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/127668
Round 4: Laguna Seca Raceway By Henny Ray Abrams MONTEREY, CA, MAY 22 ich O liver grew up in Pacific . Grove, a few miles from Laguna Seca Raceway, and his parents still live there. Laguna Seca was where he watched his firs t motorcycle race and, ye t, throughou t his s ucc essful caree r, he' d never w on on the tr ack. Today that would change. . After qua lifying on the po le position, Oliver spen t a lap ge tting up to speed before jet ti ng p ast h is Perfo rm ance Sou th Racing teammate Chu ck Sorensen and into the lead. His fastest lap, un officially, would be the seven th and by then he'd hav e close to a six se co nd lead. Fro m then on he stre tched it ou t, winning by 11.027 seconds at the end of the 22-lap, 48.4 mile race. . It was his third wi n in four races and allowed him to pad his champi onship points lead. With six races to go, Oliver leads Da n ny Walker, seven th tod a y w ith the flu, 137 to 108. "If we can be consisten t, even if we don't win any more, I feel good for that championship," Oliver said . "It' s a long season; we're about halfway th rough now and we 've got a p retty de cent lead. If I can clinch a race earl y, that 's when I'll relax. Otherwise, it's w ide open. " In addit ion to winning in fron t of his par ents and friends, and extend ing his points lead, what made the race especially sweet was that it was h is firs t as owner of the Performance South Racing team, and that his teammate Soren sen finished a career-best second. "I've got two seconds and a third in WERA racing and those were previously my best finishes. To be on an AMA podium is far a nd beyond that, " Sorensen said . After Oliver cleared out, Sorensen was left to dice w ith Motoworld/ _Jo hn Lassak Racing /Spectro's Chr is D' Aluisio who was putting the new factory suspensio n units to work on h is Aprilia. D ' Alu isio sta yed in fr ont o f Sorensen , building up close to a tw osecond lead a t one point, before an electrical probl em slowed him dramatically in the final few laps. Sorensen was by with less th an two lap s to go, b ut . D'Aluisio was happy to finish third. "We' re no t sure what it was, but it was acting like it was running out of gas with five laps to go. It was cu tting ou t at highe r rp m and it would n't come back in until it dropped d own again . There was no way I was going to keep second place, I was really lucky to hang onto thi rd," D'Aluisio said. Behind the D'Aluisio/Sorensen spat came a similar tussle among three rid ers: Zero Gravity's Nick lenatsch, Jackson Racing / Hyd-Mech Saws Jon Cornwell, and Enough Said Productions' AI Salaverri a. lenatsch and Corn well took turns ru nning in fou rth, with lena tsch getting the spot for good on the 17th lap as Cornw ell b ecame in creasi n g ly fatigued. In the race prior to the 250 GP, the 600 Superspo rt, th e Canad ian had ridden hard to finish third, and then had to jump on his 250. He bega n to tire on the fifth lap , d rop ping back to fifth, the n sixth, wit h three laps to go . Salaverria too k fifth after ge tt in g p inch ed a t th e start and ha ving to work his way up . Seventh we nt to Sou thwest Motor, sports Da n ny Walker, the Colo rad o rider battling a flu b ug tha t had kept him up all night, while Mike Sullivan was e igh th o n the Red line Racing / Awards West/Centra lia Kni tting MiIIbac ke d Yama ha . Terranova Pa in ting' s Geep Terranova a nd Moto Lib e r ty.'s Takahito Mori filled out the top ten . R l >< ::< '·<·: :·::·~; ROAD: RACE : ·· :'AM A25OCcNational ChamplorishipSeries • HometorlnBar Makes Rich Oliver won his home race at Laguna 5eca Raceway. The win also extended . Oliver's lead in the championship. There were an inordin ate number of cr as hes i n the 250 GP race . Mile H i Motorsports' Donni e Hough was knocked down just after the st art, hitting his head on the concrete barrier on the inside of tum tw o. Dutchman Racing's Chris Taylor crashed sp ectacu larly in tum 10 on the 10th lap an d had to be taken away in an a m b ul a n ce . There were also crashes bet ween turns thr ee and four that brought ambul ances and medical cars ou t onto the track. Ho ugh got hit rig ht at the start and Salaverria had a bird 's-eye view. "I had nowhere to go. I was p repa red to hit him. He slammed up against the wall and I backed off. Everyone went around me . I thou ght for s u r e th e y would red flag the r ace," Sala verria said. Ienatsch, Sorensen, Cornwell, Taylor, Oliver, and D' Aluisio had managed to avoid the fray and led the 37-rider pack . on the first of 22 tours around the track on a beautiful cloudless day. lenatsch led after one tour, with Oliver hou nding him in second and Sorensen third in front of Cornwell, Tayl or and D' Aluisio . One lap lat er, Oliver was in the lead , never to be challenged. He was able to p ull away at better than half a second a lap, thoug h he m ight have stretched it further if not for the rash of accide nts. . "There were a lot of guys down and it really hu rt the lap times because there we re cars and ambu lances parked in the impact zo nes so you had to be really careful through tha t Toyota Bridge area. Tha t kind of hurt me in the middle of the race, I couldn't get th rough there," O liver said. It d idn't seem to m a tter much because no one could match his pace and his only obstacle would be lapped traffic. With Oliver gone, a number of battles sha ped up behind him . Second was d ispu te d by Sorensen and D' Alu isio, with D'Alu isio taking over the spot on the ninth lap. .