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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127592
AMA 250(( Grand Prix Series: Final round R RACE ; DAD By Henny Ray Abrams SONOMA, CA, AUG. 29 very nearly perfect season came to an end for Jim my Filice a t Sears Point In terna tional Raceway, the Modesto, California, rider clinching his second AMA 250cc National Champioriship with a record ninth victory aboard th e Wayne Ra iney Racin g /Otsuka Electronics-backed Yamaha TZ250. Like most of his other wi ns, this one was a romp. Filice took con trol from the drop of the green flag and set a blistering pac e that no one was able to come within a second a lap of matching. It was no different in qualifying when he took the pole posi tion by better tha n a seco nd. That performance served notice of what was to come and, on a ho t and br eezy s u mm er afternoon, he back ed up h is q uali fying achievement with another . stunning race win, this time by 8.793 seconds after he backed off in the final laps. "1 was pretty nervou s going into the race," Filice said. " It was a dea l whe re I need ed to finis h the race. If I finished fift h I w o uld have w on th e ch am p ions hip. But tha t's no t my sty le. I talked to Wayn e (Rainey) and he said to st ick to the game plan that got me here. "The fir s t few la p s I was a li t tle up tight and nervous. I wanted to win the champi onship so much for Wa yn e and the team. He' s been trying for tw o years to win the thing and the money tha t he spent...The on ly way I could thank him was to win a champio nship." Filice, who won his first AMA 250cc Gra nd Prix title in 1991, completed the 19-1ap, 47.88-m ile race in 33 mi nutes, 13.409 seconds at an average speed of 85.783 mph . The only ble mis h on his o therwise pe rfect season was a crankshaft failu re at Elkhart Lake. But that DNF kept the cha m p io ns hip h opes of So u thwes t Mo torsp orts ' Chri s D ' Al u isio alive going into the final race. Any hope the Connecticu t rid er had. o f challenging Filic e en d ed two week s ag o w he n he broke his foot in WERA race a t Pocono. Riding wit h a custom-mad e two -piece, A Filice co tSears Point r wneda ~ Jimmy Filice (65) led off the line in the 250cc Grand Prix class an d was never headed, taking his seco nd National title with th e win. carbon- fibe r / Ke vla r boot, D' Al uisio ro d e in co nsiderable pa in to a six thplace finish . The final points tally was 320 for Filice an d 296 for D' Aluisio. Secon d tod a y, a career-best, was Moto Liberty /Nankai's Tak ahito Mori. The Japanese rid er, who'd qua lified second, rode alone mu ch of the race, losing ground to Filice, bu t gaining it on third place, a po sition that was decide d on the final lap. Terra nova Pa in ti ng' s Gee p Terranova, the 1992 AFM Formula Two Champion and local hero, rod e a smart r ace in th ird fo r 18 la ps. It a ll came apart, however, on the final lap with a low-side crash in tu rn two. He w ould re-mount to finish 11th. The beneficiary of Te rranova's misfortune wa s Ex tre m e Lean / Zero Grav ity's N ick Ien a tsch wh o'd spent mos t of the race dici ng with the th ree- ye a r -o ld Aprili a o f Al Sa la ver ria . Ie na tsc h was handed th ird when he avo ide d the falli ng Ter ran ova, and he held off the pers isten t Salaverria to the finish . Salaverr ia, w ho lives in nearby San Francisco, had blown up his engine on the second lap of qualifying and had failed to qualify, bu t was granted a start by referee Speedy Kell. Redlin e Ra cin g /Shoe i /Dun lop' s Mike Sullivan ha d a season-best fifth. 7