Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Left) Second-place finisher Scott Gray gives Dale Quarterley a lift back to the pits after his Iast-lap crash. (Above) Nobody got closer than this to Rich Oliver In Formula II action. "They could get me in one and through the esses. I liked six and seven," Hayden said, adding that they passed him on the final lap going into tum five. "They went past me and I had to get going." The three Michelin Superstock races p roduced a mixed bag of winners, with Farmington Cycle WorldlValvoline's Steve Patterson coming closest to multiple victories. The Detroit resident won the red-flagged Michelin llOOcc Superstock final, beating Valvoline Suzuki's Tray Batey after swapping the lead back and forth right to the end. Dave Stanton was third in the race, which was stopped on the finaI lap. All three were aboard Suzuki GSXRll00s. In the Michelin 750cc Superstock final, Patterson chased Team Suzuki Sport's Aaron Yates to the line, only to come up .17-o f-a-secon d short. Patterson was much more aggressive into turn one, where he took the lead several times, but Yates was able to pull it back. It came down to the finaI lap, with both sliding as they went under the Goodyear Bridge and Yates on top by about two bikelengths. Stanton finished third while Batey was fourth. The Michelin 600cc Superstock final was a two-rider fight with Accounting Advisory 5ervices/RK Motorsports' Mike Reed and Darryl Saylor, on the Performance by Gary Honda CBR600, running in that order almost from the drop of the green flag. The two edged away from the pack, though neither seemed to have a definitive edge. On the last lap, Saylor went to make his move exiting the Goodyear Bridge, one tum from the end, bu t ran wide and into the dirt, sending up a cloud of red-clay dust. He gathered it in and finished .16-0f-a-second behind the Kawasaki-mounted Reed. Thomas Rose won the Yamaha 5eca II Challenge Series, getting the best of a three-rider struggle that went almost to the wire. Rose took the lead from Mark Whitehurst with two laps to go , with Robert Verini a constant third . Verini made a final push on the last lap, crashing into the dirt on the outside of the second to the last comer, just beyond the Goodyear Bridge. Nicholson's Enterprises' Rose won, Fastlane Cycles' Whitehurst was second, and Cutting Edge Racing's Eric Pladson inherited third . The official results were delayed because Rose was protested by another rider. He was found to have removed bracketry, but, since it was a non-performance advantage, the results stood, though he was fined. F-USA Saturday's heat race provided a preview of what was to come in Sunday's two Motoport Formula-USA legs with the Team Labelle's Honda CBR900 of Dave Sadowski leading flag-to-flag, though never comfortably. Team Valvoline Suzuki's Chuck Graves was second, .19-<>f-asecond back, with teammate Michael Martin third, also Suzuki-mounted. But the ride of the day was turned in Team Mirage's Dale Quarterley. Starting in the second wave, on the 19th row, Quarterley sliced through the 4O-rider field to finish seventh. "I had some time between races and I'm a little off the pace at the AMA stuff. I was trying to find some place to ride," Quarterley said. "You need someone to drive you. Sadowski and one or two other guys, like Scott Gray, can get me going again." The first 12-lap race was green-flagged on a warm, sunny afternoon with a slight breeze blowing as the 38-rider field sped into tum one. Sadowski took the lead from the pole position with Martin sec.ond, Graves third, and Gray fourth on the Starsport Ducati 955. Quarterley was in fifth, but moved past Gray and into fourth with a first-tum pass . He was into third on the next lap and set his sights on Martin. He would get under the Suzuki rider going into the esses on the fourth lap, leaving only Sadowski ahead of him. At the halfway mark, Quarterley was up on Sadowski, turning lap times in the h igh l :23s, a time that the pair would lower on subsequent laps. Quarterley took the lead out on the course, but wasn't able to hold it to the line. "With about four laps to go, he stuffed under me in tum seven," Sadowski said. "He was getting me on the entrance, but by the time we were getting out I could follow him around and get by." Yet on the final lap, Quarterley seemed to slightly lose touch with Sadowski, who was able to hold on for the win, though just barely. "On the last lap I knew he would nail it hard on the brakes," Sadowski said. "My rear wheel was up in the air going into the (Goodyear) bridge. Normally, it's three downshifts. I did two downshifts and chugged to the finish." Quarterley said his bike was running on three-and-a-half cylinders, a puzzle he would later trace to an exhaust problem. The loss of power put him at a greater d isadvantage to the Labelle Honda, which Sadowsk i said was displacing l 000cc. "He was just killing me on the backstraight," Quarterley said. "In the comers, I could only make up three quarters of wha t I was losing. He rode smooth and consi d erate. He didn't hack me off. Of course, in the second race there are no rules." Gray moved up to third on the sixth lap and finished about 3.6 seconds behind Quarterley, with just more than that over Performance South Racing's Oliver. Gray was still getting used to his new Fast by Ferracd Ducati and didn't want to throw it awa y on a track where he's had very little luck. "I came here to get ready for Laguna 5eca (the AMA National scheduled for May 22) and m easu re myself against Dale," Gray sai d . "I' m a half a second slower than Doug (Polen) was at the National here last year. I didn't feel confident enough with the capabilities of the bike." The Yamaha TZ250-mounted Oliver moved up steadily, using exceptional corner speeds to gain the ground he'd lose to • the big four-cylinders on the straights. He took over fourth on the 10th lap , dropping Martin to fifth. Graves was sixth. "You've got to use different lines in FUSA - inside lines, outside lines," Oliver said. I stuffed Graves, Martin, and (Mike) Harth into the hairpin. GoOO) Ashmead chopped me so bad I had to stand on it to keep from hitting him. " The grid for the second race was determined by the first heat finishes; Sadowski on the pole, with Quarterley and Gray next to him on the front row of the 3-2-3 grid . Sadowski got the jump again - he and Quarterley making a fast two-rider break, with Gray closing up after taking a few laps to get around Virginia Breeze Racing's Glenn Szarek. "Gray came up the inside of me in tum three and clipped my bars ," Szarek said. "I managed to keep it on the track, but it cost me three or four seconds and I lost concentration and made some mistakes ." Quarterley took the lead on the fourth lap . Gray was still close, but would soon to drop back. . "1 caught up to Dale and Dave and had a major slide coming up the hill," Gray said. "Before I came I was real confident I was going to win. I thought I could catch them and stay with them. Then the shock went away and something went wrong." Midway into the second leg. Quarterly and Sadowski had about a l.4-second lead on Gray, who was unchallenged from behind as Szarek couldn't mount a cha r ge. Soon, he would come under attack from Oliver. . Sadowski took back the lead ending

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