Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

· * .,....,... .•;_ . " .R SuperbikeRACEChampionship . Round 6: Road America O National .'. ..' AD .AMA A Honda Oils600ccSupersport Series MA Round 6:Road America arrington's first By Paul Ca rruthers AMA 250cc G P Series rand rix Round 6:Road America Oliver perfect By Hen ny Ray Abrams 10 ELKHART LAKE, WI, JUNE 9 o r the seco nd w eek in a row, Team Olive r Yamah a's Rich Oliver splashed to a thoroughly con vincing 250cc GP victory on a wet track, leadi ng every lap wi tho ut the hint of a challenge. It was his sixth win in a row, tying his own record, and it gave him a perfect 6-0 record for the year. "We're having a great season," Oliver sai d after taking his fam iliar spot in th e w inner's circle. "All these guys in the wi nne r's circle, and further down, a re ca pa ble o f w inn in g th e ra ce, bu t they're not on my motorcycle." If they are capa ble, they su re haven't shown it. Since he holds the clas s record for m ost wins, each new victory ex te nds th a t rec ord. Today he comp le ted his 28th caree r 250cc GP w in, completing the 10-lap, 40-mile race in 26 minutes, 55.653 seconds, at an ave rage speed of 89.128 mph . And he did it on last year's Yamaha TZ250. "We' ve been working on a bik e for quite a-while to where it wo rks in the rain. It has different requirements than in the dry," Oliver said of his Jeff Meyerstuned Yainaha. "Yesterday morning was the first time the bike has run all year." Ol iver said that the track was wet leaving the pits, bu t that there was a dry line in th e comers. "I stuc k to the d ry parts in the comers and chased the we.t part on the straightaways to cool my tires d ow n." After getting his lead to better than six seconds, which he did by the third lap, he "tried harder and got it up to 10-12 seconds. At tha t point it was raining hard er." But, by then, the race was well in han d. Secon d best today, as he was last week, was Crest Racing' s Cliff Tolley. . The 33-year-old New Zealander ran second th e entire race, rebuffed an early challenge by Mike Sullivan, then held his gro und to the end, finishing 10.692 seconds back. "I saw seven seconds, then I saw five, the n up to nine an d it stayed that way," Tolley said of the deficit he was shown by his pit crew . "Rich turned it up. I decid ed to finish the race as clean as possible. No sense falling in the wet." Tolley wo uld finish abo ut eight seconds in front of third-placed Kristian Kaas of Finland. With a clean sweep of the six races, as well as the extra point for leading the m ost lap s in each race, Oliver has 216 points to Kri st ian Kaas's 167. Ra nd y Renfrow, of Randy Ren fr ow Motorspo rts, is third at 166 with a 13th today. After recoverin g from his customary bad start, caused by an engine that loads up on the line, Performance Machi ne's Kaas came third, moving into the spo t on the seventh lap after making up bette r th a n fo u r seco n ds o n Dic k W all I Simp son Con stru cti o n I Bri an Swart's Mike Sullivan. From there Kaas ex te nd ed his cu shion an d had better than five seconds on Durmach / Yamah a Sp ort s Pick ering / RNG Refinish in g' s Mark Orchard at th e line . Kaas ad de d tha] he th ought the t eam wo uld h ave engine improvements to eliminate th e p ro b le m b y n ext weeken d 's race in _LOudon, New Ham psh ire. Team Oliver Yamaha's Rich Oliver rode unchallenged to his sixth consecutive 250cc Grand Prix victory of the season. Orchard b roke out of a four- rider pack on the sixth lap, then took anothe r lap to move by Team World Sports Import's Bobby Keith. Keith, five seconds behind Orchard, cros sed the line in front of Perry Melneciuc. Sullivan ended up eighth, then came Dianetics I Cine Camera I California Superbike School's Jason Paden and Performance Machine's Roland Sands, wh o, like his teammate Kaas, got a bad start, but , unl ike Kaas, never fully recovered. n Road America Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin Results: June 9, 1996 (Round 6 of 11) 2SOGP, I. Rich Oli ver (Yam) ; 2. Oil! Tolley (Yam); 3. Kristian Kaas (Yam) ; 4. Mark Orchard (Yam); 5. Bobby Keith (Yam); 6. Perry Me lneciuc (Hon); 7. Mike Sullivan, Centralia (Yam); 8. Jason Paden (Yam); 9. Rolan d Sands (Yam); 10. Jeff Vos (A p r); 11. Marlc Foster (Ya m); 12. Derek M. King (Ya m ); 13. Randy Renfrow (H an ); 14. Bitt Himmelsba ch (Yam) ; 15. John France (Han ); 16. Jim Bonner (Yam) ; 17. Billy Joe Fehrman (Yam); 18. Eric Stephens (Yam ): 19. John Burg oyne (Hoo); 20. Dave Avery (Yam); 21. David Pare (Hon); 22. Ja so n Rot h (Yam ): 23 . Jeff Ortlip (Yam); 24. Bria n McLaughlin (Yam ); 25. James Martin (Yam); 26. Bru ce Lin d (Yam) . Time: 26 minutes, 55.653 seconds. D istance: 10 laps , 40 miles. Averag e speed: 89.128 mph. Margi n of victory: 10.692 seconds. 