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AMA250ccGrand Prix Series Round 8
ROADRACE
F esa ssee ya inBrainerd
ilic y
By Pa ul Carru thers
Photos by George Robert s
B
RAINERD, MN, AUG. I
anadian Jon Cornwell got the best of
Southwest Motorsports teammates
Chris D'Aluisio and Danny Walker
in a classic three-rid er duel at Brainerd
Interna tional Raceway...but it was a race
for second place. The win, as usual, wen t
to the d ominant pairing of Jimmy Filice
a nd the Wayn e Rainey Racing/Otsuka
Electronics-backed Yamah a 1Z2SO.
Rag to flag. Start to finish. Beginn ing
to end . Call it what you want. This one
was all.Jim my Filice. Th e d iminu tive
Californian stormed off at the start, established a si x-second lead and put it on
cruise control, eventually slowing to win
by 2.425 seconds. Filice averaged 102.317
mph in win ning the 48-mile race in 28
minu tes, 6.611 seconds, his only problem
ca me afte r th e finish when his TZ250
coasted to a stop - out of fuel. Even that
wasn't mu ch of a d ilemm a as Cornwell
gave Filicea ride back to the winner's circle.
The real batt le at the front of the pack
came in the race for second, and it lasted
the dura tion of the 16 laps. Cornwell vs,
New Englander D'Aluis io vs. Walker of
Colo rado. Th e three s tayed together
througho u t, trading places all ove r the
tbree-mile Brainerd circuit with each tak-
C
ing a turn a t leading . The fight came
down to the final lap with a gallant move
in traffic by Cornwell deciding the outcome. With lappers between hirnse1f and
the Southwest teammates, Cornwell was
able to secure second place - his best finish
of the season.
D'Aluisio was then able to get the best
of his teamma te Walker in the run to the
flag, earning his seventh trip to the winner's circle in eight attempts.
Filice's victory, his sev enth in eight
starts, moved him back into the champi onship poin ts lead over D'Aluisio, 250241, with tw o rounds rema in ing the
series. Cornwell's finish movedhim into
third place with 201 points, well clear of
Nick lenatsch's 180 points and Walker 's
179. lenatsch finished eighth today with
an ill-running motorcycle.
For winning, Filice received $2000 of
the race's $10,000 purse.
As the pack reached the tum seven
and eigh t esses for the first time it was
Filice leadin g with D' Aluisio, Walker and
Co rnwell tu ck ed in be hind and then
al ready a ga p to the thi rd Southwest
Mo torsports Yam aha of Chris Taylor.
Then came upst art Jason Paden and
Ienatsch, who had gotten a horrible start,
~
~
Jimmy Filice was his do minant self at Brainerd, winning his sevent h race of the year.
Jon Cornw ell (49) gets a lapped rider between himself and Chris D'A luis io (2).
Wet weather can't sto Filice
min ous-looking clouds and drops of rain ha d the 250cc Grand Prix class riders
and crews loo ki ng skyward p ri or to their qua lifying session at Bra in erd
: Intern~tional Ra~eway. When the p~oceedings finally got underway the weather
was ind eed iffy. The nders began the session on a we t track and ended on a d rying one
- still, it was we t enough to warrent the use of intermed ia te tires for mos t of the field.
At the completion of the sessio n it was Wayne Rainey Racing / Otsuka Electronicsbacked Jimmy Filice (righ t) earning the pole on the team 's immaculately prepared
Yamaha TZ250. Filice averaged 94.505 mph d uring his one-minute, 54.127-second lap
of the three-mile race track. Filice, like most of the others, went faster wi th each and
every Jap on the drying track and his fast lap came late in the sessi on.
The wet conditions, though; didn't allow t he Californ ian t o come even close to the
lap record of 1:44.387 set by,Colin Ed wards II a year ago during qua lifYing at Brainer d.
Because of the wet cond itions, Filice op ted to put a lower gea ring on his Ed
Toomey-tuned Yamaha, and tha t also slowed him as the trackcond itions quickened .
"I was over-revving it on the front straight," Filice said. "But I felf good and I d id n' t
want to come in and change it. I was just being careful. The dry line was real narrow in
some ~eas . A lot of guys were a little nervous in the first comer (a wid e open in sixth
gea r right-hande r at the end of the long front stra ight) and they were backing off. It's
banked throu gh there so I think it was okay. We grooved our ow n tires in Loudon and
they work good. Maybe right a t the end slicks would have been good for a few quick
laps."
