Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ ROAD RACE WERA SBS/Perlormance Machine National Endnrance Series: Round I ~ Class Ra cing (12) led Team Suzuki (I) and Hall n' Still Racin g (3) at the start of the WERA Six Hour National End ura nce race. Tea~ Suzuki Endurance scored its fourth consecutive R o ad Atlanta victory. Team Suzuki wins on black day at Road Atlanta By Larry Lawrence BRASELTON, GA, MAR. 23 ea m Suzuki En d urance opened th e 1991 WERA Endura n ce road race season by chalki ng up yet another wi n; th e 62n d victory in the team 's 10-yea r hi story. A black cloud h ung over th e spirits of a ll o n hand at Road Atl anta, th ough, whe n it was learned th at Ca nadia n Steve Caya h ad di ed in a terr ibl e h igh-spe ed cra sh during th e fifth h our. Caya, ridi ng for Sa m Speed Ra cing , reportedl y had th e rear wheel lock up on h is Suzuki (for u n known reasons) a t top speed on th e ba ck stra ig ht. Caya wen t off th e track a nd hit a tire-lined Armco barrier. Caya was prono u n ced dead o n arriva l at Northeast Georgia Med ica l Center in Gainesville. Ca ya , 35, was an a vid motor cycle ' ent h usias t wh o had been road racing [or a pproxima tely seven years, according to Sa m Speed Racin g captai n Mike Bo wick . Team Suzuki ca me to Road Atlanta T 16 wi th a large pool o f rid er tal ent. According to Team Capta in J ohn U lric h, th ey h a ve almo st too m any good riders. Normall y during a six h our en d u ra nce Team Suzuk i wo u ld u se tw o or three riders. For th is race the defe nding series cham pions u sed fo u r ri ders: Kurt Hall , Britt T urkington , Don ald J a c k s a n d M i ch a el Ma rtin. With th e abse nce of perennial top ru n ner, Human Race Team, the 1991 WERA En durance Series looked like it may be even more. lo psided in favor o f Team Su zuki th a n ever. At ' Road Atlanta , how ever , a new team em erged wh ich gave Suzu ki a run for their mo ney. Vision Quest Raci ng with ride rs J eff Hagan and Chuck Graves ran o n th e sa me lap with T eam Suzu ki a ll day, but the team experienced mech a n ical problems on the ir 1989 Suzu ki GSXR 1100 in the closing laps a nd had to make an u nsc hed u led p it sto p, which put th em a la p do wn a t the finish. T hird p lace went to T eam Suzu ki Endurance sponsored Class Racin g with riders Jason Pridmor e a n d Dave Devea u. All o f th e top three learns are based in Ca liforn ia. T he morn ing o f th e race was cool a nd wet, ca us ing many of th e teams to ge t p recious few laps o f practice in. A co up le of hours before th e sta rt o f the race the rai n stopped. By the 11:30 a.rn. sta rt of th e race . skies were still overcas t bu t the track was mostly dry. T eam Suzuki's Kurt H all led th e 50 bik e field off the line a nd q uickly started bu ild ing a lead . Veteran team Cycl e Speed Ra cing cras hed on the first la p and was unabl e to co nt in ue. By la p fou r H all , running I :32 la p times, had a lready buil t a 13-seco nd lea d for t he defe nd i ng c ha m ps . Ca nadia n-based Bar ely H uman R ac-" ing (no t directly rela ted to th e Human Race Tea m , a lt ho ug h Dave Zupan di d g ive th e team technical advise) wa s .run n ing seco nd with Mark Brubach er a t th e co nt ro ls o f th eir Yamaha FZR 1000. Behind Barely Hum an ca me Hall N' Still Racing, Vision Quest Ra cing, DAK Racin g, Class Ra cing a n d Roswell Racing. After a half-hour o f racing , Hagan mov ed th e Vision Quest Suzuki in fro n t o f Barel y Hum an, bringing Bruce Baldus o f Hall N ' Still with him. By th e end o f th e fir st hour T eam Suzu ki had a lready pitted but still held a two-second lead on Vision Quest. Barel y Human was back up to third, 14 seco nds beh ind Vision Quest. Hall N ' Sti ll a nd Class Racing were th eonly other teams runnin g o n the lead lap. Tea m Toome r was running in