Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127664
Round 1: Road Atlanta second leg based on his earlier performance. Oliver, who finished behind Szarek in the second leg, sa id Szarek's Yama h a h ad " w ay more horsepower than anything out there." I Team Valv oline Suzu k i's Chuck Graves w as fifth, th e defending F-USA Champion tallyin g sixth and fifth place finis hes. Agains t mostly equ al bi k es in th e Goodridge Formula II race, Oliver was untouchabl e, leading early and running away until the race was red-flagged on the ninth of 12 laps. Chris Taylor w as runni ng se cond on his self-sponsored Yamaha with Oliver's Performance South Racing teammate Chuck Sorensen third after a weekend spent sorting out jetting problems tha t caused one blown motor. Oliver had about a five-second cushion on Taylor, who was just a secon d in fron t of Sor ensen, when the red flag came o ut o n t he ninth la p. It was thrown, not as a result of debris on the track, b ut b eca use b o th a mb u lances were out as a result of earlier accidents. Since th e race w as p ast the h alfwa y mar k, it was d eclared official. "Thes e guys (Taylor and Soren sen) are goin g too fas t for me. I'm ge ttin g way too old to ride tha t ha rd ," Oliver joked, but his lap times say otherw ise. H e was a b le t o ru n in th e low oneminu te, 24-second range, and clocked . three 1:23s w hile Taylor and Sor ensen tried to keep pace. "Rich just kept stepping it up ," Taylor said . " We sta rt e d th is w e ekend doing 26s, and Rich was doing 25s. We d id 25s, and Rich did 24s. Tod ay we do 24s, and Rich does 23s." The 125's provided the best racing of the day in the RK Chain Formula II1 race with five bikes going for the lead from the start, and three finishing under a blanket in the end . Earl's Racing Team's then By Henny Ray Abrams Photos by George Roberts BRASELlON, GA, APR. 24 eam Mirage's Dale Quarterley knew that in order to take the ove rall win in the WERA Motoport Formula SA even t at Road Atlanta h e had to beat Team LaBelle's Dave Sadowski in the second leg . Sadowski had won the first leg by a scant .31-of-a-second and it was late in the second leg when Quarterle y realized he had to make his move. Cresting turn five on the final lap, he and Sadowski wheelied, with Sadowski coming down first and the two making in cid e n t al contact. What Quarterley d idn't know w as that the contac t had knocked the front brake lever off his Team Mirage Kawasaki z:x.7 - and when he went to brake for turn six there was nothing but rear brake available. Quarterley tried to slow down, but he ended up crashing spectacularly, fortunately escaping withou t injury. Sadowski went on to take the win, the first ever for both the Buford, Georgia, resident and Honda in F-USA competition. "Dale said to me, 1 know you were coming down off a wheelie and couldn't do much. It's nothing I wouldn't have done," Sadowski recounted . " I approached this weekend (thinking) that I'd take it comfortably in the first leg and banzai it in the second leg. 1 had to change my plans when Dale pushed my banzai button." "We had a good race going. I just came up on the short end," Quarterley said. In second place, with 3-2 finishes in the two 12-lap sprints, was Starsport's Scott Gray, the Santa Rosa, California rider competing on a Fast by Ferracci I (Above) Dave Sadowski (25) leads Michael Martin (96) and Chuck Graves (hidden) on the opening lap of the Formu la USA race at Road Atlanta. (Right) Sadowski went on to take the win attar Dale Quarterley (32) crashed out of their race-long battle. Ducati that he 'd taken delivery of the day before practice started. Gra y said that racing was an adjustment process and that he didn't want to take any unnecessary chances on the new racebike. It was the first time that Gray had finished an F-USA event at Road Atlanta. Reigning Formula II Champion Rich Oliver finished third, the Performance South Racing-backed Yamaha TZ250 pilot carding a pair of fourth-place finishes: Using the agility and consistency of the littl e Yamaha, Oliver would eat up th e bigger bikes in the comers, only to lose it on the straights. But when the tires began to go away on the larger machines, Oliver wa s able to take advantage and moved up smartly in both races. A seventh and a third earned Virg inia Breeze Racing's Glenn Szarek fourth ov erall. The Yamaha FZRlOOOmounted racer was handicapped by a a bad grid position in the first leg, and then started from the third row in the started from the third row in the Nicky Hayden, the 14-year-old younger brother of defending F-III champion Tommy Hayden, took the checkered flag, holding off Joe Fahey/M.C.E. Racing's Kevin Murray and self-sponsored Thornton McPheeters at the line. Hayden, who led across the line on each of the final four laps, though not necessarily for the entire lap, won by .28-0f-a-second at the end of the 12-lap, 3O.24-rnile race.