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worth $2,000 from the $10,000 250cc
Grand Prix purse. For finishing second,
Sorensen earned $1,500.
Sorensen had closed to within two
seconds of Filice at one point; then the
former champion put his head down
and started gaining a second a lap. It
was then that Sorensen realized that his
championship placing was more important than taking unnecessary risks.
'1 had a few scares," Sorensen said. '1
thought so much about the points that I
didn't want to throwaway second place.
I wanted to keep Team Oliver on the
podium after Rich (Oliver) fell down."
The battle for third was the best of the
race, with Zero Gravity's Nick Ienatsch
hounding the World Sports Imports
Yamaha of Bobby Keith right up to the
final corner. That's when Ienatsch found
the opening that Keith made the mistake
of leaving, squeezing by on the inside of
the dangerous left-hander onto the front
straight drag strip, and weaving his way
to third. Keith was a shadow fourth with
Jeff Vos fifth after breaking away from
the pack.
Sixth place went to AI Salaverria, the
San Franciscan riding the Moto Liberty
Honda in place of the injured Takahito
Morl and moving up from eighth to
sixth on the last lap. His chance of a win
wa effectively squashed when he was
given a "meatball" stop-and-go penalty
for jumping the second start.
Fabweld's Greg Esser, Cine Camera's
Jason Paden, Mark Foster, and DeRonne
True Value Hardware's David DeRonne
filled out the top 10.
Despite his DNF, Oliver maintained
his lead in the 250cc Grand Prix National
Championship. With two races left, he
leads Ienatsch, 257-232. Sorensen is third
at 224 with Mike Sullivan third at 174.
Sullivan was 13th today after crashing on the ninth lap; he remounted but
finished a lap down. Also crashing out
was veteran Randy Renfrow. The
Honda-mounted Virginian went down
on the third lap after running off the
track outside of turn one, then crashing
when he rejoined the pavement. He
injured his left foot and was to seek
medical treatment late in the day.
The 250cc GP was the last race on a
stiflingly hot Midwestern afternoon,
with 20 riders taking to the 2.2-mile
course.
Oliver and his teammate Sorensen led
the way with Filice and Sullivan next,
then a gap to Renfrow, Salaverria, Ienatsch and Keith.
The top four made a break by the end
of the second lap and on the third Filice
began his charge. He was third ending
lap three, then second a lap later and
into the lead on the sixth lap. That's
when the race was red-flagged when
Roland Sands crashed, injuring his left
foot.
Renfrow had gone out a few laps earlier after drifting too wide exiting turn
one, leaving the track, then coming back
on and getting thrown down.
"It was a stupid, very silly mistake,"
Renfrow said, an ice bag on the instep of
his left foot. "The way things were going
I thought I could ride with those guys."
The field was. regridded and on the
second try it was Filice getting the jump
from Salaverria, Sullivan, Sorensen, Vos,
and Oliver. Salaverria's jump was
deemed too good by the AMA official
standing right next to him and he was
given the "meatball" flag.
"I didn't think I jumped the flag,"
Salaverria said. '1t was the same exact
start I made in the first race. Then they
meatballed me." Salaverria came in at
the end of the third lap, served his time,
and crossed the line in 11 th a lap later.
Oliver was down on the second lap,
(Right) Jimmy
Filice (65) won his
first race In over a
year at Gateway;
here he leads Rich
Oliver (1) In the
first segment of
the red-flag
Interrupted race.
(Below) Fred
Merkel (27) leads
Owen Welchel (8)
and Tom Klpp (1)
In the 750cc
Supersport flnal.
Merkel dominated,
winning his fifth In
a row.
"We would've been in the top three,
no problem," Salaverria said, if he hadn't
been penalized. "If they would have
kept the original length of the race I
would have caught Nick (Ienatsch)."
Salaverria's only problem was sweat on
the inside of his visor. "It had a hallucinating look. It kind of screwed me up."
Greg Esser moved up to seventh on
the last lap, passing Jason Paden, with
Mark Foster ninth, well in front of David
DeRonne.
(N
Gateway International Raceway
St Louis, Missouri
Results: August 13,1995
throwing his arms up in the air after getting to his feet, then getting back down
to business.
"I went in way too fast and bounced
the front end. I went across the grass, hit
the mud, spun out, then got back going,"
Oliver said. "I was running good, getting
back into the top 10 when I dropped a
cylinder. I wanted to stay back out there
in case someone else went out."
By the third lap Filice was pulling
away and had better than·three seconds
ending the fourth. of 13 laps. Sorensen
moved into second on the fifth and
shrunk the lead to about two seconds,
holding it there for three laps before Filice gassed it up, gaining better than a
second a lap until slowing down at the
end.
'1 pushed it hard a while and overheated, then I backed off a little and
that's when Chuck (Sorensen) gained. I
put my head down and pulled it back
out. I was just concentrating on breathing, deep breathing. It was hot out there.
It was a scorcher."
It was a successful end to a day that
didn't start very well for Filice. He
crashed in Sunday morning's practice,
then made the mistake of riding the Ross
Baron Racing Yamaha back to the pits.
That allowed the engine to ingest a
quantity of dirt and Toomey had to tear
the engine down to the crank. "He put it
back together better than it was," Filice
said.
Sorensen said that he knew that,
when he was catching him, Filice was
"in somewhat of a cruise mode. I knew
what I could do from the first start. I
wanted to come back up here and get
some points back," he said from the winner's stand.
He'd been able to pull clear of Sullivan, the Champion Land & Development/Simpson Construction/Dick Wallbacked Yamaha rider who was well in
front of the battle for fourth when he
crashed in turn six.
'Tm just an idiot," the disappointed
Sullivan said afterwards. '1 put it in a little too hard. I'd just gotten by Rich (Oliver - who was being lapped). I put on the
brakes, peeled it over, and the front end
just tucked."
That made the Keith-Ienatsch battle
the fight for the last podium spot. The
duo had paired up early in the second
race and, though Keith was in front, it
wasn't by much. And as the race wore
on, Ienatsch inched ever nearer, closing
down on Keith with two laps to go. Ienatsch knew where he was better than
Keith and he knew there were three
chances on the final lap.
"I took the last one and made it
work," Ienatsch said after passing Keith
in the final corner and losing the front
end, then saving it, in the process.
"I tried to stay ahead of him and
block the inside line. In the very last
turn I drifted wide and he got by," Keith
said after notching his best career AMA
250cc GP finish. "Jefferson Burks
(Keith's tuner) did an excellent job. My
bike was faster than Nick's. It was especially good in the upper midrange. It
had a real good hit that carried me off
the turns."
Vos checked out from the pack with
three laps to go, taking an untested fifth,
with Salaverria moving up to sixth on
the final lap in his first race of the season
on a 250. It was also his first time aboard
a Hond.a RS250, and his first outing on
Bridgestone tires.
2SO