From a press release issued by Team Oliver Yamaha:

Fontana race report:
Oliver rocks press room after 250 Grand Prix race! Reporters baffled!

Rich Oliver shocked the press corps with his comments about the AMA’s rumored plans to cancel the 250 GP class in a few months along with 750 Superstock and Formula Xtreme and changing the Superbike rules to 1000cc stock engines. None of the press reporters had any idea the AMA was going to have only 2 classes racing next year! Everyone there was in disbelief, especially after just watching a terrific 250 GP battle involving Roland Sands and 17-year-old Jason Disalvo, both younger riders giving the 40-year-old veteran Oliver all he could handle!

With Honda, Yamaha, and Aprilia-mounted riders battling for the 250 GP Championship, there is no huge factory involvement and the racing is inexpensive and available to anyone who wants to race a true Grand Prix machine. Rich also reminded the reporters how many years the 250 GP class has been racing in America, and how most of the top racers today spent time on a 250 learning setup and riding skills. The reporters asked Rich why the AMA was changing everything around, when fan attendance is at an all-time high and racing is getting more and more attention on television. Rich responded with these comments, “I really don’t know why they have to change anything, the 250 GP class has a great fan following, lots of entries, great professional teams, we don’t take up a lot of time during the weekend, and we don’t blow up motors and oil down the track because we have 2-stroke engines!

“I don’t really think the fans are going to pay 60, 70, or 80 dollars to watch only two races in three days. We asked the AMA point blank on Thursday in a meeting what the plan and class structure is for 2003, and they can’t tell us anything official which is extremely frustrating.

“I want clear, defined reasons for any changes that happen in 2003, not just unilateral decisions by a group of AMA officials who don’t understand what is going on now or visit anyone but a factory team in the paddock. We all have our lives, our employee’s lives, and our hearts and souls invested in our racing teams. AMA’s Garry Mathers said to me at Pikes Peak last year that any class would have at least two years warning if the AMA wanted to kill it. Is that not true anymore? Does anyone know what is really going on here, because I sure don’t understand what is?”

Team Oliver Yamaha is sponsored by all these great people:

Yamaha Motor Corp. USA
Dunlop Tires
Advanced Motion Controls
SHOEI Helmets
Silkolene Lubricants
Wilson’s Motorcycles
Sunsports Motorcycles
Auto Werks Paint
Rick Shell Crankshafts
Lindemann Engineering
Supertech
Sharkskinz
VP Racing Fuels
NGK Spark Plugs
EK Chain
AFAM
Chicken Hawk Tire Warmers
Kushitani Leathers
Helimot Leathers
Marietta Motorsports
Ferodo and Braketech
Frenotec
I Need Stickers. Com
Doc’s Custom and Collision
South Coast Inc.
AST Research
Cytomax, Cyto Sport