Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Behind Connell came SGl's Vincent Haskovec, the Suzuki-mounted rider well clear of the similarly mounted Jason DiSalvo on the Team America GSX-R. Kawasaki's Tony Meiring fought back from a bad start to finish sixth. White Tip Racing's Brian Parriott, Butler Machines Robert Jensen, HSA's Brian Livengood and Acree rounded out the top 10 finishers. Moore's 232 points leads Acree's 218. Hayden holds down third with 198 points, while Haskovec moved ahead of Parriott and into fourth in the series standings with two rounds remaining. It was Hayden leading the way out of turn two for the first time, with the pack bunched up behind him. Connell led that group, and the Australian didn't waste much time in powering his way past the smaller 600 ridden by Hayden. The move came in a logical spot, on the run up the hill to the Corkscrew, the bigger 750 showing its horsepower advantage. Hayden, though, wasn't giving up. With Connell stretching his advantage to 1.2 seconds at the end of seventh lap, Hayden then started to whittle that lead down. By the end of the 10th lap, he was right on the Australian again. And Moore was right with them. Ditto for Acree. At the end of the 12th lap, Hayden passed Connell on the brakes into turn II, only to watch the Aussie power past up the hill that leads to turn one. Then Hayden went back by into turn two and the race was on. Later that lap, Acree dismissed himself from the battle with a crash on the exit of the horseshoe, and moments later Moore blasted past Connell on the approach to turn 11. "It's a pleasure riding with these guys," Connell said. "There's nothing dirty and we can ride an inch apart and never do I think anyone is going to hit me or whatever. I've sort of been struggling with the front end of . my motorcycle all weekend. Unfortunately, I didn't get it right and that's the reason halfway through the race I had to back it off a bit. All of us to a certain extent got held up a little bit. It was pretty even." On the 13th lap, Hayden got a better break in traffic and opened up a little breathing room on Moore. And a little bit more a lap later, again thanks at least in part to traffic. It only helped that Moore wasn't completely happy with his setup. "About the only place I felt really comfortable was straight up and down on the brakes," Moore said. "We made a mistake on the forks, a judgment call before the race and it didn't really work. I was kind of fighting the front end the whole race. It made it difficult, so the only place I really felt strong was in [turn] 11. I just kept my head down. Craig's a good, clean rider and I have no problem being close with him. He rode a great race. I tried to keep a steady rhythm going. I got a bit worked up and tried to get myself calmed down. It looked like I might have been able to catch Tommy, but it was so risky the way my bike was handling. That's the best I could do today." Although Moore was able to keep him honest, Hayden wasn't to be headed again. At the finish line, he was 1.335 seconds ahead of Moore. AMA/MBNA 250cc Grand Prix Series Round 10: Mazda Race\Nay at Laguna Seca STORY AND PHOTO BY HENNY RAY ABRAMS MONTEREY, CA, JULY 14 Wou could tell by the way he acted }j that Rich Oliver was at home. The Northern Californian considers Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca his home track and the turnout of friends and family reflected it. It provided him a certain amount of pressure to perform, but Oliver was unfazed, speeding to wins in both halves of the redflag-interrupted MBNA 250cc Grand Prix, the final race of a long Sunday afternoon in Monterey. . "This is my hometown," Oliver said after beating Performance Machines' Roland Sands and his TZ250 by 5.170 seconds. Priority Racing's Simon Turner, also TZ-250mounted, was half a second back in third. "Boy, talk about putting pressure on me. Man I have to win, otherwise I'd disappoint a lot of people." Oliver disappointed no one. The first try at running the 17 -lap, 37.4mile race ended on the ninth lap with a red flag, and Oliver over five seconds in front. Scoring reverted to the end of the eighth lap, Oliver 5.188 seconds in front. "I saw the red flag and my heart sunk," Oliver said. "I'd worked really hard. Roland [Sands] had made a strong push at me as he always does. I lost the five seconds and had to start over again and I told Robert [Ward, Oliver's mechanic], 'Well, we're going to have to go get five more seconds again,''' He did it with ease. After