Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

D an Chivington (5 9) and Doug Toland (1 1) raced for t he early endurance lead . The Human Race Team left Rockingham w ith the points lead. finishing second overall and first in Mediumweight Superbike on a Yamaha FZ600. WERA/EBC National Endurance Road Racing series: Round 2 Eatherly Road Racing wins Rockingham By Larry Lawrence ROCKINGHAM , NC, APR. 26-27 Bill Eatherly's Ea th erl y R oad R acin g and riders Dave Sch losser and Dan Chivington guided their Ara i/Bel-R ay/N D/Du n lo p/ Kawasaki-Suzu ki of Meadville/ Dutch Cycle Works/Gibsonia Cycle Ce nter Suzuki GSXRllOO Sup er bi ke . to victo ry at th e seco nd f(;>un d of the WERA/EBC Na u o na l 14 En d u ra n ce Series. Eatherl y fi n ish ed 32 1 la ps (48 1.5 miles), seven la ps a hea d of second-place Hu ma n "R ace Tea m (H R T ), wh ich takes th e o verall series lea d by virtue o f th eir fin ish here and th eir th ird-p lace at th e fir st series round in Indianap ol is. In third behin d Eathe rly a nd HRT was T ea m Rock y with 312 laps. Rock y is led by G regTysor,a rep resentative o f Roc ky Cycle. T eam Speed Bo ys made th eir 1986 debut bu t the team's Ya m a ha FZ750 devel oped engi ne problems a n d wa s crushed during th e race. The crew co u ld not find th e problem an d the team nursed the m achi ne to a 14thp lace finish. First-round winner Team H ammer was p lagued by a series of cras he s at Rockingham and fini shed 26th a fter leading in th e first hour. This race marked th e return of m o torcycl e road racin g to North Caro li na Speedway 's l .Ii-rnih- roadco urse. T h e track features a highbanked oval sectio n and has recently been repaved. . T he race start ed with T eam Hammer' s Doug Toland powering th e Vance 8c Hines Suzuki into turn one just a head of Dan Chiving ton on the Ea the rly Suzuki. Toland and Chivin gton quickl y broke aw a y from the rest o f th e field. By th e en d of th e fir st lap Chivington went high Oil the ba n ki ng a nd swe p t'p ast Toland and th e ~att le wa s o n. The speed difference between th e variou s ~achines wa s v~ry a pparent o n th e high-speed banking a nd soo n Tola nd and Chivin gt on were lap ping slo wer traff ic a t a frantic rat e. Chivington a n d T o land were goi ng at eac h o ther as if it were a 10-la p sprin t race. Chi vin gt on wo u ld h old the lead fo r severa l laps a nd even p ut so me distance on Toland. Then suddenl y Toland would di al on a Hu le more power a nd get past Ch iving ton for a wh ile. This action co nti nued for nearl y th e enti re first hou r. Meanwh ile, Escargot Racin g with Doug Cha ncey and SCOll Cantrell h ad th ei r Ka wa sa ki / Su zuk i Ci ty GSXR 750 leading th e race fo r second place a h ead o f HRT, J am -Up s Raein g , T eam Rocky a nd M8cM Racing . For a good part o f th e first hour it was Suzuki GSXRs fir st , seco n d and th ird foll o wed by a slew o f Yamaha FZ750s an d FZ600s. The quickest times of th e weekend were being set by Chivington and Toland during the fi rst hour. Both riders were getting down to 1:01 laps. The pace' proved to be too h ectic for both riders. Just asChivington started backing off a bit, Toland went down while coming off th e h igh spe ed oval. Pat H ernon wa s back out on th e Hammer machine a fter losing about l Ominutes in the pits. H ernon crashed on oil in th e ver y sa me place ' tha t T oland did. And even th ou~h Hernon was 1I0t serio us ly ban ged up. Team Hammer lost enoug h t ime 10 lx' 0 111 of co nte ntion. T he team ronti nued for valua ble mil eage poi n ts and finis hed 26th overall. enough for Iourth p l.ux- in the series standi ngs , By the en d of th e second hour Chivington and Schlosser had bu ilt a four- lap lead over a very tight ra ce fo r seco n d. Escargot was in second with . 105 laps. H RT, M8cM Racing and T eam Rocky al so were on lap 105. HRT Tea m Captain Dave Zupan had kept rider Kurt Hall on the H RT FZ600 for one a nd a half hours on his first shift. Second rider Ro bbie Braunsch iedel was not feel in g well and on ly rode two of the six hours .' Last year's GNF sensation, Adam Smith and tea mmate Greg G o u lding were ri ding we ll o n the FJIlOO of Front Ro w Ra cin g . Smi th looked worn out after his first stint on the bike. "That thing's a beast! I foughi the thing through every corner," said Smith . Front R o w Racing later dropped o u t with oil leak problems. At the halfway point o f the ra ce Eatherly Road Racing had stretched th eir lead o ver second place Escargot to six laps. H RT and Team R ocky were still battling o ver th ird. M8cM had d ropped ba ck to fifth while Tour de Force a nd Solmax were running close for six th . The tem pe ra tures under th e blazing mid-da y su n were rising to o ver 90°F. T rack su rf ac e temperatures were h o vering near th e 130" mark. Tire wear was becoming a fa ctor during th e fourth h our. Escargot 's lap times sta rted slip p in g a n d by th e en d o f th e hour they were out o f the race because of excessive tir e wear. . . Eatherly was in a nd made a rea r lire swap, hu t mai ma ined the lea d. J am -Ups Ra('ill~ 's Vic Fasola said th at th e team would tr y to make it without a tire cha nge but J am- Ups' Kevin Rentzell got th e Yamaha FZ600 