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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127275
eROAD RACE WERA Kerker/SBS National Endurance Series: Round 10 ~ Raw Racing (9) leads Deals Gap Ra cing (71), Team Dreaded (91) and the rest of th e second wave; Raw finished seventh overall and first in Lightweight. Team Suzuki took its ninth win of the season during the WERA six-hour at Road Atlanta; Mike Smith, Nick Iena tsch and Kurt Hall rode to a two-lap victory. The Human Race Team's And y Fenwick and Steve Rodden finished second behind Team Suzuki; the race only ran fou r and a half hours due to three red flags. Team Suzuki nails down ninthw Road Atlanta inat By Larry Lawrence BRASELTON, GA, AUG. II eam Suzuki Endurance rolled to win number n ine in the six-hour WERA National endura nce race at picturesq ue Road Atlanta. Team Suzuki regu lars Mike Smith and Kurt H all wer e joined by Motorcyclist magazine Feature Editor Nick Ienatsch on -the Valvoline/Arai/ SBS/EMGO I Dun Io p / Ts u b a k iiSu ns tar I F&'L I Va nce & Hin es /Bates/Fox/P erfor man ce Ma chine-sponsored , Keith Perry-tuned Suzuki GSXRllOO. The trio of riders led the team to a two-lap victory over The Human Race Team with riders Andy Fenwick and Steve Rodden. Team Suz.uki averaged 66.780 r 26 mp h in th e six-hou r race, wh ic h actually only ran four and a ha lf ho ur s du e to thr ee red flag delays. Hall 'N Still Racin g cont in ued to make their climb towards parity with T eam Suzuki and the Humans. Mike Martin, Jim Still and Bruce Baldu s rode the Hall 'N Still Suzuki to third overall, and first in th e H ea vywei ght Production class. It was the fourth time in a row that the Cincinnati , Ohiobased team has fini shed first in class. The race started with T eam Suzuki 's Smith leaving the 56-bike field behind. Rodden wasn't keeping pace with Smith, but he still had th e Megacyclel Met ze l e r I B i e ff e/ E B C/ S u n o c o l YamahaiRD Spring/ RK Chain-backed HRT Yamaha ahead of the rest. Fastriding T exan Martin had the Hall 'N Still Suzuki in third. Dutchm an Racing was on hand and rider Dale Quarterley had the team's Suzuki in fourth in the early going. Accordin g to Dutchman captain Dave Schlosser, the team on ly entered the race so that they can ride in the Grand Nati on al Fina ls, and they later pulled out of the race. American Eagle Racing also dropped out early, using the endurance as an extended FUSA practice for Fritz Kling . On the third lap, Brian Bernard crashed the Barely Human Yamaha on the downhill section leading to the final tum. The bike was in a bli nd spot, keeping cornerworkers away, so the race was red-flagged. On the first lap of the restart another bike crashed, dumping a large amount of oil. Rodden hit the oil and dumped the HRT Yamaha, and another red flag stopped the race. Fortunat ely , Rodden and the bike survived the crash pretty much intact, and were able to make the second restart. Jay Den ham had also crashed the Team Gateway Suzuki in an unrelated acciden t on that lap. When the-race got underway for the third time. Again it was Team Suzuki leading the way. By the end of the second hour, Suzuki led HRT by two laps. Hall 'N Still was in third, only six seconds behind 'the Humans. At the th ree-ho ur mark , Suzuki 's lead was still two laps over the Humans. Hall 'N Still had lost gro und to HRT, but still ran a solid third, two lap s down to HRT . Royale Racing had thei r Suzuki up to fourth overa ll, while CLASS Racing rounded out the top five. CLASS Raci g normall y run a GSXRllOO but today had to run a GSXR750. Despite having a little less horsepower the team was running their best race of the season. According to CLASS' Jason Pridmore, the addition of a new rider helped the team: "We picked up Jeff Hagan for this race. Jeff did mostl y 1:34s, which really helped keep us near the front, I hope to have him do more races with us this season ." The third and final red flag happened at the sta rt o f the fourth hou r. Romp &: Stomp Racing tangled with T eam Gateway in turn four , and Gateway rider Mike Dye was arnbulanced away with a possible broken hip. Martin took the lead on the fina l rest art aboa rd th e Shoei /W idman Suzuk ilMetzeleriRES /Valvo ii nebacked Hall 'N Still Suzuki, even though his team was actually running in third place. The Human Race Team ran second early before getting by Hall 'N Still after four or five laps. Ienatsch started conservatively during h is stin t on th e leading Valvo line Suzuki, gradually getting up to speed as he con tinued, but he was pulled in after 45 m inutes to prevent HRT fro m gaini ng any more ground. Any chance of HRT catching Suzuki faded in the last hour when the clutch began slippi ng badly on the team's Yamaha. Andy Fenwick had to nurse the bike home the remainder of the race. Hall 'N Still con tinued strong to finish third. The performance of the Hall 'N Still Suzuki raised suspicion among some of the other Heavyweigh t Production competitors, who though t that perhaps Hall 'N Still 's bike was illegal. Besides the Valvol ine Suzuki, the Dutchman Suzuki and the HRTYamaha, Hall 'N Still 's Suzuki was the on ly other bike able to do a power wheelie over the crest after turn five. After the race, TBA Racing's Ward Cook started a dri ve for his team and other Heavyweight Produ ction teams to sign a protest agai nst Hall 'N Still. Members of CLASS Racing and Action Suzuki joined in on the protest. Apparently, WERA officials assumed the team to be gu ilty and they were unceremoniously pulled off the winner's podiu m, after the race. T ha t move depr ived Hall 'N Still of appearing on television and in the winner's podium photos. Several hou rs later, the Hall 'N Still Suzuki was determined to be legal after thorough scrutinizing of the engine. Hall 'N Still was awarded first in the Heavyweight Producti on class and third overall. "The other gu ys are jList going to have to face up to the fact that our riders are just faster," said Hall 'N Still 's Martin. During the final hour, Royale Racing crashed out whil e running fourth . That moved CLASS Racing up from fifth. RKN Racing broke a transmission, dropping th em from the . Mediumweight Superbike race. Team Machine members Dan Mileira and Bob Wrublevski rode a Randolph Machine Co.lSky Cycle! Connecticut Cycle I Van so n/Va lvo lin e/Sh o eill Lockhart/Tsubaki/PFR Ra cin g Yamaha FZR600 to the Mediumweigh t Superbike win . Team Machine narrowlyavoided the crash that caused the second red flag, then held off Sam Speed Racing to win the class and fin ish sixth overal l. Sam Speed Racing might have given Team Machine a run for their money, bu t the team's Yamaha lost its front brakes in the final hour. Raw Racing finally took a first in the Lightweight class. It was the first win of the season for the defending class champions. Kirk Reuille and Kevin Rentzell handled the riding on the Kerker/TsubakilRedline O il! Ara il PBI/ Factory Products/E&H Racingl Ehlerding Cycles-sponsored Yamaha