Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

...... ..... .... 0. -< Cobare Racing's Roy Hare (91 1leads North Shore Racing 's Gary Gibson (191, Quester Racing 's Mike Harlow (9), and Lockhart's Wendell Phillips (2 ). Phillips teamed w ith Lynn Miller to give Lockhart the w in . AMA/MotoWorld U.S., Endurance Series: Round 2 Team Lockhart on top at SLIR By Randy Marrs ST. LOUIS, MO, APR. 5-6 Team Lockhart's Wendell Phillips and L ynn Miller debu ted their new GSXR IIOO Suzu ki with a WIn in a trouble-free race taking R o und 2 of the AMA/Mo toWorld 500 U .S. Endurance Series at St. Louis International Raceway. The pair covered 200 laps (440 miles) around th e 2.2-mile course, 20 beat in g secon d-p lace High Tech Racing by eig h t laps. Third overall and first in GTU went to Sunset Beach, Cal ifornia 's T ea m Sunset. After fini sh in g second in 1985point stan ding s, T ea m Lockhart's Wendell Ph ill ips surprised his fellow end ura nce series competitors with th e signin g of Lyn n Mill er as hi s teammate. Mill er spe nt the pa st five years riding for now-defunct form er cha m p ions T eam Ontari o. Sig n ing as crew ch ief for Lockhart is ex-O n tari o cre w chief Keith Perry; crew member J eff Herzog returns to Lockhart. ..I'v e alwa ys wanted to ride with Lynn a nd have Keith tuning a nd now th at we have this new 1100,1 reall y feel lik e we can take th e cham pionship" said Phillips. Lo ckhart was not the on ly o ne to sp ri ng some surp rises. Th e 1985 National Ch ampions, Dr.John'sT eam Moto-Guzzi,haveadded AMA F-I a nd F-2 veteran Doug Brauneck to th e team, filling the void lef t by Nick Phillips ,who left th e Guzzi tea m . Braun eck will be doing most of th e ro u nds this year for Dr. John 's a nd fi lled in for Dr. John 's regular. G regg Sm rz, who had to mis s th e SI. Lo uis ro u nd . "Wit h Doug joining G regg a nd Larry (Shorts) I Iee l like we will have a well -rounded a tta ck th is year. In just one year th is serie] has become a lo t more co m petitive and I don' t rea lly th ink anyone is going to wi n fou r rou nds this year ," sa id Wittner. A new face on Q uester-Su llivan Racing is Dale Burroughs, who rode with T ea m Lockhart in 1985. Burroughs join s reg u lar mem bers Mike H arl ow a nd Bob Voorhees.Todd Bru- bak er , th ird in 1985 AMA Superbike standings, joined GTU contenders T eam Sunset to fill in for a n injured Wa lter Nitto, add ing to a n a lready tough team. , . A major cha nge in th e format o f the AMA end urance series now has th e races go ing ei ther 500 mil es or 500 kilometers a t var ious rounds. Friday's practice session had severa l teams on hand gett ing the track dialed in . Sh orts a nd Bra uneck were learn ing the track as Dr. J ohn's passed th e SI. Louis. ro u nd last year. The LeMans sported a new fu ll fairing and Wittner had hel ped shed some 30 pounds o ff th e Guzzi's weight."With th e fairing, our cylinder head tempera ture is down a bo ut 250 a nd th e oi l temperature . has go ne do wn ab out 120 from last year ," sa id Wittner. " My dad is a retired aero-engineer a nd did a ll th e fa ir in g wo rk on th e bike." With 38 teams o n hand for th e 11:30 a.m. start th e race would run 500 mile s or u nti l 5:30 p.rn., wh ich ever came first. Eig h t of last year' s top 10 finish ers in points were on hand with the exce p tio n o f GTU National Cha m p io ns Double Down Racing, who passed this round up due to team cap ta in Henry T ecza suffer ing a broken ankl e. At th e drop of th e gre en th e New H aven Suzuki/ Spectro /Street & Competition Cycle/DiamondGSXRllooridden by " Revv i ri' " Kevin Rent zell took the lead followed by Phoenix winners Ed Key and Gar y Gi bso n o n th e Nort h Sho re Racin g Yama ha FZ750, th e Co bare Ra cin g GSXR750 of Ro y H ar e and Ca th leen Coburn, Lockh art , Quester-Su ll ivan , the Team Edelw eiss FZ750 en try fo r J ohn Steph en s, Sco tt Chaytor, and Kirk Dela itte in six th, a nd Dr. J ohn's in sevent h. Ren tzell and Gibson began to p u ll away