Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Round 2: Pomona Fairplex A ndrew Milto n (Hon); 20 . Sco tt Stafford (Hon) ; 21. Larry . Pegr am (Hon); 22. Lee Brown (Hon); 23. Marcu s Hubbard (Hon); 24. Chri s Tay lor (Hon); 25. Larry Pasq uale (Hon ); 26. Harold Winkles (Hon); 27. Joh n Stanley (Yam) ; 28. Thomas Monta no (Yam ); 29. Akiharu Shigeno (Hon ); 30. Pascal Picotte (Ka w ); 31. O we n Weiche l (Kaw ); 32. Da le Whelan (Hon); 33. Ronni e Johnson Jr. (Hon). Time: None du e to restart. Distance: 23 laps , 48.3 mi les. Ma rgin of vict ory: 5.222 sec. Average speed: None due to resta rt. HP4 AMA 600« SU PE RS PO RT CH AM PIONS HI P SER IES POINT STANDING S (Afte r 2 of 10 ro unds ): 1. (TIE) Mike Ha le /Miguel DuHamel (65/1 win each) : 3, Stev e Crevie r (60); 4. Jamie Bowman (49); 5. Britt Turkington (45); 6. Hikaru Miyagi (44); 7. (TIE) Micha el Barnes /Todd Harrigton (42); 9. Thomas Wilson (39); 10. Rick Kirk (34); 11. Snanc Turpin (33); 12. John Kocinski (32); 13. Bria n Parriott (30); 14. Doug Polen (25); 15. Takahito Mori (22) ; 16. Ger ald Rothman Jr . (2 1); 17. James Randolph (19); 18. Dav e Estok (18); 19. (TIE) Dale Keiffer /Lindsay Clark e (16). thro ttle o n th e w arm up lap an d w as hi gh-s id e d fr om his Honda RS250. Tho ug h he w as uninjured, his bike w as too bad ly d am aged to continue. "I feel sorry for the team mechanic, th e te am o w ne r a nd all th e o the r employees," sai d Mori. "It was my mis- (Right) Rich Oliver con tinued his winning ways in the 250cc Grand Prix class at Pomona. (Below) Randy Renfrow led Oliver into the first few corners of the 250cc final, but Oliver soo n took . ver o and was never hea ded again. Upcoming Rounds: Round 3 - Monterey, CA, April 30 Round 4 - Lexington, OH, J une 4 AMA 750cc S upersport Series AMA 250ccGrand Prixseries Merkelfalls, Same olj same 01' Kipp wins By Donn Maeda Photo by Kinney Jones POMONA, CA, APR. 2 irt tr ack ha s Scott Parker. Su percross h as Jer emy McGrath. Tr ials has [ordi Tarres. But what abo ut AMA 250cc GP roa d racin g? Well, h e m ay not be as well k nown as the o ther three rid ers, bu t Rich Oliver is certainly no less dominant of his do mai n. Th ese d ays, mec hanical grem lins seem to be th e only foes th at can keep Oliver from w inning ab oard hi s Oliver Racing Yamaha TZ 250, and there wa s surely no sign of those pes ky fellows at the Pomona Fairplex. For the 17th time in h is career, Oliver raced home victorious as he con tin ues to close in on the all-time 250cc GP Nation al wi n reco rd of 20, held by Jimmy Filice. "One step closer . It's comi ng," said Oliver, af ter scoring anothe r ru n away win. 'T m sorry if I made it boring, but I h ave to try as hard as I can." From the ve ry st art th ere was little d ou bt th at Oliver woul d be the wi nner, an d most o f the dram a was cente red around th e rest of the 30-rider fie ld . Wh o woul d finish second? Team Zero Gravity' s Nick lenatsch took con trol of th e runner-up position on the second lap an d m an aged to stay close to Oliver for much of the race, but would eventually lose 13 seco nds to th e w inner. Nevert heless, len at sch held an iron gri p on second, resisting the relentles s pres sure a p p lied b y So u thwest M otorsports' Ch risto pher Ra nkin an d veteran Randy Renfr ow . The tw o rid ers dogged le natsch for most of the rac e, but found each an d every o ne of their pass attempts thwarted . Ran kin finis hed third, w h ile Renfro w crashed back to fifth on the last lap . Wit h tw o ro unds completed in the ' 95 series, Oliver boasts a perfect 70point score . After watching him win th e opening roundat Daytona International Speedway in equally convincing fas hion , one would assume tha t winning all 10 rounds is not an unrealistic goa l. len atsch sits second in the cha