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AMAIChevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship Round 1 1 : Colonels Brainerd International Raceway Colonel's Brainenllntema1ianal Ilacewly Brainerd, Mimleslltl Results: July 2B, 2001 [Round B of 11) GENUINE SOZOKI ACCESSORIES 750 SOPERSPORT: 1. Jimmy Moore (Su.); 2. Rich Alexander (Suz); 3. Tony Meiring (SUI): 4. Scott Jensen (Suz); 5. Ben Spies (Suz); 6. Vincent HlIskovec (Suz); 7. Anthony Lupo (Suz); 8. DZlvid Ortega (Suz); 9. Randall Mennenga (Suz); 10. Alan Schmidt (Suz); 1 I. Rich Conicelli (Suz); 12. Wes Pogue (Su.): 13. Ken Krebs (Suz); ]4. Eric Dooyema (Suz); 15. Darren Lenzen (Yam); 16. Juslin Roetlin (Su.); 17. Chris Ulrich (Su.); ]8. Oovid Ebben (Vam); 19. Scott Hermersmann (Suz); 20. Christopher Monge (5uz); 21. Dlligoro Suz {Suz}; 22. Roger Hendricks (Suz); 23. John Hedstrom (Yam); 24. Aaron Patrick Johnson (Suz); 25. Justin Blake (Su,). Time: 22 mins.. 2.085 sees. Distance: 13 leps, 39 miles. Average speed: 106.197 mph. Margin of victory: 9.475 sees. GENUINE SOZOKI ACCESSORIES 750 S(JPERSPORT C'SHIP POINTS STANDINGS (After 8 of 11 rounds): 1. Jimmy Moore (245/3 wins); 2. Rich Alexander (]96); 3. Ben Spies (]88); 4. Tony Meiring (180); 5 .. Vincent HllSkovec (178); 6. Chris Olrich (]64/1); 7. Oavid Ortega (142); 8. Oai90ro Su.uki (133): 9. Anthony Lupo (131); 10. Alan Schmidt (129); 11. Rich Conicelli (124): ]2. Mike Ciccotto (76/2); 13. Brion Parriott (70/1); ] 4. Randali Mennenga (58); 15. Josh Hayes (56); 16. Owen Richey (53); ]7. (TIE) John Ashmead/Brian Gibbs (46); 19. Justin Blake (4]); 20. Oavid Mcintyre (40). Upcoming Rounds: Round 9 - Fountain, Colorado, August 25 Round 10- Rosamond, California, September 15 AMAIMBNA 250cc Grand Prix Series Round 8: Colonels Brainerd International Raceway Jimmy Moore (86) leads his teammate Tony Meiring (56) and Richard Alexander (25) during the 750cc Supersport final at Brainerd. Moore and Meiring finished one-three in the race, with Alexander splitting the two teammates in second place. was get locked into a battle, racelong battle," Moore said. "It just sounded like a nightmare and a good way to wind up on the ground and kiss my points lead goodbye." Moore needn't have worried. Meiring gave him a race for a few corners, but no more, and the rest of the race was a solo run, once Moore made sure he couldn't be drafted. "You can ride your brains out and have to deal with people lap after lap after lap who maybe might not be riding as hard," Moore said. "That's fortunately what happened. I could get away and I guess break the draft and get it over with." Second wasn't as clear-cut. Meiring was there at the beginning in his first visit to Brainerd. Eventually "he fell in among a cluster of riders that would take sever~1 laps to sort themselves out. Roadracingworld.com's Chris Ulrich moved through the pack to take control of second on the sixth lap, easing away from the pack until his second seemed secure. But on the penultimate lap, with three seconds on the battle for third, he ran wide in the Bus Stop corner, jumped the curb and hit a pothole, bending both wheels and flattening his rear tire. A sure second turned into a 17th. Ulrich had passed VaJvoline EMGO Suzuki's Ben Spies for second, with Spies pointing down to his GSX-R750 starting the ninth lap. Spies stayed with the pack for a few laps, then dropped to the back of the bunch, finishing fifth, over 18 seconds behind Moore. The final fight for second would be among Alexander, Meiring, and Butler Machinery's Robert Jensen. Once Spies began to drop back, Alexander was mostly at the front of the battling trio, Meiring pressing, Jensen waiting, non-stop bedlam. Meiring motored past Alexander in turn one on the 12th lap, Alexander retaliating a few turns later, Meiring counter-punching, Alexander re-asserting himself. "I was putting some passes on guys I hadn't put on in a long time and Tony [Meiring] was riding really good," Alexander said. 18 AUGUST 8. 