from th e pack as the race started to settle down for the distan ce. By la p I I, Phill ips moved the Lock.,h a rt R a cing / U .S. Suzuk i Motor Corp./ Du nlop/Performa nc e Ma chine/Shoe ilCam-2/ RK GSXIIOO into third. Rentzell set a bl istering pace on the Forbes DuGuid-tuned 1100, cutting 42's. O n la p 16, as the fro nt two entered turn one, G ibso n grabbed a handful of bra kes, didn ' t find any and crashed. "The vent hose on my . ga s tan k case came unsecured and worked its way under th e brake lever," said Gibson. " I hi t the bra kes an d nothing, I hi t them again, still no thing, and finally grabbed a han dful and just went do wn. " The ba ttl e for GTU had five teams in the hunt with the Team Su nset Cham pion Moriwa ki/Dun lop/Shoei/N D/Spector/ RK /Fox Ra ci ng / Co mfort Inns/ Lockhart Racing/ Ca l-Fa b 600 Kawa saki Ninja being ridden by Bruba ker, Peter Carroll, and Terry Statum leading the Paul Miles and Brian O'Shea Team New H aven Kawasaki and th e Team VISA Buzz's Psycle/ Yokohama Tires FJ6000f Bob Green . SteveTully. and Gary G r iffith by j ust a few seconds. J ust as the first hour wound to a close, the Cam -2/Nolan H el mets/ D u n lo p /Ohl i n s /Spect ro /Su p er Tra pp FZ750 of Q uester-Su ll ivan Racing with Harlow at the controls approached turn one just as a rider was ex iti ng the p its; the exiti ng rider ran wide into Harlow's racing line, forcing Harlow down; Harlow sustain ed bruises and several broken bones. T eam New Haven Suzuki, with Edgar Hinton III now riding, continued to lead Lockhart and the Dr. John's Moto-Guzzi North America/ KonilMobiIOil / Bell/Hella/ Raceco/ Quadrifoglio/Le Coq Sportif LeMans moved into third at the end of the first hour wi th th e front three on the same lap. GTU continued to be close with T eam Sunset and New H aven Kawasaki leading three other teams on the sa me lap. The standings at the end of the second hour remained unchanged with th e excep tion of the Dr. J ohn's Guzzi go ing down in turn five. As th e second hour was coming to a clos e Shorts, who had taken over for Brauneck, lost the front end and crashed. "I just lost the front end. It was m y fault, I gue ss I was trying to go a little too fast," said Shorts. The Guzzi sustained minimal damage but was down seven la ps to th e leaders at th e end of th e second hour. New H aven Suzuki continued to lead Lockhart with th e Cobare Raeing/ Castra l/ L yte Rapid Transit/ H indle Racing GSXR moving back to third as th e halfway mark neared, with T eam Sunset and New Haven Ka wasaki still battling for th e GTU lead and leading Team VISA by a lap. After dropping to 19th pl ace after the cras h, Dr. John's hav e moved back up to six th aft er 264 miles of racing. Both the Lockhart Suzuki and the New Haven Suzuki were vir tu all y stock, with the Lockhart Suzuki having the advantage of a bigger fuel tank, causing New H aven to giv e up two pit stops to the California-based team, but still maintaining a lead a nywhere from 10 to 30 seco nds over Lockhart. "The bike is dead stock exce p t for pipes, ca rbs, wh eels, and a co u p le other things, after thi s ra ce we'll tear it down and bl ueprint it and start looking for a few more horse- . po wer but still keeping it reliable," sai d Perr y. Wi th th e race in th e fin al stages, Ne w H aven Su zu ki co n tin ue d to ma in tain a sli ght lead on Lockhart, flu ctuat ing betw een 20 o r so seconds du e to p its sto p s. Wi th R ent zell aboa rd, th e bik e d idn't come aro u nd a nd was located in turn six. DuGuid a nd crew retrieved the disabl ed Suzuki a nd bro ug ht it back to the pits. " We' tho ugh t it was a rocker ar m , bu t it seized," sai d Ren tzell . " We put 2.5 quarts of oil in but it's a ll done for today." Cobare Racing moved into second a nd T eam Sunset moved into third overall . finally putting a lap o n rival, New Haven Kawasaki. SUR's tight track is suited to smaller bikes with two GTU teams in the top five. At the checkered flag it was Lockhart , High Tech Racing's