25 0 G P CHAMP ION SH IP POIN T S T A N D IN GS (After 6 of 10 ro u n ds ): 1. Rich Oliver (216 /6 wins ); 2. Kristian Kaas (167); 3. Randy Renfrow (166): 4. Mark Foste r (148); S. Bobby Keith (143); 6. Perry Melncduc (130); 7. Cliff Tolley (127); 8. John France (109); 9. Jason Roth (95); 10. Ro land Sands (88); 11. Jason Paden (76); 12: Nick lenatsch (75); 13. Gr eg Esser (74); 14. John Burgoyne (71); 15. Chris Rogers (69); 16. Mark Orchard (68); 17. Derek M. King (65); 18. (TIE) Da ve Avery /Mike Sullivan (56); 20. Brandon Welton (SO ). Upcoming Rounds: Round 7 - loudon. New Hampshire. June 16 Round 8 - Brainerd, Minnesota, Julll \4 ELKHART LAKE, WI, JUNE9 t was a da y of career best s in the 600cc Supersport final at Road America: A first-ever National victory for Tod d Harrington and a first-ever podium finish for Ken Melville. In between th e tw o upstarts came cha mpionship hopefu l Thomas Stevens , and for the second straight week there was the surpr ise of having no Miguel Du Hamel in the winner's circle. Harringt on and his 4&6 Cyclebacked Kawasaki ZX6 were the story as they cam e through from a fif th-row sta rti ng spot to claim victory aft er a gutsy performance. Th e Illinois rid er was ninth aft er one lap; seven th after tw o lap s; fifth after three laps; third after four laps; and in the lea d on th e fifth lap . From ther e he was never headed, though he was hurried through out, as he stormed to a surprising win. Steven s was in contention thr oughout, but he just didn't hav e eno ugh to stop Harrington. The Floridian was hoping to pu t som et hing together on th e final lap, but he claimed to be balked by Melville, who was on a m ission to get his first podium finish ever. If Harrington 's w in was a s u rp rise , Melvill e 's third-place finish was even more astonishing. given the fact that the Moto liberty Honda rider had never finished better than ninth in his rookie season of AMA 600cc Supersport racing . And DuHamel? The championsh ip points leader had to ba ttle just to get fou rth as he had tire prob lem s and cou ld n't keep pace with the lead trio. Still, he managed to hold off the ad vances of Erion Racing 's Doug Toland, Zero Gravi ty's Ben Bostrom and Gerald Rothman [r., w ith Christopher Ranki n, Andrew Stro ud and Matt Wait round ing out the top 10 finishers. Although Du Hamel lost a little gro und to Stevens in the cham pionship chase, his lead over the Kinko's Kawasaki rider is still 18 points, 192-174. Toland is third with 151 poin ts, just six clear of Bostrom 's 145 and seven ahead of Rothman's 144. Harrington moves up to seventh in the standings, six behind Stroud who holds down sixth. The race began in pr edictable fashion under cloudy skies; Du Hamel led the field down the An dretti Straightaway an d into turn five fo r the fi rs t time, chased by upstart Bostrom, with Toland and Steve ns also close beh ind. Stevens quickly m oved into second pl ace, not wa nti ng his cha mpions hip rival to get away in the earl y hip s, and they compl e ted th e first la p in the foll owin g o r der: DuH am el , Ste ve ns , Bost rom; Melville (su rprise) and Toland in tight formation. Harrin gton, meanwhile, was ninth and charging. Steven s, too, wa s in a hurry and he sli d hi s way p as t DuHa me l on the e n t ra nce to tu rn fiv e. Du Hame l was forced a little bit wide by the maneuver, an d Bo str om a lso s neaked b y th e defending champion on the insid e. Stevens had put a gap between himself and his pursu ers by the end of the seco nd lap, b ut D uH amel an d Co . qu ickly closed it u p on the run down the tw o long straights that separate the final

• Cover