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/126818
(Above) Wes Cooley (51) tries to hold off Russ Paulk (1 ); (below) Ken Davis (733) and Mike Harlow (9) race around George Gra,ss (114). WERAjWiseco National Championship Endurance Series: Round 1 Team Hammer wins 'Indy opener By larry lawrence CLERMONT, IN. APR. 13 Defen d in g WE RA National Champions 'T eam Hammer began their 1985 campaign with a convincing first ro und win at Indianapolis R aceway Park. R iders R uss Pa ul k and Dave Schlosser piloted their Suzuki I ISO-based Pro to type class mount to a five-lap victory margin ov er runner-up Cycl e . 22 .. Tech Racing with Wes Cool ey and Dav e Aldana in 'the six hour race. Atlanta -based So lmax Racing fini shed third. The ra ce started with quite a su rpri se as john Bowles, riding Fast Compan y's Suzuki 1100. led alter on e lap o ver Hammer, Ques ter /Su lliva n and Cycle T ech . Th e start proved to he no fluke as Bowles opened up di sran ee bet ween himself a n d the rest of th e field, By th e fourth lap , Bowles wa s lapping' o the r rider s a nd pu llin g away. At about the sa me lime, Alda na , o n Cycle Tech' s Suzu ki GSXRi50, passed Quester a nd was cha lleng ing Hammer for seco nd. .C ycle Tech's .tra m cap- I tain , Bill Foster, had stayed up most of th e night prior to th e race preparing th e Suzuki, but a t race lime sri ll was unable 10 get th e elec tro nic tacho rne ter 10 work. "The schemat ics a re in j apanese and I co u ld n ' t figure them out," said FOSler. Aldan a r a ced with H amm er ' s Schl osser a nd they began ca tc hi ng Fa st Compan y. Suddenl y, Aldana slowed, a llo wing Hammer to sec ure second as Aldana piti ed. " Th e th rot tl e gri p was co m ing o ff so [ had to take it ea sy accelera ting' o u t o f th e co rn ers," sa id Aldana , Cooley lo ok ov er th e Cycle Tech mount bUI barel y had eno ug h time to gel g oing bef ore h e was , fo rced to put five minutes lat er for th e sa me p robl em. Bow les, o n Fast Com pa ny , had coo led hi s pace after rea lizing he was a lso going 10 ride for Ro yal e Racin g . Sch lo sser pi ck ed up the p ace fo r H amm er a nd loo k the lead for good after 20'minures'Uf-racing.- "I knew Fast Company co u ld n ' t keep th at pa ce up for long. As soon as the tires wer e ready. I sta rte d turning som e I :50s a nd said bye-b ye," said Schlosser alter turning th e bike o ver 10 P aulk. MOSI o f th e teams pl anned o n running hour shi fts for th eir rider s a n d accord in g to sched u le the pits became a hotbed of ac tivity. As m any as 30 of t he ove r iO-bike field pitted within secon ds o f each other a n d th e bikes co mi n g in a nd o u t g av e th e a p pea ra nce o f a motorcycl e drill team practi ce. H amm er 's cr ew chief Ken Hoogland was anxious to check th e gas mil eage o f h is m achine. " T h is bike was cras hed a t Willow Springs last week a nd I think th e ca pac ity of th e tank - from d ents - is down as much as a half ga llon ." By th e second hour, th e a lwa ys to ugh Northridge Ra cin g had moved . up into second behind Hammer with a n ew learn to WERA - Solrnax in thi rd . Both Northridge a nd Sol max were o n Yamaha Fj I [OOs, but severa l teams proved you don't ne cessari ly need a big bike to do well in end u ra nce racing. Ben Martin ez a nd Bob Evans, from Toronto , were riding th eir Yamaha RZ350 lik e th ey were in a four-lap sprint ra ce a nd moved up to as high as second ov erall during th e third a nd fourth hour before th e torrid pace to ok its toll. Martinez wa s riding wh en th e cha in broke a nd he must be a n avid jogger as he ran - not walked - the bike a half mil e back to th e pits. The run a nd th e repair kn ock ed o ut any ch a nce fo r C ycle Speed to fini sh in the top five o vera ll, but Evans was philosophical a bou t th e incide n t, " It would hav e been ni ce to fin ish second o r th ird , but I th ink we sri ll hav e a good cha nce to win our cl ass and we would hav e reall y had to push it to h old o ff th e big bikes." Evan s was r ight as Cy cle Speed finish ed first in L ightwei ght Su per bike a nd nimh overall. Other sma lle r bikes in co n ten tio n all da y included Risque • Racing and HeschimuraRacing, with both learns r iding H onda 500 Intercep to rs. Risque Ra cing was in vo lved with th e cl oses I race o r the day - that