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/127671
Round 5: Road America
AMAlCCS HP4 600cc Sup-ers ort Series
By Paul Carruthers
Photos by George Roberts
we have extra speed on everybody so I
had to work real hard."
Oliver ex tended h is le ad to more
than a few secon ds ov e r the second
place contenders - Sorensen, D'Aluisi o
and Mo ri - w ith Co rnwell mo ving his
Dave Ra y-tuned Ja ckson Racing
machine up with the pack.
Sorensen became the draft provider
up the front straight, with all those who
were close to him lining up for the d raft
towards tum one.
D ' Aluisio worked himself into a
great battle with Mori for second place,
but in doing so ruined any chances he
ha d of ca tching Oliver . D' Aluisio
patiently waited for Mori to get his dramatic maneuvers over with, waiting for
the eventual rid e-off or wide line the
Japanese rider would have to take to
keep the bike on the track. Once out of
harm 's way, D'Aluisio would squi rt up
the inside and blast by Mori - time and
time again.
"Chris very smart rider," Morl comment ed when asked about the race.
"I realized tha t Mori an d I were jus t
s lowing each o ther down, so I
motioned to him to get with it and we
drafted and slingsho t our way closer to
Rich, but he was long gone," D' Alu isio
said.
True, by lap eight of 12 Oliver was
alread y in finishing mode, clicking back
into the high 2:22 lap times as he swiftly
cut through backmarkers and headed
home. Mori and D' Aluisio broke away
from the pack, leaving Cornwell to joust
w ith th e mountain power machine of
Mike Sullivan.
Baldwin crashed out in a dice with
Bill Himmelsbach while in 10th, sliding
out unhurt in tum 14.
Oliver remained in front, made no
mistakes and took his fourth win of the
season, and quite possibly a very strong
move towards the AMA 250cc title. His
thoughts after the race were about his
soft engine.
"We need to go to an airport, run it
wide open for a mile, park, look at the
plugs, change the jets, then go back the
other way. My bike is so highly modified that it just is not as variable as the
stock machine would be . It has to be
right on or it doe sn't work well. Not real
bad, but when it's right - it rip s, especially here."
D'Aluisio made his by-now-patented
move on Mori on the last lap, squeezing
by for second place. "That's the first
time all weekend that the bike has run
right. I'm happy with second, considering I was prepared to come in to the pit
Takahlto Morl (42) and Chris O'Alulslo (2)
battled oyer second place for much of the
250cc final; In the end It was the more
experienced 0 ' Alulslo finishing second,
I
I.
:
I
I
I
i
I
,
!
lane on the second lap and make a jetting cha nge. l owe a big thanks to Jim
Lindeman and my crew . I let Mori lead
on the last lap and wa ited for him to
make a mistake. He did it in the kink
and I rode by him." D ' Aluisio comme n ted tha t Mori, often criticized for
his unsafe riding by D'Aluisio and others, rode well at Road America. "If he
keeps riding like that we 'll have no
problems."
Ho nda-mounted Mori made it the
first three-manufacturer 250cc podium
in memory and his best finish all year.
Did his mid-race tussle with Sorensen
and Cornwell cause him any problems?
"No. They are tough guys. But I think I
want to finish. I stayed on track. I wan ted to push, and get second. I tried so
hard to pass Ch ris . Bridgestone tires
work very good."
fN
Road America
Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin
Results - June 12, 1994 (Round 5 01 10)
2SOcc GRAND PRIX QUAUFYING : 1. Rich Oliver
(2, 21.625 ); 2. Chuck Sorensen (2,22 .305 ); 3. Da nny
Walker (2022.997); 4. Chris D' Alu isio (223.033); 5. Jon
Comwell (223.088); 6. Tahahito Mori (223.776); 7. Nick
lenatsch (2:23.960); 8. AI Salaverria (2024526); 9. Donnie
Hough (2:24.681); 10. Chris Ta ylor (2:25.l169) 11. Mike
;
.521);
Sullivan (2025.870); 12. Christopher Rank;" (2026
13. Mlies Ba ldwin (2:27.498); 14. John Sharrard
(2,27.787); 15. Geep Te rranova (2,27 .827) ; 16. Jason
Paden (2:28.536); 17. am H immelsbach (2:28.891); lB.
John France (2:29.010); 19. Bruce Und (2:30.264 ); 20.
leon Cortes (2030
.963); 21. Rick Bullock (2:31.132); 22.
Bill Quinn (2:31.827); 23. IloI>by Keith (2:31.976); 24. Jelf
v06 (2:34.287); 25. Mar k F06ter (2:34.900); 26.Jim Bonner
(2:35.919); 27. Bill Borselti (2:36.497); 2B. David Deronne
(2:37.052); 29. Don Grijalva (2:37.197); 30. Frank Aragald
(2:38.198).
2SOcc GRAND PRIX FINA L: Rich Oliver (Yam); 2.
Chris D' Aluisio (Apr); 3. Tahahito Meri (Han); 4. Chuck
Sorenson (Yam); 5. Jo n Co m well (Yam); 6. Do n nie
Ho ugh (Yam) ; 7. AI Sala verria (Ya m); 8. Mike Sullivan
(Yam); 9. Bill Hi m melsbac h (Yam); 10. Bru ce Lind
(Yam); 1 J. Jason Paden (Yam); 12. John Sharrard (Yam);
13. John France (Hon); 14. leon Cortes (Yam); 15. Rick
Bullock (Yarn); 16. Bill Quinn (Yam); 17. Bobby Keith
(Yam); 18. Bill Borselli (Yarn), 19. Jim Bonner (Yam); 20.
