Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.
By David Swarts
Graves Motorsports Yamaha’s Chuck Graves took pole position for the WSMC Toyota 200 with a lap of 1:21.033 on his Yamaha YZF-R7/R1 hybrid during qualifying Friday at Willow Springs International Raceway.
Toward the end of the 30-minute, red-flag-interrupted qualifying session, Graves started putting on 555-compound (soft) Dunlop rear slicks to chase down and beat the previous best time of Jason Pridmore. Graves did his best time on his last lap of the nine-turn, 2.5-mile track.
“It’s awesome!” said Graves. “My Crew Chief Tony Romo, Tom Halverson, Steve Rounds and everyone on the Yamaha crew really helped a lot. We were able to dial in the new forks with no problems, and everything feels great for the race.”
Instead of resting or doing tire testing for the remainder of the weekend, Graves plans to compete in several WSMC support races on Saturday and Sunday to hold his position in those class Championships.
Graves will be joined by Vincent Haskovec, Jeremy Toye and Jack Pfeifer on the front row of the WSMC Toyota 200 grid on Sunday.
Originally, Yamaha’s Aaron Gobert was locked into a front-row starting spot, but Gobert withdrew from the race prior to this weekend. Pfeifer was moved up into Gobert’s spot because he was the next-fastest qualifier in Gobert’s qualifying session earlier this summer.
Attack Suzuki’s Pridmore held the top spot for most of Friday’s first timed session, consistently lapping in the 1:21s, but had to settle for the second-fastest time of the day at 1:21.408. Due to the unique WSMC Toyota 200 qualifying system, Pridmore will have to start from the fifth grid spot even though his time is the second-fastest overall.
Kawasaki’s Tommy Hayden also earned a second-row starting spot, sixth, with Friday’s third-fastest time, a 1:22.409, on his ZX-6R Supersport bike.
James Randolph mounted a fresh, rear Dunlop slick to his Suzuki GSX-R1000 late in Friday’s second qualifier, cut two seconds from his previous best lap time and passed Jimmy Moore for the fastest time of the second group. Randolph will start seventh on Sunday.
Corona Extra Suzuki’s Moore qualified eighth overall with a 1:23.862 in his first weekend riding Steve Rapp’s GSX-R1000 Formula Xtreme bike.
One of the surprises of the day was Bridgestone’s Ed Sorbo qualifying ninth overall with a time of 1:24.511 on his Yamaha TZ250. Sorbo plans to run the entire 200-mile race on one set of Bridgestone slicks.
Toye, Haskovec and Pfeifer rode during qualifying Friday afternoon at Willow but did not wear transponders or record times because they had already locked in front-row starting spots.
Over 70 riders attempted to earn one of the 40 starting spots for the $150,000 race, which pays $50,000 to first, $30,000 to second, $10,000 to third and $1000 to 40th place.
WSMC Toyota 200 Provisional Qualifying Results:
1. Chuck Graves, Yamaha YZF-R7/R1, 1:21.033
2. Vincent Haskovec, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 1:22.557
3. Jeremy Toye, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 1:22.960
4. Jack Pfeifer, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 1:23.502
5. Jason Pridmore, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 1:21.408
6. Tommy Hayden, Kawasaki ZX-6R, 1:22.409
7. James Randolph, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 1:23.666
8. Jimmy Moore, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 1:23.863
9. Ed Sorbo, Yamaha TZ250, 1:24.511
10. Owen Richey, Suzuki GSX-R750, 1:24.696
11. Curtis Adams, Suzuki GSX-R1100, 1:24.800
12. Dave Emde, Suzuki, 1:24.985
13. Jason Perez, Suzuki GSX-R600, 1:25.110
14. Geoff May, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 1:25.160
15. Matt Wait, Yamaha YZF-R6, 1:25.644
16. Jacob West, Yamaha YZF-R6, 1:25.743
17. Dale Kieffer, Yamaha YZF-R6, 1:25.760
18. John Pearson, Suzuki GSX-R750, 1:25.764
19. Clinton Whitehouse, Suzuki GSX-R750, 1:25.814
20. Stuart Smith, Yamaha YZF-R1, 1:25.847
21. Andrew Nelson, Honda CBR600F4i, 1:25.847
22. Phil Herrin, Suzuki, 1:25.964
23. Michael Hannas, Kawasaki ZX-6R, 1:26.109
24. Jason Catching, Yamaha, 1:26.296
25. Sam Carnibucci, Yamaha YZF-R6, 1:26.403
26. Jeff Stern, Suzuki GSX-R750, 1:26.419
27. Scott Jensen, Suzuki GSX-R750, 1:26.612
28. Chad Jensen, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 1:26.655
29. Chris Peris, Suzuki GSX-R600, 1:26.682
30. Rick Sampinato, 1:26.713
31. Cesar Meza, Suzuki GSX-R750, 1:26.818
32. Tyler Paulson, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 1:27.141
33. Marte Cooksey, Suzuki GSX-R750, 1:27.462
34. James Kerker, Honda, 1:27.552
35. John Chen, Suzuki, 1:27.616
36. Robert Campbell, Kawasaki ZX-6R, 1:27.823
37. Larry Pasquale, Suzuki, 1:28.004
38. M. Ben Welch, Yamaha YZF-R6, 1:28.011
39. Barry Burke, Yamaha, 1:28.065
40. John Falb, 1:28.365