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AMAIChevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship Fillal Round: Virginia Int rnational Raceway "For, I guess, all but about the last four laps I was looking at my teammate's split and it was shrinkjng," Acree said, when in fact his lead was growing, to over rune seconds on the 12th lap. "I was looking. I couldn't hear anybody and I got down to like a plus one down from like a plus five. I was like 'Whoa, I'm really in trouble.' At the end, they would start really pointing at what part of the board was mine, I saw I had a gap." When Acree moved to the lead, Moore moved to second, which is where he stayed. North Dakotan Jensen kept him honest, and even closed in the final stages, but Moore had him covered. Moore decided that it was important that he finish on the box, which he did, easily. "I'm just happy for everyone and I'm really glad this whole American flag thmg came about the way it did," the Oregonian said. "I think it meant a lot to the fans. They were standmg on their feet on the cool-down lap there. It was pretty impressive.· Like Acree, Moore saw Spies and Ciccotto fall. He did the math in his head and realized it was best for him to finish on the po&um. Aware of the pressure from behind, he turned up the pace to secure second. Jensen could tell Moore was reacting but &dn't know where he was. "I was trying to put in a little laterace charge there to see if I could catch up to him, but the tires were going off a little bit and I thought I'd just hang it out," Jensen said. "I thought I was in fourth, but I guess enough people crashed, which is unfortunate. " Ciccotto fell to sixth after his crash, but remounted to finish fourth, passing Arclight Suzuki's Scott Harwell three laps from the end. There was a clump of riders at sixth, with Kenwood's Rich Conicelli just better than Corona Extra EBSCO Media Suzuki's Vincent Haskovec and Performance 'Honda-Suzuki's Andy Caldwell. The three were covered by a little more than half a second. eN lMAIMBNA Z5Icc Brand Prix Series filii "d: Villinia 11Ite1'llli. .llllceway By HENNY RAY ABRAMS PHOTO BY BRIAN he math went something like this: If Rich Oliver earned the pole position, led the most laps, and won the MBNA 250cc Grand Prix at Virginia International Raceway, Corbin Racing's Jimmy Filice had to finish sixth or better to earn his third 250cc title. Oliver kept his share of the bargain, speeding away from the pole position, passing Filice on the second lap, then racing to his 56th career win. And Filice did his part as well, fallmg out of the lead to fourth, then fifth, then sixth, but with plenty of room to spare. At the end of the day, Filice had his thkd championship by a single point, 309-308, over Oliver, but it wasn't easy. "It was a tough year," Filice said after adding this crown to the ones he earned in 1991 and '93. "Rich is fast everywhere we go." "We knew what we had to do and there wasn't much thought that went into strategy in the race," Oliver said. "I came here with not very much pressure on me. I basically didn't expect to win the championship." The weekend belonged to Oliver in the same way it didn't belong to Filice. Filice crashed hard on Friday and said he "wasn't prepared to do the job" on ~unday. Conversely, Oliver was on the pole with a dominating heat race performance. Filice led from the start with Oliver just behind, but only for a lap. Then it was Oliver in front with Filice dropping back to fourth. Oliver controlled the pace as GP Tech's Chuck Sorensen moved into second. The pair ran together for a handful of laps, then Oliver upped the pace and split. With over five seconds in hand by the halfway point, Oliver was able to cruise to the win. "As far as today goes, I felt terrific, my fitness was 100 percent, the bike was 100 percent, the set-up was 100 percent, and I just went and executed what I knew I had to do and it went really