Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Dan Chivington teamed with Larry Shorts to give Team Targa its first victory of the season at Road America. , H esperia, California-based Team Targa. But after th e first round, where they finished a strong fourth, . th e season turned into a disaster with a string of crashes by both Shorts and Chivington, " It 's been a long haul, " said Shorts. " I' ve been throwing them down this year, but managed to keep it up for this one. I've really been down in the dumps and depressed. I knew that as soon as we got our act together it would happen, and it did." Going into the Road Am erica round, Dutchman Racing held a stro ng IO-point lead (56) over Lockhart with Targa struggling II th in points. Both Lockhart and Dutchman failed to score points in th e previous round at. Loudon after dropping out during the ea r lygoing. The chase for second through fo u rt h was close, separated by just played it smart, we would, It was four points with Lockhart second cl ose~ , but we went the d istance on (46), South Florida Racing third (45), a set T arga rode Shorts ' Ca mel P ro and H yper-Cycle fourth (42). T eam Kawasaki 750 Superbike for the win , Wyomin g held fifth in points (32) . a fter th eir win at Loudon. since their Kawasaki ZXIO was n 't yet The GTU ti tle chase was equally repaired fro m Sh orts' Road Atlanta close. Cycle Connection Racing and crash . The vast maj ority of the field Ro swell Honda were tied for fir st rode b ig ger 1000 cc a n d 1I00cc (44 ), w i th the Asphalt Avi a tors models. second (42), Team No Drugs' third The margin of victory for T eam (38), and Team Ohio fourth (36). T arga was two m inutes a n d 32 After recovering from inju ri es that seco nds over High T ech Racing wh o finishe d on th e tail end of th e lead may have cost them th e ra ce at Road lap with Lockhart th ird. All th ree Atl anta, Dave Schlosser 's Du tchman tea ms com p le ted 72 laps a ro u nd Racing ap peared healthy and read y Road Ame rica's four-mile course. to go for th e 2:30 p.m. start, that is, T eam Targa ave ra&ed 94.632 mph to . until a crash by rider Kevin Rentzell in the final p ractice sessio n. co m p lete the 500 kil ometers in three hours, two minutes a nd 17 seco nds. " I went out beh ind everyo ne to j ust Fo urth overall and first in GTU went feel thi ngs out a nd get set for the to Miami, Florida, riders J ohn Long start," Rentzell said. " I Came up on and Kevin Blais on the Team Lonthis guy and he moved over on me, gevi ty Racinl? Duca ti 851, followed he went a little wide in the tum and by th e Suzu ki GSXRIIOO of H yperjust took me ou t." Cycle Racing, roundin g out th e top Rentzell reinjured his an kle a nd five. Both Longevit y and H ypersu ffered road ra sh but was ready for Cycle fini shed on th e same lap (three th e start. behind T arga). "The cras h broke the fairing, Taking second in GTU and ninth footpeg and brackets, and sucked overa ll was Chic Magnet Ra cing on some dirt into the carbs. We just have a Honda CBR600 Hurricane (68 to pray it makes it ," said Schlosser. laps) and T eam Miller took third in The other two maj or changes in GTU (66 laps) finish ing 12th overall. personnel were with High T ech and The 1988 AMA Endurance season H yper-Cycle Racing. Regular High start ed with great .prom ise for the T ech rider, Larry Juerink, was in a AIIA/EBC Brakes U.S. Endurance Challenge: RoundS Team Targa tough 'enough for Road American win By Randy Marrs ELKHART LAKE, WI , JUNE 25 " It was one of the most satisfying and emotional wins for me ' ever," said Team Targa's Larry Shorts, the day 'after he and teammate, Dan Chivington took their first endurance win of the year at Road America. " Wh en I saw th e w hi fl ag, ite I knew not to screw up, then 22 whe n I go t th e checkered I was so happy I started cryin g. We really needed this one. " . The three-hour, 500 kil ometer event was the best to date as early race leaders Dutchman Racing a nd Team Lockhart fell from contentio n d ue to a crash and a lengthy pit stop . A strong pre-ra ce strategy ca lled by