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/126983
The third hour of racing saw a rash of crashes. First, Top Gun Racing dropped their Kawasaki 250 Ninja; then Lightning Express and K&D Racing each cra shed the ir Suzuki GSXRllOOs in turn three during separate incidents. Sport Video Internationalspo nsored Lightning Express lost 20 minutes making repairs, th en an additional five awaiting technical .inspection. They rejoined the race to . event ually finish seventh overa ll. At the end of th e th ird hour, Hyper-Cycle pitted wit h a flat rear Michel in on th eir Suzuki GS XR I I OO. Team Su zu k i to ok advantage of this situation to pu t H yper-Cycle a lap down. T hey reent ered the competition in eigh th position. Bad luck then struck Barter s seco nd entry as the ir Kawa sa ki EXSOO went down in turn six . They remoun ted, h owever, to fi nis h second in the Li ghtweight clas s. Silv erstar crashed in turn two , but continued on for fifth overall, second in Heavyweight Production. Ro mance Racing had a tough time, replacing the motor during the fourth hour, knocking a fist-sized hole in the engine cases. The team usually compe tes in the AMAlCCS Endurance Series , but were doing this race "ju st for fun. " " It doesn't seem lik e a lot of fun now," said Jeff Herzog, who was riding with road-rashed hands from an accide nt at Sears Point the pr evious weekend. Team Suzuki's chance a t 'victory disappeared wh en th e engi ne started making noises during the fifth hour. Steven s brought it in for a one hour and 20 minute motor change. The problem was later diagnosed as a connecting rod that had stretched, ca using a p iston to ma ke contact with th e cylinder head. With T eams Suzuki and H yperCycle fig h ting back from long pit stops, Vance & Hines in her ited the lead. They were foll owed by T eam Hoe, but not for lon g, as H oe la ter threw a rod, ending th eir race. With Hoe ou t, Genesis moved into second behind Vanc e &. H in es. The . two teams were never more than five laps apart throughout th e night. Cool ey and Jeff J ames shared th e night stint o n the Michelin-shod Suzuki. Cooley is now heal ed from -h is dreadful Sears Point crash of two years ago , and ga ve a masterful exhibition of riding . Despite once running off th e track in turn six, he turned lap times of 1:31; faster than .an yone had go ne up to th at po int. " T here 's a little life left in the ol d man after all ," Cooley said. " The biggest p robl em I found is th at th ere is such a wide difference in speeds during th e race. A lot of guys that aren 't familiar w ith th em selves bunch up, so instead of havin g to go by one or two of th em , you have to pa ss four or five at a tim e." Wh ile run ni ng sixth at 4:00 a.rn ., T eam Suzuki had another long sto p . Apparentl y th e front axle, which threads di rectly int o the fork leg , pick ed up a bu rr w hi le b eing removed. Wh en th e axl e was reinstalled with an air ratchet , it stripped out th e threads. Replacing th e fork. leg took 50 minutes, and with Cooley exhausted from standing around with his helmet on, th e decision was made to retire from the ra ce. "The only thing we were accomplishing was burn ing . up gas and tires, " said Ulrich. During the early morning hours, first place Vance & Hines had brake problems which forced them to stop. ' They lost six minutes, coming out of the pits in second place, but on the same lap as new leaders Genesis Racing. AMA/CCS reg ular Team Hyper-Cycle crosses the finish line in second place. 