From a press release issued by Team Oliver Yamaha:

Team Oliver Yamaha’s Rich Oliver continues his perfect season at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California.

Rich rode his Robert Ward tuned blue rocket to a 22 second victory over defending national champion, Chuck Sorensen. The Laguna Seca weekend was not without its difficulties as the tempermental Yamaha gave Rich fits around the 2 1/2 mile Laguna circuit. Finally giving in, Rich changed to his 1996 fork crowns and fork assemblies right before the race on Sunday afternoon. This last minute and desperate change gave Rich the confidence he needed in his front end settings and allowed him to ride with renewed speed and aggression.

Typical for the Laguna Seca weekend, Oliver usually celebrates his victories wildly in the corkscrew with his many fans, however, this weekend, Rich was concerned about the AMA penalty ramifications. Due to their unpredictable mood and varying penalty structure, one would never know what type of penalty would be occured by celebratory antics of Rich stripping both himself and his machine. Thus, after a somber and heartfelt team meeting, Rich decided to rein in his desires for such a display and quietly and disgustingly rode to the winners circle disappointed that he couldn’t give his show to the fans in the corkscrew.

After the race, Rich commented, “This just really hurts my feelings. After all, part of racing is celebrating success and including the fans in the process. Look at those World Superbike guys, after each leg, they come into the pits and do nothing but doughnuts and burnouts to please the crowd and thank them for their support. But not us in AMA, all we get to do are wheelies and wave to the crowd-we can’t even stop and throw a helmet to the crowd. I understand there is a safety aspect but I have been racing for 25 years. Believe me, if I am going to stop and throw my helmet, I will do it in a safe manner.

“The championship is getting closer and that is our goal. As far as being perfect, we would all love to do that but our number one priority is winning the championship and taking home the last ever AMA 250 Grand Prix title.”


From a press release issued by Team Stargel Aprilia:

Laguna Seca Not Lucky For Team Stargel Aprilia

During the 2002 AMA 250GP season, Laguna Seca Raceway was certainly the low point for Team Stargel Aprilia. After having numerous problems during that weekend, the team suffered a mechanical failure on the warm up lap of the race. That was the only DNF the team recorded in 2002. It was hoped that Laguna Seca would be kinder to them in 2003.

The team’s Aprilia RSV250 worked well during practice as rider, Chuck Sorensen, continued to recover from hand and foot injuries suffered earlier in the season. Team Stargel Aprilia had their sights set on pole position, only to miss out by a narrow .007 of a second (1:29.946 to 1:29.953).

Sunday morning’s practice session had Sorensen at the top of the timing charts and the team felt that points leader Oliver’s win streak might finally be broken.

The race began with Sorensen getting off to an average start and having to pass a couple of riders to move into second place. Once there, he began to close the gap between he and Oliver. After two laps, a rider crashed, bringing out the red flag and stopping the race. It was announced that the race would be restarted and run in its entirety.

On the restart, the crew noticed a problem had occurred between the two starts, but were helpless to try and correct it. The Aprilia soldiered on for the next 17 laps, placing Sorensen well clear of third place, but disappointingly well off his usual pace and well back of the eventual winner.