Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

.~ R GADl.ACE AMA/CCS ERC Brakts Endurance Challenge Series: .Round 8 e .----- Team Mad Dog was Cast, but extra pit ",stops cost them; they finished third. The Human Race Team's Tatsuro Arata and Fritz Kling (17) defeated Boulder Yamaha Racing's John Hopperstad and Danny Walker (45) to win at Heartland Park Topeka. The Human Race Team collected the $1000 Dutchman Challenge bounty despite the efforts of Dale Quarterley (sh own), who rode for both Dutchman entries. nursin g an i nj u re d elbow which req u ire d 12 sti tches followi ng th e second of two practice crashes on his Yoshimura Suzuki Frida y. T he win earn ed HRT Captain Dave Zupan the $1000 " Du tch man Chal lenge" bounty posted by series spo nsors EBC Brakes for being th e first team to defeat both Dutchman Racing and Dutchman II. It looked lik e HRT could use the money, as their FZRIOOO ran with a dented black fuel tan k and stock white bod ywork whi le th eir regular bodywork was bein g repainted following Kirk's crash in the previous F-USA race a t Memphis. " We were due . We'd already finis hed second and th ird, we needed a first, " Zupan said. Actually, HRT was the second team to beat Dutch man, T eam Mad Dog having don e so in J u ne at Loudon , New Hampshire, unfortu nately Ior them one race before the bo unty went int o effect. Mad Dog's Michael Barn es and Larry Schwartzbach were joined toda y on th e team's Yam ah a FZR IOOOpow ered a wol by Mike Harth, and th e trio earn ed a th ird-p lace fin ish after some mi nor prob lems. Second place went to the fuel-injected FZRIOOO of Bo ul der Yama ha Ra cin g 's J oh n H opperstad an d Dan ny Walker, the Colorado-based team's best-ever finish. According to the p romoters, the race would •sett le once and for all whic h endurance series had the best teams, as WER A Ch ampions Team Suzu ki Endurance were slated to ta ke on Dutchman Racing. However, T eam Suzu ki didn't sho w at T opeka, in stead opting to use the tim e pri or to th e Septembe r 22-23 WERA 24-Hour at Willow Springs to rebuild th e bike that Mike Smith had crashed at Pocon o two weeks before; a press release said they would also miss the September 15-I6 WERA 8-Hour at Blackhawk Farms. The AMA debuted a new schedule in Topeka which saw the endurance race held as th e first event on Saturday, rather than as th e last, wi th the endurance competitors getting the green flag promptly at noon. The race had all the signs of another dull Dutchman parade as Quarterley led Dutchman II's Donnie Greene into turn one to begin the three -hour event. By the end of lap one, Quarterley had pulled out a massive lead as Greene struggled to hold off Kling, Schwartzbach, Hopperstad and Robert Wright, the rider from Utah aboard the Team Toomer Too Suzuki GSXRI 100. - .However, Dutchman's race . took a turn for the worse at about ' the 15'minute mark when Quarterley crashed . -;n slow tum -12: . i Hum anscollect bounty, D ntakes titleinKn s utchma a sa By Brian Catterson Photos by Werner Fritz and Catterson TOPEKA, KS, SEPT. 8 esp ite crashing twice and retiring from the three-hour Endurance Challenge at Heartland Park Topeka, Du tchman Racing's Dale Quarterley and Tom Kipp wrapped up the series championship with two rounds remaining. The pair earned a mere one point for the ir 14th-place "finis h," but their 1l3-point total is. now out of reach of D second-ranked Dutchman II with 71 points. The three-hour event was won by The Human Race Team's Tatsuro Arata and Fritz Kling, who led a Yamaha sweep ofthe top-three positions in both the GTO and GTU classes. Kling, th e Michigan Grand Prix Champion.was drafted at the last minute to replace Rick Kirk, who was "T he bike sp uttered, and when it did the front end just tucked," Quar terley said. Quarterley remounted in fifth place, forcing his way back up to second before pitting a short whi le later. The bik e wasn 't running right, and after cha nging th e battery, electrics and carbu retors , Kipp too k the controls, returning to the pits once more before he felt th e bike was working well enough to cont inue. A few minutes later, Dut chman 's race ended when Kip p also crashed. " When Da le crashed, the han dlebars and all got bent and the brak es weren 't working right. I got a few feet off my lin e in turn one and the front end just went," Kipp said. T hough Kipp was u nh urt, the bike h it the curb ou tside the coiner and barrel- roll ed. bendin g the rear subframe too severely to continue. Meanwhile, Dutchman II was no t without its own problems. . ..It 's vibrating and it' s not handlin g well at all ," said Gr eene, who had gradually lost tou ch with the leaders. "The front end is pushing real bad; th e fron t tire (a bias-ply Michelin slick) is just shredded." Jacks took the helm on the Dutchman II machine, and went from 30 seconds behind th e front-running Humans, Boulder and Team Mad Dog, to 30 seconds ahead during his stint. With the number one Dutchman bike ou t of the race and Dutchman II in th e lead , Tea m Capta in Da ve Schl osser elected to substit ute Quarterley for Jacques Guenette, Jr. during the third stint in an effort to put Du tch man II in the wi nner's circle. However, tha t effort also didn 't last as a mai nshaft bearin g failed, ending . their race. With Dutch man II gone, HRT raced with Boulder Yama ha and Mad Dog, eventuall y pulling out an over 30seco nd lead over Bou lder Yamah a at the fini sh. Mad Dog ran wi th the leaders for much of the race, but minor p roblems dropped them to third p lace at the finish. First, Barn es pitted sho rtly after rep lacing Schwartzbach wi th a loose shift lever th a t req ui red atte ntion. La ter, Harth pitted just one lap after replacin g Barn es, T he team h a d cha nge d the rear tire during what was to have been their fina l scheduled stop, but th ey'd fitted a rear wh eel with a sma ller sprocket, and the chain was slac k. It was hastil y adjusted, and Harth managed to fin ish th ird , still on the lead lap. Barn es was riding in pain foll owing a 600cc Supersport practice crash that morning. T eam Toomer T oo 's Rob ert Wright and Lee Shierts cam e home fourth, one lap beh ind the leaders , Sh ierts unable to match Wright'S pace. Keystone Racing's Jay Denham and Tripp Nobl es had a rough time of it, fin ish in g fifth in class and seventh overall, three laps behind the fron trunners. A leaking head gasket on their GSXRIIOO was dropping oil on the rear tire , and Team Captain George Fitts resorted to wrapping a towel around the Iootpeg to improve tra ction. Much like last year, the GTU race at Topeka didn't begin at all like it turned out. Last year, brothers Sam and Phil McDonald led until Sam high-sided coming ' onto the front straightaway; this year, the team led until lap 70, when their K&:N Racing . Yamaha blew its motor. Sam McDonald raced with Super 'B' Racing's Scott Zampach and Team RADD's Gary D'Aluisio (Chris D'Aluisio's younger,brother) early in the race, but :~ challengers had

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