Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126791
r--------------------------------, IW Z w :I: (,) :I: U cr >- III o '" Io :I: lL ... (1) ..0 o .... u o (Above) Doug Cross on the North Ridge Racing FJ1100 Superbike. (Below) The Fabulous Speed Boys finished fourth on their stock FJ600. z·p Racing's Kevin Perry charged hard on the team's FJ11 00 Yamaha Superbike; Z-P was out front before crashing, finishing second. WERA/Dunlop National Endurance Road Race Series: Round 8 North Ridge wins at Summit Point By Dean Beasom SUMMIT POINT, WV, SEPT. 22 North Ridge Racing's Ralph Johnston Sr., Ralph Johnston Jr., Doug Cross and Don Sielschott rode their Yamaha FJIIOO Superbike tc? victory in the WERA/Dunlop 8-hour National Endurance Road Race at Summit Point Raceway. Metzeler/Surefire/Fox/Arai/ Klotz-sponsored North Ridge 20 secured first place after'early leaders Team Hammer encountered electrical problems and l-P Racing crashed. National Endurance Series points leaders QuesterlSullivan Racing finished eighth with transmission problems, while second-in-points Fabulous Speed Boys finished founh on their FJ600, one po ition ahead of Hammer. l-P finished secood, with Fast Company third. l-P and ational Endurance Champions Team Hammer both got slow starts off the line, tr"iling leaders Bruce Nield (Honda VF750F) and QuesterlSullivan's Mike Harlow (panners Toby BarenbruggeandJerry Holm, Suzuki GSllOO) and others after the first few laps. loP's Kevin Perry (panners Gregg lizza and Lex Hutton, Yamaha FJlIOO) and Hammer's Dave Schlosser (panners Russ Paulk, Steve Baron and John Ulrich, Suzuki GSllOO) both staned on new tires and hung back until the tires were scuffed in on the slippery Sum· mit Point track. But soon Schlosser and Perry were on the move, from fifth and sixth to third and founh, then second and third, and finally first and second. Perry used the D.E. Machina/Rick's Cycles of Boundbrook, NJ/Klotz Yamaha to pass Schlosser for the lead several times, but at the end of the first hour Schlosser had Team Hammer's Arai/Kerkerl Emgo/Dyna S/FoxiDunlop Formula One Suzuki out in front. At the midway point of the race Team Hammer had three laps on lP, and l-P wa in the midst of a very dose battle for second with North Ridge. l-P could not gain more than a Japon North Ridge, and often the two teams were on the same lap. The battle between the twO team took them teadily ahead of QuesterlSullivan's uzuki, which lost second. third and (intermittently) fourth gears in the transmission. To make matters worse for Arai/Weigl/Bassani/Ferodol Dunlop-sponsored Que terlSullivan, a clamp on the exhaust sy tem broke from being repeatedly dragged in slower corners, and the header system fell o£(, reQ uiring a pit stop to in tall a replacement. Fast Company pulled its GSIIOO ahead of Quester and started to pull away, holding fourth place. By the end of the race, Quester would slip to eighth. Despite their slowly-increasing lead, all was not going smoothly for Team Hammer. They were having trouble with their GSllOO's transmission popping out of gear, particularly as they came through the fast turn 10 right-hander onto the startfinish straight. Only a few laps after a rider change at 4:20 of the race, the bike slowed and worked its way back to the pits 'Ita very reduced speed. As the team tore into the bike to try to solve an electrical problem, the lead melted away. After nearly 30 minutes a broken wire was located and fixed, but by then Hammer was down to 19th place and 20 laps out. Once on the track again, they started turning some of the fastest laps of the day at I:24, but it w~uld only pull them up to fifth place overall and 161aps back. With Hammer in the pits, l-P Rac. ing and orth Ridge Racing were still going at each other, but now for the lead. The two FJ Yamahas seemed to be evenly matched as the largest lead l-P could manage was one lap by the five-hour mark. Part way through the sixth hour, loP's Hutton took an off-track excursion at turn 10, and about 10 minutes and six laps, were lost as the left foot peg was replaced a nd other minor damage a uended to. In some of the closest racing within class of the day, Team Maryland's Yamaha RZ350 was doing battle with the Rochester Road Racers Yamaha RZ350 in Lightweight Production. The two teams were never more than one or two lap apart, and often on the same lap with the James/Barkerl Backus-piloted Rochester Road Racers never qui te a ble to overtake the LowmaniGaver/BackiCollins Team Maryland machine. As they raced each other, they moved slowly up the overall standing to lOth and 11th place finishes. Nonh Ridge Racing was having a trouble-free eight hours, as they held on the win by ix laps. Their new Metzeler slicks had performed flawIe sly, and at the end of the race looked nearly unused. l-P Racing's attempt to get back into the lead was foiled by trouble with the transmission which would only operate in fourth and fifth. Finally, at the 7: 17 mark of the race, their gearshift lever fell off, and they were stuck for the remainder of the race in one gear, and lizza had to reach down and hold the dangling hardware from scraping in the left-banders. l-P did hold on to take second by five laps over the Fast Company Suzuki, which was busy holding ocr the Speed Boys Yamaha - which had closed to within one lap, but which finished fourth by two. Results • ENDURANCE OVERALL: 1. North Ridge Recing. HWS (Yam): 2. Z-P Recing, HWS (Yaml; 3. Fast Compeny. HWP (Suzl: 4. Fabulous Speed BoYS. MWP(Yam); 5. Team Hammer, Proto (Suz); 6. Taam Radline, MWP(Hon); 7. TeemWanker, Proto (Hon): 8. Quest..../Sullivan Racing, HWS (Suz): 9. Team Goldsboro, HWS (Hon); 10. Team Maryland, LWP . 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