Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

9ROAD RACE e WERA Kerker/SIS National Endurance Series: Round I r - - - - - - -- _ Team Suzuki's Mike Smith (shown) and Kurt Hall overcame an unscheduled pit stop to win the rain-shortened first round of the WERA Endurance Series. American Spirit's Jay Denham (shown) and Gene Burcham finished first in the Heavyweight Production class and fourth overall in their first race as a team. The drizzle' turned into a steady rainfall du ri ng the third hour, forcing many teams to change from slicks to street or rain tires. Here, Team Suzuki pits. Racing and now field a GSXRll 00 in Team Suzuki sloshes to Savannah victory By Larry Lawrence FAULKVIllE, GA, MAR 17 eam Suzuki Endurance's Mik e Smith and Kurt Hall rode th eir Keith Perry-tuned Suzuki GSXRII 00 to victo ry in the open in g round of the 1990 WERA National Endurance Road Race Series at Roebling Road Raceway. The race was shortened to four hours and nine minutes due to a crash which dumped oil and gas onto the already £looded track, forcing WERA officia ls to stop the race. The Human Race Team finished in second place overall, on e lap beh ind defending champs Team Suzuki. after leading early on. The HRT Yamaha FZRlOOO was pil oted by Andy Fenwick and Paul Bray. T eam Uno reunited th is year and did . r 32 a fine job in fini shing th ird. Veteran endura nce racer Mike Har th teamed with Ron Ewerth and Troy Soren son , who both came ou t of retireme nt to take up the spo rt again wit h Team Uno . The WERA Endu ran ce Series appear s to be much more compe titive this year since many of th e top Mediumweight teams from last year are now running in the Heavyweight classes. Among th e teams that have moved up to the big bik es are last year's Medi umwei ght Superbik e Champions R o yal e R acing, n ow ridi ng a GSXRlloo in H eavyweight Productio n; 1989 Mediumweigh t Production cha mps We're Human T oo , who 've chang ed th eir name to H all 'n ' Still .the Heavyweight Production class ; and Mid-South Racing, formerl y Royale R a cing II, who n ow also ride a GSXRlloo in the Heavyweight Superbike category. Even with the increased compe ti.tio n , arch-rivals Team Suzuki and the Human Race Team are still the clas s of the field . These two teams are long on experience and rider talent and it showed at the start of the Roebling race. Gusty winds and threatening clouds filled the Georgia skies as the Humans and Suzuki pulled sharply away from th e rest of the field in th e opening laps. Former T eam Suzuki rider Bray wa s riding th e HRT Yam aha . while form er H um an Hall was riding for T eam Suzuki. Some trac kside obse rvers specu lated tha t Suzuki didn 't want to put Smith on the bik e to start since he would be goi ng head -to-head with his former teammate. It is thought that some bad blood may exist betw een the two riders, and that the ir personal rivalry cou ld cause them to race the endurance as if it were a one- lap, winner-take-all sprint. Bray seemed to hold a slig h t advan tage over H all in th e dry first half hou r of the race. Hall planted the Team Suzuk i GSXR in Bray's draft during the first 15 minutes of th e race. at wh ich point the new Human began to open up a sligh t lead. Behind th e leaders was Mike Harth on the T eam Uno Suzuki 1100; Harth's pace put him about a half-lap down ' to the leade rs after 30 minutes of racing, and on th e verge of being lapped by th e end of the first hour. RKN Racing was very impressive in the earl y going thanks to the stron g . . riding of Billy Eisenacher. Eisenacher , riding th e RKN Yamaha FZR600. left the rest of the Mediumweight bikes in his dust, and was doing the same to most of th e Heav yweight ma chines. By th e end of the first hour. th e T ennesseebased team was up to fourth place. American Spirit Racing is a new team on the scene wh ich seems to have a lot go ing for it. T eam owner Dave Raber has a good deal of experience runnin g p rofession al raci ng teams. Raber ru ns a powerboat racing team and the ASR li ne up is definitely the stronges t new effort since Cycle Tech' s David Aldan a and J ohn Kocinski blew a way th e series regul a rs i n 1985. American Sp iri t p rob abl y won 't bowl over the compe tit io n, but the team has good backing and expe rienced rid ers in J ay Denham and Gene Burch am. ASR was running in fifth overall at the end of the first hour. Ra in did fall in the first hour, bu t it didn 't last very lon g and th e track still had a dry line goi ng into the , second hour. Hall had caug ht back up and passed Bra y during the short shower, and only one secon d separated

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