From a press release issued by Mystery School:

Mystery School’s Rich Oliver and long time mechanic Robert Ward will be teaming up again to race the Roadracing World 250/50 event at Willow Springs this weekend, Oct. 15-17.

Rich comments on how it all came together, “I had a few parts left over, and one of my Yamaha 250’s, so we thought we would take it out and run at the Willow event. My other bike is sitting in a display at the Barber Museum, so I rebuilt this TZ250 that I had here at the house. We think it should run pretty well.

‘I’m really going to enjoy taking it out, it’s been a full year since I had a chance to road race, although I’ve been riding almost every day in the Mystery School. It’s going to be exciting to race again at one of my favorite tracks, where we’ve had so much success in the past.

‘I’ve really got to thank Willow Springs, the WSMC, and Roadracing World for making this 250 Grand Prix event happen. Our school sponsors jumped on board, and we really appreciate all their help in this one time race effort! Special thanks to Yamaha for helping us stock up on our spare parts to get us through this event, and Dunlop for sending all the tires we need.”

The Willow Springs 250/50 will run Sunday morning
before the Toyota 200 mile race, October 17th, 2004

Rich won the 250 event last year, broke the 250 track record with a lap of 1.21.6 and finished 4th in the 200.