Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Teem New Heven Suzuki's Kevin Rentzell (16) creshed on the lest lep butthe teem still won et Elkhert Leke. Here, Rentzell gets set to pess J&J Recing. AMA/MotoWorld U.S.l:ndaranee Series: Roand 3 NewSaven wins at Road Ameriea By Randy Marrs ELKHART LAKE, WI, MAY 3 After nearly two years of trying, Team New Haven Suzuki's crew chief Forbes Duguid and riders Kevin Rentzell and Edgar Hinton, III, pulled off their first win in 17 star~s by upsetting a field of 54 teams on Road America's four-mile course: The team headed a SuzukI sweep and covered 78 laps, averaging 90.435 mph and leadingall the way, in three hours and 27 minutes for the 500 kilometer event on their GSXR 1100 Suzuki, beating runner-ups Team Lockhart and third-place Eatherly Racing, all on the same lap. . "This really fells great, I felt like we really deserved this one after the disappointment we had at St. Louis in the last round after leading so long. The whole team worked for this one," said Renuell, who rode the last leg for the New Haven Suzuki/ Kosman/Speetro/Vanson Leathers/ Cosworth Pistons/Street Be Competition Cycle-sponsored entry. Duguid came very close to pulling off a doublewin as his GTU team, New Haven Kawasaki, finished second on the same lap to GTU winners, Paul Smith Racing. Notably absent from Round Three were last year's U.S. Endurance Series Champions, Dr. John's Team Moto-Guzzi. Last year's Road America winners, Quester-Sullivan Racing and the 1985 GTU National tide winners, Double Down Racing were both experiencing problems in practice. Quester-Sullian had an FZ750 Yamaha and the same FJllOO they won with last year and were having trouble with both. Dale Burroughs had to push the big FJ in after trouble in practice, saying "It started missing. I don't know what's wrong so I just shut it off." Quester-Sullivan would start the race with their FZ but make onI two la s into the race before bre~king a camshaft. D~uble Down arnved from Nevada with a new FZ600 Yamaha and had equally badluckas·Quester-Sullivan. The 1985 GTU winners suffered motor trouble, blowing a seal out of the FZ motor, losing oil pressure, and were unable to stan the race. The odds-on favorites at Road America had to be the Team Lockhan U.S. Suzuki/Dunlop/RK/ Shoei/KaJ-Gard/Cam-2/Performance Machine-sponsored GSXRllOO of 'Lynn Miller and Wendell Phillips. Since their St. Louis win the top end of the big Suzuki had been blueprinted and the weight of the Suzuki had been brought down to around 380 pounds. "The bike's running great. The best we ran last year on the Ontario Honda were 2:44s and 45s and we're looking to get into the 30s this year" said Miller. Phillips added "You can't get off the corners, right now it's like drag racing from cornerto-corner. We're hitting right at 170 mph at the end of the straight and overtaking slower bikes about 30-40 mph faster - it's real scary. Our game plan is to be up front as dose as we can the first two hours and sprint the last part of the race." RenueU and the New Haven Suzuki sat on the pole for the I:30 start and immediately took the lead followed by the Eatherly Racing/Arai/ND/ Dunlop/Bel-Ray/Yoshimura/Dutch Cycle Works/Kawasaki-Suzuki of Meadville/Gibsonia Cyc1e GSXRl 100 of Dave Schlosser and Jeff Heino,the Northshore Racing FZ750 Yamaha of Ed Key and Gary Gibson, Lockhart, and the Team Genesis FZ750 ridden by Wade Toncick and John Jacob. By lap two Lockhart and Gen- esis had blown by Northshore. Rentzell began to sprint away from the pack with Heino and the Eatherly Racing GSXR staying dose. By lap five the Team Edelweiss Kawasaki/' Yamaha/SuperTrapp/Dyno-Jet Research FZ750 ridden by John Stephens, Scott Chaytor, and Kirk Delaiffe had moved into the top five. As the race hit the IO·lap point Renuell had a slight lead on Heino. The number GS 1150 Suzuki of the VP Racing Fuel/Michelin/Barnett/Withrow Suzuki/West Alexandria Amoco/. Works Performance-sponsored Backroad Bandits entry ridden by Matt Washington and Robert Bub held sixth. At the end of 20 laps RenuelJ continued lp maintain a