Yamaha FZ750 ridden by Larry Jeuri nk and Dave Lubberts, Sunset third over all and first in GTU , New Haven Kawasaki fourth and second in GTU, Team Edelweiss on their Edelweiss Kawasaki and Yamaha/Higher Ro ller Racing/ Dyne-jet Research FZ750 and th e Cobare Racing Suzuki dropping to sixth. " I haven't been on a bike in five m onth s and thought I migh t be a little rusty. This bik e handles so different from the Honda. If we could ha ve geared it a littl e lower we wo uld have been a lot faster; 750s will pull us o u t of the turns, "said Miller. "We came here for a shakedown. I just put 500 m iles on the bi ke to break it in and we only sta rted working on it 10 days ago. This is a great track for 750s Os, and no t really su ited for II O "added Phillips. " I really would like to thank Rob Sanders at U.S. Suzuki for this bi ke." " We really like this track, it su re wou ld be nice to hav e another horsepower. We ca me earl y for the practice a nd it helped, "said Team Su nset's Peter Carroll after their GTU win. Sa turda v's MotoWorid 500 was followed on Sunday by Mid-Wes t region sprints. Garry Griffith, Gary Gibson, and Ed Key were th e big .winn ers for the da y with Griffit h winning his second consecu tive AMA Championship Cup Series F-2 race. Griffith led the entire race until the last lap, when Gibson pa ssed Griffith in turn one; bu t Griffith used slower traffi c to his advantage to repass Gibson and tak e the win. Key won Un limited Superbike along with taking second p laces in Heavyweight Superbike and F-I and added .a third in F-2. Gibson won Heavyweight Superbike with seconds in F-2 and Un lim ited Superbike and took a third in F-l. • Results ENDURANCE OVERALl: 1. Team LocIthart (SUI); 2. Hig h Tech Racing (y em); 3. Team Su nset (Kew)j; 4. Bridgeport Kawasaki (Kaw); 5. Risque Racin g (Han); 6 . Team Edelweiss (Yam); 7 . Cobar e Racing (SUl); S. Dr. John's Team Mot o·Guzz i (M -G); 9 . Team VISA (Yam); 10 . Too Tyred Racing (Vam); 11 . K.O.P. Racing (Yam); 12. Sacltroad Sandits (SUI); 13 . Joh nson & W ood Racing (Yam); 14 . Team W ise Gu ys (Vam); 15 . To Se Changed Racing (Yam); 16 . T.R.C. Racing (Vam); 17 . Veney Racin g (SUl) ; l S. Team Tapscolt (Vam); 19 . Team Rose (Vam); 20 . Secon d City Racing (Vam). ENDURANCE GTO: 1. Team Lockha rt ; 2. High Tech Racing; 3. Risque Racin g. SPRINTS SUPERlWlNS EX: 1. Charles Lang (Due); 2. Alex Bub (H-D); 3. Robert M arquardt (Nor) . SUPERlWlNS NOV: 1. Dan Targonski (Han); 2. Doug Kirk (Due); 3 . Paul Morsch (H· D). F·lWINS EX: 1. Charl es Lang (Due); 2. A lex Bub (H· D); 3 . Bill Sh ea (M · D). F-lWINS NOV : 1. Den Targonski (Hon); 2. Doug Kirk (Due). RZ CHALLENGE EX: 1. M ike Treadwa y (Vam ); 2. Dan Cle mens (y em); 3 . Paul Noble (yam) . RZ CHA LLENGE NOV; 1. John Copeland (Yam); 2. Dan Beranek (Vam); 3. M ike Mca tee (Vam). UNLTD SUPERBIKE EX; 1. Ed Key (Vam); 2. Gary Gibson (Vam); 3. Tommy Sloan (Yam). UNLTD SUPERSIKE NOV : 1. Larry Je urin k (Vam ); 2. M ark Oldha m (Yam); 3 . Randy M ilford (Yam). HVYWT SUPERBIKE EX: 1. Gary Gibson (Vam); 2. Ed Key (Yam); 3. Roy Hare (SUl ). HVYWT SUPERBIKE NOV: 1. Larry J eurink (Yam ); 2. Randy M ilf ord (Yam); 3 . Merk Oldham (Yam). M IDDLEWT SUPERSIKE EX: 1. Kevin RenlZell (Vam ); 2. Jim Sherrill (Vam); 3. Kurt Hall (Hon). M IDDLEWT SUPERBIKE NOV: 1. Tony Gracey (Vam); 2. Randy M ilford (Vam); 3 . J ed Kimla (Kaw ). LTWr SUPERBIKE 1 EX: 1. Charles Lang (Due); 2. Robert M arq uardt (Hon); 3. Dan Hayes (Han). LTWr SUPERBIKE 1 NOV; 1. Robert Tapscctt (Han); 2. Tim Seebo ld (Kaw); 3 . Dan Targon ski (Hon). . LTWr SUPERSIKE 11 EX: 1. Kurt Hall (Hon); 2. M ike Tre adway (Yam); 3 . Dan Cle mens (Yam). . LTWr SUPERBIKE 11 EX; 1. Dan Beranek (Vam); 2. Robert Tapscott (Hon); 3. Tim Seebold IKaw ). F· 1 EX: 1. Roy Hare (SUl) : 2. Ed Key (Hon); 3 . Gary Gibson (Hon). F-2 EX: 1. Garry Griffith (Vam); 2. Gary Gibson (Hon); 3. Ed Key (Hon ). F· 2 NOV : 1. Randy M ilford (Yam); 2. Jed Kil ma (Kew); 3 . Doug Kidd (Kaw ).

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