Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

(Left) The winn ing Team MS & S Kawasaki KZ1 OOOR leads a lapper. (Right)The runner-up Good Times Racing Yamaha Vision gets a nighttime check. WERA/ND Endurance Triple Crown: Round one TeaDl MS & S .takes. close 24 Hours of Texas By Randy Marrs COLLEGE STATION" TX, JUNE 5-6 Team MS & S, riding a new '82 KZIOOOR Kawasaki, won round one in the Nippondenso Endurance Triple Crown Series by a slim margin of just three miles over the second place Good Times Racing T eam at Texas World Speedway. Ron Lunsford. Allan John- 20 son, George Lloyd, Bobbv Goodin. James Haecker, Quentin Hogan made up Team M5 &: 5 and they won by covering a distance of 1,8!l5 miles, just three miles more than the second place team. This first rac e for the Triple Crown had all the makings for a real tight race with several of the top endurance teams in the country showing for the ra ce. WERA's 1981 long distance champs, Team St. Louis, turned out witha new G5ll005uzuki for riders Jerry Chandler, Bob Marq auart, Dan Hayes, Tim Paige, and Bill Parkinson. Team Cowboy came down from N. Canton, OH, with their 900F Honda for Larry Shorts, Ray Dysle, and Todd Reynolds. Good Times Racing had a Yamaha Vision for J oe Fisher, Ron Mayfield, Lynn Stackable, George Ashl ey, a nd Charles Brothers. In a ll 19 teams took th e green flag for what was going to be a long 24 hours till the finish. The green flag came down a t 10 a .rn. Saturday and leading the field at th e end of the firs t lap was the Fredo Ra cing CB900 Honda out of Tulsa, OK . The Fredo entry ridden by team members Al Barnard , Marvin West, Duane Goodwyn , Tryg Westby, a nd J ay T aylor began to seta rapid pa ce with the M5 &: S entry, Good T imes Racing, and T eam ARK 2!l in hot pursuit. Midway through the first hour T eam M5 &: 5 got around th e CB900 and everyone was settling down to a steady pace and planning strategy for the 24 hours. Further back in th e field th e T eam WERAlCRRC entry, a 400 Yamaha Seca, wa s holding down th e sixth spot. The 5eca ridden by David Roth, Bob Sellers, Roy Thoma, and Mark Oldham was a box stock bike entered in th e L ightweight Production cla ss and would prove to be a consistent ride th e whole way. At the end of four hours th e from runners were setting a blistering pa ce and the race seemed more of a sprint at this point as opposed to the endu, ranee race it was supposed to be. Fredo Racing had retak en th e lead from M5 &: 5 Racing and T eam Cowboy had moved into the sixth spot after running eighth and nimh th e first three hours. By the fifth hour Team M5 &: 5 were averaging 99.85 mph and the big cha nge in the top 10 was the crash of Team ARK 2!l's 900F Honda with Dick Blanton riding at the time and holding down the fourth spot. The ARK 2!l en try, sponsored by Ontario Mo to T ech, BUB Engineer. ing and Watson Midwest Honda,lost two hours in th e pi ts for repairs with Blanton injuring his arm a nd unable to continue riding. The Honda reo turned to th e fra y two hours later a nd didn 't make it back to the top 10 till 7 p.m. One of th e best races going on was betw een the WERAlCRRC entry and the Houston, TX, based Demento ' Racing GPz550 Kawasaki ridden by Andy Robbins, Mark Campbise, Paul Stevenson, George Peckon, and Glen Neighbors. The two teams continued to swap six th and seven th places a nd by the end of th e sixth hour were both on th e same lap. T eam St. Louis' T win City Honda /Suzuki/T'Sl, racing/Russel Brake Lines-sponsored G5 II 00 Suzuki continued to run a stead y pa ce and maintain fourth within stri king distance of th e front three. According to team captain Bob H ayes, "T he secret to Team St . Lou is' success is the thorough preparation for every race," p lus a spa re G S1100 used [or pa rt s and p ractice. At the end of eight hours th e pace had slowed only slightly, 98.84 mph and T eam M5 &: 5 had retaken th e lead from Good T imes Racing with Fredo Racing in third and T eam St. Louis in the fourth posi tion. Tea m Co wboy had taken over fifth an d the battle for sixth and seven th still go ing strong between T eam WERAlCRRC and Demento Racing. U p to now th e tempe:ratures had been hovering in the high 90s all da y a nd the surface of the track was quite rough . There had been co ncern before rac e time tir es would not hold up. Dunlop Tires had provided the teams with technical assistance and also brought two compounds of rubber for th e riders to use. Most of th e teams were on Dunlop rubber and everyone