Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Solmax Racing's second win of the season gives them the lead in the series point standings. Kevin Rentzell smiles despite his bandaged foot. Scott Russell led Sol max Racing to victory at Roebling Road, riding virtually solo after teammate Kevin Rentzell crashed and inj ured his foot. Shawn Nicoloff of third place finishers Hard Core Racing (52) passes Re-Cycle Racing (525) and Lightweight winners Team CIA (10). Fifty One Fifty's Craig Renck and Jay Denham finished second overall and second in Heavyweight Production, 5 laps behind the winners. WERA TsubakijGS National ~ndurance Road Race Series: Round 3 Solmax shines at Savannah By Larry Law rence FAU L KVILLE, GA, AP R. 30 Solmax Racing won their .second WERA National Endurance race of the year, exten din g th ei r point lead on defending champs Team" Suzuki who finished 25th af ter crashing in the last hour. Rid S II d .1 ers cott Russe a n K~vm Rentzell ro de th e Suzukl /EBC/Duni op/Kal-Gard/ 34 Shoei-spo nsored So lm ax Suzuki GSXR I IOO to a winning margin of 10.5 m iles. . . Loui sv~lI e,K~n tucky 's , Fifty O ne FIfty Racm g with Jay Den ham and . Crai g Ren ck rode the Moto-Sport/ Metzeler-sp onsored GS XR 750 to a second pl ace fin ish, moving the team up into th ird pl ace in .the series. Ray Yoder and Shawn NIColoff r~d~ 10 their best ever end ura nce race fin ish , ta king thi rd on the Dave Mill ertuned Hard Core Racing G SXR750. Suzuki machi nes swep t the top five overall fin ishes as well as seven out of the top 10. . T he race was con tro lled by Solmax from the very sta rt . Russell is clea rly the most tal ented rider in th e series a t this time a nd he p roved it by blastin g away from the field on a producti on Suzuki, setting a new track record of 1:17.5 on th e fourth lap. Team Suzuki's Mik e H arth was in a com fortable seco nd place but was dro pping Q10re th an a second 10 the Sol max m achine each lap. Harth co mpla ined about handling p robl ems o n t he . Tea m Su zuki machine, presumabl y caused by th e rear shoc k. . O ther teams running near the fron t ear ly in cluded Hard Core Ra cing, Human Race T eam , Great La kes Suzuki, T eam Gat ewa y and Kayo Racing. T he Human Race Team drop ped o ut of the contest early when the team 's Yama ha FZRIOOO Supe rbike blew its mo tor af ter on ly 15 laps, " I' m pretty sure it was the cra nk," said rider Ben Martinez. " Whe n it's the valves it mak es littl e clunky . sounds, thi s was one big 'clun k'." It was the second time this seaso n that the H u ma ns have drop ped o ut wi th engine problems . Team Ca pta in a nd tu ner Dal e Zu pa n was disap poi nted b ut sa id th e team wou ld con tin ue to run a Superbike. R ussell had the Solmax crew a little nervous at the end of the first hour; he was given th e pit board 10 come in for gas, bu t stayed ou t for . two more laps while trying to lap H arth.. H e didn 't quite ma ke it, but the entire field up to second pl ace was now one lap behind Solmax. R en tzell to ok o ve r th e Sol m ax machine and contin ued 10 ex tend the lead. T he fru stra tion for Team Suzuki was obv io us. They now had to depend on a mi stak e or breakdown by Solrnax , a position the team had not been in since 1985 when Cycle T ech's J ohn Kocinski was the hottest rid er in th e series. PDQ Ra cing led th e Mediumweight Su perbike class for almost two hours before th eir Suzuki 600 Ka tana lost th e front brakes sudden ly wh ile enteri ng turn one. Rider John Bowles ended up in th e weeds and wa s okay, but th e same co uldn' t be said for th e Katana. PDQ's cap tain Todd Poindext er took th e accident in stride. " T his sure isn 't going 10 look good on our resume," said Bowl es. With PDQ now a DN F, T eam Indy took o ver the class o n a no th er Kata na. Two o the r series regulars, Royale Racing and T eam CIA (form er ly FBI ), were doing great jobs keeping pace with th e big-b ore machines. Ro yale's T erry Bail ey said, "This year we decided to go ou t and have fu n racing. th e success the team is having is Just icing on th e cake." . By th e haI£way point, CI A led th e Li ghtwei ght class and had th eir Yamah a FZR400 in fifth p lace overall.· Royal e was in fourth o n th eir 600 Katana and led their class as well. Shortly after the three hour mark, the Cycle Mo tio n Suzuki blew a motor, dump in g oi l all over high- : speed turn nine. Just th en Rentz ell came through, hit the oil and cras hed the Sol max mach in e heavil y. Rentzell was taken to the hospital to have hi s foo t x-rayed (it was not broken) a nd th e race was red-nagged. The race was delayed just over an hour giving the Sol max crew, headed

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