m pionsh ip with 60, while Renfrow is th ird w ith 56. Oliver sa t on th e po le at the sta rt of the race, earning his po siti on by virtue of h is Satu rd ay heat-race wi n . Team Ho nda's Takahito Mori w on th e o ther hea t race a n d looke d to b e Oli ver's bi gge st cha lle nger, but th e Japanese rider threw h is ch ances away o n th e warmup lap. Known for his on-the-edge rid ing style, Mori lived up to his reputation w h en he grabbed a handful of D -... l-< 0... < 10 By Paul Carruthe rs Photos by Kinn ey Jones take. I cras he d in turn three, high -side.. Tires were warm enough, I jus t ma de a mistake. It was my fault ." Mori's dam aged Honda was hid den unde r a qu ilt. Renfrow had the quickest reactions at the s tart and led len at sch and Oliver thro u gh turn one, bu t it wasn 't long b e fo re Olive r pulled o ut his bag of tricks. With in a d ista n ce of 300 feet, Olive r weaved inside, the n out, in the fa r brid ge turn and swooped past not only len atsch, but Renfrow as well. So mu ch for an in teresting race . Once ou t fro nt, Oliver set sail an d left the rest to argue over the scraps. Ren frow held on to second for nearl y tw o laps, bu t len atsch sneaked 'under him in tu m 10 on lap two to take ove r the runner-up spot. With that, Iena tsch actually m at ch ed O liver' s pace for a few laps, e ve n th ou g h h e w as some 30 b ike . len gths behi nd . "It was a littl e we ird to keep u p with Rich," said Ienatsch. No wo rries , Olive r dropped the hammer soon after an d had es tablished a commanding ll-second lead by the 11th lap. "It w as actually a lo t har der than it looked," sa id Oli ver. "Som etimes it gets borin g ou t fron t and it 's ha rd to keep yo ur conce n tration." O liver p roved th at point on la p 13 w he n he took an off-track excursion in turn 10, mi ssin g th e co rner and ridi ng across th e thi n stri p of grass th at was lai d d own on th e ou tside of the tra ck. Oliver main tained h is composure, and re-e n tered the tra ck without losing any time. "I we nt ridi ng past the Cycle Wo rld suite, waiting for someone to stick out a Diet Pepsi," he joked . "Actually , I was la ughi ng to .m yself for about tWO lap s a fte r th a t, th in king how cool it was go nna look on television ." . Wh en the che ckered flag flew , Oliver was 15 seco nds clear of Ienatsch. Ien atsch enjoyed a comfo rtable foursecon d m argin over Ranki n and Ren frow , but it h ad not b een tha t way throughout most of the 23-lap race. Ren fro w sh adowed the racing jo u rnalis t until th e 15th lap, but he charged in to tum seven too hot and we nt a bit wide, allowing Rankin to sn eak past. Renfrow recovered quickly and reel ed Rankin back in , and th e stage w as set for th e d ramatic fina l laps. " Randy Ren fr ow is an intimidating guy to have behind yo u," said Ran kin . " Co nsid e ri n g h is backgrou nd, it was really some thing to be racin g w ith him . After abou t six or seven laps, I realized that he wasn' t pulling away from me, so I just ro de ha rd and tr ied to p ressure him . He we nt w ide in tu m seven and 1 snuck under hi m ." In the d a sh to th e fi n is h , la p pers allo wed Rankin to pull away fro m Ren frow mom entarily, but the veter an was on his tail as they raced down the back straightfor th e last time. Renfrow kept his Aprilia pinned and d ived in to tum seven hard er than he had alLrace long , but it proved to be a bit too har d as he lost the fro nt end and sk idde d to a stop just before the gravel tra p. " I was hoping to ou tbrake him on th e last lap, but 1 w ent in too ho t," sai d Renfrow, who was un hu rt in the spill. Renfrow was up on his feet quickly, and man aged to resta rt hi s bike in tim e to finis h fifth, losing only one position to Brothe rs H onda Yamaha rider Mike Sullivan. I:N