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Greg Smrz (shown) teamed with Larry Shorts to win the Paul Revere 250
at Daytona International Speedway.
Team Moto-Guzzi's Dr. John Witner celebrates in winners' circle with
Smrz and Shorts (right).
AMA!CCS U.S. National Championship
Endurance Road Race series: Round 6
0 11 Chancey and had hi s front tire
even with Chancey's rear tire entering turn one on laps nine and 10. By
lap 12, Chancey had retired th e ELR
aft er it began 10 run rough.
Team Lockhart was also experien cin g ea rly problems with their Ninja.
" It' s either fuel o r ignition. It won 't
run clean and keeps popping on th e
banking," sa id Phillips. The fuel fil ter was removed and Phillips went
back out.
By lap 16, the Stockline Racing/
Suzuki of Palm Beach /Chuck 's AUla
Ma chine/Blum Hardware/Stockline
Distributors GSI150 Suzuki ridden
by Chuck Quenzler, Mike Murphy
and William Beesch was on th e move
and held second over Team 16. Shorts
had the MOIO-Guzzi working and
was cu tting his way through the pack
to challenge the front-runners as well.
The Metzeler/Parts Unlimited/Northridge Yamaha FJIIOO entry of Doug
Cross and Ralph Johnson Jr., which
started in 50th spot and passed 39
bikes on the first lap, moved into
fourth.
Trouble struck th e Quester-Sullivan
entry when the clutch went out. "I
was running great. I hit 10,000 rpm
on the tach and th en an instant
11.000 and that was it," said Mike
Harlow. "I coasted into turn two and
parked it."
Shorts was making up a second per
lap on the leading Ontario Honda
just before Ashmead came into the
pits and found heavy congestion due
to the number of bikes. Just before
Ashmead pitted, the team next to the
Ontario pits overshot their pit area
and en ded up in the Ontario pits.
When Ashmead came in, he too overshot his pits and had 10 be pushed
back into the Ontario area.
" It 's pretty hairy out there because
you com e up on the smaller bikes at
such a great speed, " sa id Ashmead.
" A lot of these guys have never been
h ere before, and it's hard 10 learn th e
track."
Moto-Guzzi's Shorts continued to
close ' the ga p as Ontario's Miller
began 10 work up to speed. On lap 29,
th e difference between th e Moto-Guzzi
a nd th e Honda was 10 seconds, but by
lap 32 it was down to four seconds.
On th e next lap, Shorts passed th e
Honda entering turn one 10 take th e
lead. Schwantz and Steve Nardiello
had th e Tea m 16 RZ500 in th ird,
whil e Mitch Marqui, riding w ith
J eff Farmer, held fourth on th e T eam
Cycl e Riders Yamaha FZ750.
On lap 36, leader Shorts pitted for
fuel and turned th e Guzzi over th e
Srnrz, With th e stop taking 17seconds,
Smrz re-entered th e race in second.
An erro r in scoring sh owed Team
16 down a lap. "I th i n k they missed
Moto-Guzzi shines in
Paul Revere 250
By Randy Marrs
I
DA YTONA BEACH, FL, JULY 3-4
Dr. John's Team Moto-Guzzi continued their
domination of the AMA/CCS U.S. Endurance Series by winning the Paul Revere 250,
which was run at night at Daytona Interna tion al Speed wa y. Larry
Shorts and Gregg Smrz sh ared
. '
the team Moto-Guzzi Lemans
1000 around Daytona's 3.56-
14
mile combined oval/road course 10 a
one minute, 40-second margin of victory over runner-up Northridge Raeing and their Yamaha FJIIOO after
early leaders Team Ontario dropped
out of the race with front brake problems. The winners covered 71 laps of
the circuit for 252.76 miles at an average speed of 95.98 mph.
The race was unique in many
ways. It marked the first endurance
road race run completely at night as
the event started at 10:00 p.m. and
ended 2 hours 38 minutes and 14
seconds later. The first 18 runnings of
th e Paul Revere 250 at Daytona were
sports car races and the sw itch to twowheeled ac tio n signaled a cha nge in
tradition. Additionally, th e race paid
the highest-ever purse, $20,000. for
an endurance road ra ce in the U.S.
The field included every major
end uran ce team with th e excep tion
of Team Hammer a nd Cycle T ech
R acing. Team Hammer . thede£ending WERA National Endurance
Championships, race a Prototype
class machine in WERA and the
AMA /CCS series does not have such
a machine classification. Cycle Tech
withdrew from th e field a t th e last
minute. 10 concentrate on th e WERA
Series.
Estimated specta tor attendance was
put a t 30,000 by th e Speedw ay with 76
teams taking 10 the grid for th e race.
