Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127190
The Human Race Team (1) came away from Gateway with the win; here they lead Team Jesus (757) and runner-ups Royale Racing (5). Royale Racing turned in 162 laps on their Yamaha, finishing second overall and first in Middleweight Superbike. E&H Racing/Solmax (3) finished third overall; here they lead fifth-placed BMH Racing. The race was red-flagged at one point because of oil. Raw Racing's Kevin Rentzell helped the team finish fourth overall and first in the Lightweight class on their Yamaha FZ400. WERl/EBC Brakes National Endurance Road Race Series:- Round 3 - - Humans beat -arch rivals at Gateway . By Larry Lawrence . .' ... E. ST. LOUIS, fL, APR. 29 The Human Race Team's Kurt Hall and Tim Morrissey powered their Fox/Metzeler/ Arai/KIo tz/Yamaha-sponsored Yamaha FZRIOOO to victory at Gateway International Raceway. The win in the six-hour race was the first o f th e young season for t h e defending WERA Endurance 18 Champions and moved the team into first place in the series point standings. Team Suzuki Endurance held the points lead coming into the E. St. Louis round, with victories in the two previous races, but they crashed out of the race after leading the first half of the race. Royale Racing and E&H Racing/ Solmax, each had their best performances of the series, finishing second and th.ird, respectively. Royale turned 10 162 laps, seven less than the Humans, but one more than E&H/Solmax The Huma~ Race Team seemed unprepared for the first round at Talladega, back in March. Since then the Dave Zupan-directed team has improved markedly. The team followed up a disappointing third place finish at the Talladega opener with a second at round two in Savannah, and now the Gateway win. "We haven't even shown our best yet," said team captain Zupan, referring to the fact that the Human Race Yamaha is yet in a relative mild state of tune. "Right now the only changes in the motor are a pipe and a tarb kit. We have a few more, goodies to put in." The Humans may need all the power they can get. Team Suzuki's Paul Bray led the field on the very first lap, and continued to extend his lead over Hall during the first hour. Even though Bray had never been at the 2.2-mile Gateway circuit before,' he quickly took to the track. During his first stint Bray was making an art of passing traffic. At times he would pass other riders b.y 'out-braking them; then he 'would pass a few more mid-tum, while sliding both ends of the big Suzuki, and finally he would go by a few more exiting the tum, many times on the rear wheel. Bray was turning near record lap times (1:36's) even while slicing through heavy traffic. Hall was by himself in second, followed by 3-D Racing's Dave Deveau. The plan for the Humans was to go an hour and a half between pit stops, thus making one less stop than Suzuki, and things went according to plan. Team Suzuki pitted at the one-hour mark, while Hall was still at speed. Michael Smith pulled back onto the track for Suzuki with a 20-second lead, but Hall whittled down that lead, getting within two seconds of the leader before pitting himself for refueling by crew members Angelo and Rich Doan and a rider change_ Morrissey, ho~ever, wasn't able to continue the charge for the Humans and Suzuki put a lap on the Humans, and held the lead for the next two hours. A very tight race was taking place for third. Royale Racing, :ream America, Raw Racing and Probst Brothers Racing were all running on lap 63 after two hours. CIA Racing was running third early, but dropped back when a blown fuse stopped their Yamaha FZR600. Another top team, 3-D Racing, dropped out of the event with an oil cooler leak. The Probst Bros. team was having another fine race at Gateway. Last year the local team actually led this race for a short time_ The team's luck ran out, though, just before the twohour mark when their Suzuki GSXR750 blew a motor on the front straightaway. The front straight and first tum were oiled down, bringing out a red flag. After a half-hour delay the race was restarted and again Team Suzuki took command with the Human Race Team holding a steady second place. Raw Racing was making a spectacular showing, moving to third place on their Yamaha FZR400. The big reason. Raw was doing so well, was Kevin Rentzell. Rentzell was riding the wheels off the little Yamaha, turning lap -times in the .1:40 range. Rentzell's co-riders weren't too shabby either, and the team looked to have a real chance to visit the winner's circle. The Human's almost got a big break when Paul Bray dumped the Team Suzuki machine just after the halfway point. It looked as though Suzuki's misfortune would give the Humans time to make up the onelap deficit. But then Rick Bullock