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/127271
~ ROAD RACE WERAKerker/SBS National Endurance Series: Round 8 e Team Suzuki Endurance (1) led the start of the 22nd Annual 24 Hours of Nelson Ledges and were still there at the fin ish to take their seventh win of the season. Hall 'N' Still Racing (5) defeated T BA Racin g (6) and CLASS Racing (73) to clai m the Heavyweight Pr oduction win. Team Suzuki unstopp b a le at Nelson L edges24-Hour By Larry Bell ' T 22 GARREITSVILLE, OR. JULY 14-15 earn Suzuki totall y dominated th e 22nd Annual 24 Hours of Nelson Ledges as riders Mike Smith, Britt Turkington, Kurt Hall and Don Caner survived torrential rai ns and a flooding track in th e ra in -sh ortened event. T eam Suzuki logged 866 laps on th e two-mi le course and led nearly every lap of every hour. La st year the H uman Race Team (H RT) won wit h 1052 laps, bu t this year it fini shed seco nd wi th 845. Riders Andy Fenwick, Ra y Yoder, Fri tz Kling and Steve Rodden were still reeli ng fro m cras hes at the T opek a race wh ich for ced m aj o r reb u i ldi ng o f th e ma chin e from th e fram e ou tward . Some memb ers weren 't even su re if the team could run the event. Finishing third was Hall ' N' Still Ra cing with 827 laps. Riders Bruce Baldus, Bobb y Van Nessen , J im Still and Michael Martin cra nked th eir Suzuki to third overall with 15 laps o n th e next team in the class by the 11 th hour. Then Baldus got overl y aggressive in tum 12 and crashed. The crew spe nt 26 minutes in the pits before it cou ld sta rt its long climb o ut of th e da rkness and int o th e winner 's circle. Finishing two laps behind Hall 'N' Still was one of only three teams tha t didn 't crash th e en tire race, Hesch irnura Racing and its Honda CBR400. Riders Chris Ross, Bill Wilke, Steve Pinkley and Keith Marshall too k the basically stock motor, and emba rrassed its big-bore competitio n with 825 laps. And during th e ni ght with rain falling in shee ts th ey turn ed lap times as mu ch as 10 seconds faster than the leaders befor e the race was stopped. ~ Royal e Racin g completed th e top five with 811 laps aboard a mach ine that had the mo tor rep laced Friday nigh t. T he team also had the a lterriator die nearl y two hours into th e race, severa l cras hes including o ne which resulted in the rear frame actually breakin g in two and th e exhaust pipe literally hanging free by the last la p. Ro yal e' s riders were Doug H enry; Terry Bailey, Jim East. Honda of Nil es capped its 24 h ours wit h 810 la ps wit h a H urricane 600 10 slip the Mediumweight class cro wn in to it s rear pock et. R iders R ick Pag nino, Doug Arte r, Tom Bickerstaff and Ron Crumb com prised o ne of the three teams that didn' t cra sh th rougho ut the event. At o ne point in the race the team had crac ked the top five with so me very q uick lap times. Co-owner Bickerstaff elected to take it relatively easy, sta y upright at all costs an d try to stretch ou t the tires. T hey did, th eir Dunl op 591 set lasted 18 hours before being shelved. Saturday's 3:00 p.m. start had 34 teams grid for the event . Severe ra in storm watches had been posted for the area and several days prior to th e event the area ha d been pe lted by heavy rains. WER A officia ls elected to go wi th a three-wave start du e to heavy weather condi tions. Suzuki started with Mike Sm it h and HRT went with Andy Fenwick as both ride rs are extremely experienced at going fast at Nelso n Ledges in the wet or dry. As expected, Smith pulled away from the field in the first hour wit h a two lap advantage at 39 laps wh ile r the next five positio ns did 37 laps each