Local Racers Shine Saturday at Rainy Brainerd
30 June 1997
BRAINERD, Minn. -- Even though it was dark and stormy much of the day at Brainerd International Raceway, fans had their day brightened by the fact that local heroes came through with top-notch performances in Saturday's AMA/MBNA Superbike Series events. The big story was the victory of Blaine, Minnesota's Greg Fryer. Fryer overcame wet track conditions to win the Pirelli Formula Xtreme race, much to the delight of Minnesota racing fans. Fryer's victory broke a five-race winning streak by Erion Racing Honda's Andrew Stroud. Fryer, riding a Yamaha YZF750, worked his way through the field and passed both, early leader Daniel Bailey, and second place Stroud on the third lap. After making the pass, Fryer looked back and took a double take -- even he couldn't believe that he had just passed a rider of Stroud's caliber. "I always told myself I would never look back in a race," said a jubilant Fryer, who had never finished better than 15th in any previous AMA national. "But I just couldn't believe I was leading an AMA national race, so I looked back figuring these guys would go right back by me." Instead of getting passed, Fryer moved ahead to an eventual five-second victory over Stroud. Doug Toland was third and New Brighton, Minnesota's Marc Chiodo finished a very respectable fourth. Bailey fell to fifth by the end of the race. Despite suffering his first loss of the season, Stroud still holds a 18-point lead over teammate Doug Toland in the Formula Xtreme Series. Another local favorite, Scott Ruehle, of Saint Cloud, Minn., gave fans more to cheer about in the Teamline 750cc SuperSport final. Series points leader Jason Pridmore took control of the SuperSport race two laps into the event and pulled away to victory. But it was Ruehle, who came up to take second in the middle stages of the race, that had fans scrambling for their programs to find out who this hard charging number 68 was. Ruehle looked to have second wrapped up, but on the last lap series regulars Mark Miller and Richard Alexander teamed up to chase down the local top gun. Miller and Alexander where able to make the pass on Ruehle pushing him back to fourth, but that didn't dampen his spirits. It was the best national finish of his six-year pro racing career. Qualifying for Sunday's AMA/MBNA Superbike race was washed out. That gave the pole to Pascal Picotte, who turned the fastest time during Friday's qualifying on his Yoshimura Suzuki. Even though it was the sixth AMA Superbike pole for Picotte, it had been nearly two years since he last started from pole position. By Larry Lawrence