2001 • cue • e Again on the final lap Alexander and Meiring swapped spots, but Alexander would get back in front and hold him off in the last corner, then beat him to the line by .117 of a second. Meiring ended up with almost half a second on Jensen. "I didn't seem to have quite the motor I wanted on the front straightaway and I kept getting passed on the straightaway so I had to do all my passing on the infield and I just could never get ahead, could never get ahead and get the laps down I needed," Alexander said. "Jimmy checked out, which I was afraid, since he had gotten a good start. He was running good since day one and it was probably the toughest race I've had in a long time, so it was good to see him up there." Like Moore, Alexander was making no apologies. He admitted he earned second by the misfortune of others, "but I'll take it. I've had my bad luck this year." For his circuit debut, Meiring did well and was content. The track wasn't technical, he said, which made it easy to learn. And he knew he could keep up if he got away with the leaders. Once Moore got away, the fight was on and it went to the final turn. "The last lap I just wanted to try to get ahead of Richie," Meiring said after matching his career-best finish. "I knew he was going to put it underneath if I got ahead of him. So I go, OK, I got to kind of not show him I'm here. I was going to try the last corner, the last lap and I put it underneath of him and it just kind of jumped out of gear a little bit. I didn't have it all the way in. That's the way things go." Behind Jensen came Spies, then four seconds to Corona Extra EBSCO Media's Vincent Haskovec, followed by Ricci Motorsports' Anthony Lupo. CN n e _ s By HENNY RAY ABRAMS PHOTO BY BRIAN J. NELSON BRAINERD, MN, JULY 29 ich Oliver wasn't at full strength last weekend at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and it showed. Physically he wasn't right and mechanically there were problems. Corbin's Jimmy Filice beat him fairly and Oliver didn't want to make excuses, but Oliver he knew he was capable of better. This week he showed it. Oliver has built himself a very fast Yamaha TZ250 and he likes fast tracks. At the Colonel's Brainerd International Raceway he won his heat race with lap times which averaged nearly 2.5 seconds faster than the best of the second heat winner, Filice. Unless there was a problem, he'd be invincible, and there were no problems. At the end of the first lap, he had over 2.8 seconds, adding to it with every lap, the win never in question. On a weekend of very close racing, his was the lone runaway win. "We could have gone a lot faster, but it wasn't necessary today," the Team Oliver Yamaha rider said. "We have a big advantage on the bike." By the time he completed the 13lap, 39-mile race, he had 10.082 seconds in hand and his fifth win of the year. "I've been just really on a fast motorcycle all weekend and when I'm R on a fast bike it's hard to beat me on a fast track, probably," Oliver said. "I just have a lot of experience with the high-speed stuff, but really that wasn't our main issue." The main issue was the chassis. Oliver said they'd gotten close at MidOhio, but had fitted a mis-marked rear shock spring for the race. The handling was compromised and Oliver was on the edge throughout. Instead of tossing away a sure second, he settled for second, but didn't like it. "Once we figured out what was wrong we put it all back to where we had it working good at Ohio and it worked really well here through the corners," Oliver said. "I was really happy with it. I had great exit drives and pretty decent entrance speed on the front tire. I was thrilled with the progress we made with the bike and we always knew the bike was fast and we never really had an issue with that, but trying to make the thing go around comers has been my problem. And we made some progress this race. We caught up a few points, we lost a few points, caught up a few points, 50 we've been kind of going up and down." Oliver got back the points he'd lost at Mid-Ohio and a few more. Filice ended up third behind GP Tech's Chuck Sorensen, who separated him- Rich Oliver re~medto dominance in the 250cc Grand Prix final, winning easily over Chuck Sorensen.