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/127679
Round 8: BrainerdInternational Raceway tricks. "1 battled with Chris D' Aluisio for a while, but then 1 just started to sneak up on the leaders," said a happy BRAINERD, MN, jULY3l lenatsch. "1 caught the lead pack and saw a real battle going on. 1 thought to hen the checkered flag waved at the end of the 16-lap 250cc myself, 'Man, something has to happen: Grand Prix final , yo u would and just waited. " And sure enough, that "something" never have guessed tha t se ries p ointleader Rich Oliver had crashed out of happened on the final lap when secondcontention. Un hurt, Oliver jumped up placed Cornwell gra bbed too much and down , waved his arms, and hoo ted th rot tle and h ighsid ed u n h u rt off he and hollered. course. Third-running AI Salaverria swerved to miss the flailing Cornwell, Why? In Oliver's abse nce, the battle for the and that was all lenatsch needed to lead was blown wide open; and it was co mp lete his journey into second . none other than Oliver's young PerforSalaverria recovered in time to finish third, all without the help of a pit crew. mance South teammate, Ch uck Soren"1 did this all alone! Solo, baby," said son, who picked up the gauntlet and raced on to the first National win of his ' Salaverria, who spent the weekend dialcareer. ing in his machine alone. "1 got a little "This more than makes up for m y screwed up when Cornwell crashed crash:' said a delighted Oliver, as he because Nick got under me, but I'm very happy with third." watched Sorenson wheel his Yamaha After leading the opening lap, Oliver TZ250 into winner's circle. "Absolu tely 100%, no doubt." slowly began to fade back into the pack " After taking the lead from Oliver on with an ill-handling machine, surely not the si t ua tio n he ha d hoped to be in. the opening lap, Sorenson put his head down and led the first 10 laps before Entering the race, Oliver needed only to e ven seeing another rider. Sorenson gain two points on Danny Walker scrapped back and forth with Canadian I fourth at Brainerd - to clinch his firstJon Cornwell in the eve of the race, but ever 250cc Grand Prix Championship. when the black and wh ite waved, it was t , B~thOlivhaer w asbfol~ceddto Plbe flla p four I WIt w th e ieve to. ' on at rear all Sorenson. ' e a "This is reaII y amazing," said 23tire. yea r-old Sorenson. "1 never thought I "It was sliding all over the place, right from the warm-up lap:' said Olivwould win my first National this soon. Both Rich and 1 had some bad handling I er . "There's no way I could have raced like that. I was sure I had a flat." Olivprob lems, but luckily, 1 was able to er 's crew changed the rear tire quickly, adapt." Turning in a spectacular ride for secbut only five turns into his first lap back ond was Team Zero Gravity's Nick lenon the course, Oliver grabbed a handful of throttle and high-sided off the track. atsch, the Californian coming from as far back as seventh to sneak into second "1 got back out on the track and it at the finish with some late-braking didn't feel any different:' Oliver said. "1 By Donn Maeda Photos by George Roberts W i Who else but Oliver? ich Oliver won't admit th a t he expects to grab the pole position during every qualifying session, but it seems to be a given in the eyes of h is competitors. And at Brainerd international Raceway, not even a pair of mishaps could keep the Performance South Racing rider from nabbing his seventh-consecutive pole of the series. "1 really rode hard to get tha t time: ' said Oliver, who - on his third of 12 laps - stopped the clocks at one-minute, 43.514-seconds at an average speed of 104.334 mph. "I'm glad that the time came early, because things got kinda screwy after R that " ... Five laps into the timed practice session, Oliver went w id e in tum 10 and took an off-track excursion that reminded him of his off-season training regimen, "Lwent off the course and h it a big bump like I was .on a motocrosser," said Oliver. "1 swapped so ha id that the chain derailed." But even more excitement lay in store for Oliver and his tuner, Steve Rounds. "After we got the chain back on, we went back out and started having electrical problems: ' said Oliver. "We traced it to a faulty power valve wire that was shorting out." thought maybe the new tire just wasn't warmed up, so 1 gassed it up. Bad move, I guess, because it spit me off in turn five. We think either the swingarm pivot broke, or the shock went bad." After picking himself up off the ground, Oliver spent a good deal of the race standing outside of tum five, cheering for Sorenson, Oliver continues to lead