Sands put up an early struggle, Oliver took over and took off, winning the nine-lap second segment over Sands by 5.170 seconds. "For the first time at Laguna, I had a bike that I was really happy with handlingwise and gripwise," he said. "It was a smooth machine. Now I feel almost as comfortable as I felt in the late '90s," The win was Oliver's second in a row and third of the year. Oliver's weekend wasn't entirely smooth. On Friday, a crankshaft seized after eight laps. He thought he had a good crankshaft in his spare TZ, only to discover it was broken in half. With help from Dan Kyle and John Long, Oliver was able to piece together a winning crankshaft. Not so lucky was championship leader Chuck Sorensen, whose Team Stargel Aprilia RSV-250 seized before the race. "The bike blew up on the warm-up lap," Sorensen said. "Going into the Corkscrew, it just seized. I tried to refire it and it fired on one cylinder, of course." The mechanical DNF was costly, though not fatal, to his title hopes. With two rounds remaining, he still leads Team Oliver Yamaha's Perry Melneciuc by 25 points, 235-210. Sands stuck with Oliver for the first half of the first race until nearly highsiding exiting turn 11. That was all Oliver needed to pull away. Sands' Yama- ha TZ250 had a front-end chatter and was moving around a lot. "I really wanted to bring it home, so I settled into a comfortable pace doing low 30s," Sands said. Then came the red flag and a second chance, only this time Oliver went faster. "Rich [Oliver] was running a real hot pace today, 29.2s [Oliver qualified at 1:29.694]. He almost got into the eights. We didn't have the setup to go that fast today," Sands' more pressing problem was the Irishman Simon Turner. Turner Connell crossed the line alone. Haskovec likewise. eN Mudo Rocewoy It Loguno seco Monterey, Corlfomlo Results: July 14, ZOOZ SOPER STOCK FINAL: 1. Tommy Heyden (KllW); 2. Jimmy Moore (Suz); 3. Craig Connell (Suz); 4. Vincent Haskovec (Suz); 5. Jason DiSalvo (Suz); 6. Tony Meiring (Kaw); 7. Brian Parriott (Suz); B. Robert Jensen (Suz); 9. Brian Uvengood (Suz); 10. Lee Acree (Suz); 11. Owen Richey (Suz); 12. John Dugen (Suz); 13. Marco Martinez (Suz); 14. Chris Caylor (SUI); 15. Christopher Rankin (SOl); 16. Scott Jensen (Suz); 17. Andrew Nelson (Hon); 18. JlIcob Holden (5Ul); 19. J.J. Roetlin (5Ul): 20. Jeff Bostrom (Suz); 21. Justin Bilike (Suz); 22. Tom Wertman (SOl); 23. Mark Ledesma (Hon): 24. Jeremy Chisum (Suz); 25. Kevin Pate (Suz); 26. Giovanni Rojas (Suz); 27. Jason Chisum (Suz); 28. Robert Campbell (Kaw); 29. Hugh Pestes (Suz); 30. Scott Simpson (Kaw); 31. Michael Kostl! (Suz); 32. John Scott Wilson (Suz); 33. Martin Sims (Suz); 34. Lance Williams (Suz); 35. Kevin Burgess (Suz); 36. Jeremiah Johnson (Suz); 37, Chris Ulrich (Suz); 38. Matt Zurbuchen (Suz); 39. Rich Conicelli (Suz); 40. Jeremy Toye (502); 41. Jeffrey Tigert (SOl); 42. Allin Schmidt (Suz); 43. Ty Howard (Suz); 44. James Uckwar (Suz). Time: 25 min., 48.781 sec. Distance: 17 laps. ???? miles Average speed: 88.434 mph Margin of victory: 1.335 sec. SUPERSTOCK C'SHIP POINTS STANDINGS (After 8 of 10 rounds): 1. Jimmy Moore (232/3 wins); 2. Lee Acree (218/2 wins); 3. Tommy Hayden (198/2 wins); 4. Vincent Haskovec (183); 5. Brian Parriott (180); 6. Jason DISalvo (170/1 win): 7. Tony Meiring (159); 8. Brian Livengood (157); 9. Craig Connell (146): 10. Chris Ulrich (124); 11. Ty Howard (121); 12. Alan Schmidt (120): 13. Chris Caylor (107); 14. Robert Jensen (105); 15. (TIE) Rich Conicelli/Adam Fergusson (87). Upcoming Rounds Round 9 - Lexington, Ohio, July 28 Round 10 - Alton, Virginia, August 11 closed on Sands in the final few laps, taking over second for laps 15 and 16 before Sands took the spot back on the final lap. "I just really wanted to win," Turner said. "I'm kind of disappointed. I'm real happy with where we finished and how the bike went, but I'm a little disappointed as well," A fellow Irishman from Ohlins suspension who follows the World Superbike tour helped Turner with his front forks, and it made a world of difference. "A couple of corners we were able to carry a lot more corner speed," Turner said. Turner was .506 of a second behind Sands at the line, with nearly 17 seconds to fourth-placed Jason DiSalvo on the Cruise America Honda. DiSalvo was equally lonely, 13 RIch Ollnr (87) _ tM 2600c Gnmd Prix final ..... IIome traoII, lie 7.19 Roland {10l an.reeI-.... tIIellIlIecI _ c U .. I e n e _ S • JULY 24, 2002 25

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