Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

00 00 ..... 0') Hyper-Cycle's James Domay and Carry Andrew ran away with the race, lapping the field before an oil leak eliminated them during the fifth hour. secon d stop . Do may averaged 97.5 . mph for the first hour. " The bike worked flawlessly," sai d Domay. " We wa nte d to get a little· buffer, th en cruise th e rest of th e wa y. " H yp er -C ycl e was ru n ni ng Mich elin radia l tir es - a Sl 226 rear and S0212 front - and were p lanning to change just th e rear tire. The team had averaged 70 mpg a t Daytona, bu t were expecti ng to use more fuel at Willow Springs. Andrew has been at the cente r of controversy in th e past - first afte r bein~ in volved in th e Daytona crash that inj ured Freddie Spencer in 1986, and more recent ly from th e pena lty assessed to him after bra ke problems caused him to bypass th e ch ica ne at this year 's Daytona Endurance race - and today was no different. WERA official s th reat ened to dock him a lap or fin e him $250 for wh eelyin g down th e p it lane, in spite of hi s claims that it was a " power wh eelie." " I' d ra ther pay th e fin e than bu st my bu tt trying to pu t a no ther lap on those g uys , " sa id teamma te Domay. Thou gh occassio na lly referred to by other co m peti tors as " Sca rey Carry," mo re than on e racer took notice of Andrew's rid ing ability tod ay, with one co mme nting th at , "He won't cut you a n in ch on the track, but you 've got to ad mi t that he's a hell of a rider." Wh ile H yper-Cycl e pitted, all hell broke loose on the trac k. Riders went down in tu rn s o ne, th ree and topof-the- hill turn fo ur. One of th ose that went down in tu rn four was form er Speed Boy Mark H eiser of Kayo Racin g. "There were a bunch of gu ys down in fou r," he said. " I bump-started it downhill in th e dirt!" Ka yo r e-joined the race after changing a clip-on, sh ift lever, and footf>C':g assembly. They soldiered on to finish fifth in the Heavyweight Superbike class. Harth took it easy getting through the accident scene, turning a couple of laps in the 1:40-ra nge to signal the end of his riding stint. He soon pitted, handing the Suzuki/SBS/ TsubakilAmi/Fox/Cam 2/ American Roadracing/MicheliniBel-Ray/ Leathers/Emgo-sponsored 'Z' Suzuki to Jamie James. The stop took a long 49 seconds, which allowed Hyper-Cycle to lap them. Harth claimed that the tires, the hardest Michelin radials available, were more than a year old. "T he tires were gone in two laps, so I just cruised, " he said. Ulrich said th e tire s were the same ones being used by Team HyperCycle , who were leading at that point, but that since the hard compound was in short supply anyway, th ey'd change to a softer co mpou nd befor e Cool ey go t on the bik e during the nex t pit stop . Many o u t-of-sta te riders had pr ob lem s with the hi gh-speed Willow Springs layout, particularl y wideopen turn eigh t, with more than a few referring to it as " int im ida ting." New T eam Suzuki riders Mik e Ha rth and Jamie James were amon g those who seemed to be having prob lems wit h the track. " I never cared for it tha t much ; I don 't lik e th e desert ," said Harth. Team Hyper-C ycle's Andrew also notic ed th is, and told tr ack announcer Glen Bill ings th at th e Team Suzuki riders " seem ed rea lly u ncomfo rta ble on the track. " . One of the riders who enjoyed the track was Georgian Scott Russell , who was mak in g his third appeara nce a t th e circ uit. " I like it; it's a nice change, " he sai d. . Russell came int o 'this even t with a lO-race winning streak, and was riding wi th a wris t strap du e