Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

At t he start, The Human R ~ce Team's Kurt Hall (1) led Team Suzuki's Mike Smith (2) into turn one. Hyper-Cycle's ':J eff Farm er (6 ) raced with Dutchman Racing 's Doug ' Brauneck (7) and Dutchman II's Tom Kipp (4) throughout the f irst hour. WERAjEBC Brakes National Endurance Road Race Series: Final round Team Suzuki earns their number one at Road Atlanta By Brian Catterson BRASELTON, GA , NOV. 3 There's been a long-running disp u te over which of the tw o major endurance series is th e better one. WE.RA teams say that theirs i s re a l en dura nce r aci n g, with the ir shortest races running a long six hours' wh ile the AMAI ' .. CCS tt:am s stress t~e mten~lty of th en comparatively brief, 12 three-h our affairs. So with both 1989 series titles a lrea dy decided , with nothing to lose , a ,!~ .b ra~g! n g rights t? be gained, th e to p ra cmg team s m th e nation con verge d o n Ro ad Atlanta for th e 10th a nd fin al round o f the WERA I EBC Brakes National End u ra nce Road Race Seri es to deternVn e who trul y was th e best. . It was WERA vs. AMA/CCS ; Dunlop vs. Mich elin; Suzu ki vs. Yam aha; tea mmates vs. ex-tea m mates; it cou ld have been Am erican Lea gu e vs. N ational L ea gu e, it wo u ld n' t have been a ny bett er. " Whoever win s tod ay deserves to wi n; th ere' s no di sh onor in lo sin g a race as to ug h as th is o ne," said Joh n U lric h , ca p ta in o f T eam Suzuki Endura nce, before the race . Sure, the top WER A teams have faced t he top AM A /CCS team s before, but there's a lways been so me seco ndary co ncern - th e poi n ts chase, spec ia l parts to be tested , wea ther - ra rely has it been a fa ir fig ht . T h is was a fai r fig ht. And when it was ' o ver , Tea m Suzuk i Endu ran ce's Paul Bra y a nd Mike Sm ith p roved that th ey earne d the 1989 WERA Enduran ce Ch am p io nshi p by beating the best that WER A a nd the A M A /CCS had to o ffer. Or did th ey? Yes, newl y-crown ed AMA/CC S End ura nce Cha lle nge Ch ampi ons Dutchman Ra cing field ed two teams - Dut chman Racing I with riders Dou g Brauneck a nd Mik e Harth , a nd Dut chman Racin g II wi th Donal d · J acks a nd Tom Kip p - but th eir two pr ima ry riders weren't ridi ng . Dal e Quarterl ey, typi c- ll y th e qui ckest a rider o n th e AMA/ CCS circu it, was at the AM A a wa rds ban quet in Ca li fo rnia to accep t Dutchman 's nu m ber o ne p la te; a nd Kevin Rentzell was relegat ed to spec tator sta tus as a resu lt of hi s T a lla dega crash. Had they been p resent, th in gs may have been differe nt .. . And th ough th e Dutchman I a nd II teams fin ished seco nd a nd thi rd , respectively, in the end it was a ll Tea m Suzuki. Bra y turned th e fastest laps o f th e race in th e fin al 40 minutes, clocking a n un offi cial best of I:29.04 a t 101.89 mph - im p ressi ve, consideri ng th at th e tir es he was using alread y had a number o f practi ce laps on them . Dunlop tire techn ician J im Allen said th at this was the first win in Ameri ca for the " Wa yne Rainey" tires , e la bo ra tin g th at th e radial slicks used by Suzuki were the same as those used by Team Lucky Strike Roberts in this year's 500cc Grands Prix. . The race was marred, however, by th e death of 17-year-old West Virgi ni an David Nutter. Riding a Yamaha FZR600 for Jarman 's Virginia Gentl eman, Nutter fell in the path of a no the r rid er wh o could not avoid running him over; he never regained concious ness. The six-hour end urance race was . a battle of riders, with four red flags relega ting th e normally important pi t sto ps to a lesser ro le. In fa ct , fourth -place finish ers T eam Hammer never pitted under th e green. This o ne-off effort pitted two-time AMA Su pe rbike cha m p Wes Cooley, British journalist Peter Cl ifford, a nd Brit Turk ington on a Suzu ki G SXRIIOO. Clifford was mak ing hi s Ameri can racing debut, a nd said th at he lik ed the circu it. Finishing in fifth pl ace was 1988 WERA e nd ura nce c ha m ps Th e H uma n Race T eam. With usu al cori der Andy Fen wic k o n the d isabl ed list foll owin g a d irt bik e accident. ' to p rider Kurt Hall was joi ned by T im Morrissey a nd vetera n racer Dan Chivi ngto n on the Da ve Zupa ntuned Yama ha FZRIOOQ. . T he start of the race saw Ha ll race wi th Smi th for the lead, with Smith leadin g briefly a nd H a ll q uic kly reta kin g the lead , the two ru n ning nose-to-tail. A four-way battl e developed for third pl ace invo lving H yper-Cycle's J eff Farmer, Brauneck , Kipp and Cool ey - thi s in spi te of the fact that H yper-Cycle had replaced their Suzuki G SXR 1100's front br ak e master cyli nder shortl y before the start, with Farmer later saying, " I had no brak es for th e first few laps!" Approaching th e one -hour mar k, th e race was red- flagged for the first time wh en the Canadi an Green Kawasaki ZX7 ex pired in a cloud o f sm ok e, d roppin g oi l the len gth o f th e fron t straigh taway. Wh en as ked if th e hot , I:29-30 lap ti mes would la st , H all rep lied, " We've got nothing to lose. We were goi ng just as fast here at the sta rt back in th e spring" b u t I don 't a nticipa te the pace slo wing mu ch tod ay with the com pe titio n we've got." It didn 't. At the restart, Bray led Chivington from th eir orig ina l grid positi ons, foll ow ed by Harth, H yperCycle's Tom my Lynch , and Jacks. But Chivingt on was not up to speed co m pared to the rest, a nd faded to fifth. . After two hours, th e race was red flag ged for th e seco nd tim e when a serio us accident required too ' man y . medi cal personnel to cont in ue. The red fla g cos t th e Human s a lap , as th ey were running so me di stan ce behind th e leaders, and it wreak ed havoc o n th eir ga me pl an . " We normall y don't have to mak e as many tir e cha nges as the com pe tit ion," exp lained Zupan : " When the red flags ga ve the m a cha nce to cha nge tires, itreally messed up o ur stra tegy." At the restart, Lyn ch put the H yper bik e into th e lead a nd would stretch his adva ntage until hi gh-sidi ng in o il in turn four, necessi tating a th ird red flag a t wha t was th e halfwa y point o f th e race. " A g uy had crashed there the lap before," sa id eyewitne ss Hall. "T he next tim e through I saw a pi ece of that funky -col ored (Hy pe r-Cycle's gr eenish ) windscreen and thought 'That wasn 't there before .... " Lynch was ambulanced to th e medical center, and later went to the hospital for exa mina tion, but his on ly injury was a cut hand and a bruised heel, which later became quite swolen . Hyper-Cycl e, he lped by members o f the Yoshimura crew and John Cordona of Fours 'n' More , endeavored to rebui ld the scarred ma chi ne , but the y were kept from restarting by a lea ky radiator. Nick Ienatsch was sla ted to ride for Hyper-Cycle, but today he would not have th e opportunity. ·T he racing journalist

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