Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

~ 8 ~ High Tech Racing's Larry Jeurink and Eric Moe finished fourth overall on their Suzuki GSXR 1100. The duo completed 84 laps. South Florida Racing (8) finished third on their Yamaha FZR1000, two laps behind Dutchman Racing; here they lead Zlock Racing (221). Early in the race the battle for the lead was between former teammates Dale Quarterley of Lockhart (1) and Larry Shorts of Targa Racing (33). 14 lap times. getti ng in to the two m inu te fl at to 2:01-r ange. Bo th Lockh art a nd T ar ga began to swap th e lead each lap. H yper Cycle at this point ran a distant th ird , Dutchman was further back in fourth , Schwantz had already worked his wa y into fifth. South Florida Racing. High T ech . and T eam H ammer, with Mike Harth riding, rounded out the top eig h t. Schwan tz had moved to third by lap seven. The battle for th e lead ended on lap 14 as Sh orts crashed the T ar ga Kawasaki exi tin g tum five; losing th e rear end and high-siding. Shorts ' sus tained two broken toes and badl y bruised rib s and th e Targa entry was out of th e race. . The Human Race T eam was another th at didn 't last long as the the team pitted with a fla t Metzeler tire. The race for th ir d and fourth co nti n ue d . to change eac h la p betw een th e Hyper Cycle Suzuki and th e number two Yoshimura entry of Doug Pol en a n d J apan ese ri der Yuk iya Ohshima. Schwantz was in and out of the pits making adjus tments to hi s Su zuki while the GTU battl e had come do wn to the Island Boys and Ro swell Honda Racing. Rowe go t th e Kayo Yamaha up and go ing aft er hi s cras h and began to wo rk back up through the field. By lap 20 the Yoshimura #2 bike ra n sec o nd with Lockhart sti ll holding a stro ng lead. Rentzell on the Dutchman/ Arai/Fox/Mikunil EBC/ P BIIYos h im u ra R&D/ND/ Cam 2-sponsored Suzuki ran third. Schlosser had in stall ed a set of 38mm Mikunis for Daytona go ing from th e 36s the y used for th eir Fir ebird win. an d were experienci ng fuel consum ption problem s due to th e rapid pace being set. . By th e 25th lap only four teams were o n th e lead lap: Lockhart. Dutchman, Hyper Cycle a nd South Florida. The pace at th is point was still hot with th e front run ning fou r turning con sisten t two-m inu te fla t laps to 2:01s with tire wear beginning to be a factor. : Lockhart , Hyper Cycl e and H ammer, th e latter now running se ven th . were u sing Michel in SO l 226 radia l tires. while Dut chman ra n SOll24 tires. Michelin tire reps felt the soft er compound wo uld no t go th e distance with the tim es being set as Lockhart wo uld lat er find o ut. Hammer 's H arth. J am ie J am es a nd Russ Paulk continued to slice through th e field a nd mo ved into a solid sixth. The GTU ra ce for Ro swell Racing ended on lap 27 wh en they ran out of gas and the Autobahn Society/ Harth Racing/ Sloan Cycle H onda 600 Hurricane of David Reed and J esse Burgher took th e lead from Island Boys. Dutchman and H yper Cycle began to put on a ra ce for second that had Rentzell and Andrew running two abreast around th e course. swapping the lead each lap. Most of the teams began to make their pit sto ps around th e 30-32 lap mark with Hammer and ' Lockhart expecting to make two stops with th e rest of th e field lookin g for three sto ps. Mid way in to the race (lap 47), T eam Hamm er's race came to an end o n the front stra igh t while J am es was handl in g th e ridi ng. " I was co ming th rou gh th e banking just ge tti ng ready to hit ano ther gear and it tightened up o n me." ·said J am es. Kayo 's-Rowe and Sloan co ntinued to wor k th eir way back up into the top 10. runn in g as high as six th o n la p 50. H i ~h T ech continued to run 'a co n sis te n t fift h o n th e Co nser Coach /Lochart Suzuki, but were hampered by a lack of power. " I'm sur e everyo ne else has don e some. thing over th e winter, but righ t now it's a race to race season for us," said Juerink. T he distance betweeen first and second pl ace at the end of 50 laps was o ne minute, 14 seconds with a 22-seco nd sp rea d betw een H yp er Cycle and leader Dutchman. O nl y th e three front runners were o n th e lead lap. Lap 62 saw disaster stri ke the lead in g Lockhart Suzuki. Quarterley pitted with a badly