well," Oliver said. "I was comfortable and I didn't really think much about the championship. I just wanted to win the race, so I'm glad I did that and we'll go into next year and try to not mess up early so we have a points lead at the end of the year." Oliver's season was compromised with a crash in the second round at T Y1"'ilIlmrutieu1l1Knny be ZI, Z.l 1--.1111 GENUINE SUZUKI ACCESSORIES 750cc SUPERSPORT: 1. Lee Acree (Suz); 2. Jimmy Moore (Suz); 3. Robert Jensen (Suz); 4. M..ike Ciccotto (Suz); 5. Scott Harwell (Suz); 6. Rich Conieelii (Suz); 7. Vmeent Haskovec (Suz); 8. Andy Caldwell (Suz); 9. Anthony Lupo (Suz); 10. David Ortega (Suz): II. Tony Meiring (Suz); 12. Chris Rlinkin (Suz); 13. Justin Blake (Suz); 14. Billy Ethridge (Suz); 15. John McGarity (Suz); 16. Chris Ulrich (Su.); 17. Rich Alex2lnder (Suz); 18. JlImie Thompson (Suz); 19. Michael Bames (Suz); 20. Jeremy Barker (Suz); 21. Ben Spies (Suz). Tune: 25 mins., 40.405 sea. Distance: 17 laps, 38.25 miles. Average speed; 89.789 mph. Margin of victory: 4.863 sec. FINAL GENUINE SUZUKI ACCESSORIES 750cc SUPERSPORT C'SHIP STANDINGS: J. Jimmy Moore (310/3 wins): 2. Vincent Haskovec (229); 3. Ben Spies (226/1); 4. Rich Ale.ander (210); 5. (TIE) Tony Meiring/Chris Ulrich (208/1); 7. David Ortega (187); 8. Anthony Lupo (179); 9. Alan Schmidt (152); 10. Rich Conieelii (149); 11. DaigolO Suzuki (133); 12. Mike Ciccotto (103/2); 13. J.ustin Blake (77); 14. Brian Parriott (70); 15. Lee Ac.... (63/1); 16. John Dugan (59); 17. Randall Mennenga (58); 18. (TIE) Josh Hayes/Robert Jensen (56); 20. Owen Richey (53). 18 OCTOBER 10,2001 • cue NELSON ALTON, VA, SEPT. 39 an.,v.... ......, SIIpl J. • _ n _ VIr. Sears Point and scuttled with another bad result at Loudon. Filice was more consistent, his sixth in Virginia the worst finish of his year. "He [Filice) was in the points lead when it counted, and when they pulled the race, that just made it that much harder for me because I had mistakes early on in the year, so I have no one to blame by myself that I didn't win the championship," Oliver said. Sorensen had machine problems during the weekend and they carried over into the race, but weren't fatal. A seizure in the forward cylinder of his GP Tech Yamaha in mommg practice meant a scramble to get the TZ ready. "I tried to hang on to Rich [Oliver) right there at first and I wanted to keep with him, but he was consistently in the lower 29s by now, through practice and the heat race, so that was a tough pace for me," Sorensen said. "I just got away and kind of ran my own race. My bike started to detonate way early on. I was thinking the bike wasn't going to finish the race, but the pistons probably don't look too pretty right now, but the bike made it through." Third was an interesting race, with Virginia veteran Randy Renfrow using his knowledge of the track to make up for his lack of track time and fitness this year. With him was Irishman Simon Turner on the second GP Tech Yamaha and Filice, with Team Promotion Aprilia's Michael Himmelsbach joining the fray in the second half of the race. At one point, there were four riders contesting the final podium spot with Renfrow falling back to fifth for four laps. On the 12th, Renfrow was up to fourth behind Turner and moving, then up on Turner with two laps to go. A lap from the end, Renfrow was into third with Tuner fourth and Himmelsbach sixth, with those two swapping spots on the final lap. "It was a tough race, I knew it would be," Renfrow said. "I wanted to do well, but I just got really, really, really tired. My forearm pumped up so bad I couldn't brake and I kept losing the front end. I couldn't get back on the throttle soon enough and I was riding the front end way too far into IBeIowt .Jimmy FIlice INIcI • tough -unci • at Ieaat I~. T1NI Californian crashed In practice, but battIecI back 10 tlnlsh sixth In the 250cc Grand Prix final •• result that netted him the crown, his 1hlrd In the c .....