Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

GROAD RACE WERA Kerker/SIS National Endurance Series: Round 14 ~ Team Suzuki's Kurt Hall (1) leads the Human Race Team's Andy Fenwick (2) in the Indy Six Hour; here they lap Cycle Speed (14) and Team Swine Dudes (825). Raw Racing (9) took their second Lightweight class victory of the season at Indianapolis Raceway Park; here they lead the Human Race Team. Hall N' Still continued their consistent season by finishing second in the Heavyweight Production class and second overall behind Team Suzuki. TBA Racing (6) finished third after a race-long battle with sister team TBA Ii; TBA 's third-place finish gave Suzuki a GSXRllOO sweep of the top three positions. Team Suzuki wins IndySix Hour By Larry Lawrence Q.ERMONT, IN, ocr. 6 eam Suzuki Endurance rolled into Indi ana polis with a stranglehold on the WERA Endurance Championship and a record II wins on the season. At Indianapolis Raceway Park, the team delivered a knockout punch . to their competition by traveling 467.5 miles en route to winning their 12th race of the year. Team Suzuki 's arch-rival the Human Race Team, won this race last year and have been encouraged by recent wins in the AMA series at T opeka and the WERA event at Blackhawk. The Human's luck ran out at Indy in the fifth hour, however, when Steve Rodden crashed the team's Yamaha, handing the race to Suzuki on a silver platter. Hall 'N Still Racing continued to be the picture of consistency by winning the Heavyweight Production class and finishing second overall. Local favorites TBA Racin g had a good race at their hom e track by finishing third overall, making the race a Suzuki GSXRllOO sweep of the winner's circle. r 14 In other c1ass action, it was Team Machine winning their fourth Mediumweight Superbike race of the year, with that class being the hard est fought of the day ' as three teams battled on the same lap for most of the race. RKN Racing had just begun to gain a clear advantage when their Yamaha FZR600 bent some valves, dropping them from the race and leaving the door open for 'ream Machine. Honda of Niles ro de the ir 7-Up spo nso red Honda Hurricane to a se ve n t h straight Mediumw eight Production win. T ha t br ings th e total number of wins for the Diamond , Ohio-based team to nine on th e year. Raw Racing, the defending Lightweight Champions, tasted victory for onl y the second time this season. The FL Wayne, Indiana-based team had lost Kevin Rentz ell du e to in jury, an d reauited a very capable replacement in Stevie Patterson, who led the team to victory with very fast one-minute, 47- second lap times on the learn's Yamaha FZR400. . The rider lineup for Team Suzuki at IRP was Kurt Hall and Mike Smith. Both riders have ample experien ce at the hard-to-learn 2.5-mile, 15-turn circuit, Hall had more race laps at IRP than anyone who suited up for the Saturday race, but not far behind in the experience department was Andy Fenwick of the Human Race Team. Hall and Fenwick lined up on the from row for the start of the six-hour race, and the former teammates pulled away from the rest of the 45-bike.field on the opening lap. The Valvoline-backed Suzuki and the HRT Yamaha were scorching the track, turning laps in the 1:40 range. The top two teams stayed within a few bike lengths of each other until Fenwick began experiencing handling problems on the Human bike about 20 minutes into the race. At that point Hall began to extend Team Suzuki 's lead Early.in the race, Ray Yoder had the Northwest Racing Suzuki GSXRllOO in third. Then came a tight battle for fourth between Bruce Baldus on the Hall N' Still Suzuki GSXRIIOO and Bob Sandy on the Hinshaw Racing Honda RC30. john j acob was charging up from on the Gary Lenzrneier-tuned Northstar Racing Yamaha FZRI000. jacob had worked past a tight group that included TBA Racing, Royale Racing, TBA II and DAK Racing, and was continuing to move up from on the Yamaha that looked to be one of the fastest machines in the field . Yoder's fine third place ride sputtered at the end of the first hour when the Northwest Suzuki ran out of gas; on Yoder's second stint a footpeg fell off the well-worn 1986 model GSXR ; and soon after that Yoder walked out on the team saying that the bike was an accident waiting to happen. Yoder's evaluation proved valid as the bike began spewing oil, then lost a clutch in the fourth hour. In the second hour, Smith continued to build on Team Suzuki's lead The defending WERA Champions were two laps ahead of Hall N' Still after two hours of racing. The two TBA teams swapped third place back and forth during the hour. . The Human Race Team, meanwhile, was forced to change the front wheel on their Yamaha. The handling problems that Fenwick experienced early in the race got worse when Rodden took over, and it was suspected that the wheel bearings had gone bad Northstar Racing dropped off the leader board when Lenzmeier crashed after a run-in with a lapped rider. The Northstar crew made quick repairs and the team came back to finish 12th overall. Darwin Hinshaw crashed hard coming out of turn two in the third hour, suffering a broken elbow in the accident. As an ambulance was en route to the Hinshaw crash, two bikes collided and went down on the front straight, bringing out a red flag. The race clock ran under red flag conditions for . approximately 40 minutes. . By the fourth hour the Human Race Team had moved back up to second place and were near striking distance, three laps down to Team Suzuki. Hall and Fenwick hooked up again at this time and got to within a couple of seconds of the lap record on a crowded track. . Fenwick, who has been criticized for being inconsistent, happened to be on a hot streak at Indy. After the restart he made up a lap on Team Suzuki. The battle for the Mediumweight

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