Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Hard Core Racing and its Suzuki GSXR 1100 survived t he rain and bad track conditions to finish a strong fifth in its first 24-hour race. Just before midnigh t, with h is team do wn only two lap s to T eam Suzuki, Zupan elected to go with street tire s; a Metzeler ME33 Lazer front and an MEl rear. H e reasoned th at he co uld ga in tim e because th e Suzuki was still running full rains. H is ga mble pa id 0(( because during the next ho ur , his team pulled ou t thos e two laps to come up even with Suzuki and ru n even for three of th e next four hours, even. pulling th e lead for an ho ur by a la p in the 14th hour. Team Suzuki event ua lly pulled back to a lap lead in the 15th hour, earl y Sunda y morning. Later th e Humans wo u ld su ffer a batter y failure and have to push start the machine, losin g 10 to 15 seconds per p it stop. . . " We ca n 't afford to spend time to fix it," Zupan said. Team Suzuki went to full Micheli n rain tires during th e first re d- flag period. It 'a lso repaired damage done by J am es' crash, happening wh en he exited the carousel as a blasr of wind hit him a nd sp un his tai l section around. Because of th e weather and slick, sin gle- line track co ndi tions, th e racing was tight with Team Suzuki, Team H ar d Core and th e Human Race T ea m ' only two laps apart. A lone Mediu m w eig h t Superbike, Heschi rn u ra Ra ci n g ' s H onda CBR600 Hurricane crept into th e top five and would challenge before succumbing to a dis placement disadvantage, finally p lacing sixth overall and first in its class wi th 843 laps. The highly organized crew was headed by Bob H esch , tu ner Keith Marshall and supported by Northga te H onda. They have a history of three overall wins at the 24-hour ra ce. Riders Steve Pinkley, Chris Ross, Chris Thomas and Bill Wil ke ma de no mistak es, even while running street tir es - a Dunlop K591 rear a nd a Metzeler Lazer fron t. . " We came to fin ish .th is one," Hesch said. " We' ll be here whe n the checkered flag falls ." Kayo Racing was turning in consistent, trouble-free rides during th e da yligh t hours but began to lo se a li ttle ground durin g th e n ight because the ' track was coo ling and sti ll wet due to intermittent ra in. The tires Kayo was running were a medium-compound on th e rear and a hard front ure, " You nave to tiptoe through a couple of spots," H eiser said about the track. . Later, Heiser turned lap times in the 1:17 range, which wa s four seconds faster than som e other riders _o n his team. J eH Dea n had no . practice and first rod e in th e ra in. Heiser , known for his sliding ability, would eventually run o ut of luck on Sunday wh en he crashed in some oil, go ing into turn 13. It was a m u ltibike melee th at cost the team about nine minutes for .repairing th e bar s, radia tor a nd other items. Kayo Racing rid er T ribou tried to power th e team back into content ion for th e overall wi th co nsistent I: ISs shortly before noon, but the group was still 'abo u t 10 laps 0(( the leader pace. This period proved crucial for many teams. PDQ Racin g had been ru nn ing its Suzuki 600 Katana as h igh as fourth overa ll, only four laps behind Kayo Racirig in the 19th hour. But a spun rod bearing cost th em two hours and eight minutes in the pits. They pulled the motor from the bike and a mechani c grafted pistons and a top end on a spare bottom end. . "All in the name of points," sai d rider Keith Wakefield . T he o ther team riders were J ohn Bow les, Steve Cline, Marc La utzen hise r and T odd Poindexter. They finished 19th. Sol max Ra cing saw wh at th e race was going to be like wh en it pitted under the gree n flag in the seco nd hour on ly to see th e red flag fly before having a chance to go back out. Ron Bo wen said the team started on Du nl o p' K591s, then went to radial ra in tires. "We went six seconds faster in ho ur one than we did in practice," Kevin Ren tzel said. " We attribute that to coo ler temperatures and the track work that was do ne by the sweepers to ma ke the racing line wider." The racing line does n 't matter if you can 't see it, how ever. During th e night , the big Suzuki began blowing out tailligh t bulbs, and the n the left headligh t burned out shortly after the right. Bowen