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MBNA 250 Grand Prix Round 10: Virginia International Raceway Chuck ......-1"1 caIIIlIht .... pnHd IkII 0IIwr le7l ........... DIuIwo (401 ... the 2l!IOcc: QP win tit VIR. ~'. tIftII win at the year . . . Iced his till.... CIInHII' 2lI00c QP title. BY HENNY RAY ABRAMS PHOTO BY BRIAN J. NELSON ALTON, VA, A{]G 11 here was very little between Chuck Sorensen and his third MBNA 250cc Grand Prix title. He'd done the heavy lifting before he got to Virginia International Raceway, wiTining four times and only suffering one DNF in the nine previous rounds. His points lead was more than comfortable, and there was very little competition at his level. That said, he didn't want to get ahead of himself. "Qualifying went very good yesterday, and we just kept our heads down like it was a normal weekend and not a championship-deciding weekend, and I think that's part of the key,Sorensen said. "You know, you're still chasing after fast times but riding within our limits. It's always a fine line doing that." When the race came, Sorensen didn't need much to earn the crown. Still, he was in the thick of the serum from the start, he and Team Oliver Yamaha's Rich Oliver pulling away after an early four-way battle, then Sorensen flying solo after Oliver crashed on the fifth of 17 laps. From then on, it was a matter of keeping everything together, which he did, easily, winning his fifth race of the year, third title, and first ever for Aprilia in AMA Pro Racing. Sorensen previously won titles in 1999 and 2000. "It's phenomenal to come on to the last race with a win like that," Sorensen said after beating Cruise America's Jason Disalvo by 6.284 T 22 AUGUST 21, 2002' eye I seconds. Priority Racing's Simon Turner was third, with front-tire problems at the end. "I was kind of anxious to get the most wins in a season, which that was right there. So I was pretty stoked about that, too. The crew did a great job. They hung together. They treated it like any other weekend. Of course, it's all weighing on our minds about the championship, but through experience you learn that." When Sorensen was out front, he never wavered, dueling with his mentor Oliver as if beating him meant taking the title. That ended when Oliver had an engine problem that put him on the ground. "It made a shrill, squeaking sound, and I crashed," Oliver said of the fairly low spill early on lap five. "When the corner worker pulled it away, it wouldn't roll, so something locked up in the gearbox or rear wheel." As Oliver was sliding away, all he was thinking was 'Don't run over me Chuck,' but there was no threat of that. Oliver, six or seven feet in front of Sorensen at the time, slid away, and Sorensen was home free. "I kept the same rhythm going," Sorensen said. "I just wanted to keep that same rhythm going and see what that would do. If those guys started passing me and I had to go a little bit harder, and I had to think about what was going on and think about the halfway point. I think at the halfway point, I could have done whatever I wanted at the halfway point as far as the championship goes. Until then, it n .. _ s e was in the back of my mind." It appeared that Sorensen slowed as the race went on, but he insisted it wasn't so. "I think you may have seen lap times go back down, possibly because I had a clean track," he said. "I was pretty cautious around the backmarkers, but as soon as I had a clean track, then I just fell into rhythm, and I was moving forth. When it's hot here like this, it brings something out of the track. I don't think it's the tires, it makes the track greasy. So you have to ride a little different where you're concentrating on your drives coming out of the corners where you have control of your slides, whereas on the front end, there's nothing much you can do to save it. That's the way I tried to ride it towards the end, and it worked out." Sorensen completed the 17-lap, 37.8-mile race in a new record time, 25 minutes, 33.201 seconds at an average speed of 90.211 mph. His margin of victory was 6.284 seconds. Disalvo and Turner were together until late in the race, when Disalvo pulled a slight edge, then a large one. "I made a mistake at the end of the hairpin on the brakes," Turner said. "I lost the front and nearly ran off the track and got it gathered up and pushed really, really hard to catch up again, and lost the front again, further on. The third left, that one, it wouldn't pick back up, so I had to take it across the grass. I had plus 18 on the next guy. The front tire had gone, I was going to crash it. I gave it all I had up until the off-track excursion. Can't do any more." Turner said the difference was that Disalvo had about a 10-mph topspeed advantage. "I could see I was always in the throttle earlier, all he could do was put it on and we were equal today," Turner said. "I had no motor today." The second-place finish moved Disalvo into second in the final championship points standings. Sorensen tops the list with 306, then 265 for Disalvo, who passed Team Oliver Yamaha's Perry Melneciuc, fifth today, behind Ed Sorbo. Melneciuc ends the year with 262 points. Sorbo controlled fourth from the time Oliver crashed, with Melneciuc mostly in front of Rising Sun Cycles' Chris Pyles, losing the spot on the penultimate lap, but getting it back on the final tour. eN Virginia International Raceway Alton, Virginia Results: August 11, 2002lRouod 10 of 101 MaNA 250 GRAND PRIX: 1. Chuck Sorensen (Apr); 2. Jason Disalvo (Hon); 3. Simon Turner (Vern); 4. Edward Sorbo (Yam); 5. Perry Melneciuc (Yom); 6. Chris Pyles (Yom); 7. Colin Jensen (Apr); B. Steve Scott (Yam); 9. Ty David Piz (Yam); 10. Barrett Long (Yam); 11. James Bonner (Vern); 12. Greg Esser (Hon); 13. Gert J. Van Der Merwe (Yam); 14. Jeremy Bonnett (Vern); 15. Se~n Wr~y (Yam); 16. Jamie Worthington (Apr); 17. Chad Healy (Yam); 18. Rich Oliver (Yam); 19. John France (Hon). Time: 25 mins.• 33.201 sec. Distance: 17 laps. 37.825 miles Average speed: 90.211 mph Margin of victory: 6.284 sec. MBNA 250 GRAND PRIX C'SHIP POINTS STANDINGS (After 10 of 10 rounds); 1. Chuck Sorensen (306/5 wins); 2. Jason Disalvo (265); 3. Perry Melneciuc (262); 4. Simon Turner (251); 5. Ed Sorbo (238); 6. Rich Oliver (216/4); 7. Colin Jensen (214); 8. Ty Dovid Pi' (209); 9. John Williams (146); 10. Darren Fulce (140); 11. John Fronce (116); 12. Chris Pyles (112); 13. Rolond Sonds (103/1); 14. Fronk Aragaki (85); 15. Stephen Bowline (54); 16. Barrett Long (82); 17. Steve Scott (74); 18. Jamie Worthington (59); 19. James Bonner (66); 20. Cory Denton West (58).