Pomona Falrplex Pomona , California Results: April 2, 1995 250cc GRAND PRIX: 1. Rich Oliver (Yam);2 . Nick Iena tsch (Ya m); 3. Christopher Rank in (Yam) ; 4: Mike Sultivan (Yam ); 5. Randy Renfrow (Apr) ; 6. Mark Foster (Yam ); 7. Jason Paden (Yam); 8. Jeff Vas (Apr ); 9. Bobby Keith (Yam) ; 10. Geep Te rranova (Yam ); 11. Roland San d s (Yam ); 12. Greg Esser (Yam); 13. Bru ce Lind (Yam) ; 14. Don Gri jalva (Yam); 15. Kim Nakashima (Yam); 16. Dave Avery (Ya m ); 17. Jeff Ort lip (Yam); lB . Kevin Johnson (W-R); 19. Clinton Whi tehouse (Yam); 20. Ch uck Sorenson (Yam); 21. Frank Aragaki (Yam ); 22. Chri stopher Thomas (Yam ); 23. Philip Snowden (Han); 24. Joe Skrocki (Yam ); 25. Ed Sorbo (Yam ); 26. Andy Edwards (Yam ); 27. Richard Pa d illa (Hon); 28. De rek King (H an ); 29. Taka hito Mori (Han); 30. Ric hard Snowden (Hon). Ti me: 33 min.• 30.593 sec. Dist an ce: 23 laps. 48.3 miles. Ma rgi n of victory: 12.633 sec. Average speed: 86.482 mph. 250« G RAN D PRIX CH AM PIO N SHI P PO IN T STA NDINGS (Aft er 2 of 10 ro un ds ): 1. Rich Oliver \70/2 wins) ; 2. Nkk Ien atsch (60); 3. Randy Renfrow (56); 4. Mik e Sullivan (46 ); 5 . (TIE) G reg Es ser /Chuck Sorenson (43); 7. Jeff Vas (38); 8. Christopher Rankin (31); 9. Roland Sands (29); 10. Takahito Mati (28); 11. Mark Foster (25); 12. Jason Pad en (24); 13. Bobby Keith (22); 14. Geep Terranova (21); 15. John France (20); 16. William Himmelsbach (19~ 17. Bru ce Lind (18); 18. Don Grijalvea (17); 19. (TIE) Kim Nakashima/john Sherrard (16). Upcoming Rounds : Round 3 - Monterey, CA, April 30 Round 4 - Lexington, OH, J une 4 POMONA, CA, APR.! pril Fools' Day was a lot kind er to Tom Ki p p th an it was to Fred Me rkel. Both encoun tered fro nten d slides on conse cu tive laps in turn seve n at the Pomona Fairp lex tod ay, but while Merkel crashed, Kipp did not, and that was the difference in the race. Just when it ap peared that Merkel had made a clean b reak over h is Van ce & Hines Yam aha -moun ted rival, the Northern Californian crashe d hi s Yoshimura Suzuki GSXR750 in tum seven, only a lap after Kip p had nearly done the same thing in the sa me comer. Kip p, th ou gh, manage d to save hi s front-end slide w ith a hard pu sh from his right knee and he was there to see Merkel's crash on the fourth lap. " I w as sur p r is ed h e (Merkel) wa s pushing it that hard," Kipp said later. "I did the sa me thing the lap before, but 1 w as abl e to push it back up. 1 was su rprised to see him on the ground." With Kipp riding off into the distance, Merkel was abl e to remount his GSXR sans right footpeg - and carry on. He came from outside of the top 20 to an impressive sixth place at the finish, making sure that the championship fight will continue. After a furious battle between Kinko's Kawasaki teammates Thomas Wilson and James Rand o lp h , it wa s W ilson w h o secu red the seco nd spo t on the rostrum. Randolph held on to fin ish third, w ell clear of EMBSCO Med ia's Mark McDanie l and Erion Racing' s Michael Barn es. Kip p's victory gives him the cham pionship points lead over Daytona w inner Merkel, 67-60, after two rounds . Wilson is third with 57 points, just one point ahe ad of McDaniel a nd three ahead of Ra n dolph. The race began wi th Merke l leading the way from pole position . Surprisingly, th ough, it w as Kipp w ho was second despite starting from the second row. "I knew 1had to get off the line quick," Kipp said la ter. "I timed th e flag ju st about right and I almost had the holesh ot. Fred (Mer kel) just sn uc k it bac k underneath." So the stage w as set: Merkel vs, Kipp. Su zuki vs. Yamaha. But Me rk el didn' t want any part of it, and he was successful in scampering away from his rival. He led by 1.4 seconds at the end of the third lapbut it all came unraveled when he got to tum seven. A

• Cover