said it cost an extra seven pit stops for th e lig h ting trouble. . Once o ut of the darkness, th e teams began clic king 0 (( 1:19 and 1:20 lap times. T he last few hours were th e most intense w i th T eam Su zu ki , the Humans and Kayo vying . for th e overall. Team Suzuki had Jainie James do the bulk of th e riding chores during the last two hours with roughly a 20 minute break to cool 0(( from th e ri si ng tem pera ture s. Many' riders wore ice vests during their rides as it hit th e mid-90s. James was hitting lap times in th e 'I :19:21 range wi th th e one-speed 1100. Heschimura Racing 's Steve Pinkley takes over the controls during a pit stop. The team easily won the Mediumweight Superbike class. . A storm bringing rain and lightning didn't make things easy for riders and pit crews in the late-night hours. The race was red-flagged twic~. Andy Fenwick was assigned the fini shi ng ridin g cho res for th e Human Race T eam. H e began clickin g 0 (( I:18 la p times. Going into the final ha lf-hour, only 43 seconds separated the two riders. Fenwick whi ttled th e gap do wn and when the flag dropped he was o nly a wheel behind the T eam Suzuki ma ch ine. James was ab le to hold h im off. U nknown to Fen wick was th e fact that he was ac tually a lap down . " My scorers though t I ha d a pl us and then we figured again and we had to go for it ," he said. " I had no idea how far down we were... . Fenwick said his team's FZR IOOO_ was the best built bi ke on the track, despite its lack of test time. "(Fen wic k) was only 30 yards beh ind me, com ing out of the carro usel and I held it wide open," J ames said. " I tried everythi ng I . could no t to get ca ught behind slow traffic, I had to hold the shift lever u p to keep it fro m bouncing o ut of gear and a co up le of tim es I dragged It in the left-ha nd tu rn four." The only Mediumweight P roduction machine fin ish ing in the top 10 was Royale Racing's Solrnax/Dunlo p/Tsubaki/ Wo rks Performancebacked Suzuki 600 Katana, takin g seventh overall. The team was firs t in its class at Nelson (or the third year in a row. Riders Terry Bailey, Gregg Hansel , Doug H en ry and J im Rob ert son turned in 843 laps to finish on th e same lap as Mediumweigh t Superbike winner H eschirnu ra Racing. " We.wanted to run a steady race," Bail ey sai d. " We figu red o n one-anda-half' hours between pit stops.. We wanted to minim ize the cra shes and pit stops. Out of seven races so far, we have five firsts and two seconds." Red Stripe Racing put a lock on th e L ig h tweight class with its Wh eels for Fun/ Yamaha/Metzelerl Ka l -G ard /Per m a tex/ Shoeilln terstate Au to Supply-backed Yamaha FZR400 by finish ing ni nt h overa ll. Riders Woody Dea th erage, Don Fielder , Bren t Sch uster , Fr a nk Sl aughter and Mike Sturdevant finished wi th 819 la ps. At one point the team was running fourth overall befo re a crash by Sturdeva nt sent them pl ummetin g to 26th p lace. " We made up all our time at night by running in the 1:19, 1:23 range," Sturdeva n t said. * Results 0 / A:. 1. Team Suzuki Endurance (Suz); 2. Huma n Race Team (Yam); 3. Kayo Racing (Yam); 4 . Solmax Racing USA (Suz): 5. Hard Core Racing (Suz); 6. Heschimura Racin g ( H o n~ 7. Royale Racing (Suz); 8. Taam Northern B-Team (Vam); 9. Red Str ipe Racing (Yem); 10 . Badger Raci ng (Yam). HIW S/BK: 1. Taam Suzuk i Endurance ISu z); 2. Human Race Team (Yam); 3. Kayo Racing (Yam ~ 4 . Hard Core Racing (Suz); 5. Badger Racing (Yam). HIW PROD: 1. Solmax Racing USA (Suz); 2. Team Nonhern B-Team (Yam); 3. TBA (Suzl. MIW S/BK: 1. Hesch imura Racing (Hon); 2. Rochester Road Racers (Vam); 3. JFRacing (Kaw); 4 : Gad looksl (Suz); 5. PDQ Racing (Suz). MIW PROD: 1. Royale Racing (Suzl: 2. Action Suzuki Racing (Suz~ 3. Coon Island Racing (Vaml; . 4. Team MSSR (Suz); 5. Ra-Cycle Racing (Hon). LIW: 1. Red Stripe Racing (Yam); 2. CIA (Yam); 3. Laid Back Racing (yam); 4. Terror Racing (Yam); 5. SOB (Hon). 0 1 A POINT STANDINGS : 1. Solmax Racing USA (804.37 ); 2. Team Suzuki Endurance (750.94 ); 3. Human Race Team (728.781; 4. Hard Cora Racing (663.47); 5. Kayo Racing (66 1.89 1; 6. Royale Racing (654.35 ); 7. PDQ Racing (S19.39); 8. CIA (47 6.11); 9. Terror Racing (450 .40~ 10. Badger Racing (450.30). 15

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