Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Kayo Racing's Tommy Sloan . finished th ird in his first GTO race. weight. H e and team captain Carry Andrew got j ust th ree hours sleep during Frida y nigh t's dri ve, and th e fact tha t Domay didn't drink enough fluids before the race ca used hi m to become exhaus ted. Asked if Andre w could m ainta in the torrid pace, De ma y co m men ted th at yes, h e could; "Carry wants the win really bad. He has the taste in hi s mouth (Hyper-Cycle won the last race of last year 's series a t Dayto na ) and we want th e n umb er one plate this year." At the halfway point, the official standings had Du tchman leading H yp er-Cycle, wi th Kayo in third a nd Targa running fourth, all on the sam e lap. Lockhart held fifth , one lap down o n th e leaders. T arga 's captain, former factory Honda a nd Kawasaki tuner R ob Muzzy di sagreed with these findings, citing th e fact that hi s team had yet to make a pit stop, while Kayo had already co me in ; however, no prot est was filed. No Drugs led Roswell Honda and Bill y and the Boingers in GTU. Becau se of their efforts, to ' promote a positive im ag e in motorcycling, McGra w Insu ran ce/ AGV/ Michelin/Hertz-P en ske/ Spectre sponsored T eam No Drugs were recent ly ~iven racin g leathers (comp le te w i th R o th m a n s logo a n d Spen cer clearly visible from the back) by three-time Wo rl d Champion Freddie Spencer, wh o reportedly wor ks wi th a Louisian a group ca lled " Mo thers Agains t Drugs." Chiv ington finall y brought the Targa entry in to the pits on lap 78 to ha nd off to Sh orts, who spoiled an otherwise perfect sto p by stall ing the motor. Shorts, a former team ma te o n th e 1987 champ io ns hip- winn ing . Team Lockhart, was quickl y p ush started by th e crew. Their Kawasaki ZX-IO had never turned a wheel ' before thi s race, so they had no idea wha t kind of gas mileag e to expect; th ey were p leasantly sur prised to discover that they would be able to do th e entire race o n just one stop. Chivington, who will be doing en d ura nce races o nly th is year, exp lained tha t th e bike, fitt ed wi th a Mich elin front a nd Dunlop rear slick, was sliding a lo t. " G ive it a little gas and it just breaks loose," he said. To help the trac tabi l i ty, a n d beca use it 's a brand new bike, he was keeping the revs below 5000 rpm. O n la p 96, Ara il Fo x/ Mik u n ii EBC /P BI/ Yosh im ura / N D/Cam 2sponsored Dutch ma n pitted with Ren tzell replacing H eino on the Hyper-Cycle (5) , here pass ing Anderson Racing (42), led part of the race before the machine DNF, team 's Mich elin radial-sho d Suzuki II 00. One lap lat er, Kayo pitted for th e second time with 1987 AMA GTU cha mp Sloan agai n taking the controls.. This was the duo's firs t-ever race o n an Open class machine and they held up well to the challe nge , th ough Rowe admi tted that the machine was a handful. The team received the bike j ust a week and a half ea rl ier, and had just eno ugh time to race-prep it. As Ken Welt y explained it, "We were waiting for UPS to bring our new Marvic whee ls, and wh en th ey arrived in Virginia on Tuesday, we just threw the box into th e truck and headed west. Wh en we go t here, we . went to mount one of our Yokohama tires a nd it just fell over th e rim ! It turns o u t that th e rims were 17 inch es, so we had to run th e stock rims." While'Dutchman a nd Kayo were in the pits," Andrew put the H yperCycle bike into th e lead. On lap 117, lead er Andrew handed off to Doma y who re-joined th e race in second p lace just 15 seconds beh ind Dut chman. Twenty la ps la ter, H yp erCycle's hopes expired along with the motor of their Suzuk i GS XRI IOO. Domay coas ted to a stop o utside of turn two , but his tro u bles were n' t over yet, as he barely escaped serio us injury by jumping over the tire wall to avo id being hit by Peter Carroll 's cras hed and slid ing machine. Rentzell brought hom e the Dutchman Racin g bike in first , o ne lap up o n second pl ace Brauneck of T eam Lockhart; two laps ahead of th ir d pl ace Kayo Racing. T ea m Targa's Shorts fin ished fourth, wi th H igh T ech Racing's Larry J eurick a nd Eri c Moe fifth on their Suzuki 1100. A resp ectable seventh place fin ish was ach eived by " Tea m Ra cing J ourn ali sts" with Motor cyclist Magazine's Nick ' Ien ats ch a nd Mitch Boehm riding th e J ohnson & Wood Suzuki 1100. Like Ienatsch says, "I'm no t suppose d to be fast ; I just push a pen cil. " Kirk H oeppner bro ugh t home the Team No Dru gs bike first in GT U a nd eig hth overall with Roswell H onda second GTU , nint h overall a nd sti ll o n th e sa me la p . The Dunlop/Phil Flack Racing/ Mo to- Tu ner Rob Muzzy's Team Targa fin ish ed fourth overall in their first race. Here rider Dan Chiv ington pu ts the Kawasaki ZX-1 0 thro ugh its paces. Libert y-sponsored Roswell H onda performed admi rably, ru n ni ng on Dunl o p K59 1 s tree t t ires wh i le winners No Drugs ran Mich elin slicks. H onda House/Arizona Cycle/ T &T Performa nce/Bren da Anderso n Racing-sponsor ed Team Bill y and th e Boingers too k th ird in GTU, 14th overall, and three laps down on the GT U lead ers. " Boinger" Thom as Ea tm a n, who's in the Air Force, will soon be transferring to Germa ny, and plans to do some club raci ng th ere. . According to Rentzell, the race went smooth , wi th his only m istake coming on the fift h lap when he accident ally " u pshi fted " the reversesh ift gearbo x, a nd rode straight th rough the esses. T ho ugh at first look, th e Firebi rd Ra ceway looks like no thing but a drag strip wi th a glorified return road, Rent zell cla ims tha t it's "faster th an it loo ks." It' s also " a rea l thi nking man's track; Mess up o ne turn and you mess u p th ree." • Results .GTO: 1. Dutchman Racin g (Suz); 2. Te am Lockhan (SU1); 3. Kayo Racing (Yam); 4. Team Targa (Kaw ); 5. High Tech Racin g (SU1 6. South ); Flor ida Racing (Yam); 7. Johnso n & Wood (Suz); 8. Tru mp Card (Yam); 9. Rueger Racing (SU1 10 . ); Team Tyler (Han). GTU: 1. Team No Drug s {Hon}; 2. Roswe ll Honda (Han); 3. Team Billy and th e Boin gers (Han); 4. Del Arno Racin g ISuz); 5 . Asp halt Avi ato rs (Kaw ); 6. J im W illiams Racing (Suz): 7. And erson Racing (Yam); B. Team Ohio (Han); 9. Team Pasta (Due); 10 . Team M ille r American (Suz). 13

• Cover