The pair of Sou thw est Motorsports Yamahas in the hands of New Englander Chris
D'Aluisio and Colorado's Danny Walker were the second and third qu ickest of the 26rider field. D'Aluisio had clocked a 1:54.540, and was wishin g for at least one more lap .
"On e more lap and I could have gone two seconds quicker," said D' Aluisio, who
also used Dunlop intermed iate tires. "The line was weird at first - real close to the apex.
It was alw ays wet, only near the end did it start to d ry away from the line. I was way
undergeared and I came in to change, but there were only five minutes left and there
was n' t eno ugh time. I was jus t go ing out to get a time. But it was kinda fun taking
three seconds a lap off your times."
Walke r was plea sed with his qualifying effort of 1:55.319: "The bike was actually
working really well,", he sa id. "My onl y problem was the battery in my timer d ied
(Southwes t uses a timing dev ice mounted on the handlebars so the riders can monitor
their progress). I had no idea how fast I was going. I came in and asked how qu ick I
was. I went back ou t and did two more laps. I got baulked on my good lap and ended
up third. The bike is working really well, though."
.
Filling the front row was Extreme Lean's Nick Ienatsch, his 1:55.440 giving him the
fourth quickest time. lenatsch used Dunlop slicks in what was his best qualifying effort
of the season.
"In,ee~ed that," Ienatsch ,sai~. ");'ou start tO,wonder if you can.ride a motl?rcycle
after an eighth place finish. I didn't PlIt a tire wrong all session, I was just real smooth
on the throttle and I didn't have' a scary moment. It was so undramatic I thought I'd
g?ne a lot slower. Now I just have. to get a good start and run with the boys. We used.
shcks,because \'f~ , only have one set of wheels. KennY' Roberts said in his book that
slickS' work good in the wet ยท;'it's easier to read it than.to'do it. I
for thre e to five
minutes in the pits because I kriew it was drying. Tha t qualifying session was just
about who could adapt the quickest and not do anything stupid."
Vallejo, California's Jason Paden led the second row on his Cine Camera-backed
Yamaha for his best-ever grid position. Georgia's William Quinn, Minnesola'sBryan
Okubo and Japan's Takahito Mori filled the second row. .
O
sal
and had already lost touch with those he
had hoped to run with. Tak ahito Mori
was next and in a hurry to move forward.
That would last un til the fourth lap when
the Japanese rider crashed out. No Mori.
By the second go-around, Filice had
already started to establish himself in typical Filice style. Hang it out in the ear ly
laps and let the others race for seco nd
place. By the third lap he would lead by
two seconds, and that lead would grow to
so me six seconds by the 10th lap, and
seven seconds by the 13th lap. With two
laps to go, Filice slowed d ra matically,
allowing the others to close the gap to
what would end up being 2.425 seconds
at the flag.
"I' m just feeling so confident and the
machine is so good," Filice said later. "It's
just really easy to ride. I've got to thank
Yamaha for such a good motorcycle."
The race for second was on. D'Aluisio
led the majority of the time - laps three
through six, again on eight, 10 and 11 with McBride 's Cycle-backed Cornwell
leading the rest with the exception of the
15th. That was Walker's.
Bu t the most impora nt lap was the
final one. With the trio heading into tum
seven amongst a gaggle of lapped riders,
Cornwell showed the most spunk, taking
to the inside of one lapper in tum eigh t
and stuffing his way past. He was then
able to pass some more traffic en route to
tum nine, leav ing the other two to get
severely baulked. Hasta la vista. End of
battle for second place.
"I kinda got lucky on the last lap,"
Cornwell said later. "I pulled a couple of
beserko moves to get by lappers ."
D' Aluisio then came out the best in the
intra-team battle for second with Walker.
Taylor turned in a fine ride to take fifth
with Marcello del Guidice sixth after coming from way back with an inspired effort
on the Back iri Black Yamaha. Paden and
hi s Cin e Camera -sponsored Ya maha
ended up getting the better of Ienatsch
and his mis-firing Extreme Motorsportsba cked Yamaha for seventh. Andrew
Trevitt and local Bryan Okubo rounded
out the top 10 finishers.
"[immy (Filice) got off good and hammered it for the first few laps," D'Aluisio
said. "At the end, Jon stuffed a couple of
guys and I didn 't get 'em. That was it for
me. As far as the championship goes, I
can' t lose hope. With Jimmy, that's all I
M~"
G
Results
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