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AMAILockhart-Phillips USA Formula Xtreme Series Round 5: Road America Once the lead trio split on the third over Corona Extra EBSCO Media lap, the others settled into place. Bruce Transportation Group's Marty Suzuki's Jimmy Moore. Craggill was alone in fourth, with four seconds on fellow Australian Adam Jamie Hacking was ninth, with Hooters Suzuki's Vincent Haskovec filling Fergusson, fifth on the Corona Extra EBSCO Media Suzuki. Next was Attack Suzuki's Jason out the top 10. Halfway into the 10 race Formula Xtreme season Buckmaster takes over the lead with 149 points, two ahead of Spies. Hayes is third with 136. CN Pridmore, also alone. Not so for the fight over seventh, which went to Erion Honda's Roger Lee Hayden Graves Motorsports Yamaha's ROIId America Elkhert Lake, Wiscensin Results: June 8, Z003 [Round 51 LOCKHART· PHILLIPS USA FORMULA XTREME: 1. Damon Buckmaster (Yam): 2. Josh Hayes (Suz): 3. Ben Spies (Suz); 4. Marty Craggill (Han); 5. Adam Fergusson (Suz); 6. Jason Pridmore (Han); 7. Roger Lee Hayden (Han); B. Jimmy Moore (Suz); 9. Jamie Hacking (Yam); 10. Vincent Haskovec (Suz): 11. Craig Connell (Han): 12. Jason Curtis (Han); 13. Jeff Bostrom (Suz); 14. Douglas Duane (Suz); 15. Jason Knupp (Suz); 16. Mark Vandal (Yam); 17. Mark Kittel (Han); 18. David Bell (Suz): 19. Steve Rapp (Suz): 20. Jake Zemke (Hon): 2,!. David Guy (Suz). Time: 23 min., 2.810 sec. Distance: 10 laps, 40 miles AMAIMBNA 250cc Grand Prix Series Average speed: 104.1 mph M.argin of v;ctory: 2.128 sec. LOCKHART·PHILLIPS USA FORMULA XTREME C'SHIP POINT STANDINGS (Afler 5 or 10 rounds): 1. Damon Buckmaster (149/2 wins); 2. Ben Spies (147{2); 3. Josh Hayes (136); 4. Adam Fergusson (131): 5. Jake Zemke (125): 6. Marty Cra99i1l (119): 7. Jimmy Moore (111): 8. Steve Rapp (110): 9. Jamie Hacking (100); 10. Jason Pridmore (90); 11. Roger Lee Hayden (87); 12. Chris Ulrich (73); 13. Aaron Gobert (70); 14. Ty Howard (61); 15. Jason Curtis (56); 16. Craig Connell (55); 17. Doug Chandler (52); 18. Geoff May (39); 19. David Guy (34): 20. Douglas Duane (33). Upcoming Rounds: Round 6 - Brainerd, Minnesota, June 27 Round 7 - Monterey, California, July 12 "I had a pretty good run," Oliver said. "I love this track and the feeling of the speed and bending through the straightaways and having the bike screaming underneath you for such a long time. The reason that I started racing in the first place when I was 16 years old is the speed. I love the speed." eN Round S: Road America RDad America Elkhert Lake, WiSCDnsin Results: June 8, Z003 [Round 6J By SCOTT ROUSSEAU PHOTO By BRIAN J. NELSON ELKHART LAKE, WI, JUNE 8 T he bigger the track, the more Rich Oliver stinks up the show. He can't help it. Just as he has been all season long, Oliver was the best rider on the fastest bike. He proved it as he pushed his Team Oliver Yamaha entry to another convincing win on the 4.048-mile Road America course. He got the holeshot. He left series Champion and race polesitter Chuck Sorensen in his wake. He put about three seconds a lap on Sorensen to win by nearly 30 seconds in 10 laps. Yawn here. Afterward, Oliver said that the only struggling he did was during practice and qualifying, when he was running a different motor combination whilst "looking for an advantage." "Chuck [Sorensen] and Simon [Turner] are running so hard that we try to put as man~ hot rod parts in our Yamaha as we think it can handie," Oliver said. "If you ever looked inside that motor, you wouldn't believe what's in there. It's definitely a hot rod. It's pretty far from what came from the factory. But this particular part that we put in didn't work, and we pretty much wasted Thursday practice worrying about that. Then Friday we took it out and put the normal parts back in and lost our way with our tuning and our jetting. We slowly figured that out, and, funny thing, rocket science that this is, we just put in all our parts that we used at Road Atlanta, and it ran fine." Fine enough that Oliver was 7.452 seconds ahead of Team Stargel Aprilia's Sorensen before the race was three laps