sidewa ys several times eac h lap. A tea m that had start ed slowl y but grad ua lly worked its wa y up was So lmax Ra cing . Atthe end o f th e first hou r th e team wa s runn ing in Hth, By h our fo u r So lmax was in fo urth p lace. " I do ub t if you' ll ever see us in th e top lO in th e fir st h our;" said So lmax's Ronnie Bo wen . " We 're the type o f team th a t j u st tri es to r u n smooth , co nsistent laps a nd eventu ally we work o u r wa y up ." It was interesting to no te th at th e ba n ki ng rea lly enabled yo u to see which bikes had th e hi ghest top speed. Ea therly Road Racing a nd T eam H ammer 's Suzuki G SXRlloo superbikes were noticeabl y faster than th e other ma chines. The stock Suzuki GSXR750s an d FZ750s were nearly identical at top speed. The new Yamaha FZ600s , however, were faster than th e FJ600 Yamahas on the banking . T eam Gamma's Suzuki RG500 was a lso ver y fast on th e banking occa s io na lly drafting p ast a n FZ o r GSXR750. Going into th e la st hour it was ap pa rent th at Ea th erly wou ld tak e th e win should no th i ng happen to the team. Crew Chief Mike Pa tto n said that Chivington and Schlosser were ordered to "just cr u ise" the last two hours to lessen the cha nce o f a crash . The ra ce for seco nd through fourth wa s by no m eans o ver. H RT a nd T eam R ocky ca rried th eir race-l ong battle for second into th e last hour. M8cM Racing an d Sol max al so were - . keeping close tabs on eac h other a s th ey both ra ced for fourth. " I don 't th ink we ca n make it this last hour wit hout co m ing in fo r gas ," sa id HRT' s Zupan. At tha t poi nt HRT h eld a slim lead o ver Team R ocky. Rocky's G reg Tysor wo ul d not need to pi t the last ho u r. Ro yal e Racing was conti nui ng its domina tion o f th e Li ghtweigh t Production class wi th th eir Yamaha RZ350. Doug a nd Jim H enry took Ind y and crossed th e finish li ne first in class agai n h ere. As the checkered flag fell to sig na l th e end of th e six h o ur, Eath er ly Road Racing crossed th e line to win i ts first National Endurance. Da ve Schl osser wa s happy for th e win and co m mented , " If we ca n continue to fi nd rider s like Dan , we'll be tough all yea r." Chivington 's ride with Eatherl y was a p p aren tly a one-time deal and th e team is continuing to search for a top-name rider to ride full time with th e team. " We 've talked to Russ Paulk and Mil es Baldwin. but we 'll just have to wai t and see," continued Sch losser. The Human Race Team didn't hav e to come in for gas after all and fin ished in second on the Lake Co . Cycle /E BC /Wo lfe Pipes FZ600. H RT's Kurt Hall put on an excellent show pushing the FZ fo r four hours and staying ahead of some of the bigger and faster machines. Team R ocky's tires began to go a way in the last hour, possibl y co sting th em th e cha nce to catch H RT, but T ysor and Ewerth still turned in a fine performance on th e stock FJ600. Ben Martinez, al ong with teammat es Bob France a n d tuner Rick Andrews, moved into seco n d o verall in th e series with th eir fourth-place fin ish o n th e On tario H onda/Yamaha FZ750. " I don 't kn ow if we ca n make Road Atlanta . That 's a long drive for us, but we wi ll definitel y be at SI. Louis," sai d M8cM's Martinez. Even th o ugh a Suzuki won, th e rest of the to p 10 teams were o n Yam ahas. The endurance series mo ves to Road Atlanta Ma y 10 for round three. Doug Pol en co ntin ued hi s domi - _ nati on of the WERA A a nd B Productio n classes o n Su nda y. Pol en went home $2700 richer after winning $2000 from Suzuki for winn ing th e A a nd B Product ion o n hi s Denton MotorcycleCenter Suzu ki GSXR750and 1100. Pol en also n abbed $700 from H o nda fo r w inning th e H on da Intercep to r Championship Ser ies race. The B Producti on race looked to be o ne of th e mos t competi tive o f th e season. The field incl uded Polen (who ha s been practi cally. unbea table o n h is Suzukis this yea r), Dan Ch ivingto n (who a long wi th Do ug T oland was the fastest rid er during th e Saturda y end urance), Greg T yso r a nd Ron E werth (two of the fastes t riders in the so ut heast j.David Sad o wsk i (of T eam H ammer ), Mike H a rth (who beat SCO ll G ra y an d Doug Pol en earlier this yea r in a Su zu ki money ra ce), J eff Dean (who looked strong at Sum m it Point two wee ks ago), and J eff J ames (o ne of th e o n ly top WERA riders still sprinting on a FZ750 ). Bart Peterson was a lso to be in th e rac e but cras hed in th e h ea t race pulli ng a groi n m u scle. The race began with Polen promising $5 to a ny o ne who co u ld beat him into turn o ne . Pol en kept h is money as h e wa s th e fir st one climbing th e banking. Pol en quickl y took a commanding lead over a close second place battle between Chivington and Thomas Stevens. Polen stretche d out h is lead and won easil y. Chivington nudged o u t Stevens ' for th e $500 seco n d pl ace prize. T ysor a nd Ewerth rounded out the top five. The A P roduction race was a lso won by Pol en a fte r th e ra ce was red flagged a nd restarted because of a :" . ... , , ~;;, ,, ..... - .. ~ • •u· ~~ ,... -.z . _ .. i f ' f' w ' ~_I ..... . . ,; 0 r •• )0 ~ • , • .(.. • •

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