Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Final Round: Road Atlanta I W. . . .. I , By Henny Ray Abrams ~ 0\ 0\ rl .,J5 rl l-o ClJ S ClJ > o z 10 B RASELTON, GA, ocr.30 , or Team Mirage's Dale Qua rterley it was deja vu , Here he was at Road Atlanta in a WERA F-USA race, he'd been second in the first leg, he had to win the second leg in order to w in the overall, and he was in second on the last lap . The la st time this happened back in May - he cras hed. This time the result would be better, though no less controversial. Exiting tum seven, the second of two rights at the far end of the course, Quarterle y went under Team Valvoline Suzuki's Michael Martin, the first-leg winner, and moved him off the track as they both accelerated toward tum eight. Martin was in the mud, unable to recover, and the leg win, and overall, went to Quarterle y on a wet and crummy day in north Georgia at the Metzeler WERA Grand National Finals, "We had a good race all race and it was clean to the end . I slipped and we crashed into each other. It was a freefor-all and I came out in front, " Quarterley said after the second leg, which was run on a wet track after the rain had stopped. Th e firs t leg was run in the rain. "He flubbed it a little on the last lap an d I went past him," Martin said . "We came out of the right (tum seven) and it kinks to the left. He was on the ins ide and I went all the wa y across the track and into the dirt. I made the dirt at full throttle in fifth gear. If I knew he was going to play like that he could have taken both of us out." Third through fifth places went to Martin's Valvoline Suzuki teamma tes. Chuck Graves earned the final spot on the podium with a pair of third-place fin ishes, David Stanton used a pa ir of fourths to card a fourth overall, and Tray Batey went 6-7 for fifth overall. The bigger prize for Martin than the overall was the EBC Brakes Triple Crown Challenge money. The $20,000 top prize would go to the team with the best combined scores from three Motoport Formula USA rounds and Martin and Graves wou ld ride off with it , though that wasn't Martin's ma in concern. "I was thinking about the race," Martin said. "The strategy I have is if you do good in a race the championship will follow." Graves felt differently, knowing that he had to stay ahead of New Zealander Andrew Stroud, subbing for Quarterley' s teammate on "The Farm Team" after Gray was hospitalized following a heat-race crash on Saturday. "That was an important goal here. I kept watching the board. I didn't look back for And rew (Stroud). I knew that Michael and I were together and Andrew was not in front of us," Graves said . Gray suffered a broken pelvis and ruptured bladder after high-siding in turn se ve n and being hit by Performance South Racing's Rich Oliver. Quarterley and Stroud, who was on a Fastline/MCM Suzuki GSXRllO , took O the $7500 second-place-team money. Stroud finished sixth overall with a pair of eighth-place finishes. Batey and Stanton moved from sixth to third in the final accounting to share the $5000 prize money. For the overall race win Quarterley collected $5000, Martin won $3200, and Graves got $2200. It was an off da y for Team Labelle 's Dave Sadowski, the 1994 WERA F-USA Champion. Sadowski, wh o'd won five of the previous six F-USA legs, crashed in rain in the final comer of the fourth lap of the first leg while in second place beh ind Martin. Sad ow ski was unhurt, bu t the bike was too damaged to continue. He said he fell beca u se " Michael Martin went in too fast for me to follow hi .er un Th e Team LaBelle H ond a CBR900 was repaired for th e second leg, bu t Sadowski only last ed four lap s befor e pitting' with a mechanical' probl em. "I smashed the gas tank so we went to the stock one that has a fuel pump and there was some kind of starva tion problem," Sadowski said. Sadowski had w rapped up the FUSA title at the previous race in Portland, Oregon, though second place was still up for grabs. In the end, Quarterly took second with 55 points, followed by Graves with 52. Martin finished with 47 and Gray was fifth with 35. The 1100cc Suzuki National Cup Series final was decided, not on the track, but in the tech garage. RK Racing's Kevin Rentzell was in the lead when the race was red-flagged on the ninth of 12 laps. But a po st-race teardown found that the middle two cylinders on his GSXRll00 were shav ed .007of-an-inch and he was disqualified. That gave the win to Mark McDaniel, the Team Suzuki Sport rider who'd led three laps before being passed b y Rentzell starting the 10th lap. Team Val vo line Suzuki's Graves , who was running a close third at the time of the red flag, was moved up to second, and Cu rtis Ad am s, whose cras h caused the red flag, was cred ited with third. McDaniel had taken over the lea d for the first time when Team Suzuki Sport's James Randol p h crash ed the firs t time. Rand olph r emounted in fi fth pl ace before crashi ng agai n, th is tim e for good. "I hope Jimmy (Randolph) is okay," McDaniel said. "He was doing a fabu lous job. One little mistake and I'm lead ing." McD aniel ea rned $5000 from the $40,000 purse for the victory. Graves' sha re was $3000 and Ad am s' cut was $2000. The 750cc Suzuki N ation al Cup Series final was also red-flagged, twice, in fact, the second time on the 10th lap . At that point Randolph was at the front of a five-rider pack, just in front of Graves w ith McDaniel a close third. New F-USA Champion Dave Sadowski (25) led the way early In the f irst race at Road Atlanta before giv ing way to Michael Martin (96). Sadowski ended up crashing out of the race. ~ Aaron Yates and Steve Patterson were at the end of the lead qu intet. "Th is has got to be the biggest race yo u could win all year, especially if you're a Suzuki gu y," Randolph said , before adding, "I gu ess that's the only way you could win it." Randolph pocketed the $5000 winner's sha re of the purse w it h Graves ag a in w inn in g $30 00 a nd McDanie l adding $2000 to his winnings. For th e fo urth r ace in a r ow , the Goodridge Formula Il final was a con vincing rout for Performance South Racing. But it wasn 't reigning WERA F-I1 Champion Rich Oliver who dominated , but his junior te ammate Chuck Sorensen. Because he'd suffered a concussion in the F-USA heat race , Oliver wasn' t allowed to race, but was allowed to ride the first and final laps in order to secure his second consecutive title. As Oliver watched from the pits, Sorensen bolted from the sparse field of 10, building up a la-second lead by the third of eight laps and cruising to his first F-II win on a wet track. "I felt like I was Rich or something,"

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