Rich Oliver will race his Yamaha TZ250 at the 6th annual $150,000 Willow Springs Races this weekend, September 14th – 16th. In addition to entering the Roadracing World 250/50 race that is specific for 250 Grand Prix machines, Oliver will also take on the Toyota 200 mile feature race. The Toyota 200 allows machines of all engine sizes to compete heads up against each other. Running both races will require completing 100 laps and 250 miles of competition around the Willow Springs circuit on Sunday, a daunting task for both rider and machine. Unfortunately long time crew chief Robert Ward is unavailable this weekend, but 250 GP rider Ed Sorbo will be filling in to manage the Toyota 200 effort and pit stop strategy. Ed will also be racing his own Yamaha in the Roadracing World 250/50. Oliver was able to rebuild the Yamaha TZ with fresh engine parts sourced from various vendors, with special thanks to Jeff Jones at Yamaha for his work in obtaining parts. Also special effort went into finding a balance shaft sourced from Rick Merhar of Accu-Products who had to pull the part out of an engine in his shop! Oliver comments, “Last year I had a knee injury that made riding a lot tougher, but I’m doing fine this year so I hope we can have another great event. At the start of the 200 miles last year, we had some engine problems right at the start with a broken reed petal so this year I have a new reed set up that should be more reliable for the long distance we have to race. I’m going to try my utmost to finish every lap this time around.” For more information about Rich Oliver’s racing career, there is a on-line biography at: http://www.richoliver.net/RichOliverBio To find out more about Rich Oliver’s Mystery School, its courses and date offerings, visit http://richoliver.net or contact Rich Oliver at [email protected]. Call 559-855-3089