Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

. $.4 V ~ e v ~ Qj' Kevin Rentzell and Jeff Atwell piloted the New Haven Suzuki to the overall win in the AMA/MotoWorid 500 kilometer race at Summit Point Raceway. ef) Team Dean (246) leads Taylor Road Racing's Jeff Heino (159); Team Dean's Suzuki GSXR750 was piloted by Jeff Dean and Dave Murray. T _ Lockhart (2) leads Team Dean (2461 in early action; Lockhart finished _colld behind New Haven Suzuki with Team Dean taking third. AMA/MofoWorld U.S. Endurance Road Race Series: Round 10 ,New Haven Suzuki tops at.Summit Point By Randy Marrs SUMMIT POINT, WV, AUG. 23-24 New Haven Suzuki's Kevin Rentzell and Jeff Atwell won the AMA/MotoWorld U.S. Endurance Series round Saturday~ bringing their Suzuki GSXRIIOO home in front of juries su[[ered two weeks ago at Road Atlanta, New Haven's . crew chief, Forbes Duguid, called on Summit Point local hotshoe Jeff Atwell to fill in. Team Lockhart was also minus for me New Haven Suzuki team as regular Lynn Miller, who was injured mey averaged 87.041 mph, covering arMid-Ohio and they competed with 156 laps in the 500-kilometer evem ex-Dr. Jo(:ln's regular Larry Shorts around Summit Point Raceway's riding with Wendell Phjllips. Altwo-mile, 10-turn road race course. though bom teams finished on the Wim five rounds remaining in the same lap, it was not really that close. series, New Haven Suzuki leads overRentzell and Atwell had maintained all in poims with 3576 and Team a lead of 50 to 80 seconds on Lockhart Lockhan trails the Connecticut-based for most of the three hours and ,58 team by 150 poims with 3426 poims. minutes with Rentzell slowing at the , With Rentzell's regular teammate, end to assure the team the win. I . Ed~.~i_n!?~!!~, m~ssin~~~~ ~~ ~~__ .• ~ ~~e race ~h!~h ~w _9uite a bit.of•• runner-up Team Lockhart by a margin of just 33 seconds. The flag-to-flag win was the second win of the 1986 season 30 endurance racing strategy come into play near the end was actually lost in the very beginning by Lockhart. Lockhart crew chief Keith Perry summed it up by saying, "We made our mistake in the beginning by letting them get too much of a lead. We held back to see if !-hey would crash or break like they have at a lot of the other rounds this year and just got too far behind to catch up. Larry (Shorts) got . hung up in traffic and by the time he could get clear Rentzell was gone." Taking the GTU win, eight laps behind New Haven and sixth overall, were Marc Lautzenhiser and Paul Bray on the Out &: Out Racing Yamaha FZ6OO. Forbes Duguid's GTU team, New Haven Kawasaki. continues to lead the GTU point standings but was a no-show at Summit Poim when team member Paul Miles' van broke a transmission on the way to the race. ' Summit Point which is known for having the slickest track surface around was at its slipperiest with turns one and six seeing many of the teams go down. Thirty-seven teams got the green for the 1:30 p.m. start. Team Signal crashed on the warm-up lap and retired as Remzell, starting on the · pole, tip-toed his way around turn six (Carousel) and proceeded to leave the balance of the pack behind. On lap one Team Syracuse crashed in turn,six in what was the beginning of a busy day for the MARRC corner workers. By the end of the first lap Rentzell had a 10-second lead over second place S&:L Enterprises (Larry Scholl and Alan Lane), Shorts, on the Lockhart Suzuki GSXRll00 Suzuki, was third, and fourth was the Johnson &: Wood Yamaha FZ750 ridden by Nigel and Keith West. Gale Taylor Roadracing was fifth (Dave Schlosser and Jeff Heino), and the Sport Cycle Racing Yamaha FZ600 was sixth overall, first in GT~ By lap three Rentzell was already lapping slower traffic and Shorts had moved the Lockhart/U .S. Suzuki/ Dun lop/ShoeilRK/Cam-2/Performance Machine/Kal-Gard Suzuki into second, Galeand the Johnson &: Wood FZ were third, S&L fourth, and local racer Bruce Nield had the Team Cavalier Honda VFR750 up in the front five. On the next lap Rentzell led by 18 seconds, and by lap five his lead had increased to 21 seconds. Taylor Racing's Heino dropped off the 'pace due to heavy traffic and the poor track conditions and the · second through fourth place positions •sAujfled .back an,d forth. Eventual third place finisher, Team Dean with a Suzuki GSXR750 ridden by Jeff Dean and Dave Murray, took over third, Cavalier was fourth, and Johnson &: Wood fifth. The GTU lead had been taken over by the Team Whitt Yamaha FZ600 of Joey Whittington and Bart Peterson Rentzell continued to motor away from the field as Lockhart, Dean, Cavalier, and Johnson &: Wood ran nose-to-tail battling for the next four positions. The race for sixth to 10th was also close between Team Whitt, Team AMF, S&:L Enterprises, Speed Boys and Sport Cycle Racing filling the spots. By the end of 10 laps, Rentzell was out of sight and the battle for second was between Team Dean and Cavalier as Shorts had dropped to fourth. Three laps later Nield moved the Cavalier Honda into second. On lap 12, Johnson & Woods' charge to the front came to an end. "The rear wheel was locking up and the bike started going slower and slower each lap. I put the clutch in and it ~tarted to make an awful rattling noise and I just.pulled in and ended the day," said Nigel Gale. The GTU race now began to heat up with Out &: Out Racing, Sport Cycle Racing and Jam- Up Racing all trying to catch Team Whitt. The GTU standings, with the exception of Team Whitt in first, continued to shuffle. As the race neared the halfway Point, Team Cavalier's second place ride came to an end. The bike had been smoking badly and eventually retired with a blown motor. On lap 77 the GTU leader's race ended, also with a blown motor. Bart Peterson coasted the bike into the pits giving the GTU lead to the Out & Out Racing/Dunlop/Kerker/Cycle Nuts &: Bolts/Cycle Mart/Solmax Yamaha FZ600. "We sucked a rod through the case," said Team Whitt's Joey Whittington. Now holding second in GTU was the Sport Cycle Racing Yamaha FZ600 entry of Tom Malaska and Bob Von Nessen and lying third was the JamUp Racing Yamaha FZ600ofTommy Sloan and Donnie Rowe. Lockhart held a Iirm second, Team Dean ran third, and the Taylor Racing/Michelin/Bel-Ray/Shoei/ND/Yoshimura/ PBIIAeroquip Suzuki GSXRIIOO of Heino and Schlosser had moved back into fourth. Rounding out the front five was the S&L Enterprises GSXRIIOO of Scholl and Lane. Rentzell had ridden an hour and a half stint before Atwell got on with Shorts staying oul as long as Rentzell. Rentzel! ,'l,nq ~t.Kep, "}er~ ,~~~~h~ng1 ,I

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