chun ked rear Michelin radi al. The early co ncern abo u t the soft co mpound tir es going th e di stance at the pace Lockhart was setting had proven accura te. What shou ld have been a normal tire change turned into a four la p ordeal. The Dutchman and H yper Cycle crews both watched the struggling Lockh art crew wrestl e with th e tire change. A Michelin rep immediately covered the huge mis sing chunk in the rear tir e and carried the tire away. T he tire change was delayed even more by an axle that wouldn 't quite fit and req ui red beating in with a hamm er wielded by Quarterle y. Kayo 's charge ended with a lockedup tra nsm ission. " I heard a clatter. ing. I up-sh ifted and it (the transm issi on ) lock ed up. " sa id a n obvio us ly dejected Rowe. H yper Cycle now held the lead , Dutchman was second. and Lo ckhart th ird. Sou th Florida was ru nning fou rth , ahea d of High T ech , .Team Gibsonia and the Johnson Racing FZ600 Yam aha that led th e GTU field . On lap 67 a cra sh brought out the yello w £lag and the pace car bunched th e field for the restart. T he pace car rem ained o n the course for two laps. Quarterley pi tted on lap 68 to have th e replacement tire checked and Lockhart crew chief Keith Perry waved him o n his way. On lap 74 Andrew found th e brakes on the Hyper Cycle ' Suzuki go in g so ft a n d h e overs ho t th e ch ica ne with th e resu lt being the di stance between Hyper Cycle and Dutchman dropped to nine seconds with Rentzell closing, and, as later would be ruled. the off-course move would cost H yper Cycle the race. Du tchman was mak in g up abo u t a' second and a half a lap and by lap 76 the difference was 5.37 seconds. One lap later it was down to 3.88 seconds and on lap 78 it was 1.78 seconds. On lap 81, with just five laps to go. Dutchman had closed to with in 1.60 seconds of H yper Cycle. . Wi th two la p s rema i ni ng the difference was just under o ne-tenth of a seco nd, and clos ed even more on th e wh ite £lag lap. Dut ch man and H yper Cycle had been swa pping th e lead in th e infield with H yper Cycle mak ing up th e di stance on horsepower on th e banking ' and stra igh ts. On the fina l lap the pair headed down th rough the tr i-o val with Dutchman 's Rentzell holding abo u t a 10 bik e len gth advantage, but H yper Cycle's And rew used a slingshot pass to nip Rentzell by less than a foot at the fini sh lin e. High Voltage Racing got th e . better of the race for th e GTU win as th ey took th eir Cycle Connectionsponsored H onda CB600 Hurricane to the win over Autobahn Society'S . similar H onda Hurricane. The top two tea ms were on th e same lap. each completing 77 la ps of the famed speedway. Third pla ce went to Moore Ra cing. The scene in winner 's circle was con fusing as first AMA/CCS officia ls brought H yper Cycle in as the winner, Du tchman as th e runner-up team, and South Florida as th e third pl ace fini shers; It was th en decided th at Lockhart had fini shed third, dropping South Florida to fourth. The scoring was fin ally sorted out. th e o ne-lap ' penalty levied aga in st H yper Cycl e , a nd Dutchman declared th e wi nner. • Results GTO: 1. Dutchman Racing (Suz); 2. Hyper, Cycle (Suz); 3. South Florida Racing (Yam); 4 . High Tech Racing (Suz); 5. Team Lockhan (Suz); 6. Team Gibson ia/Englen Racing (Yam); 7. Team Wyoming 11 (Suz); 8 . ECHO Racing (Suz); 9. RS Racing (Suz); 10. The Human Race Team (Yam). GTU: 1. High Voltage Racing (Hon); 2. Autobahn Society (Hon); 3. Moore Racing (Hon); 4. West Florida Racing (Hon); 5. Johnson Racing (Yam); 6. Asphalt Aviators (Suz); 7. Teem Go (Suz~ 8. Team No Drugs (Hon); 9. Roswell Honda Racing (Hon); 10. Hornblower Racing (Hon). POINT STANDINGS . GTO: 1. Dutchman Racing (40); 2. Team Lockhan (26); 3. South Florida Racing (22); 4. High Tech Racing (21); 5. Hyper-Cycle (17); 6. Kayo Racing (13); 7. Team Targa (I I); 8. ECHO Racing (9); 9. Team Gibsonia/Englert Racing (9); 10. Team Wyoming 11 (81 . GTU: 1. Team No Drugs (27); 2. Roswell Honda Racing (22); 3. High Voltage Racing (20); 4 . Asphalt Aviators (19); 5. Autobahn Society (16); 6. Moore Racing (13); 7. Team Billy and the Boingers (13); 8. West Florida Racing (11); 9. Del Arno Racing (1 1); 10. Johnson Racing (10).

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