Connecticut racer Chris D’Aluisio, riding a Davhar Racing Yamaha TZ 250 in the AMA 250 Grand Prix event at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin’s Road America, won his second 250 GP race of the 1990 season amid some of the most tenacious racing the series had seen in a long time. D’Aluisio, who came up through the road racing ranks via the rough and tumble production money races in the northeast, had to call on that experience to come up with the win at Elkhart Lake.

With John Kocinski off to the World Championships, a lot of riders were looking to fill the void.

The race at Road America started with D’Aluisio getting out front of a 10 bike freight train on the first lap. From the beginning the tone of this race was established.

Veteran Doug Brauneck, fresh off his Loudon victory, forged into the lead ahead of D’Aluisio on lap three. Three laps later Dale Franklin was dicing with Brauneck. The end of Brauneck’s race came later that lap as he rounded the last turn on to the front straight. A little too much throttle at maximum lean, sent the Dallas, Georgia rider off for a lesson in body surfing.

Then it was D’Aluisio leading for a lap, before Rick Kirk let loose and went from third to first with a 2:25.50 lap (fastest in the race) building a two second lead on lap nine. Then it was Kirk’s turn to relinquish the lead the hard way. Man and machine made a resounding thud as they greeted mother earth on turn eight. For Kirk, an ex-motocross ace, dumping his bike is thought of as a minor setback, but this time his trusty Yamaha would do nothing but make a loud red-line shriek when he tried to get back in the race. The problem was later found to be a rock stuck in the carburetor.

After that D’Aluisio clicked off three of his fastest laps of the day to consolidate his lead. Franklin came home in second followed by Canadian Jonathan Cornwell.

Afterwards D’Aluisio said, “I learned at Loudon last week that I have to keep my cool when the racing gets that hot. At first I just tucked in behind Brauneck, then, when I took the lead, I just tried not to look behind me.”

D’Aluisio went on to win three straight AMA 250 Grand Prix races (1990, ’91 & ’92) at Road America.