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/126971
Competitors come off the line at the start of round six of the WERA/EBC National Endurance Road Race Series. held at Talladega Raceway. Winner Team Suzuki (1 ) sets the pace for Team Gamma (1 5) and Team Racerback. The race for second came down to The Human Race Team (2). Team Racerback (13 ) and Team Gamma (15). Team Racerback took second . WERA/EBC Brakes National Endurance Series: Round 6 Team Suzuki rolls in Talladega RR By Larry Lawrence TA L LA DEG A, AL , J UN E 20-21 T eam Suzuki came to the Talladega Grand P rix Raceway with a two-race wi nning streak, but were still in second place in the EBC/WERA Endu rance point standings. The team left on a roll with three consecutive wins under th eir belt and a lead in th e seri es. T eam Suzuki won th e much dela yed end urance race by o ne lap o ver second place Team Racer- ba ck a n d t hird-p laced Tea m Ga m ma. The six-ho ur en dura nce actually o nly ra n un der a gree n flag for abo ut two hours a nd 45 minutes as the rest of th e race went by with the end ura nce teams sitting in th e pits. At one po int the race was red[lagged when a severe thunderstorm passed over the a rea a nd lightning tempora rily kn ock ed ou t power to the trac k, d isa bling th e end ura nce scoring cloc k. In all, th e winning team covered 149 laps on the 1.3-mile Ta lla dega Grand Prix Raceway for a tot al o f 193.7 mil es. Mike Harth put the team Suzuki GSXRIIOO in to the lead o n the very fir st lap , a lead th e team never relinquish ed. Forty-one teams o n the short tra ck made for so me tight rac ing, but Harth seemed to hav e littl e trouble slic ing th rough tra ffic. By the end of th e first ho ur, Suzuki had com pleted 57 laps averaging 7.41 miles per hour. Solmax Racin g's Sco n Ru ssell was a bo ut 30 seconds beh ind th e lead er at that point. T eam Gamma, Team Racerb ack and T he Hu man Race Team rounded o ut th e top ru nning teams in the fir st hour. T he Gen esis Racing Yam aha was cras hed by Ken Welty j ust before the o ne ho ur mark; the bik e's minor da mage was qu ickly repa ired a nd th e tea m was bac k o n the tra cx, bu t had dropped to 32nd place. Another team forced to make up ground early was Out & Out Ra cing. The team pitted o n th e first lap to fix a vacu um line that had fall en off of th eir Yam aha FZ600. T he co nd i tio n s wer e h ot and mu ggy, but most of th e rid ers stayed o n the track for th e normal hour stint with many rid ers wearing riding vests packed with ice to stay coo l. Team Suzuki ca me to T all ad ega wit h two new rid ers, T ho mas Stevens a nd Australian Gl enn T a ylor. Stevens has been a top rid er in th e AMA Su perpo rt Series, bu t saw th e ch ance to ride for Team Suzuk i 'as a grea t opportunity. " Racing on th e coun- try 's top national end urance team will give me good expos ure as well as experience on a pow erful Superbike," Steven s said. Stevens rode the seco nd stint and sho wed no signs of being tentative, he quickly adapted to th e new ma chine and extended Suzuki's lead in th e second hour. Solmax was in second with a o nelap lead over th e tight third place battl e between T eam G amma (G SX R I I OO). Hum an R ace (FZR IO OO) and Tea m Racerback (G PX750). Gen esis Racin g a nd Out & Out Ra cing were reco veri ng ni cely from their fir st hour p robl em s. Gen esis went from 32nd pl ace to 21st pl ace in one hour, Out & Out from 18th to 10th in the sa me tim e peri od. Oil o n two co rne rs of the trac k brought out the firs t red flag around the two ho ur mark a nd after a 20minute delay the race was restarted. Shortly afte r the restart, however, the ' track was hi t with a de luge of ra in. T he teams mad e severa l laps in th e down po ur before lightning brought o u t t he seco nd red flag . T eam Suzuki's Tay lor was on th e leading machine wh en th e clouds ope ned u p, he co m mented o n riding in th ose cond itions, " I cou ld n' t see a thing out th ere, all you co uld do was just ri de aro u n d very slo w ly a n d carefu lly." The longest dela y in th e race ca me on th e warm -up lap of the second restart as an o il line to the cooler of th e T eam Ra cerb ack Ninja 750 ca me loose. The oil spewed ou t on to Ninja 's rear tire spreading a wide path of oil two - thirds of the way around th e tra ck. The oil co mbined with th e still wet track caused th e surface to be unraceable. The teams had to sit and wa it while crews worked feverish Iy on the circuit. The race clock co nti n ued running a nd for aw h ile it ap pea red that th e ra ce would be ca lled , but with one hour remain in g officials called th e teams to the gri d to restart. The o ne ben efit of all th e dela ys for spectators was that th e last hour would be a n a ll ou t sp rin t race to the finis h . T eam Suzu ki held a secure twolap lead , but the race for second pl ace wa s still very mu ch in th e air. . Human Ra ce held a sligh t advant age over T eam Gamma a nd Racerback. The Mediumweight race would also go down to th e wire with Out & Out back in th e hunt after a fantastic co meback effo rt from rid ers Marc Lautzenhiser and Pau l Bray. P DQ Racing and T eam Tontory were also on the same lap. Solrnax Racing dropped to 16th after Mark Sch ledo rn crashed, but Scott Ru ssell went Tight to work making up lost ground as he blitz ed th rough th e field o n th e restart. Human Race rider Kurt H all started to pull o ut a little bit of a lead on Team Gamma a nd Racerb ack in th e second place battle. whi le Stevens