Oliver filled out the third row . The fifth row was full of surprises. Mike Harth, making his return to Formula USA racing after a crash at Charlotte Motor Speedway left him with a broken neck, was on the outside, and on the inside of the fifth row sat Lee's Cycle's Lee Shierts, who earned second overall last year at Willow, and was disappointed in qualifying ninth. "My A bike - the Suzuki GSXR1340 I used last year - was being transferred into anew, custom deItabox Kyle Martin USA frame," Shierts said, "and we just ran out of time - the gas tank, pressurized air box and bodywork wasn't ready. So we had to use my 1991 Kawasaki ZX-7R, which isn't as fast at Willow ." Formula USA The starter jerked the green flag to start the first leg of Fram /Bendix/ Autolite Formula USA racing, and a few riders launched. But the flag was held motionless, and everyone backed up to try again. When the start finally did commence, all of the Yamaha TZ250 mounted riders - Oliver, D'Aluis io and Walker in particular - were sitti ng on overheated bikes, which loaded up and left them floundering in the back of the pack. None of this mattered to Sadowski, who nailed a great holeshot and jumped into the lead, and everything was going according to his "free time" plan of gaining as much distance on the field as possible on the opening lap. Graves, Martin and Harrell were about two bike lengths back. Graves began to charge on Sadowski on the second lap and he was soon trying to pull around Sadowski on the outside of the flat-out tum eight. Entering the front straight, Graves seemed perfectly positioned to draft around Sadowski for the lead, but lacked enough horsepower to do so. So when the leaders crossed the start/finish line, Sadowski led, Graves was still second, and Martin was in third, frantically pointing at Sadowski's bike which was misting the trailing riders and track with oil. Sadowski continued to lead until the end of the fifth lap, when he pitted. Mike Harth also pulled off on that lap, his Suzuki GSXRllOO running poorly, and his day finished. At the end of lap six, Tebo held the lead, while Graves, Martin and Harrell were fading. "Sadowski's oil coated my windscreen and face shield," explained Graves, "then sand stuck to it, and I really couldn't see. To make matters worse, I tried to wipe the shield off with the back of my glove, which smeared the oil and distorted my vision even more. At that point, I had to back off, and kept wiping and wiping trying to get the shield clean, and fell back to sixth." On the ninth lap, Tebo pulled off the track at the entran ce of tum four, handing the lead to Performance South's Oliver. Martin had held onto second throughout, and Graves had pulled back up to third ahead of Harrell and a charging duo of Walker and D'Aluisio. Starting the last lap the order remained mostly the same: Oliver was well ahead of Martin and Gra ves, and the only position change was Harrell's fading back to sixth behind Walker and D'Aluisio. Miller, Jacques Guenette-riding a Joe Brett Williams' spare Honda CBR90o-Performance South's Chuck Sorensen and Cycle Racer's Kent Kuntisugo rounded out the top 10. Shierts, who ran ou t of his staple methanol fuel was forced to convert to gasoline and guess at the jetting, burbled to a disappointing 11th, one spot ahead of Gray. Sadowski and Tebo lined up at the back of the grid for Formula USA leg two, and blitzed off the start, immediately climbing positions. But there was no catching Graves, who led the race from flag to flag, uncontested. The battle for second, however, was not so easily decided. At first Harrell