Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

"I was pretty confident [of making the pass up the front straight]," Hayes said. "I know my bike is so fast. The Attack crew and Grant Nakashima build that thing, and it's an absolute missile - it has been all year. I felt pretty confident that if he didn't hold up my drive too bad that we would be pretty good down to the finish line." Traffic caused Hayden some angst on the final lap. Once through, he wanted to be in a position to attack. "I was going by one way or another," he said. Hayes braked deep, but Hayden braked even later. "I made it pretty good, but I scrubbed too much speed and didn't get a very good drive off the turn," he said. "He was able to get back under me. It always hurts a little worse when it's that close, but that's the way it goes." Hayes completed the 17-lap, 37.4mile race in 25 minutes, 32.440 seconds at an average speed of 89.4 mph. The time was 44 seconds slower than Hayden's record time from last year. The maximum points total Hayes collected - pole, most laps led, and win - put him atop the championship standings by a point. "I knew I needed to win some races to get back in this," Hayes said. With three rounds to go, he leads Hayden 228 to 227, with Hooters Suzuki's Vincent Haskovec, ninth today, third at 226. "I was thinking about the championship for sure coming into this weekend," Hayden said. "I knew that we were definitely going to have to win some more races this year to get the championship." Tony Meiring was alone, about eight seconds behind Fergusson. Fifth went to Valvoline EMGO Suzuki's Steve Rapp, the winner of the two previous races. Rapp had gotten caught up in a first-turn melee that took out a number of riders, including Yamaha's Jason DiSalvo, and spent the rest of the race catching back up. By the end, he was well clear of Lees Cycles' Jeremy Toye, with Ricci Motorsports Jacob Holden seventh. CN Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca Monterey, Califomia Results: July 13, 2003 [Round 81 GENUINE SUZUKI ACCESSORIES SOPER STOCK: I. Josh Hayes (Suz): 2. Tommy Hayden (KlIw); 3. Adam Fergusson (SU2); 4. Tony Meiring (KlIw); 5. Steve Rapp (Suz); 6. Jeremy Toye (Suz); 7. Jacob Holden (Suz): 8. Jason Perez (Yam); 9. Vincent Haskovec (Suz); 10. Chris Ulrich (Suz): 11. Chris Peds (Hon); 12. J.J. Roetlin (Suz): 13. John Haner (Suz); 14. Mike Ciccotte (Suz); 15. Tom Wertman (Suz): 16. Corey Eaton (Suz); 17. Jeff Bostrom (Suz); 18. Opie Caylor (Suz); 19. Brian Stokes (Suz); 20. Mat Furtek (Suz); 21. Hawk Mauotts (Suz); 22. Doug Pitcock (Suz); 23. Nathan Hester (Suz): 24. Chad Rolland (Suz); 25. Mickey Lane (Suz); 26. Eric Erling Haugo (Suz); 27. Martin Sims (Suz); 28. Crash Lowe (Suz); 29. Corey Sarros (Suz); 30. Jeremy Chisum (Suz); 31. David Lambert (Suz); 32. John Dugan (Suz); 33. Mark Simon (Suz); 34. Kenan Rappuchi (Suz); 35. David Ron Bell (Suz). Time: 25 min., 32.440 sec. Distance; 17 laps, 37.4 miles Average speed: 89.4 mph Margin of victory: 0.028 sec. GENUINE SUZUKI ACCESSORIES SUPERSTOCK C'SHIP POINTS STANDINGS (After 8 of I I rounds): I. Josh Hayes (228/1 win); 2. Tommy Hayden (227/2); 3. V;neent Haskovee (226/1); 4. Adam Fergusson (206); 5. Tony Meiring (196/1); 6. Opie Caylor (175); 7. Jason DiSalvo (166); 8. Mike C;eeotto (162); 9. SIeve Rapp (151); 10. J;mmy Moore (142); 11. John Haner (137); 12. Chris Ulrich (134); 13. J.J. RoeWn (104); 14. Br;an Stokes (92); 15. Jaeob Holden (86); 16. Mat Furtek (83); 17. Jeremy Toye (78); 18. Jordan Szoke (76); 19. Tom Wertman (72); 20. Hawk Mazzotta (65). Upcoming Rounds: Round 9 - Lexington, Ohio, July 26 Round 10 - Alton, Virginia, August 29 MBNA 250cc Grand Prix Round B: Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca RICH OLIVER REMAINS PERFECT IN 2003 Bv BLAKE CONNER PHOTO BV HENNV RAV ABRAMS MONTEREY, CA, JULY 13 n what was to be the final 250cc Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca, Rich Oliver once again decided to put on a show in his hometown race. When all was said and done, Oliver had once again biitzed the field in what can only be described as a boring and processional race. Oliver had originally planned a victory celebration in the corkscrew in which he was going to intentionally lows ide his bike and then dismantle it for the fans. He changed his mind after deciding that the AMA would probably fine him and dock him hard-earned points. The race got under way with Priority Racing's Simon Turner jumping the start from the third position on the front row. As the pack worked its way around the first lap, both Colin Jensen and Rich Denman went down in the corkscrew, bringing out the red flag. The grid for the restart would be the same as the original, with Oliver on pole position and Stargel Aprilia's Chuck Sorensen, Turner and Perry Melneciuc completing the front row. Oliver nailed the holeshot and led the pack into turn one, already putting a gap on the rest of the pack. Oliver started his usual disappearing act and slowly started to ease away from Sorensen's Aprilia. Melneciuc and his Yamaha raced in third, and Ed Sorbo, also on a Yamaha, slotted in fourth. Before the red flag, Turner was shown the meatball flag for jumping the start. Before the restart, he was told that he would have to serve a stopand-go penalty within four laps. He ducked into the pits before the end of lap one, paid his penalty and jumped back in at the tail end of