Sh orts a lso pl ayed into th e o u tco me of the race . Begin n ing with the very first AMA Endurance race hel d at Road Arnerica in 1985, brake pad wear has played a d irect role in the fin ish . This year's race was won a nd lost in th e p its on th e last series of sto ps by Team T arga and Lockhart T he endurance win was th e first for a Kaw asaki since October o f 1985 whe n Lockhart won the end u ra nce rac e a t Daytona on a Kawasaki ZX900 Ninj a. , " I rem embered last year when I wo n here with Dal e (Q uarter ley) on th e Lockhart bike, we wore out a set of pads before the race fin ished. I told " Muz" (Rob Muzzy crew chief of th e Team T arga effort) that I thought th e bigger bikes wouldn' t go the distance on a set of pads and if we cast after breaking his arm in a crash at Loudon, so John Jacob joined ' regular rider Eric Moe on the team 's Suzuki GSXRllOO. Hyper-Cycle team owner and rider Carry Andrew again en li sted the services of Kenny Kopecky to fill in for J a mes Domay, who was also inj ured a t Loudo n.' T he previous weekend, Kopecky had turned in a fin e deb u t performa nce , joining Andrew to post a th ird-pl ace finish. Si tting on th e po le were '86-'8 7 en durance series ch a m ps , Team Lockhart. Dutchman Racing, South Florida Racing, H yper- Cycle and Team Wyoming filled out the front row. Gridded on the fro nt row o f the GTU field were polesi uers Roswel l Racing, Cycle Co nnection, Asp halt Aviators, T eam Ohio and Autobahn Society. Lockhart continued to use an '88 GSXR750 J-model Suzuki, bu t. crew chief Keith Perry had increased the ' bore from the 920cc it ra n at Road Atlanta to 972cc for Road Ameri ca. Rentzellied th e field into tum one on th e start with Lockhart ,rider Doug Brauneck foll ow ing closely. Four seco nds behind th e leaders was Bill Kell y in third on the Michelin/ Shoei/Spectro/Wiseco/RK/Cutler Racing-sponsored South Florida Racing Yamaha FZR I000. M.A.C. Racing's Suzuki GSXRllOO held fourth, with Shorts on the Targa Kawasaki fifth , followed by the T eam Wyoming II e n tr y, Kayo Racing, Hyper-Cycle, Second City Racing and ECHO Racing rounding out the top 10 overall. Long, starting aboard the Longevity Racing Ducati, and the Roswell Racing Honda led the GTU contingent with Team Tenacious, Team No Drugs and locals Lundstem Racing following. ' The effects of Dutchman's crash in practice soon caught up with Rentzell as Brauneck moved the Lockhart/ AG V/ M i c h e l i n/ U . S . Suzuki/PBI/Performance Machinesponsored Suzuki in front on lap four. Once in the lead, the Lockhart Suzuki began to put anywhere from a half to a full second a lap on Dutchman. Said Brauneck later, " In th e beginning the bike was full of gas and a little top heavy. I didn't get a lot of practice and just wanted to see what Rentzell would do . I kn ew he fell off in practice and would probably slow as the race got going. I didn 't want to tak e too many chances." Brauneck had the Lockhart Suzuki flying as he began to cut a seri es of 2:27 to 2: 28 lap ti m es, cu tti ng identical 2:26.90s on laps 10 a nd II. By lap 10, th e gap between Dutchman and Lockhart was just over 20 seconds. Longevity and the Roswell Racing/Dunlop/Phil Flack Racing/ Moto-Liberty-sponsored Honda ridden by Mike Smith and Cam Roos . co ntin ued to outdistance the rest of th e GTU field as th ey swap ped positions. T eam No Drug s held third, with Asp ha lt Avia tors and Kimla Racing com pleting th e top five in GTU. By th e end of 20 laps, Lockhart co ntin ue d to lead with Dutchman holding a distan t second, followed by the race for th ird betwee n EBCI Ka 1-G a r d / S h o ei / Ba res / R a c e r s Suppl y-spon sored H yper-C ycle Suzuki a nd Kell y o n the South Florida Yamaha. . Hyper-Cycle and South Florida were running two abreast on several p ortions of Road America's l-l-tum tra ck, each tr ying to gain some sort of advantage. Andrew was turning lap times in the 2:28 to 2:29-range with Kell y just a tick slow er. High Tech held six th with T arga seven th ' at this point.

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