From a press release:

Team Stargel Aprilia Takes Points At Pikes

Sunday, June 2nd, brought the fifth round of the 2002 AMA 250GP season at Pikes Peak raceway in Fountain, Colorado. The team arrived the prior Thursday evening, with the task of setting up their Aprilia RSV250 for the 5800 foot elevation of the track.

On Friday, the team tested various combinations of settings in an effort to get their Aprilia to make the class leading horsepower that it is known for. Unfortunately, most of the valuable practice time was lost as a result of this. By qualifying time on Saturday afternoon, the Aprilia was showing excellent top speed, but the team still faced some chassis adjustment problems. As a result, Team Stargel Aprilia qualified in 4th place, about eight tenths of a second off Rich Oliver’s pole time.

No strangers to hard work, Team Stargel Aprilia worked Saturday evening, utilizing the versatile adjustability of the Aprilia RSV250’s chassis. They hoped these changes would give them the additional speed they sought for Sunday’s race.

At the conclusion of Sunday morning’s practice, rider, Chuck Sorensen, posted a best time of 56.7 seconds. This was seven tenths of a second faster than his qualifying time, and only a tenth of a second off Oliver’s practice time. The team was optimistic for the afternoon race.

Sorensen got a good start and was in a tight group with Rich Oliver and Simon Turner. At the completion of the first third of the race, Sorensen was less than two tenths of a second from the leader, Oliver. As the race went on, lapped traffic and less than ideal settings conspired to relegate Sorensen to a third place finish.

Pike’s Peak marked the completion of the first half of the AMA 250GP season. Looking at the season’s results thus far, Team Stargel Aprilia has set the standard for performance and reliability. In five races, Team Stargel Aprilia has three wins, a third and a fifth place finish. Due to the strength of the Aprilia RSV250 and the experience of Sorensen, they are the only team of the top four in points to complete every race thus far. Currently, the team has a total of 166 points, a 34 point cushion over second place in the championship standings.


Team Stargel Aprilia would like to thank the supporters who make their efforts possible: Aprilia USA, Aprilia Italy, FGF Corse, Dunlop, Performance Powersports, VP Racing Fuels, Castrol, EBC Brakes, Shoei, Helimot, Held Gloves, Daytona Boots, Fox Racing, Smith Sport, TC’s Specialized Graphics, Regina Chains & Factory Pro Tuning.