Don Grijalva (Ya m) ; 21. Jeff Vas (Rot) ; 22. Fra nk
Ara gald (Yam); 23. Dav id Deronne (Yam); 24. Miles
Baldwin (Yam); 25. Christo pher Rankin (Yam); 26. Mark
Foster (Yam);27 . Da nny Walker (Yam); 28. Nick Ienatsch
(Yam), 29. Chris Taylor (Yam) .
T ime: 28 min., 45.702 sec.
Disunce: 12 laps, 48 miles.
Ave rage Speeds 100.133 m ph.
Margin of Victory: 1.661 sec.
250cc GRAND PRIX C'SHIP POINT STANDINGS
(After 5 of to rou nds) : 1. Rich Oliver (In/ 4 wins); 2.
Chuck Sorenson (131); 3. Chris D' Aluisio (120); 4. Mike
Sulliva n (114); 5. Danny Wa lker (112); 6. Nick lenatsch
(108); 7. Dona ld Hough (102); 8. AI Salaverria (%); 9. Jon
Co m we ll (95); 10. (Tl E) Bill QuinnlJason Paden (83); 12.
Chri stop her Rankin (75); 13. Geep Terran ova (70); 14.
Aa ron Turner (65); 15. Tahahito Mori (59).
Upcoming rounds:
Round 6 - Loudon, New Hampshire, June 19
Round 7 - Lexington, Ohio, July17
ELKHART LAKE, WI, JUNE 12
n order to w in close races at Road
America you eithe r ha ve to enjoy
enough of an ad vantage to be able
break the d raft and ru n alone a t th e
front, or you have to hope you can set
yourself up for a d raft pass up the hill
th a t lea d s to th e fin ish line . If you' re
Jamie James, you come up with some thing en tire ly different. You bid e your
time and then you turn in the perfect
last la p to give yourself just enou gh
cu shion to p revent the others from
drafting past.
The Vance & Hines Yamaha rider d id
jus t that on the final go-round in the
600cc Supersport final at Road America.
Running with the lead pac k throughout,
Jam es clicked it up a notch on the run
through the high-speed carousel an d he
was able to establish enough of a cushion to make the others race for second
place .
In the en d, tha t position wen t to
Muzzy Kawasaki's Steve Crevier. The
Canadian finished jus t .784-0f-a-second
behind James, bu t it may as well have
been a mile. The re was sim ply nothing
Crevier could do on the run up the hill
toward the finis h line, except keep the
others behind him .
Privateer Kawasaki rider Gerald Rothman Jr. followed Crevier across the stripe
for third place, just ahead of Muzzy
Kawasakis' Tripp Nobles, the Smokin'
Joe's Racing's Honda of Mike Smith, and
the Princeton Honda/Hyd-Mech Saws/4
& 6 Cycle-backed Honda of privateer Jon
Cornwell. A short gap behind them came
Team Chafong's Randy Renfrow, w ho
had gotten th e better of Smokin' Joe's
Mike Ha le. Kinko's Thomas Wilson and
privateer Rob ert Wr igh t fill e d th e
remaining top 10 positions.
James averaged 96.960 mp h in taking
his second wi n o f th e five -race-old
series, and the likeable Louisia na n sud denly finds himself atop the heap in the
ultra-close 600cc N ationa l C h amp ionship. James has 156 points, jus t tw o
points clear of a tie between Crevier and
Smith at 154 po ints . Ha le and Rothman
round out the top five point scorers to
this point in the season wi th 136 and 133
points, respectively.
As is the norm, the 600cc Supersport
class featured dose racing from top to
bottom and it started with four riders
heading into tum one side by side. The
leader a t the end of the fir st lap was
Sm ith, with Canadian Owen Weichel
tucked in behind on the Hyd-Mech
Saws-backed Yamaha YZF600.
"I was right there with Smith and I
was thinking, 'Du de , you're taking me
to the podium: " Weichel said later. It
was not to be, however, as Weichel ran
in to p roblems on the second lap when
he slammed the cases of the Yamaha to
the pavem en t, lifting th e front wheel
and sending him off the track. "It lifted
the front tire and I fell down:' Weichel
exp laine d. Not one to back down, the
friendl y Canadian battled back to finish
an eventual 11th - not bad, considering
the crash.
By th e time Weichel had departed
from the lead group, James had taken
over and led Crevier and Smith on the
third lap. Rothman, Nobles and Jim
Leslie were also in the lead pack with a
slight gap back to Cornwell, who was
on the move.
Sm ith led across the s tri pe on the
fou rth lap; Crevier had a tum on lap
five; Jam es took over again on lap six;
then it was Crevier again on lap seven;
James once again on lap eigh t. On laps
nine and ten Crevier led yet again, and
on lap 11 James took control.
The fina l lap wa s all James, and it
was summed up best by Rothman: "It 's
a mailer of luck as to who's going to be
there at the end. He Games) railed it
through the carousel and the kink. He
cruised and we scrapped to the end for
second, third, fourth..."
James, as always, was modest in success: "1 was in the right place at the right
time:' he drawled. "I put in the quickest
lap that I could. I believe that would
have been the quickest lap of the race. It
was a very, very good race. Everybody
rod e real sensible; it was a very professional race."
"I had more top end:' Crevier said.
" I just can 't hang w ith them off the corne rs. I tried gearing it differen tly, bu t
then it's not as good on the straight. It's
not d oing me any favors in the infield .
Th e tra ffic was inc red ible - b ut it was
lapped traffic; it was ou r own. It was a
real crapshoot - you just try. He Games)
was in the righ t place at the right time."
Smith was honest in his assessment
of what happened : "To have won today,
it w ou ld h a ve ta ke n so me dram a tic
stuff. I wasn't up to it."
a
Road America
Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin
Results: June 12, 1994 (Round 5 of 10)
600ccSU PERS PO RT FIN AL: 1. J.mie James (Yam),
2. Steve Crevier (!