Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

:1'( ,."iA , ~. Johnson & Wood dubbed their Suzuki GSXR1 1 00 the "Exxon Valdezz" after it leaked oil. causing the f irst of two red flags. The Human Race Team's (L-R ) Phil Kress . Ku rt Hall. Tim Morrissey. Barry Burke and Andy Fenwick celebrate their fourth w in of the yea r . "It gave no indication at all ," said Bray of th e cra sh. " You.double apex turn two , you go in tight a nd drift out wid e, and it's in the middle there wh ere th e front end pushes bad. It just pushed until th e bike stood up on the bodywork. " According io tuner Keith Perry , the Mitchell wh eels co me stock with rubber valve stems , a nd until now .he 'd been replacin g onl y th e rear wheel 's with a metal val ve stem. " No 'm ore," he said. Bray's crash wr eak ed havoc o n Suzuki's battle pl an - to run Bra y a nd Mike Sm ith during th e day, Wes Cool ey a nd Bri tt T ur ki ng to n at ni ght - as Bray would sit ou t th e rem a inder of Saturda y afternoon with abrasio ns to hi s left forearm and palm, and would not return to th e . sadd le until Su nday . In his abse nce, Suzuki en listed Don Cane r, .' T he second in cid ent came lat e in th e 19th hour on Su nday morning, when Smith fell off aft er th e th e drive chain broke in downh ill , left-hand turn five. H e was uninjured, a nd rode th e crash tru ck back to th e pi ts wh ere th e bike was quickl y repaired. The race for the lead was made interes ting by a number of local, o netime teams, including fourth-place finish er s Kawasaki of Riverside, fifth-placed Hyper-Cycle, p lus nonfinishers Johnson & Woods, a nd a Honda R&D effo rt ca lled T eam RC30. . Kawasaki of Rivers id e fi elded Rich ard Moore, Paul Vogel , T ony Fuller, J erry Ernst , Steve Downey, Steven Mikail as and Chris Gan im ia n o n a 750cc ZX7, a nd th eir o n ly p roblems were min or . " We started runnin g o u t of gas when we started go ing faster , so we lost the time we ga ined by go ing fast," sai d Moore, who pushed it bac k to th e pi ts once; Voge l was th e o ther pedes tria n. H yp e r-C ycl e 's Carry An dre w returned to raci ng for th e firs t ti me since sustain ing a sho ulder injury at Mid-Oh io, a nd led the race early o n. But H ype r-C ycle's efforts were a lso not trouble-free. Fir st, Yoshimura Suzuki teamster Tom my Lyn ch , who was compe ting in hi s first 24-hour race, ran o ut of gas a nd had to push back from turn eigh t in th e dark. Lat er, th e GSXRllOO's brak e fluid ran lo w, and Curtis Adams fell a t the exit of turn two wh ile pumping the brakes just past m idnigh t. Adams returned th e bike' to the pits, a nd rep ai rs were made, but th e tea m lost a number of laps. T he bal an ce of th e Hyper-Cycle ros ter included Kenn y Ko peck y a nd Ch uc k Magnusson , plus J eff Stern a nd J eff Rh eaume of Fastline Racing fame. The H onda effort p itted H onda employees Mit ch Boehm and Mik e Spen cer, and hired guns Randy Renfrow, R ich Oliver a nd Andy Leisner on a lightly-modified 750cc RC30. In all, th e impressive team led 15 hours, running p lu s or minus one lap from th e Humans for 14 hours, until Leisner lost th e front end and cras hed in hi gh-sp eed, rig ht-hand turn eigh t during th e 20th hour. The bik e was a write-off. . Boehm also had a mom ent in turn eigh t during th e fourth hour, wh en the front wheel tu cked under a nd he ska ted a long on h is kn ee a nd el bow befo re so meho w sav i ng i t. " I th ough t, 'It

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