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(Left) Rich Oliver (1) leads Chuck
Sorensen (2) and Jimmy Filice (65) at the
start of the 250cc GP final.
(Above) Thomas Wilson (2) grabs the lead
over Fred Merkel (27) and Tom Klpp (1) In
the 750Cc Supersport final.
on the seventh lap to take over sixth and
it wasn't until the 12th that it looked like
he was in danger. That's when Jason
Paden came at him, passing him on the
14th and edging away before Keith
reeled him back in. The difference at the
line was a few bike lengths.
Terranova had passed Foster on the
14th lap, also, and that's how they finished.
CN
sears Point Raceway
Sonoma, California
seconds behind Filice at the finish, but it
couLd have been much worse. With
about five laps to go he lost third gear,
forcing him to wind second gear out to
14,000 rpm, then shift to fourth. It
appeared he was running out of gas,
because he was shifting the TZ250 from
side to side. But he expLained that he did
that to get to the smaller edge of the tire
which changes the gear ratio and makes
upshifts easier.
When the troubLe struck, Sorensen
had about 14 seconds on the battle for
fourth. At the line it was bout two seconds.
"All the sections where the gearbox
worked I rode as hard as I couLd,"
Sorensen said.
AI Salaverria took fourth on the Moto
Liberty Honda, the San Franciscan holding off a final lap flurry by Zero Gravity's Ienatsch. The pair had been inseparable for much of the race, Salaverria
taking over fourth on the 11th of 19 laps.
Ienatsch had two last-lap moves
planned, but Salaverria had answers for
both, and the order stayed.
"1 knew 1 could hold him off at the
end of the race," Salaverria said.
Ienatsch goes into the year's final
event in second place in the champi- .
onship standings. with four points on
Sorensen.
"That's great. Let's tear it up. I'm
ready," lenatsch said of the showdown
at Firebird Raceway.
Cine Camera/Team Turfrey's Jason
Paden held off fellow Northern Californian Bobby Keith for sixth, with San
Jose's Geep Terranova about nine seconds back in eighth.
Team Ross Baron's Mark Foster and
Helimot European's Jeff Leggitt filled
out the top 10.
Oliver had won the faster of the two
heat races, giving him the pole position
for the final. That was his Launching
pad, and not only could no one match
his pace, they couldn't come close. Lapping at about a second better than the
field, Oliver put this one away early, the
win never in doubt.
.
Oliver said he wasn't surprised that
he could pull away after seeing his lapboard showing that he was doing "rea-
sonable times. Sometimes it's hard with
a full fuel tank, and it was windy today.
As the fuel load went down, I could do
more and more with the bike. You can't
fight it too hard here," Oliver said.
"After I got by Chuck, I could see
that Rich was a little bit ahead," Filice
said. '1 knew he was pretty well set. He
was better than me all weekend." At
that point Filice told himself, "Don't do
anything stupid, don't get hurt, don't
crash the bike."
Sorensen ran interference for-the boss
for the first five laps, holding onto second and holding off Filice as long as he
could. Then, once Filice was past,
Sorensen tried his best to hang tough.
"I saw plus-zero, plus-zero with
Jimmy sitting back there. I wanted to
hang with him:' Sorensen said. "I hung
back, about two seconds back."
It had actually grown to about four
seconds on the 14th lap, which is about
when Sorensen says his gearbox began
to' go. From then. on it was a matter of
holding on to the end, which he did,
but just barely.
The battle for fourth was quickly
closing on him, Ienatsch all over
Salaverria, but unable to make a pass.
"He went up under me in tum four a
couple of times," lenatsch said of
Salaverria's pass. "I picked up the pace
and ran better later on.
"On the last lap I was going to beat
him, I was going to beat him into tum
seven. I got a killer drive out of the
carousel and got to the left of him and
outdrove myself. I couldn't get back by
him, he screwed up so much," Ienatsch
said, intimating that Salaverria was on
the wrong part of the track.
Salaverria saw it differently. He said
that he knew that Ienatsch's Zero Gravity Yamaha had acceleration on him and
he predicted wher~ the Sport Rider editor would make his final charge. "1 tried
to get a better drive. I knew he was there
and I weaved a little and moved to the
right. I knew he couldn't come' under
me," Salaverria said. "He tried again in
tum nine, but I knew he couldn't make
it stick. It's wide open and it takes a lot
of hair to pass there."
Bobby Keith had p~ Jeff Leggitt
Resu~s:August27.1995
250cc GRAND PRIX: 1. Rich Oliver (Yam); 2.
Jimmy Filice (Yam); 3. Chuck Sorensen (Yam); 4. Al
Salaverria (Hon); 5. Nick Ienatseh (Yam); 6. Jason Paden
(Yam); 7. Bobby Keith (Yam); 8. Geep Terranova (Yam);
9. Mark Foster (Yam); 10. Jeff Leggitt (Hon); 11. Randy
Renfrow (HorVi 12. Mike Sullivan (Yam); 13. Jeff Vos
(A,pr); 14. Christopher Ranlcin (Yarn); 15. Greg Esser
(Yam)i 16. Michael Montoya (Yam); 17. John France
(Han); 18. Dave Avery (Yam); 19, Derek King (Han); 20,
Joe Skrocki (Yam); 21. Dan Cook (Yam); 22. Richard
Snowden (Hon); 23, Andy Edwards (Yam); 24', Frank
Aragaki (Yam); 25. Aaron Nichols (Yam); 26. Philip
Snowden (Hon); 27. Oi£f Tolley (Yam); 28. Don Grijalva
(Yam); 29. Andre Casta nos (Yam); 30. Christopher
Thomas