th eir first \VERA race a nd Mike Barnes and G lenn Barry had th e J on Robertstuned Yamaha FZR 600 first in th e Med ium weight Su perb ike class a nd ninth overall. Barnes sa id si nce the team had never co mpe ted in a six-hou r race , th ey we re b a sicall y p u tt ing themselves o n cr uise mod e. Mo tion Syste ms Raci ng was lea di ng the Medium weigh t Produ ction class. T he New Jersey-based tea m stayed in th e cla ss lead the en tire day o n th eir Montgomeryvi lle Cycle / Sport Cycle Product -sponsored H onda CBR600. Another tea m tha t led its class fro m flag to flag was firs t-year tea m F&S Racing. Rueben Fran kenfield put th e Ci nci n na ti-based team in the Ligh tweight class lead from th e star! a nd desp ite a prob lem wi th their q u ick-fill fuel in g system a n d a worn-ou t chain , Frankenfield a nd Ch ris Sweeney hel d off. 129 Racing by 27 seconds a t th e fini sh . F&S Racing ge ts support from Sh ip p Yamaha , Boretech an d Enterprise Mach ine. A scoring snafu showed Vision Quest Racing down by four laps to Team Suzuki. With the a pparen t big lead , Team Suzu ki slo wed th eir pace a nd was making leisurel y p it SlOpS. T he Vision Quest crew was up in th e scoring lower to p rotest th e posted standings. By the ti me th e scoring errors were cleared up, Vision Quest was shown o n the same lap as th e lead ers. The Caya cras h ca used an hour and IO-minute dela y in th e race (alt houg h in WERA en dura nce racing th e clock runs during red fla g del ays) and the race would co me down to a 20-minute dash to th e checkers. For th e overall win it would be Hall versus Hagan, Team Suzuki versus Vision Quest. But Hall quick ly jumped to the lead on the restart and Hagan only made two laps before being forced to pull in with a sticking throttle cable. The problems for Vision Quest left th e path clear for Team Suzu ki to 'win th eir fourth co nsec u tive Road Atl anta race. ..After a pretty uneventful race, it got rea l exci ting for us a t th e en d," said H all. " We had gea red o ur pace down after seeing th e hourly sco re shee t with us up by fo ur laps. I th ink the thi ng that made our tea m most upset abou t the sco ri ng sit uation, was th a t we d id n' t kn ow that we were on th e same lap as Vision Quest umil just before th e restart," added Hall. Cl ass Racing' s Da ve Deveau rode th e la st stin t for Clas s Ra cing a nd he was ab le to h old o ff Barely Human by six seco nds at th e finish for third overall. Defendin g H eavyw eight Production Champi ons Hall N ' Still Racing start ed th e defense o f th eir title by beating Force Ra cing by o ne lap, T eaming with Baldus o n Hall N ' Still was Bobby Van Nessen, Mik e Reed and T ray Batey. Hall N ' Still's Suzuki G SXRIIOO is sponsored by Dunlop, Bieffe an d R.E.S, Team Suzuki sponsors include Arai, SBS, Dunlop, Tsubak i , Sunstar, Emgo, Valv oline, Fox and F&L. Vision Quest lists Michelin, Fox, Tsubaki, ND , Redline Oil, Allied Suzuki a nd Barnett as its sponsors. T eam Suzuki, Dunlop, Valvoline, Arai, SBS, Bates , T subaki, D&D and Class Racing Schools back the Class Racing effort. CI'I R esults O/A: 1. Tom Suzuki Endurantt (Suz); 2. Vi.sion Qu est Racin g (Su.): 3. ClaM Racing (Su. ): 4. Barely Human (Yam): 5. Hall N' Still Racing (Su. ): 6. Fora: Racing (Yam); 7. Roswell Racing (Sw); 8. Team. T oomer (Yam): 9. TB A (Suz): 10. Cycle Nu ts &: Bolts Raci ng (Su. ): II. Red H ot Racing (Ya m); 12. Ehlerding Morc rspon (Ya m): 13. Moti on Systems (H a n ): 14. T eam Savannah (Yam ); 15. DaK Racing (Su. ); 16. Team Swine Dudes (Ho n): 17. Rebel Racin g (Hon ): 18. F&:S Racin g (Yam): 19. Columbus Cycle (Hon): 20. 129 Race T eam (Yam ): 21; C&:M Racin g (Su.) : 22. Voa Racin g (Ya m): 23. Cyclecraft Racin g (H a n); 24. Thu nder Struck Racing (Yam): 25. Team Lips (SUI); 26. Racin g With The Beaver (Su.); '1:1. