Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Cycle News 1994 08 10

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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ROAD RACE ยท Round 2: Indianapolis Raceway Park .WERA Pro Series . (Left) FoUSAwi nner Dale Quarte rley (32) leads ~huck Graves (1) and Ric h Oli ver (1X) at Ind ianapo lis Raceway Park. (Below left) Micha el Mart in (96) battled Grave s and Oliver; Martin wo n the first leg. By Larry Lawrence INDIANAPOLIS, lN, JULY 24 n his ll-year road racing caree r Dal e Qua rterley ih a s ac co mplished a lot of things. One thing he has never d one is wi n a WERA Formula USA Nati onal, even though he's been trying on and off since the series began. Well, Qu arterley can now mark that one off his list. The New Englander, riding his Team Mirage Kawasaki ZX-7, won the Indi anapolis round by finishing second in both FUSA legs. David Sadowski, meanwh ile, extended his points lead in the F-USA standings by finishing second overall at Indy with a 5-1 combo in the two-leg event. The former Daytona 200 winner also set a new motorcycle track record on the Indianapolis Raceway Park 2.5mile road course. Sadowski's onem inute, 34.64-second lap on the Mike Velasco-tuned Labelle Honda CBR900 broke a two-year-old mark of 1:35.36 held by Fritz Kling. Defending F-USA Champion Chuck Graves finished third overall on a Valvoline Suzuki, finishing fourth in the first leg, and third in the second. In other Pro Series action, Rich Oliver continued his complete domination of 250cc racing in this country by easily winning the Goodridge Formula Two final over Chris D'Aluisio and Takahito Mori. Nicky Hayden, fresh off a summer spent racing in Spain for Wa yne Rainey Racing, won the RK Formula Three race ov er series leader Kevin Murray and Doug Carmichael. Tom Wilson dominated the Michelin Superstock races, winning all three classes on his Kinko 's Yamahas. Indianapolis replaced Pocono on the schedule after requested-safety changes we re not made to the Pennsylvania circui t. Ind y was the first race of the new EBC Brakes Tea m Tripl e Crown which pays $20,000 to the highes t scoring team at th e end of three races. The team of Scott Gray and Dale Qu arterley lead the Triple Crow n after Ind ianapolis. FORMULA USA Sadowski edged Gra y and Micha el Martin in Sa turday' s qua lifying race to earn the pole position for Sunday's first F-USA leg. Oliver, who was the fastest rider in practice, fini shed fifth in th e qualifying race. " I just can't run into the turns as fast as I need to with all of these four-strokes in my wa y," Oliver grumbled . "Tha t's just the way it goes in F-USA, I guess. All I can hope for is to get a great start in the finals." A notable bad finisher in the qualifying race was Quarterley. The New Englander had a miserable qualifying run, finishing ninth. People in the paddo ck w e re asking what was w ron g wit h Quarterley. The New Eng lander, too, was a tad fru strated tryi ng to get his bike set u p for IRP. "The track is so bumpy I can't get the new bike to work at all. It's just too stiff, " Quarterley said. Qua rterley opted to race his '93 Kawasa ki in th e final. Ind y marked the return of 500cc GP bikes to th e series. Larr y C oh ee of Michigan rode a ROC Yam aha, but admitted to being intimid at ed by the bike. "My goal is to finish the race in one piece," said a smiling Cohee, who normall y rides a Yamaha TZ250 in regional competition. "We really don't have any knowledge on how to set up th e bike properl y, especially at a track this bumpy." Cohee qualified a n unre markable 24th. The F-USA winner would be de termined by combining the results of two separate 3D-milelegs. In the first leg Sad owski ju mped to the ea rly lea d on his Lab ell e Ho nda . Ma rtin used the breathtaking power of the Valvo line Suzuki to pass Sadowski and ta ke the lead down th e sho rt IRP back straigh taway. Ne arly th e entire 33-bike field was still clum ped together at the end of the firs t lap . Martin, Sadowski and Graves led the way. The WERA flagman waved th e blue pena lty fla g indica ting tha t someone ju mpe d the start and wo uld have to -pull into the pits and sto p befo re continuing the race. The numbers on the board were 25 and 18, Sadowski and Gray. Mike Harth's Honda got completely sideways coming out of the carousel on the seco n d lap. The gritt y veteran fought to sa ve the bike leaving a dark 40-foot se rp en tine rubber mark on the pavement. Harth lost the battle with the Honda and he crashed heavily into haybale-lined Armco. Harth gashed his hand badly and would be unable to race in the second leg. James Ran dolph took over Harth's bike in race two, but didn't finish. Glenn Szarek also crashed out on the seco nd la p a ft