the field. The order stayed the same for the next couple of laps, while Oliver and Sorensen both put big gaps on their pursuers. Oliver had already put a four-second gap on Sorensen, while Melneciuc started to lose touch as well. Turner, on the other hand, was making short work of the rest of the field as he charged to the front after his stop-and-go. By lap six, Oliver was already closing in on lappers, and he found himself deep into them a lap later. "I had nothing but problems with traffic all weekend," Oliver said. "I would do a lap and have two good split times, and then the third split I time would be junk because I would get balked behind one or two guys. It wasn't their fault, they were doing their very best. Lap after lap after lap in qualifying and practices I was trying to put down clean laps that were representative of what the bike was capable of doing, and I never did. In the race, I thought it was going to be a nightmare, but I went through everyone like butter." A battle for fourth position started to take shape as Michael Montoya started closing the gap on Sorbo. The front five were then deep into lapped traffic, with Sorensen getting the worst of it on the eighth lap, hitting a big group coming down out of turns nine and 1 O. "I guess 1 could be a little more brutal in terms of decisiveness in cutting those guys off," Sorensen said. "I wasn't in a position to start to breakdown the lead that Rich had, so I decided to protect what I had. I felt like I was riding as hard as I could. I'm not sure what happened. We'll have to take the bike apart and see if something was wrong. I felt like I was riding harder than those lap times, so we'll have to check it out. Leading up to the race, everything went really good, and we were having a good weekend." Montoya finally got by Sorbo on the eighth lap and put a small gap on him that would stay fairly consistent throughout the race. By that time, the running order was Oliver, with a 14second lead, over Sorensen, Melneciuc and Turner, who had worked his way past most of the field inside of 10 laps to take fourth from Montoya. Sorbo was sixth. The highlight of the second half of the race was Turner trying to run down Melneciuc in third for the coveted podium position. "I saw him [Turner] jump the start, and I saw him get the meatball flag, and when we got the red flag, I knew he would have to either start from the back or come in for a stop-and-go," Melneciuc said. "I knew if 1 didn't make too many mistakes and just rode a consistent and comfortable race, I could stay up there. I watched my board pretty closely and maybe cue' e Rich Oliver has been the man in AMA 250cc GP for a while, but the last couple years have been frustrating for him. With eight wins in eight tries, his frustration is a thing of the past. watched it too much and rode off of the board and not just doing my own thing; I started to make mistakes and had a really close call in the corkscrew. I was just thinking about getting here because it's been such a long time. 1 didn't ride as well as I could have, but I got here, and I'm really happy." Oliver was an awesome 20.6 seconds ahead of Sorensen by lap 13, with the top positions stabilizing until the end of the race. The top-three riders were ridiculously strung out, with a front straightaway between each of them. The only tight battle of the leading six riders was the group of Melneciuc, Turner, Montoya and Sorbo, who ran fairly close for the duration of the race. At the finish, it was Oliver putting a complete spanking on the field as he lapped all the way up to 12th. He won by 23.286 seconds. Second was Sorensen, followed by Melneciuc more than 26 seconds back. Melneciuc managed to hold off Turner by just over two seconds at the end. Fifth went to Montoya, with Sorbo sixth. CN Mazda Raceway laguna Seta Monterey, Califomia Results: July 13, 2003 [Round 8J MBNA 250 GRAND PRIX: 1. Rieh Oliver (Vam); 2. Charles Sorensen (Apr); 3. Perry Melneciuc (Yam); 4. Simon Turner (Hon): 5. Michael Montoya (Yam); 6. Edward Sorbo (Yam); 7. Colin Jensen (Apr); 8. Chris Pyles (Hon); 9. Greg Esser (Han); to. Mark Watts (Han); 11. Darren Fulce (Yam); 12. Barrett Long (Yam); 13. Edward Marchini (Yam); 14. John France (Han); 15. Ben Welch (Yam); 16. Sandy Noce (Yam); 17. Steve Scott (Yam); 18. Nobi Iso (Apr); 19. Sean Wray (Vam); 20. Jeffery Beek (Hon); 21. Stephen Bowline (Han); 22. Dante Dambruoso (Yam); 23. Michael Aron (Yam): 24. Alexander White (Hon); 25. James Jessen (Yam): 26. Philip Snowden (Hon); 27. David Moss (Yam); 28. Michael Janzen (Hon); 29. Shawn Murray (Han). Time: 25 min.. 48.37 sec. Distance: 17 laps. 37.4 miles Average speed: 88.458 mph Margin of victory: 23.286 sec. MBNA 250 GRAND PRIX POINTS STANDINGS (Arter 8 of 11 rounds): 1. Rich Oliver (30 I /8 wins); 2. Perry Melneciuc (210); 3. Simon Tumer (204); 4. Chris Pyles (197); 5. Charles Sorensen (193); 6. Edward Marchini (181); 7. Colin Jensen (166); 8. Edward Sorbo (158); 9. Greg Esser (ISS); 10. Sandy Noce (151); 11. Sean Wray (113); 12. Darren Fulce (110): 13. Stephen Bowline (106); 14. John France (105); 15. Shawn Murray (81); 16. Barrett Long (79); 17. Sean McNew (78); 18. Steve Scott (69); 19. Jeremy Bonnett (60); 20. Mark Watts (58). Upcoming Rounds: Round 9 - Lexington, Ohio, July 26 Round 10 - Alton, Virginia, August 31 n e _ S • JULY 23, 2003 23

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