the series point race with 251 points, well ahead of Walker's 202. Should Walker win the next round at Sears Point, Oliver only needs to finish 11 th to wrap up the championship. Oliver led the sparse 23-rider field at the start of the 16-lap event, but he knew that something was wrong rig ht from the get-go. "It was totally loose , 1 Chuck Sorenson carried on afte r Rich Oliver crashed out of t he race , and the y ou ng Californian managed to hol d off the ch arges of f irst Jon Cornwell and then Nic k lenatseh and AI Salaverria. couldn't keep it in a straight line:' said Oliver. "Rich's bike was all over the place," agreed Sorenson, who took ove r on lap two. '1 was having a similar problem with my bike, it was sliding all over the place." But even with an ill-handling bike, Sorenson set the pace for the rest an d made it clear th at he would be in contention for the win. Oliver held onto second for two laps, holding up Salaverria an d the rest while Sorenson managed to Still, Oliver was able to return to the track and get class to set up is ridiculous. You don't have time to get back up to speed before the session came to a halt. "Rich anythingdone." And D' Aluisio's strategy for Sunday's race? got right back out there and did another 43.5:' said "Rich and I will probably split from the rest, my big Rounds. "Luckily, he had already done one before the p roblems started." task is gonna be to stay in his draft and not let him get And, not only was Oliver's time the fastest of the ses- away," he said. sion, it was fastest by a wide margin - 1.463 seconds, to Third fastest was Enough Said Productions' AI be exact. Motoworld /Lassak Racing r ider Chr is Salaverria who, remarkably, was even more "alone" than D'Aluisio turned in the second-fastest time of 1:44.977 D 'Aluisio, Salaverria stopped the clocks at 1:45.491. aboard his Aprilia. "I had no idea that 1 was doing times in that range:' "I'm not used to being the fastest by that big a mar- said Salaverria. "I'm a one-man show. 1 don't have anygin," said Oliver. "To have such a huge margin makes one here giving me a pit board or helping me with setup me very happy. This is the most important race of the and bike changes - I'm completely alone. 1 know I can go season for me because 1 can clinch the championship faster - I haven't really pushed it yet. 1 have a big safety tomorrow. All 1 have to do is finish ahead of Danny margin - 1 don't want to crash and get hurt because 1 Walker, and the title is mine." have to drive home all alone, too." Canadian Jon Cornwell was fou rth fastest, turning in And Oliver's strategy for race day? "When you go out there and start thinking about race a 1:45.623 aboard his Jackson Racing Yamaha. "I was plans, that's when you screw up:' said Oliver. "I'm just having trouble ho lding on:' said Cornwell, who suffered a broken knuckle on his left hand two weeks earlier at gonna go out there after the win." When asked if he was happy with his second-fastest Mid-Ohio. " I could have gone faster, but the injury is time, D'Aluisio replied, "Oh, I'm happy wi th Rich's time, always in the back of yo ur head. I've been tr ying to bu t not mine. We went faster than we ha d in p ractice, adapt my riding style - I've been shifting less and taking smoother lines to help out my hand." bu t 1 know we can go faster." When asked why he thought Oliver was able to turn Though -he was hardly sa tisfied, Aluisio' s performance was qu ite credible, as he was on hand at Brainerd in such a superior lfualify,ing time, Corn well replied ma t' w ithou t the help of hi s tuner, John Lassak. Instead, ter-of-factly, "He's faster than shit and his bike is a f-g D'Aluisio's younger brother, Gary, handled the tuning bullet." Oliver's Performance South Racing teammate, Chuck ' chores. "We're on our own here," said D'Aluisio."We've Sorenson, was fifth-fastest with a 1:45.773 while joumal- , , " C "1' changed just about everything you can change; jetting, ist Nick Ienatsch was siXtll with a 1:45.808. "I was hoping to hookup with somebody fast and let ' suspension, gearing... We were really slow in practice yesterday, and we didn't know whether to go leaner or them tow me around, but! was all alone:' said Ienatsch. richer. Well, it's safer to go too rich than too lean,so we "We're gonna try some taller gear ratios tomorrow, and richened it up. Of course, it turns out that it was ,the hopefully we'll get into the44s." Jeff Vos had the dubious honor of rounding out the wrong way to go arid we had to lean it out during quali.fying. The amount of time that the AMA gives the 250cc 23-rider qualifying field, turning in a 1:57520 lap .