blistering pace as Lockhart moved around Eatherly Racing for second. Northshore moved back into fourth, Edelweiss held fifth, and Team Genesis held sixth, all on the same lap with the Too Tyred Racing/Middleton- Kawasaki- Yamaha FZ600 first in class followed by the New Haven Kawasaki Ninja 600 ridden by Paul Miles and Brian O'Shea. Third in GTU went to the Team Velocity FZ600 of Dean Joas and David J(losterman. As the race neared the halfway point Phillips, now riding the Lockhart Suzuki, was making up three to five seconds per lap on Hinton, now aboard the New Haven Suzuki. Duguid decided to pull Hinton in and turn the bike back over to Rentzell, clearly the faster of the two team riders. With the I board out (or Hinton and Phillips just four seconds behind, the Phillips crashed in turn (our, losing 40 seconds. "We were ready to take the lead, and I went wide in turn four and just went down," said Phillips. "I was making up about four seconds a Lap and it also cost us a pit stop to replace a footpeg." The crash put New Haven Suzuki . a lap up on Lockhart and Eatherly Racing with Northshore maintaining a distant fourth. According to. Eatherly Racing's Crew Chief Mike Patton they were losing their time in the pits. "We've got a dump can that's a little slow and costing us about five seconds a stop plus we have the small, stock tank on the Suzuki and that's hurting us, too" said Patton. By the halfway point the Paul Smith Racing/Kendall Oil FZ600 Yamaha was in (ront of the GTU class followed by the New Haven Kawasaki/Street & Competition/ Spectro/Metzeler/Arai/Yoshimura/ D.I.D.lMikuni 600 Ninja. Third was held by the Team Velocity FZ6OO, GTU fourth by Too Tyred Racing. Rounding out the top five in GTU, all on the same lap, was the Jam-Ups Racing/Vanson leathers/Yokohama Tires/Snap-On Tools/Pates Yamaha of Donnie Rowe and Tommy Sloan. Lap 40 saw Northshore Racing move in front of Eatherly Racing as Lockhart, Northshore and Eatherly got back on the same lap with New Haven. With the race in the dosing stages, Lockhart and Eatherly turned up the wick trying to catch New Haven. The Eatherly Suzuki moved around Lockhart for second and Northshore dropped a lap down. All day the High Tech Racing/Phoenix Racing Accessories/Reliable Cycle FZ750 Yamaha of Larry Jeurnick and Dave Lubberts, who finished second overall at St. Louis, Missouri had been steadily working to the front and took the number five spot from Northshore on lap 48. On lap 60 New Haven continued to lead Eatherly Racing with Lockhart third, all on the same lap. The run for the GTU win had been narrowed down to the Paul Smith Racing entry and the New Haven Kawasaki, also on the same lap, but four laps down to the GTO leaders. Six laps later, with Miller now riding, the Lockhart en try moved around Schlosser and back into second. With Miller trying to mount a charge at Rentzell, the Paul Smith Racing FZ and the Ninja of New Haven Kawasaki began swappingGTU positions. Miller closed slightly on Renuell and in the process Miller turned in the fastest time of the day at 2:33 flat. The tension in the New Haven Suzuki pits could be felt as Duguid docked Renuell. Duguid had seen a win slip away at St. Louis while leading and with five laps left did not want the same thing to happen here. On the white flag lap it was announced over the P.A. that Rentzell had crashed and the euphoria experienced just seconds before now turned to disbelief. Rentzell got the bike up anda lead which had been just under two minutes now closed to 45 seconds. GetLing the Suzuki started, Rentzell took the checker over a hardcharging Miller. "This excitement is too much. The next to last lap I thought we had lost another one but we came back. We've got a good crew and riders" said a visibly shaken Duguid. He added, "Man, these endurance races are turning into sprints." "We thought Eatherly Racing would be the hare today but it turned out to be the New Haven Suzuki crew," said Miller. Following New Haven and Lockhart came Eatherly Racing, fourth (Colllinul'd 10 pagt' 2/)

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