15 laps beh ind Vance & .Hines. Some time later, Genesis pitted for tires, allowing Vance & Hines to . sneak past. At 6:30 a.m., Rentzell crashed th e Ka yo /Yokohama / D.I.D / G .S.!Arai/Spectro/White Bros.!AICS /Wayne Cycle Yamahasponsored FZRIOOO of Genesis Racing in turn three. According to team owner Ken Welty, " He grabbed th e br akes and th ere was nothing th ere." The machine came to rest upsidedown, forcing Genesis to complete th e ra ce without a fairing. Rentzell was la ter seen sporti ng a neck brace and elb ow bandages, but was not badly hurt. With th e last of the ir serio us challe ngers in' th e pi ts, T eam Vance & Hines mo tored away to the finis h. Ien a tsch tied _last year's m ileage reco rd with 45 m in u tes remai ni ng and he handed off to Dennis Sm it h , who too k th e checkered flag with an upraised fist. For Vance & H in es Motorcycle Center of T orrance owner Dennis Smith, it .was his third consecu tive victo ry. Hi s sh op, form erl y called Cycle Tune, won this ra ce in 1985. In th e winner 's circl e, he praised th e Pirell i Dem on street tires that 'th ey used, and thanked Bates Leathers, Klotz ra cing fuel , Fram/ Au tolite, Dyne-jet , a nd RK Chain . T eam H yper- Cycle bl amed scoring errors for the ir second p lace showing. Turning ·I :30s during th e morning hours, they had the fastest bike o n the trac k. T here was just enough time left to make up their 16-lap defici t. Unfortuna tely, WER A . 'officials had them listed as 18 laps down. Unable to cha nge WERA 's m ind, they decided to back off a nd cruise to the fin ish. Genesis Racing too k th ird overall, and first in H eavyweight Production. Their Yam aha F-ZR IOOOwou ld need a lo t of repairs before next week's race in Pocono, Pen nsylvan ia. Ken Welt y's meth od of deali ng wi th th e problem is to " not get much sleep betw een now and th en ." Jim Will iams Racing finished an ins p iri ng fou rth overall, and first in th e Middleweight Superb ike class. The Honda CB600 Hurricane th at th ey rode was th e same on e that J im Jepsen broke hi s leg on during th e Sears Point AMA Supers p ort National the pre vious weekend. Jim Williams said, " We had some down time; threw a chain off. John Ulrich and the Suzuki guys ga ve us a chain and saved us because we didn't have a spare. " Jim Williams Raci n g set a new Middleweight mileage mark of 247.5 miles. Genesis Raci ng 's Ken We lty. Mark Heise r. Tony DeSimone. Jim Tr ibou, Kevin Ren tz.ell and M ike Murphy f inished t hird on t he Yama ha FZR 1000. Team Suzuk i had a m iserable weeke nd. pu lling o ut of the race after suffering t hroug h a blow n eng ine and oth er mechanica l ills. T he R.A.T.S. team brought their BMW KIOO hom e for ninth overa ll. 'Ph il Smith was pre-entered , but brok e hi s collarbone in a club race. Nevertheless, he rod e one hour of th e rac e, managing to go just as fast as hi s teammates . T enth overall, and first Lightweight, belonged to th e Kawasaki 250 Ninja of Team Sledge. They had run as high as seventh at one point, and co mp leted 182.5 miles. T wenty -five out of the 29 teams were still runninl':at the finish. Genesis RacIng 's . Ken Welty su mmed it up best when he said, " It 's been a wild weekend! " • Results O/ A: 1. Team Vance & Hines (Suz); 2. Team Hyper-Cycle (Suz); 3. Genesis Racing (Yam); 4 . Jim W illi ams Racin g (Hon); 5. Team Sivler Star (Suzl; 6. Team Und erdog (Hon); 7. Lightni ng Express ISuz); 8. Team Hawaii (Kaw); 9. RAT-S. (BMW) ; 10. Team Sledge (Kawl. HIW S/ BK: 1. Team Vance & Hi nes (Suz); 2. Team Hyper-Cycle (Suz); 3. Team Underdog (Han). HIW PROD; 1. Genesis Racing (Yam); 2. Team Silver St ar (Suz); 3. Team Wanker (Suzl. MIW S/BK: 1. J im Williams Racing (Han); 2. Team Hawa ii (Kaw); 3. Team TNT (Yam). . MIW PROD: 1. C&D Racing (yam ); 2. Full Moon Racing (Han). UW: 1. Team Sledge (Kaw); 2. Ban el' s H· D (Kaw ); 3. Team 404 (Han). 17