to an injury. Solma x enco u ntere d prob le ms during the second hour which started wh en Rentzell crashed in turn one. Rentz ell nursed it back to th e pits , a nd handed off to Ru ssell after making the necessary repairs. Russell was th en black-flagged because th e starter didn't see th e WERA technical inspector re-teching th e bike a t th eir p its. The situation was resolved and Russell re-join ed th e fra y. But a few lap s later, crew chief Vic Fasola called him back into th e pits to ha ve the fairing re-install ed. T he team lost a lot of time, but started a charge which would eventually land th em second. " I still think we'll do good today," sai d Solmax ' Cindy Bowen , citing th e fact that th ey'd won the WERA season opener at Talladega despite crashi ng twice. Southern Cal ifornia's Team Lips held sixth place at the end of th e second hour, but a turn three crash by Art Kawaguchi after just three laps of h is stint dropped them from competition. Teammate Kent Kunitsugu had passed Kayo Racing and turned lap' times in the I:34-range on the Wtll iam Beck-owned Suzuki GSXR 750 , despite complaining earlier about the bike's brakes and high speed manners. Jim Williams Racing held fourth overall throughout hours two and three. The Yoshimura/MotuliDunlop /Mark Matzinger/Slater Brothers-sponsored team, who also receive help from AMA Superbike compe titor Scott Gray, ran on Dunlop K591 street tires . They planned to make on e rear tire change since their ma chine was fitted with a quick-change set-up. K. D . Rac ing 's Ken Da vis and Chuck M agnusson (6 5) finished f ourth overall; second in Heavyweig ht Prod uc tion . Ro yale's Doug Hen ry and Terry Bailey (1 2) took eigh t h ove rall and first in M iddleweight Production . Regular J im William s team rider David 'Devea u was ab sent from th is event because he was breaking-in a motor a t Sears Point. In fact, th e ent ire team was pl anning to compe te in AFM club races at Sear s Point th e next da y. "We had a' flat spot betw een nine and 10,000 rp m duri ng practice, bu t we raised the needles two clips and that fixed it. O ther than th at we've had n o p robl em s, " said Mark McDaniel. PDQ Racing's T odd Poindexter a nd Mar c La utzen hiser held seco nd in the Middlew eight Su p erbike division all day, th ough they were slo wed by overhea ting Metzeler tires during the fifth ho ur. " The attritio n does n 't sta rt until the fourt h hour," was a popular sentiment d uring th is race, echoed by more tha n o ne team spokesman , and many tea ms suffered mechanical and cras h -ind uced damage d uring th e later stages of the race. "T h ree to four hours are n't long enough for stra tegies ; six to eigh t hours are . It 's a great game of ch ess," explai ned Caz Racing's Jim Cazort , who's team had been running third in th e Middleweight Superb ik e clas s, but retired with mechanical prob lem s. Jim displayed a spark plug with th e electro de mi ssing ent irely; undoubtedly emb edded in th e top of a pis ton. It was at this point that J ames was repla ced o n the T eam Suzuki mach ine by Cool ey, who im media tely began turning 1:31 lap tim es - faster tha n either Harth or J am es had go ne all day - desp ite th e fact .tha t he hadn 't pract iced o n th e machine. As Cooley quickened th e pa ce, so did Dom ay, who turned a number of 1:30s. Can H yp er-Cycl e keep up th e pace? " Wh y not?" said Ulrich. But H yper-C ycle's seemingly certain runaway victory went up in smoke o n lap 181 when an oil line broke, coveri ng the motor and rear tire with motor oil. Crew members Karl Paul and Ron Wilson worked franticall y, cleaning