The m aj orr ty 01 teams figured on
two fue l SlOpS for the race. One
exception wa s Dr. John 's team, wh o
h ad a spe cia lly -fa brica ted fuel tank o f
larger ca p ac ity designed 10 make th e
race on one stop ,
Team Lockhart's Wendell Phillips
called on Dale Quarterl ey, a Superbike Championship Seri es com pe ti-
to r, to help with his Kawasaki Ninja
900 and already had a s ~rategy for~ ulated. " We want 10 be in the top five
at the end of the first hour," sa id
Phillips. "Right now we're feeling
'o u t the other teams and seeing who
we can run with."
Competition was equally as keen
between the four m ajor tire manufacturers as it was with the top motorcycle brands. Both Dunlop and Metzeler were testing new compounds.
Michelin, represented by Walt Schaffer, and Continental were also on
hand.
. Dunlop's. top .entry, ~e';Jm On~no, had raang tire technician DaVId
Buck the!.r 10 ,oversee th eir new compounds. We re developing two new
tire compounds for endurance racing
with the idea .o f having t~em ready
for th e Superbike race here m November,' said Buck. "As al.ways, you ne~
as many laps a s possible to get this
done."
Metzeler was represented by Parts
Unlimited's David Graham, who kept
a close eye on the Dr. John's MotoGuzzi and th e Northridge Yamaha
entnes.
The te.ams we~e started i!1 three
waves with th e first two being th e
GTO entri es and the third th e GTU
group. At th e green, John Ashmead
put Team Ontario's Dunlop/ND/
Ameri can Hond a /Ontario Mota
Tech / Ara i/Spectro/D.E . Machina /
Cam-2 VFI OOOR in front with Kevin
Schwan tz, riding th e Phil Fla ck-tuned
T eam Sixteen Yam aha RZ500 in
seco nd , ahead of Mike H arlow on th e
Quester-Sullivan Yamaha FJlIOO. By
lap three, Doug Chancey moved th e
Escargot ent ry into third and th en
pa ssed Schwantz for seco nd on th e
next lap.
Chancey was right back on Ashmead's rear tire on laps six and seven
before Ashmead began 10 pull aw ay
on lap eight. Schwantz began 10 close
us on lap 24, because they're showing
someone el se in third. I know we're
right up there," said team captain
G en e Burgess.
On lap 48, Miller brought the
Honda into th e pits and the team
began to look at th e front brakes; the
discs had metal deposited on them
from th e backing plates of the wornout pads. Perry began to replace th e
pads with Ashmead ready to take over
for Mill er. "When we lost the front
brakes things just got worse. Guzzi
cau gh t up with us due 10 the brakes.
They would grab a nd yo u would
pump and pump and ge t nothing.
We 're lucky we still have a bike," sa id
Miller. Ashmead moved out on the
Honda , but far orr the pace.
The Northridge Yamaha ent ry
moved into second as the Guzzi, with
Smrz aboard, began 10 build a lead.
Ashmead came back in the pits on
lap 53 . "We're losing the brakes
again," said Ashmead. Perry sent
Ashmead back out only to have Ashmead return two laps later to take on
fuel and replace th e pads. With smoke
pouring from the front calipers, it
was decided to retire the Honda.
Srnrz was turn ing laps in the 2minute, 13-second range and had a 60second lead on Northridge. Team Up
was leading the GTU class with
Georgia riders - and former dirt
trackers - Greg Tysor and Doug
Whelan on a Yamaha FJ600 leading
the Double Down Racing FJ600 of
Californians Henry Tecza and Nigel
Gale. By lap 63, Smrz held a nearlytwo-minute lead on Northridge.
Smrz continued his relentless p ace
to take the checkered £lag on the
Moto-Guzzi of North America/Metzeler/Bell/Moto-Guzzi National Owners Club/Parts Unlimited/Konil
NHIF/ Mo bil Oil-sponsored LeMans
with nearly three-quarters of a lap up
on second place Northridge.
The GTU division win went to
Team Up over Double Down in a
good battle.
Dr. John' s Team Moto-Guzzi ,
Northridge, and T eam Coconuts roiled into victory circle, but a protest by
T eam 16 and th e discovery of a sco ring error dropped th e Cocon uts entry
of Glenn Barry, Joe McKay and Ri ck
Miller to fifth with Team 16 taking
third a n d Orlando Cycle Riders
fourth .
•
Result s
OVERALL: 1. Dr .John·sTeam Malo-Guzzi (M-GI;
2. Nonhridga Racing (Yam); 3 . Team 16 (Yam); 4.
Ort.odo Cycle Riders (Yam); 5. Team Coconuts
(Honl; 6. Speed Boys (Yam); 7. Stockline Racing
(Suz); B. Team Weeble (Yam); 9. Street 8< Competition; 10 . Never Ready Racing (Han); 11 . Team Up
(Yam); 12. Double Down Racing (Yam); 13. Red
Racing (Yaml; 14. MotorcycleSpecialists(Yaml; 15.
Acme Racing (yam); 16. Team Waco (Yaml; 17. Fa.l
Boys From Illinois (Yam); 18 . Head Racing (Yaml ;
19. Norwegian C8rribean Unes (Yam):