er runnin g up fron t. Szarek's flipping Yamah a flew past Sadowski abou t three feet in the air. Szarek was able to make the second leg. Mean while, on la p two, Sadowski pull ed in fo r th e p e n a lt y s to p and drop ped out of the top 10. On th e following lap , Gray did the same. The Californ ian exited the pi ts jus t in fro nt of Sadowsk i and th e two beg an slici ng through the field together. Several stopwa tches caug ht Gra y and Sad owski in th e m id -1 :34s (we ll und er th e tra ck record ) although WERA officials d id not clock the two after their penalty. Martin, w ho averaged 93.477 mph , turn ed in a flaw less race up fron t and went on to win by 5 1-of-a-secon d over Quarterley, who worked his wa y pas t Oliver and Graves in a grea t battle for second. Sad ow ski and Gray reco vered an d came all the wa y back to finish fifth and sixth ; bo th rid ers complaine d that the starter had flinched an d moved the green flag fractions before waving the flag in earnest. Da ve Sta n to n, in h is F-USA debu t, fini shed seven th, just ah ead of teammat e Tray Batey, giving the Valvoline Suzuki team fou r rid ers in th e top 10. D'Alu isio and Canadian Mar k Kowal ski rounde d out the top 10 in leg one . "Tha t ~s one of my best races of alltime," said a happy Martin. "Once I got out fro nt I kept my conce n tra tion at a high level and it paid off. I never got passed afte r I got by Sadowski on the first lap ." Qu arterley was pleased with his tum around. "It was a pretty decent race considering how we've been going up to this po int. I'm just going to try and be , consistent in the second leg." Graves was upset with his performance in the first leg. "I blew it on the last lap. I stuck my head out of the bubble looking behind me on the straight that's when Quarterley got me. Then I bobbled in turn four and Oliver we nt by." In the second leg it was all Sadowski. The Georgian put his head down from the very start and got a good lead on the first lap . "I went into tum one on the first lap probably faster tha n I did the rest of the race," said Sadowski. " I went hard during the wa rm- up lap to make sure the tires were good and warm and just wen t 100 percent from the word go." With Sad owski pu lling away to an eigh t-second margi n o f vi cto ry, the attention turned to the furious ba ttle for second, and the possible overall win . Martin led the grou p early, and later said that Sad owski was going so wi ll he d idn' t see any point in tryi ng to chase him down. He kne w he cou ld win the overall by simply finishing second . Graves, Quarterley and Oliver shadowed Martin. Graves complained tha t Martin, his own teammate, cut him off in several turns nearly causing him to crash. "I don't know what Michael's pr oblem was ," said Grav es. "Every time [ got ready to pass him he moved over and chopped my front wheel off. [ guess the next time I'll have to quit sniveling and be more aggressive." Martin denied the allegation b y Graves, and said Graves was th e one riding wildly. "I d idn't even know he was there. The on ly time I rem ember seeing him (Graves) was when he tried to ru n m e off th e tra ck on the b ack straight one lap ." Gra y g ot a p oor s tar t and h ad a tough time getting p ast a group th a t incl u ded Mi chael Barnes, Ba te y and D' Alui sio. H alfway th ro ug h th e race, Gra y had moved up on the tail-end of the second-place battle. D'Aluisio, drafting Gra y, followed closely. Barnes later dropped out of the race, with his Ho nd a CBR900ove rheating . In the clos ing laps , Martin also ran into problems. His Valvoline Suzuki had blown a rear shock, nearly causing him to cra sh twice . Martin's pr oblems he ld up the other riders and bunched up the battle for second. On the final lap, Mar tin slowed, not knowing wha t the problem was wi th his bike. D' Alu isio became th e ag gressor and mad e a couple of da ring passes on the outside of [RP's ultra-fast sweepers. Oliver was left amazed at one move D'Aluisio pulled. "Ch ris we nt arou nd th e o utside of Gray a nd basica lly had h is arm and shoulder resting on the fairin g of Gra y's Ducati," Olive r sai d. " He wa s ma king some very bold moves ou t there, especially cons iderin g he's a little guy on a 250 and Gray is a big gu y on a su pe rbike ." "The only way I could pas s the bigge r bikes was to get on th e outside of them on the turns so that it would ruin thei r d rives onto t he s t r ai g h ts, " D'Aluisio explained. D'Aluisio led the second -place ba ttle coming onto the front straight, but he was drafted b y Quarterley, Graves, Gray and Oliver by the start finish line and ended up sixth - the tail end of that battle. Szarek recovered from his first-

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