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/126949
A. R.T. Racing won the eRR C Six-Hour in Mexico. but crashed on the final lap. turning their immaculate GSXR 1100 into a pile of twisted metal. Tharp paced A.R.T.'s effort early in the six-hour event. but started to suffer the effects of heat-stroke near the midpoint of the race. A.R. T. Racing romps in· Mexican Six-Hour By Rob Hardy Photos by Action Photography/Rob Hardy MO TERREY, MEXICO, FEB. 14 The A.R.T. Racing team of Pat Tharp, Sam McDonald, Skip Gatrell and Lindsay Thomas, rode their Jet Tharp-tuned Suzuki GSXRIIOO at sprint-race speeds to win the Central Road Racing Club's first international six-hour race . h ld In more than seven years, e at the Autodromo de Monterrey race track. Finishing a controversial second, three laps down, was Team Scream, the defending CRRC Endurance Champions. Race officials ruled that Team Scream riders Mike Ryan, Craig Gleason and Brian Graver, riding a Suzuki GSXR750, finished one lap ahead of the Mexico City-based ProStar GSXR 1100, following a disagreement over bow many laps the Mexican team had actually completed. The race started at 12:45 p.m., under a hot Mexican sun, with 19 American teams and .two top Mexican teams on the gnd. A LeMansstyle push start was used and when the green flag waved, Team Scream's Graver got his machine fired up first and led down the front straigbt and into turn one. A.R.T. Racing's McDonald, the 1984 National Formula Two Champion, followed in second, and Bart Winters, on the Team BMH Honda Interceptor 500, was running third. Team Bruce Wayne Keene and Pro-Star de Mexico (the country's second Pro-Star squad) rounded out tbe top five. Pro-Star team captain Oscar Castellanos finally got the team's brandnew GSXRllOO into the race on lap two, after spending the first lap side- lined with ignition problems. Castellanos, Mexico's II000c Road Race Champion, proved quite a problem for Team Scream's Graver and A.RT.'s McDonald; it took the frontrunningduoseveral laps to get around the Mexican champ. After the third lap, Wes Winche ter, on the Brisa Racing GSXR750, moved into fourth place, just behind the strong-running Interceptor of the BMH team. Scream's Graver round a way around Castellanos in turn two. McDonald also moved around the Mexican rider and set his sigbts on Team cream. A.R.T. moved into the lead a lap later when McDonald seta new unofficial track record in the high oneminute, 12-second range. According to the Pro-Star team radar gun, McDonald was clocked at 181 mph at the end of the almost mile-long front straight, just before he down-shifted a gear to go into turn one. At about the same time, Team Ted's Donnie Nay, running in seventh overall, slid out the front end on his GSXR 750 while exiting turn four with the gas on, He was up quickly and heading to the pits for repairs. "I just tried to get a good drive out and the front end slid sideways," said Nay. "I got back into it hoping it would lift up and straighten out, but it just went away." At the end of 20 laps, A.RT.'s McDonald had about a seven-second lead on Team Scream, with Team BMH and Brisa Racing running third and fourth, respectively. About 45 minutes into the race, McDonald came into the pits to gas up and let northern C