Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Final rou d:R adAtlanta n o By Henny Ray Abrams ' W . BRASELTON, GA, SEPT 18 ith the p ressure of the champi. ; onship off, Performance Sou th , . Racing's new ly crowned 250 GP champion Rich Oliver did what he does best: win, and win big. Desp ite havi ng an engine that wasn ' t up to pa r, and jetting that was a little off, Oliver took off at the start and edged away at better th an ha lf a se co n d a lap to win h is eigh th race in 10 tries, this time on a day of chan ging weather at Road Atlanta. "1should have been doing high 235," Oliver said, hoping to lap in the onemin ute , 23-s econd ra nge around the 2.52-mile track, "b ut I was jetted too rich. I tried to do mid 24s and couldn't. I go t a gap ,an d w as holding it a n d thought, 'If that's what it takes .. /" Oli ver completed the 19-1ap, 47.88-' mile race in 27 minutes, 6.035 seconds, no t quite record time, but enough to win by 10.332 seconds . The battle for second was where the action w as and there was plenty in it. Moto Liberty's Takahito Mori, Oliver's teammate, Chuck Sorensen, and Enough Said Productions' Al Sala verria ran as one for much of the race, fin ishing in that order. Mori and Sorensen went at it most of the race and Salaverria had the best seat in the house" though he was too short on power to make a pass. "They were both s1icing and dicing each o ther and I just kind of hung in there . 1 tho ught that I'd just rather wait this out," Salaverria said . It came down to the last lap, threewide going into tum one and nearly the same ou t of the final turn, but Mori had the.better drive and hung on for second . Sorensen was thi rd, but, more importantly, his finish gave him second in the championship behind Oliver. "1 wanted to keep the podium finish, but more important was second place in the championship," Sorensen said after giving the Performance South team first and second in the series. Third in the series, for the second year in a row, was Zero Gravity 's Nick lenatsch. He was fifth today, his Yamaha geared too short and overrevving, never able to join the fight for second. He also said he didn' t feel as comfortable braking for the high speed corners of Road Atlanta. "1 just got outrun," the Spo rt Rider editor said, offering no excuses. Sixth we n t to the Hyd -Mech Saws Yamaha of Jon Cornwell, with the battle for seventh another good fight that went down to the end. Woody ' s Cycles' Andrew Trev itt would prevail, though not by a lot with Southwest Mo to rsp o rts' Christopher Rankin eighth in front of Cine Camera 's Jason Paden. Just back was Bill Himmelsbach with Terranova Painting's Geep Terranova a close 11th. Oliver added to his championship total with the win, the 15th of his AMA career, to end the year with 321 points. Sorensen finished with 257, six better than lena tsch. Salaverria was fourth with 239, with Southwest Motorsp orts' Danny Walker fifth at 216. Walker was thrown to the ground today wh en his Yamah a seized going into turn one on the fourth lap. He was unhurt. The sun was out when the 25-rider field took the green flag and it was Sorensen in the lead, Mori second, with Oliver a close third. On the run up the hill from turn one to turn two, Oliver took his customary spot at th e p oint, and the race for the top of the winner's box was over. Halfway into the race the Fresno resident had a 7.6-second lea d and he backed off slightly, ad ding just (Left) Chuck Sorensen (90) leads Takahito Mori (42), eventual winner Rich Oliver (97) and the rest of the 250cc Grand Prix cl ass. (Below) While Oliver was able to tum In hi s normal runaway victory , the battle for second went the full distance with Marl (42) , edg ing Sorensen (90) and AI Saiaverria (22) at the fin is h li ne. three more seconds o ver th e second half. "1 didn't have much of a lead the first two or three laps and I didn't think I could force the pa ce," Oliver said. "We had the carburetion off a little bit. It got kind of humid in the middle of the day . It warmed up , the bike ran a little hotter, and it slowed down a little bit. Then it was harder to do the times. But then I saw that these guys weren't doing the times either. I started to relax, .I smoothed out, and I was okay." That left the interest in second place, and that con tes t formed up early. So rensen trie d to make an ea rly get away, bu t found Mori wouldn't relent. " 1 th ou ght if I got in fr ont and weaved in the back section I might be able to ma ke a break,",Sorens en sai d. "Each time, he'd come under me." By the fourth lap Mori, Sorensen and Salaverria were already leaving Ienatsch, with Cornwell in front of a fight that would ultimately leave him seventh. Across the line, the lead didn't officially change until the 12th lap, but on the track the top two spots were going back and forth, each rider with strengths and vulnerabilities and the o ther exploiting them. Mori would run wider into tum one, then cut quickly in for the line up the hill, while Sorensen turned in earlier. "He would cut it in a little farther along. 1 could stu ff it in there any time, but i t totally killed both of our la p times," Sorensen said. "We had different lines in three and four . 1 think our bikes were equally powered." Me anwhile, Salave rria, who w as down a few seconds at the start, "just kept hammering awa y. 1 reeled them in , in the corners. They had top speed and accel eration. Once 1 caug h t them 1 could n't get aro und them. They could o u taccelerate me in each corner," Salaverria said . At one point Salaverri a and Sorensen came close to clashing in turn seven and it killed his dri ve. Tha t was when he decided to bide his time. Th e fina l fe w laps saw th e le ad change again, th is time over th e line with Sorensen in front, then Mori went by to start the 18th lap, Sorensen retaking the lea d up the h ill . Mo ri would emerge in front to start th e final lap , Sorensen the bravest of the trio th at •went side by side into turn one. "1 tho ug ht wha t 1 could do is pas s him on the final lap . 1 passed him going out of one and I thought I could break the d raft," Sorensen sai d. "Jus t before we came to the gap under the 'Gr avity Cavity,'" on the back stretch, "1 could feel the d raft pulli ng me back. He go t me on the brakes under the bridge. For me to risk it was n' t worth it." Salaverria, who'd stuck close to the leaders, also had a last-lap p lan tha t didn't work out. He was hoping to draft pas t both of them on the back straight, only to find he was in the wrong place. " We w ere go ing down th e back straight together and they spli t at the dip and both d rifted out," Salaverria, who was in the middle of the track at the time, said .."] should have stayed on the ou tside. Th ey both practicall y hit each other . I could n't bring it back in time. It was frustrating." Iena tsch wa s better than 16 seconds back and all alone in fifth place. He'd discovered he was undergeared early on and wa s reading 13,0 00 r p m on his tachometer . What was more of a hindrance, though, was a lack of aggression on the brakes into fas t co rners. He explained that on the shorter, stop-andgo .courses he was more comfo rta ble , ' but ha d n't yet reconciled the qu icker tracks. "1 need get in on the brakes better into the fast corners," he said. At the halfway ma rk it looked like Cornwell would threaten lenat sch for e ~ -::ti 0\ 0\ ~ 00 C'l I-< ~ E Q) 0.. Q) CJ) 9,

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