Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

:~!R~~~~ia uSASeries Round 1: Willow Springs International Raceway (Left) It wasn 't li ke this for very long. Chuck Graves (34) holeshot both races and led for the first few laps but eventual winner Rich Oliver (97) would find his way around each lime and win by more than five seconds. Texan Michael Martin (96) would card two thirdplace fin ishes. (Below) AMA 250 National champion Rich Oliver brought his TZ250 to the newly repaved Willow Spr ings circuit and shattered the lap record· set by reign ing F-USA champion Dave Sadowski in qua lifying on Saturday · running a 1:22.9 aro und the 2.5mil e tra ck. By Mark Hoyer Photos by Tom Hnat iw ROSA.\lOND, CA, APR. 15-16 ich Oliver p ro ved that bigger is not necessarily be tter. Riding a motorcycle one-third the d isplacement of second- place finis her Chuck Graves' Suzuki GSXR750, Oliver rode to a relatively unchallenged double victory at the first stop of the Sunoco Race Fuels -Forrnula USA Series at Willow Springs Inte rnationa l Raceway and left Califo rnia as the series poin ts lead er. Oliver and his Team Oliver Yamaha TZ250 were obviously outgunned at the start of both races by the supe rior horsepower of th e big fo u r -s trokes, bu t it wasn 't long before he was out in fron t and leading the pack , taking full advantage of his motorcycle's light weight and qui ck handling abilities through th e comers. Winning bot h rac es b y more th an five seconds, Oliver made quick work of Gra ve s, w ho di d n ' t ha ve the corne r speed from his Tea m Valvoline Suzuki to hang with the quick little TZ250 and finished second both times out . Third on the podium was Graves' teamm ate, 20year racing ve teran Michael Ma rtin aboard a GSXRllOO. Fourth in points afte r the firs t round is Virginia Breeze Racing's Chris Taylor wi th a 4-5 tally, R followed by teammate Glenn Sza re k with 6-4 fin ishes from the two 10-lap events. When the weekend beg an , things were looking very good for re igning F-USA Cha mpion Dave Sad ow ski: Not only did he qualify as the fastest man of the day , he was also the fastest man on the track - ever. At least on Saturday. The Georgian's qualifying time of one minute, 23.21 seconds on th e Team LaBelle/MVR Honda CBR900 set a new track record . Was a new track record, because on a weekend that saw the fastest time on the newly repaved circuit get surpassed at least three times, Oliver h ad th e la st wo rd as he lowered the mark to 1:22.9 during Sund ay's races. Sad ows ki's ' hop es were dashed qu ickly on race day. His troubles bega n after the fi rs t g ree n ligh t and it wa s d ownhill fr om there as h e suffered mechanical difficulties in both races. He finished ninth in the first race, but was unable to comp lete race two. On Sunday morning the ra cers and s p a rs e cro w d were greet ed by dark clouds and steady rain - even sno w at higher elevations. The even t was being ru n in conj u ncti o n with th e Will ow Spri ngs Motorcycl e Club ' s cha m pionship series and all of the club racing that took place in the morning was run in the wet. Nearing lunch, thou gh, the rain stopped and in hopes of having a dry track for th e firs t F-USA race the start was delayed until after the lunch break. Trucks were sent out on the track to help dry the puddles, and the F-USA racers w ho in th e morning had been res tricted by track officials to running only rain or DOT-approved rubber were later allowed th e lat itude of cho os ing slicks - after a cons ulta tion with Dunlop 's Dennis Smith, "to leave it open to the teams to decide." And so they gridded for the first race of the season with slicks on a cold, dry track. As the ligh t turned green th e fir st bik e off th e lin e was Ma r ti n' s b ig GSXR1100, followed by Gra ves on the 750. By th e firs t turn, though, Graves had d riven past Martin and was off to the early lead . H ampe red by the lack of brute horsepower from his qua rter-liter bike, Oliver mad e it to the first tum in around fifth place. The Californian didn't stay there very long. though . He was qu ickly up to second and closely shadowing the Suzuki-moun ted Graves near the compl etion of lap one. As the two fron t-ru n ners e n tered tu rn e ig ht Oliv er tried to s ne a k his TZ250 aro und the ou tsid e. " H e saw m e though, so he moved over," Oliver said. "We can just com er a little faster and sometimes you get a little frustra ted go ing. ' If he'd jus t move over a little bit I co u ld zi ng right by him: "

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