What Rich Oliver Did Last Weekend At Mid-Ohio

What Rich Oliver Did Last Weekend At Mid-Ohio

© 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

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From a press release issued by Oliver Yamaha:

Rich Oliver has done it, winning his fifth AMA 250 Grand Prix Championship in style, with a final lap victory wheelie across the finish line of the Mid-Ohio racetrack, and a fist in the air for his crew!

Rich said after the race, “I’m really happy to have reached our goal, I’ve wanted to win this title for Robert Ward the last three years, and now we have! We worked all year from the point of view of winning the Championship, and I feel good about our consistent performances.

“The bike has been good, most of the time it’s taken some set-up work, but in the races it’s been good or great each of the nine times. I sure have a fast Yamaha, probably the fastest Yamaha ever built in the U.S., so that makes it easier for me.

“I do things with that bike that you can only do when you’re in the zone–riding from the heart. Some times I’m just blown away by how I can dream up a line around a circuit, and then put it into reality with that Yamaha!

“I have to thank Robert, my Mom Ginny and Dad Bob, my brother John, along with my crack crew of specialists; suspension expert Jim Lindemann has been great all year, and so have the guys on the Factory Dyno. How about that cool blue paint from Greg Sabatini, and a huge thanks to Pat and Gary from Wilson’s Motorcycles for buying me the Yamaha TZ250 that we race. Daniel from Advanced Motion Controls is also a great help to us. And a big thank you to Yamaha USA for all their support over the season, along with all our other great sponsors including Ferodo, Silkolene, Shoei, Micron, Sharkskinz, Dunlop and VP Fuel.

“I have to also give a special thanks to my finacee Karin. She has been at every race supporting me and running the pit board. It’s nice to see her on the wall every lap…keep those plus seconds coming Karin!”

Robert Ward had these comments post race, “I’m thrilled that we won, now the pressure is off and we can pull out all the stops for the last two Nationals. I’m excited about the next two events”

Karin commented, “This has been a wonderful season to share with Rich. I vividly remember the day last winter we spoke about the upcoming season and Rich said one of his main goals in 2003 was to win the Championship and go out on top. What a great accomplishment and statement he made this weekend. The points leader, the 2003 (and final) 250 GP champion, broke his own track record and is currently the winningest AMA pro racer. It’s great to see such determination, persistence, and hard work pay off!”



Rich has won all nine events this season, bringing him to a total of 69 wins. Now that is one more AMA win than Miguel Duhamel so for now Rich is the all time win leader in AMA Pro road racing, however, we’ll see how long that lasts against the talented Duhamel!

Defending 250 Champion Chuck Sorensen has been a strong challenger all year as well as Simon Turner, Colin Jensen and many others. All will be trying to beat Oliver at the next race in Virginia, so with no Championship points to consider, it should be a wild one! Hope to see you there.

Next race, VIR! July 23rd-27th, 2003

Point Standings for the top 10:
339 Oliver (Mystery School, 2003 Champion)
237 Melneciuc (Mystery School Grad.)
233 Turner
225 Sorensen
223 Pyles (Mystery School Grad.)
206 Marchini
166 Jensen (Mystery School Grad.)
164 Sorbo (Mystery School Grad.)
160 Esser
158 Noce


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