old. There was little the defending champion - battered and bruised as he is from crashes in the 26 JUNE 18, 2003' cue I e previous two rounds of the series could do to stop his rival. "I probably don't favor the wet/dry conditions, I guess, the in between," Sorensen said. "It was a good week· end for my team. We tuned the bike pretty much flawlessly and didn't have any problems. We had the same conditions in the race that we did in practice this morning. It was a thing where you don't know how hard you can go in the lefts and the rights. The lefts were still sketchy, and I have been on the ground a few times lateIy, so I kind of wanted to bring it home today and save myself for the next fight." As if Oliver needed any extra advantage, his mastery over the inconsistent track conditions may have come from his unique tire choices. "I had a street tire from Dunlop - a Supersport tire . on the front and a cut slick that Les from Dunlop cut for me on the rear," Oliver said. "That worked really well for me." At least the race for third place was a race, as Priority Racing Honda's Simon Turner came out on top of what shaped up early as a four-rider battle for the last podium spot. Sunsports Yamaha's Perry Melneciuc held third off the start, with All American Home Honda rider Chris Pyles and Turner following him. Pyles then got under Melneciuc to take third away out of turn five. Then Pro 6 Cycle Yamaha's Sandy Noce caught the trio, making some great moves picked off the front three and took over third place briefly on lap four. Pyles and Melneciuc both got by Noce in the draft up the front straightaway on lap five. Noce would hang tough for another four laps before dropping off the pace. Turner then pulled away from Melneciuc and Pyles with about a lap and a half to n e vv s go to secure his fifth third-place finish in six rounds. "You'd think I would love the weather, coming from Ireland," Turner said. "I only had either a front wet or a front slick, so I had to take the safer option and go with the wet and try to save it to the end. I just kind of foxed about there for a while. This is such a great track. It's a shame that the weather sort of worked against us. I'm not sure who it was on the white Yamaha [Noce], but that guy was riding better than any of us. Then he had trouble with the gearbox, and he dropped back. His corners were better than the rest of us. I thought he was going to go and I was going to have to go with him. Then he dropped back, and with three laps to go, it was time for me to go. It was good fun." Though he ran alone at the front, Oliver said he had just as much fun. MBNA 250 GRAND PRIX: 1. Rich Oliver (Yam): 2. Chuck Sorensen (Apr); 3. Simon Turner (Han); 4. Perry Melneciuc (Yam); 5. Chris Pyles (Han); 6. Sandy Nace (Yam); 7. Greg Esser (Han); 8. Barrett Long (Yam); 9. Jeremy Bonnett (Yam); to. William Himmelsbach (Yam); 11. Sean McNew (Han); 12. Ed Sorbo (Yam); 13. Shawn Murray (Han); 14. Ed Marchini (Yam); 15. Sean Wray (Yam); 16. Sahn Wehseler (Yam); 17. Stephen Bowline (Han); 18. Glen Christianson (Yam); 19. James Bonner (Yam); 20. Bryan Hoelzer (Han); 21. Mark Stiles (Yam); 22. Steve Scott (Yam); 23. Michael Rentschler (Yam): 24. John France (Han); 25. Colin Jensen (Apr). Time: 25 min.. 22.700 sec. Distance: 10 laps, 40.48 miles Average speed: 94.6 mph Margin of victory: 29.801 sec. MBNA 250 GRAND PRIX C'SHIP POINTS STANDINGS (After 6 of 11 rounds): 1. Rich Oliver (225/6 wins); 2. Chuck Sorenson (162); 3. Perry Melneciuc (154); 4. Chris Pyles ("148); 5. Simon Turner (145); 6. Edward Marchini (138); 7. Edward Sorbo (122); 8. Colin Jensen (113): 9. Sandy Noce (112); 10. Greg Esser (110); 11. Darren Fulce (90); 12. Sean Wray (80); 13. Stephen Bowline (79); 14. (TIE) Sean McNew (66)jJohn France (66): 16. Shawn Murray (61); 17. (TIE) Barrett Long (60)jJeremy Bonnetl (60): 19. Ben Welch (41): 20. James Bonner (40). Upcoming Rounds: Round 7 - Brainerd, Minnesota, June 29 Round 8 . Monterey, California, July 12 Rich Oliver was so far ahead in the 250cc Grand Prix he could have stopped for bratwurst and fried cheese sticks. ,If