th e ma ch ine and changing th e" tire , bu t Andrew 's effor ts to locate a replacement part were frui tless. . " A $20 partl" exclaimed Andrew, "So much for 'Team No Bucks'. . ." With Hyper-Cycle out of the picture, Suzuki now led second pl ace Human Race Team by six laps. The "Zoomin' Humans" held third for most of the day, running Metzeler MBS tires on their Yamaha FZR I000. The Klou/Meueler/Fox/GS/Megacycle/ R ussell-sponsored team suf fered fro m brake shuddering problem s late inthe race; the y suspec ted that th e rotors were damaged wh en th e tir es were mounted. But that wasn 't th eir biggest comp lain t. " Bugs ar e th e main problem," said Ben Martinez as he cleaned his face shield. "Also th e wind; it plays havoc with you . You get a tailwind going into turn eigh t and you pi ck up abo ut a million mph !" T eam Suzuki's Jam es set it on a uto-p ilo t and cruised to the win. Solmax go t p ast th e Humans during the last hour, eventua lly turning 222 laps to the Humans' 221. Completing 218 laps were fourth . pl ace finishers K.D. Racing and fifth pl ace Jim Williams Racing. Royal e Ra cing took eigh th overall and first in th e Middl eweight Produ ction class on their Suzuki 600 Katana. They're sponsored by Dunlop, Castrol and Shoei, and pl an to compete in the entire series. T eam Sledge's La wrence McNutt, _ David Bryant an d J ohn Sumani fin ished 17th overa ll, tak ing first in the Lightweigh t division on th eir " EX450." The bike started life as a .Kawasaki EX500, but is now fitted with a m otor from a 454 LTD, 35mm Keihin carburetors and th e du al-disc brake front end off of a Yamaha FZ600. T he Michelin ICRT/Racers Su p p ly/ Ker ker/ Su dco -s p o n so red team used one set of Michelin slicks to go th e distance, fin ishing with . cord showing throu gh the rear tire. They plan to ru n the West Coa st even ts o nly, and will swi tch to an 18-inch rear wheel in the future so th ey'll fini sh wit h more ru bber. "T ire changes ar e a rea l problem wit h a drum brak e," th ey said. Wes Cool ey su mmed up T eam Suzuki 's effor ts, saying, "Some times when you're riding and yo u think th ere's some th ing wrong, you get it in your head and there's no changing it. By sending me ou t to tum so me fast laps, th e other guys said, 'Hey, if he can go that fast, so can II' " Yeah. Fast eno ugh to win. • Results OVERALL: 1. Team Suzuki Endurance (Suzl; 2. Solmax Racing USA (Suz~ 3. Human Race Team (Yam); 4 . K.D. Racing (Suz); 5. Jim Williams Racing (Suz); 6. Hard Core Racing (Suzt 7. Fifty One Fifty (Suz); 8. Royala Rscing (Suzl; 9. T88m Osprey (Suzl; 10. DDT Racing (Suz~ HIW S/ BK: 1. Team Suzuki Endurance (Suzl; 2. Human Raco Tesm (Yam~ 3. Hard Core Racing (Suzt 4 . DDT Racing (Suz); 5. Kayo Racing (Yam). HIW PROD: 1. Solma. Racing USA (Suzl; 2. IlD. Racing (Suz); 3. Fifty One Fifty (Suzl; 4. Team Osprey (Suzt 5. Rod Racing (Suz). MIW SIBK: 1. Jim Williams Racing (Suzt 2. Anderson Racing Team (Yam); 3. The Spinlads (Hon); 4 . PDa Racing (Suz): 5. ' Billy and the Boingers (Han). M / W PROD: 1. Royale Racing (Suzt 2. B Cal (Suz); 3. Team Belchl ire (Yam); 4. Team 99 (Yam). LIW: 1. Team Sledge (Kaw); 2. Bad Habit (Yam); 3. Team Spirit (Yam); 4. FBN Racing Team (Yam); 5. Sanla Barbara Riders (Kawl. WERA NATIONAl ENDURANCE ROAD RACE SERIES POINT STANDINGS: 1. Solmax Racing USA (186 .45); 2. Team Suzuki (179 .79~ 3. Kayo Racing (146.06); 4. Fifty One Fifty (135 .64t 5. mEl Human Raco Team/Royale Racing (118 .67t 7. PDa Racing (114 .84t 8. Hard Core Racing (109.9~ 9. K.D. Racing (81.5); 1D. J im Williams Racing (78.5). 11

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