being for fourth p lace, R isq ue a lo ng with Quest cr v'Sul livan a nd Fast Compan y ra ced on th e same lap a ll day. The tr io a ll finished with 181 laps. but QuesterlSullivan got th e nod for fourth pl ace a t th e end foll owed closely by Fast Compan y th en Risque Racing . Russ Paulk wa s g u id ing T eam H am m er 's Suzuki a rou nd the 2.5mil e co urse £I I s uc h a blazing p ace ( I :48s) toward th e en d th at crew ch ief Hoogl and order ed Paulk 10 'slo w it d own , via the pit bo ard . Paulk res ponde d by cl icking off a string o f 1:4is. " T he bike was handling so well , I felt ver y co m fo rtable running a t that pace, " sa id Paulk . While H ammer was pulling a way , Cool ey a nd Aldana wer e putting on a spec ta cu la r displ ay of sk ill and patien ce by digging th eir way out of the deep hole th at a nagging throttle grip a nd a dry g as lank had put th em in . Pi cking -off bikes one by on e, they p assed Fa st Company, QuesterlSul livan 'a nd th en Solmax Raci ng 10 m ove into-and finish -second ov er a ll. " [ don 't think it would have turned OU I a n v di fferent even if we didn 't have any problems ," said Aldana. "Team Hammer 's been doing this for four years and we've ga l o u r work cu t o u t for us." • Results ENDURANCE 'l . Team Hamm er (Suz) ; 2. Cycl e Tech Rac ing (Su z); 3 . Solmax Raci ng USA (Yam ); 4 . Questerl Sullivan (Yam) ; 5 . Fast Companv ISuz) ; 6. Risque Racing (Hon l; 7 . Heschimura Racing (Han ); 8 . Team Wanker (Kaw); .9 . Cycle Speed Racing '(Yam); 10 . Team Redli ne (Yam) . Wes Cooley w ill ride a Honda Superbike for Starfire Rac ing. Starfire (Contin u ed from pag e 14) pIe ra ce: Emotional , because they Ii'ke it ; PR; or R&D. Larry wants 10 add a fourth reaso n : Business, profits, To market it , to market the name Srarfire.' " La rr y says he can 't see a one-man team," says Cooley, " a nd I know that from last yea r tr ying 10 sell myself to sponsors. Companies don 't want to put all their eg gs in one basket, because if th ey have one rider and h e goes OUI and br eaks his leg. th ey have n othing. And with m e, th e learn starts off with a reputation , and won't lake so long to ge l a reputation . Bringing m e in ca n ex pe d i te the thing. Because I've been 10 th e racetracks , and Todd and I ca n sit d own - we ge t along real well - a nd I can h elp him , " T'rn kind o f passing out o f my ca ree r - I've got three o r fou r more yea rs left no problem, wh ile Todd has ei g h t o r 10 yea rs. If I ca n teach h im in tw o yea rs what I've learned in 15, he'll be th at much furth er down th e line. ' 'I' m re al con fi de nt a bo u t th e learn, " Cooley says. "S ta rfire Ra cing pu rch ased Roberto Pietri 's old motorcycle from Honda. Honda has been very congenia l in this endeavor. they'd li ke 10 help m e OUl, see the Honda name get OUL And not co unting (Freddie) , Spen cer, we do ha ve th e Superbike points lead . " T hey bought a spare engine, a ll spa re tri ck parts, Starfire decided 10 hire Larry Worrell to work on it. That adds a lot of co n fide nce 10 th e effo n because I kn ow how g ood he is. That 's o ne o f th e thi ngs Il ik e a bo ut it - they wer e willing to hire Worrell. You ca n be th e fa st est gu y OUI there a nd if yo u don 't ha ve th e equipment yo u don 't win . " T h is co u ld be a real breakthrough for the m otorcycl e industry. If Starfir e can get big co m pa n ies to get involved , it ca n open th e door for other learns td follow , [ think Larry has the right connections. he's in the right flow, the right stream of tlrings. It 's a matter of having the right con nections. • " W ha t we hav e to do is win the championsh ip. That 's what it comes down to . So he has so m eth ing he can go out a nd market. Wh al we do in 1985 will d etermine how marketable it is in 1986. "Plus," sa ys Cooley. " I want to win the c ha m p io ns h ip for m yself. I'm sick and tired of everybod y call ing me old and slow. ( T he on ly people known to have described Cooley that way are Y osh imura m echanics . . , Ed it or ). You o n ly leav e two things when you die - yo u r reputation and your ch ild re n . I've gal m y kids so I'm set th ere and m y reputat ion isn' t d oing so bad. So I have nothing 10 lose a n d I'm go ing to go OUI a nd go f or ' .. I t. ... =: z -: : :. :. ~ ~ ~ _ :. _. . . • _ :I . ...