Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

GR ADRACE AMAlCCS EBC Brakes Endurance Challenge Series: Round 9 0 ~ eo"' .... Q.) ..0 o ..... u TEA TOOMER o A~ (L to R ) Kunitsugu, Jeff Farmer and Team Toomer's Ken t Kunitsugu (2) leads Del Amo's Dean Mizda l (123) early in th e three-hour Endurance Challenge, Tom Kipp teamed with Dale Quarterley on the Dutchman II Suzuki in an effort to earn that team second place in the season point standings; th e duo won. (L to R) Boulder's John H opperstad and Danny Walker, Dutchman U's Kipp and Quarterley, and Mad Dog's Mike Harth and Larry Schwarzbach in the winner's circle. TOY A OT Dutchman.II wins with borrowed riders at Willow Springs By Brian Catterson P h o tos by Kai Schwerdtfeger ROSAMOND, CA, SEPT. 15 he name of the team may have changed, but it was the same old p layers who wo n the th ree-ho ur Endurance C ha lle nge at Willow Sp rings Intern at ional Raceway. Dutchman Ra cing's Dal e Quarterl ey and Tom Kip p , havin g cli nched the GTO title in the previous,ro u nd of the series at Topeka, Kansas, today hopped onto the D u tc h m a n II Suz uki GSXR II 00 in the hopes of solidifying that team 's second p lace in the series point standings. And while they didn't put a lock on the position, they did scor e the maxim u m by defeating Team Mad Dog 's Mike H arth and Larry Schwarubach a nd Boulder Yamaha Raci ng's J ohn Hopperstad a nd Danny Walker. The 20 points Dutchman II earn ed for the win moves th e team fu rthe r a head in the seri es "point sta ndi ngs; they now lead third-place Keystone 91 to 77, with Team T oomer T oo in fourth with 75. One round rem ain s in th e serie s a t Daytona, Florida, o n Octob er 28. . A slim field of 19 entries - 10 in th e GTO class and nine in the GTU - took to the starting grid, the low T 18 turnout likely due to the fact tha t the race was bei ng held on the West Coast la te in the seaso n, and that ma ny local teams were savi ng their resources for the WER A 24· Hour th e following weekend . At 2:45 p.m., Team Mad Do g 's H arth led the GTO field into turn one to begin the three-hour event, trailed by Dutchman 's Quarterley, Bou lder Yamaha 's Walker, J o hnso n & Wood's R ic ha rd Moore, Keystone' s Tripp Nobles, Toomer T oo 's Curtis Adams and Dutch ma n 's Jacques Guenette, who was fina lly getting some time in the Suzuki's saddle since teammate Donald J acks had opted not to make the tri p west from Florida. Moore, who just returned fro m a seaso n of J apanese F-I raci ng, passed Walker to move into third place, but the Col oradoan wo uld have nothing of it, promptly repassing the southern Cal iforn ian a n d pu ll in g awa y. Moore's race was destin ed to end on lap 61 with mechanical problems. J ust less than a ha lf-ho ur into th e race, Nobles came pas t the Keystone pi ts pointing a t the fro nt end. A few Mike Barnes topped the GTU class , mi n utes la ter, he pitted with a fiat front ti re. " I alread y lost one front end o ut there," , the Georgi a n said in referen ce to his cra sh in turn ni ne during the WERA Pro Series weekend. " I ain' t go nna do it again." T he team lost a lap changing the fro nt tire, following wh ich J ay Denham cli m bed aboard th e b ig -bore ' Su zuki a nd returned to the fra y. The o nly problem was th at the Dunlop tire Denham was riding on was o ne they had used at Topeka, a nd wh ich th ey'd practiced o n at Willow; it was used u p even before Denham put any ti me o n it. Both tires would be replaced before No bles went o ut for his second tim e. They'd eventua lly finish sixt h, five laps behind the leaders. Du tch man Ra cing also ha d problems when , d uring Greene's firs t stint, a leaking o il cooler had to be replaced. " I was p lugging awa y on Boulder and all of a su dde n I coul dn't keep m y ass o n the seat or m y feet o n th e pegs ," Greene said. The Du tch m a n crew q uick ly cha nged the oil coo ler, bu t the down time, p lus the fact that the bike didn 't have a la rge fuel tank a nd each rider would have to do two sti nts, cost the m dearly ; they'd finish a lowl y n inth, eigh t laps beh ind thei r pseu doteammates. Dutchman II managed to put so me ground between themselves and Mad Dog when , during Schwarzba ch's sti nt, the rear tire ch un ked, a nd he was signaled to come into the pits after slowing considerably. " I didn't th ink there was a problem wi th it (th e tire). It just felt like it was slidi n g a lo t," the Texan said. . TOYOTA But Dutchman II was not wit hou t their o wn problems, as transmission problem s meant th e bike co uld only be ridden in fourth or fifth gear . "Turn one wasn 't bad, but th e h ill was tough. You 'd back off th e throttle and the rea r whee l wo uld j ust go sideways," Quarterley said. " It makes it really ha rd lapped riders," Kipp ad ded. Du ring th e final hour, the race turned into a showdo wn between Quarterl ey on the ailin g Dutchman II mach ine and Harth on the poten t Mad Do g Yam ah a FZRIOOO·po wer ed OWOI. Quarterl ey led by th e length of the front straightaway , but Harth was clo sin g, turning I:30s and 31s to Quarterl ey's mostl y 32s a nd 33s. H ow ever, H arth 's ga llant effo rt was ' for naught as h e was for ced to pi t for ad di tio nal fuel a nd 'a new rear tire with 25 minutes re mai n ing. Harth stayed on, eventually fi nis hing second, just sh y of 50 seco nds behind Quarterley. " O ur lead was do wn to 14 seconds, but when Mad Dog pitted it went back to 35," Quarterl ey sai d afterward. He credited the team' s decision to use hard- compound Mich el i n slic ks, which lasted the entire race distance, for the win. Boulder Yamaha turned in a fine performance o n their fuel -inj ected FZRlOOO, running a trouble-free race to finish th ird, one lap behind the leaders. Like Dutchman II , Boulder's hard-compound Mich elins went the distance. Fastline·MCM Racing's J eff Stern and Tommy Lynch ran a consistent race, being passed by th e GTU leaders in the early goings but being there in

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