Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Team Suzuki's Paul Bray. M ike Smith and Britt Turkington joined f orces to w in the six-hour endura nce race at Summit Point. Kurt Hall led The Human Race Team to a second overall f in ish on the ult ra- slippery surface; the Humans still hold the point lead. Kevin Rentzell returned to rac ing and Raw Racing won their class. The Yama ha-mounted Humans (1) get t he jum p at the start of the race while Team Suzuki (2 ) gets sideways. WERA/EBC National Endurance Road Race Series: Round 9 Team Suzuki scores at Summit Point By Larry Bell SUMMIT P OI NT , WV, AUG 19 For the second time in as many years, T eam Suzuki won a red-flagged and abbreviated six-hour endurance race at Summit point. Following a one-hour delay, riders Paul Bra y, Mi ke Smith and Brit 1 . T u ~ ki gton. £ ogge d th elf Va 1m vo l m e/ Ara i/Emgo/ Dunlop/ T sub aki /F ox -sp onso r ed Suzu ki GS X RI IOO for 234 la p s around the ult ra-slippery two-mil e circ ui t o n th e softes t co m poun d Dun lo ps availa ble to th em to top th e 5 1-team field. Ti re problems and the lack thereof u lti mately led the team to its success. T eam Suzuki suffered no such problem s with tir es and only ha d to cha nge front a nd rear tires o nce at th e red £lag (a bo ut 15 mi nutes int o hour two), with a rear being cha nged late in th e race as a ' precau tion ar y measure. allow in ' th e team to coun- ter the H um an Race Team 's racelo ng effon. Bridesmaid, agai n li ke last year, was th e H u man Race T eam . R iders Kur t H all a nd David Murray comp leted 232 laps on the very unforgiving surface on a very ra pidly dete riora ting front Metzeler tir e and br a kes. T he Fo x USA / Metzeler / A r ai / K l o t Z / Y am a h a - b a e k e d Yam ah a FZRIOOO suffered brak in g problems - agai n as last year - th at were severe enough to hinder corn ering speed; and th e soft front tir e broke down so mu ch that H all freq uently was forced to use hi s knees to carry the machi ne through some of the corne rs. T hi rd overall with 224 lap s went to T eam Ga teway 's Suzu ki GS XR I 100 wi th local s Mark H eiser and Do ug Tosten at the helm . T he Lo ckharr/M o to spor t/ AG V/ G a teway T ransfer-spo nsored squad service d a bro ke n fa irin g w hi ch dropped th em to 12th overa ll in the first hour; a broken head er pipe; a crac ked fram e; a rear shock that was too soft; and front brakes th at were nearl y gone by race end contribu ted to th e team 's problems. All fro m a ma ch ine th ey were not schedu led to race until 10 min ut es before the start. T hey took H eavyweigh t Production hon ors wit h their thi rd-pl ace overa ll p lacing. T eam USSR (Underra ted Summ it Po int Racers), a grou p of experie nced Su mmi t experts co mprised of Bryan Gri sti ck, Randy H ess and Geoff Sm ith , nearly stumped th e Na tio na l teams on th eir Middleweig ht Superbike Yamaha by having the bike co mp letely di aled in for the race. Apparently, the team 's o nly downfall s were lack of top-end speed for the long front stra ig htaway (a ppro ximately a quarter mile) and no q uick-fill fuel can. The team used a funn el to finis h fourth overa ll whi le w in ni ng th e Middleweight Superbike class. R o ya le Racin g uti li zed T erry Bailey a nd Ji m East to survive an extremely hi gh ra te of attr itio n in th e Midd leweigh t Su perbike cl ass to finis h fift h overa ll wit h 2181aps aft er running 10th at o ne point during th e first ho ur. Royal e brought o n ly o ne machineto the race with hom emad e tra nsmission pans on the Yam aha FZR600. Norm ally strong contender T eam Ameri ca' failed to finish afte r compl eting o n ly two la ps with mo tor problems; th e team had insta lled a fresh mo tor after th e first o ne brok e a ca m . An other ca sua lty in th e Middlweight Supe rbike class was the Yamaha FZR600 of Caz Racing. R iders Don Canet and Curt Kimble were never o ut of th e top 10 for th e entire race and were ro ughly 20 minutes away from a fifth or sixth p lace overa ll when the transm ission b lew with Ca ne r a board . The mac hi ne locked in neutral bet ween tu rn s one and two, coas ted off th e tra ck , a n d staye d o ut fo r th e rem ainder of th e race. T he fina l class casualt y was T eam Mach in e and its H o nda 600 whi ch Ch ris Bartone wadded in the Chute when he tried to go around a slower rid er, hit a slippery pa tch and high-sided. The team had been run ning a stro ng third/ fourth overall and th e cras h virt ua lly sea led th ir d overall for Gat eway. Th umper Bros. Racing was di squalified while ru nning fifth overall In th e fifth ho ur du e to rider Bill Cardell 's oversigh t in not sign ing th e officia l entry form. Ra w R aci n g 's Kev in Rentzell returned to the endurance fra ys by ridin g th e first two h ours and teamin g wi th Kirk Re u ille a n d Alan Bertag nol i to card 217 laps. Raw had no sign ifican t proble ms except a slight tend ency to overheat. Ren tzell said that this was the same motor/transmission combo that was used at the Nelson Ledges 24-Hour. The Lightweight Yamaha FZR400 made a dent in th e top 10 because, as Ren tzell said: " It's so ligh t but feels twitchy .due to the groo ves. It also helps out th at I can ca rry a lo t of speed int o turn five." Raw's main nemesis RK N Racing was o n th e same lap in h our o ne ' before a cras h .by Fabian Cortez brought o ut bo th ambu la nces and th e red £lag just into hour two. Cortez was unh urt bu t th e FZR400 had th e carbs separa te and dirt filt ered into th e intak e and th ey were su bsequentl y out for th e day. We're Human Too fin ish ed o n th e

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