had noth ing but th e high est of praise for th e tires. Jim Allen a nd cre w, who remained a t th e track for th e entire 24 hours, said " even the soft com p o und tires were holding up on the extreme ly tough track surface." Nippendenso, sponsors the Triple Crown Series, had almost every bike entered using ND plugs and provided technical assistance through Tom Everaert, As dusk began to settle in around 8 p .m. problems started to cro p up for th ird place Fredo Ra cing as a cornbination of electrical maladies rela ted to th eir lights. They finally went out co m p letely after dropping to fifth by II p.m. wh en a team member wore a hole through the side cover. T eam WERAlCRRC was also having its sha re of problems when one of the team crashed a nd tore up the from of the bike. Finding another 5eca and taking its front end mad e th e repairs, but th ey had dropped to 10th by th e time the work was fini shed. By the halfway mark Team ARK 23 had worked their way back to sixth posit ion a nd T eam Cowboy was running second to the M5 &: 5 Kawa sak i. By now everyone was settling down, trying not to make any mistakes for . the night with teams taking shorter riding stints to avoi d fa tigue. As the night wore on fatigue had become a problem as some riders were not used to an endu ra nce race of this di stance. Some riders were not only participating in their first endurance race but th eir first road race as well. By one o'clock in the morning Team WERAI CRRC had moved back to the sixth spot with M5 &: 5 Racing still holdin~ down the number one spot. At this time the top 10 saw a newcomer with Team Deadline Express moving into the top 10. At two o'clock in the morning th e big change came wh en Team M5 &: 5 cra shed and th e Good Times Racing Yamaha took over first, with M5 &: 5 falling to seco nd and T eam St . Louis now in thi rd after T eam Cowboy dropped to fourth with battery problems. The crash cos t T eam M5 &: 5 22 m inutes in th e p its to repla ce darnaged instruments a nd work on the top part of th e bike. As th e n ight wore on there were several cra shes due to drowsin ess but no injuri es. Good T imes Racing no w had a considerable lead over M5 &: 5 racing and appeared he ad ed for the win. The M5 &: 5 Kawaski was really pouring on the coals to make up th e lost time and by three o 'clock in the morning had closed the gap to 11 laps, with six hours left it was seven , and by five in th e morning th e lead was cut to two laps. M5 &: 5 Racing was now having their fastest riders pulling a lterna ting riding stints to make up for lost time, As dawn broke everyone was trying to hang on to the finish with the end now in sight. At six a .m . Good T imes Racing had increased their lead to five laps with steady Team St. Louis still lying in third , Team Cowboy holding on to fourth , and T eam ARK 2!l back in fifth. At 8 a.m. with only two hours left in the rac e, M5 &: 5 Racing had cut Good T imes'lead to one lap. When 9 a. rn. approached, th e pit area was anxiously a waiting th e finish and people began to co llect around the fin ish line. At 10 a .rn, after 24 hours of racing, th e apparent winner was th e Good T imes entry with the M5 &: 5 en try second . During th e course of th e ra ce the tra ck wa s changed twice, once at 8 p .m. and the next morning a t 8 a.m. , this being done to utilize both th e long and th e short parts of T exas World Speedway. The rul e book sta tes th at the team covering the most mil es is the winner . Good Times Racing had co vered 7!l2laps but only 1,8!l2 miles as opposed to M5 &: 5 covering ?!II laps but 1,8!l5 miles. That was three mi les more than Good Times covered, having made one more lap on the long portion of th e track. M5 &: 5 was declared th e winner and celebrations were beginning up and down th e pit area as the bikes were returning to the ir respective pits. Results OVERALl: 1. MS II< S Racing (1 000 Kawl; Z. Good Timas Racing (550 Yam); 3. Taam St. Louis (1100 Suzl; 4. Taam Cowboy (900 Hon); 5. ARK 23 1900 Hon); 6. Team WERA/CRR C (400 Yam); 7. Team San Antonio (750 Kaw); 8. Team 8udget Racing (550 Kaw ); 9. Team Mani. (1100 Suzl; 10. Team San Antonio #2 (450 Suzl; 11. Team Oeadline Express (750 Kawl; 12. Taam 8.B. (500 Honl; 13. Queen City Racing (750 Kawl; 14. Bi Wheel Racing (450 Suzl; 15. Demento Racing (550 Kawl; 16. Fredo Racing (900 Hon); 17. Stuart Racing (650 Kaw); 18. Flatland Racing (500 Yaml; 19. Moto· ~alia Racing (750 M ·G).

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