Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

U ~ ~ !! c W U > a '" a f0 e :: Q l!) 00 0') ...... t...... >....- := ~ Battle ofthe young lions: Team Hammer's Doug Toland (1 ) and Cycle Tech 's John Kocinski (51) ran t his close for 40 m inutes. (Below) David A lda na pi ts. WERA/Wiseco National Endurance Series: Round 5 Pueblo topped by Cycle Tech By C.E. Rife P UEBLO, CO, J UNE 23 Sweltering h ea t in the sou thern Colorado desert made the WE RA Six-h our Endurance race promoted by Mountain R oadracin g Association a test of rider stamina as much as m otor c ycl e re l ia bi li ty i n Pueblo. Top ' VER A en d u rance 20 teams Cycl e T ech and T eam H ammer , both based in sun ny sou the rn Cal~fornia, surv ived the 95° tem pera tures In bette r form than other race rs. Vetera n Dave Alda na tea med with 17·year-o ld sensation john Kocinski and Joey Osowski o n Cycle Tech 's new Su zu ki GS XR750 to beat by a three-lap margin T eam Ham mer' s Do u g Toland and R uss Pau lk on a GSI 150hyperbike. Both teams needed a ll possib le points for the WER A series, and were unchallenged by eas tern- based Speed Boys, Northridge, CG Raci ng and So lmax Racing teams th at weren 't co m pelled to make the lengthy trip to Colorado. Cycle Tech ra n a virtua lly flawless race. Con verse ly, Team Hammer's effort was struck with misfortune that forced them to play catch up for most o £ the day . Their pole position start vanished into a cloud o £smoke and burning rubber as the pack raced past th e h o bbled Ha m mer bike while mecha nics franticall y located a loo se wire. Seco n ds lat er Team H a rnrner'si. R uss Paulk departed with the tas k o £ passing tra ffic loom ing a head. Leadi ng o n a clear track, Kocinski bro ke the lap record, turning 1:41.7 on th e 2.25-mi le track. Paulk dispa tched most of the backmarkers with ease, a n d surged to seco n d pl ace by the th ird la p . Pau l la ier turned a lap in 1:40.5. The ba ttl e by local boys for third pl ace captured the interest o f MR A fans a fter Pau lk 's charge th rough the pack sett led into a stea dy ·groove. Ch uck Lee, a boa rd the Alpine Slide GS750ES, circled the track a t wha t had been record times prior to th is sessio n, shadowed closely by th e Rollin g T h under GS 1100 piloted by Bru ce Gi bso n . Though running in th e prototype class on th e highly-modifi ed 1100, Team T h u nder was unable to reel in the H ea vyweigh t Superbike 750 u ntil p it stops pu t the fres h-o utof-re tire me nt Steve Scott on th e uri £am iliar Alpi ne machi ne. j im Clark, a li tt le more kn o wledgeable of h is mount, flew past Scott a n h our a n d 20 min u tes into the race after ta ki ng over th e controls fro m Gibso n . Rider cha nges a nd gas sto ps aroun d . the one- hour ma rk shu£fled many ot he r positions. T he H ammer/Cycle Tech fracas regai ned im portance as Pa ul k squea ked past O so wski while th e latter was in th e p its, without losing the lead whe n To la nd took over the co ntro ls. An hour la ter , Toland appeare d to be o n th e verge o£ lapping the o n ly bike remain ing on the sa me lap, bu t a qu ick rider cha nge by Cycle Tech to Aldana cu t th a t effort short. As th e clock a p proached th e m id way po int of th e race, Team Hammer's grem li n reappeared , th is time in th e form o £ a lo st chai n. O nly a few hundr ed yards from the p its, th e bike was rushed into th e ho t lane for a re p laceme nt. Less th an 10 minu tes lost in this mis hap, however, ma y h a ve well cost th em the race . Team Cycle Tech pu lled ou t a two- lap lea d that they managed to ho ld onto, give or ta ke h alf a lap, for the remain der o£ th e day . They co m p leted 200 la ps at an a verage o£ 75 mph. H ammer £i nish ed second wi th 197 la ps. The Alpine Slide/ Roll ing Thunder battle raged on, however , a s mechanical difficulties hampered th e builtfrom-s cratch Thunder machi ne and sporadic lap times made Alpine's finished p lace uncertain. The big 1100. bored to 1137cc by Cycles o f Bou lder's Co le Briggs, was stuffed into a h ighly mod ified Kawasaki 650 frame. Rider Craig Bro wn described th e bi ke as easy to get goi ng fast, but h ard to slow down. Crew mem bers were forced to slash orr the right grip a nd wrap the twi stgrip wi th d uct ta pe in order to o bta in extra tra vel for th e front brak e lever. Nevertheless, the p ucks ha d wo rn com p letely through by th e . end o £ th e fracas a nd had frozen th e front whee l solid u pon cool down . Brake fade made the Rolling Thunder d i£ficu lt to ride, but a loose ign ition wi re stu m ped crew member s un til its di scover y, lon g eno ug h to a llow Lee a nd Sco tt some breathin g ro o m with less th an an h our to go. Lee crossed the lin e a t six hours with a tota l o £ 186 laps, two a head o£ the nex t finisher. T h ird ove ra ll , Leed a nd Sco tt were seco nd in the H ea vyweight Superbike class. Fo urth pla ce belonged to Weeb le Racing 's FZ750, ma n ned by MRA Novice Dieter Lane, o ld timer Steve Elledge and Chuck Gi lchrest. T hey wer e first H ea vyweigh t Production. Finish in g with th e same number of laps were K&K Racing 's Don a nd Aaron T u rner, who had lost sponsoring rider Keith Kiyot a early in th e melee £ owin g a slide-out tha t shook oll Kiyot a. As fir st Middleweig h t Su pe rbi ke fini sh ers, K&K .had a five-la p adva ntage over sixth overall an d second Middleweigh t T eam Wanker. Also with 179 laps co mpleted in th e six hour event were th e th ird place Middl eweight Steam boat Screamers. Ark 23, as th ird Heavyweigh t Su pe rbike a nd eigh th overall, fin ished with 179 laps as well. In addition to the WERA series, MRA racers were competing for points in th ei r own tr iple-crown end u ranc e package. Riders involved in tha t set will com pe te aga in a t the MRA cla ssic Aspen Six-ho ur race August 18. WERA race rs go on to th e fifth ro u nd of th eir series at Loudon july 13. • Results 1. Cvcle Tech (Suz); 2. Team Hammer (Suz); 3. Alpine Sli de (Suz): 4. Wee ble Racing (Yam): 5. K& K Racing (Yam); 6 . Team Wenker (Kaw); 7 . Ste am boat Scr eamers (Hon): B. Ark 23 (yam) ; 9. RMH/PPMS (Hon); 10. Your In On It (Yam).

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