.ROA"D RACEĀ·.-
..SUnocoRaceFueisForrtiuIaUSASeries
Final round: Road Atlanta
e
or sews I
Michael Mclnty;e third
on a turbo-charged
Honda CBR900, and Martin fourth.
Starting from the pole position,
Graves sped into the lead. Yates and
Kling were quickly up to join him,
with Taylor next, from the fifth row,
and Oliver moving up from the sixth
row.
Before long a four-rider train formed
with Kling taking the lead from Grav~s
on the second lap as they went down
the hill through the esses. Graves was
passed again on the second lap, this
time by Taylor, leaving Graves third,
followed by Yates and Oliver. And
Graves' problems would continue
when he ran wide out of turn one
(Left) First-race winner Aaron Yates (58)
leads Fritz Kling (77), Rich Oliver (97),
Chris Taylor (28) and late-race charger
Shawn Higbee (18).
(Below) Honda-mounted Chris Taylor
locked up his first national title with 4-3
finishes at the finalĀ· round Df the F-USA
series.
By Henny Ray Abrams
BRASELTON, GA, OCT. 15
t to~1l the self-restraint he
had, but Virginian Chris Taylor
had to let the race leaders go
and focus on the big prize, the
Sunoco Race Fuels Formula
USA title, at the final F-USA
race on a sunny afternoon at Road
Atlanta.
"I saw Fritz (Kling) out there running
away and I had to lay back. I had to win
.the war, not the battle," Taylor said after
finishing third in the second leg and
wrapping up his first professiona.l title.
"It's like a dream come true," the Team
LaBelJe rider, who finished fourth in the
first leg, said. "i've been thinking of this
since I was a kid."
The battles were won by new
Yoshimura S.uzuki recruit Aaron Yates
and Dutchman Racing's Fritz Kling.
Yates, of nearby MilledgevilJe, Georgia, took th.e lead from Kling late in the
first leg and narrowly beat him across
the line to win aboard the Cycle Motion
Racing Suzuki GSXR750. Dutchman's
Yamaha YZFlOOO-mounted Kling was
second, 0.28 second back, with Team
Oliver Yamaha's Rich Oliver fighting his
way through from a sixth-row start to
finish third. Taylor rode the Team
LaBelle Honda CBR900 to fourth with
Shawn Higbee fifth on the second
Dutchman Yamaha.
The race had been red-flagged during the third lap and no official time was
posted for the 12-lap event.
Kling chose a different rear Michelin
tire for the secon9. race and it propelled
him to an unchallenged win. Within a
I
Lr)
0'\
0'\
,......
..n
N
l-<