Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126918
~ ~ C'f ~ ....... Generic Racing (7) ..ads The Human Race Team (60). Team Raceback (99), FUBAR Racing (75) and Key Vista Racing, all on 600s. ::s ~ MStM Racing's Ben Martinez (23) leads Ed Key (84) and Tour de Force early in the race, befora the serious crashing started. All fell. Tour de Force's Doug Ge,. (shown), Chris Reed and Tom Fenton crashed once, finished third CMtrllH on their Yamaha FZ7S0. Hom Brothers Racing's Chris Hom Ulkes the checkered flag and the win, wearing the tllem's bright orllnge, green and white leathers. WERA/EBC National Endurance Road Racing series: Round 6 Horn Brothers honk at Grattan By Larry Lawrence GRATTAN, MI, JULY 5-6 Brothers Chris and John Horn, collectively known as Horn Brothers Racing, pulled off the greatest accomplishment of their racing careers by winning their first National Endurance race against some of the best competition this country has to offer. Horn Brothers overcame tre'!cherous track con- 26 ditions (which nearly caused a cancellation of the race) to finish with 164 laps on the two-mile', 15-turn Grattan Raceway circuit. Even though Yamahas (with the exception of Team Hammer's Suzuki) dominate the WERA/EBC points standings, Horn Brothers' victory was the first overall victory for Yamaha in the series this year. Yamahas took all of the top class finishes; the first non-Yamaha finisher was R&W Racing on a Kawasaki; they finished 17th. Behind Horn Brothers with 161 laps was M&M Racing, based in Toronto, with riders Ben Martinez and Bob France. M&M's consistent finishes have moved them into second place in the standings and within 14 points of series points leader Team Hammer. Hammer had a miserable day with all three team riders crashing at least once and the Hammer Suzuki catching 0rl fire once, ruining the wiring. Team Hammer wasn't tre only team to crash on this day. Actually. they were in the majority. Of the 66 teams that started, 47 were still runningat the end. Every team (including Horn Bros.) except for two crashed at least once during the race. Many of the teams crashed two, three, even four times during the day, yet the most serious injury was a separated shoulder. The majority ofthecrashes were due LO recently laid pavement, which was very slick. Several riders described the sensation as similar to racing in the rain without the water. The race was red-£lagged at one point (when one bike oiled several corners), and delayed for just over an hour for a meeting of the team captains. A vote was taken on whether to continue the race. The decision was split and track officials decided to continue. Solmax Racing's Ronnie Bowen was upset that the race wasn't cancelled. "It's ridiculous to hold a race under these conditions. It's not even a race it's just a game of survival. We haven't crashed yet but it's only a matter of time and we will. Once you get off the racing line it's like riding on oil." Solmax did crash but continued to finish 15th and move up in the point standings. Besides the problems with the track surface the racing itself was quite interesting. The racing was very crowded on the twisty course with 66 bikes on the track. . Ben Martinez led the first lap on the Ontario Honda/Yamaha FZ750 of M&M Racing. Ed Key quickly caught and passed Martinez. Key was on yet another FZ750, with the team simply named Two Guys Who Race. The running order settled down for a short time with Key in front of M&M and Tour de Force's Doug Cere not far behind. Free Bud Racing (FZ750), Team Hammer (GSXR II (0), Horn Brothers (FZ750), High-Tech Racing (FZ750), Generic Racing (FZ600) and Sol max Racing (FZ750) all were in the lead pack on the first few laps. High-Tech was the first team to crash OUl after only five laps. At the end of the first hour M&M had regained the lead followed by Tour de Force both on lap 37. Team Hammer led a closely bunched group fighting for third with 37 laps, followed by Too TyTed Racing, Free Bud, Horn Brothers, Two Guys Who Race, and Somax, all with 36 laps. Kurt Hall crashed the Human Race Team's Yamaha FZ600 before the end of the first hour. The team restarted but crashed twice more before finally dropping out. Hall's second crash resulted in a separated shoulder for the rider from Louisville. The team dropped to third place in the standings. Hammer's Dave Sadowski went down just after he took control of the Hammer Suzuki and the bike caught on fire. Corner workers had no fire extinguisher and Sadowski had to run to the pits to get one, then run back to put out the £lames. The machine's wiring melted, effectively putting them out of the running for a top spot. Excellent work by mechanics Gary Hilgenberg and Ron Leernans got the Suzuki going again and the team finished 40th, gaining 26 mileage points. M&M Racing, as they have been several times before this season was hit with mechanical gremlins and spent 15 minutes during the second hour correcting the problem. The Hom Brothers took over the lead with Free Bud Racing and Two Guys Who Race close behind. (By the way. Free Bud used to be Free Bird but when a mis-print "Free Bud" came out in Cycle News the name stuck.) At the halfway mark Hom Brothers continued to lead with 96 laps. M&M moved back into second with Too Tyred Racing third. Tour de Force and Darotune Racing ran fourth and fifth. Last year Joe Brothers Racing won the Granan round of the endurance series behind the excellent riding of locals Scott Breeden and Fritz Kling. This year the team added Hoosier Ned Hart and call themselves K&L Racing. K&L ran as high as fifth overall but a crash knocked them back to 20th at the end. With one hour to go the race was still wide-open with the Horns riding very consistently on their Meueler/ Spectro/Shoei/Lou's Leathers/ Downer's Grove Yamaha FZ750. M&:M Racing was closing in and were on the same lap as Hom Brothers. A new team, Dreyer Yamaha Racing, had formed mainly to go for the $1100 first-in-c1ass money offered by Yamaha. The team consisted of (Wo Novice riders, Duane Dreyer and Gary Jeffries and one Expert, Gene Burcham, all from Indianapolis, Indiana. None on the team had ever endurance raced before, yet they found themselves first in Mediumweight Production on an FZ600 and challenging ·for fourth overall in their very first effort. M&M crashed and pitted during the last hour, giving Horn Brothers a three-lap lead that held to the end. M&M held on for second over Tour de Force. Dreyer Yamaha got what they were after, $1100 and a fourth overall and Too Tyred Racing finished fifth.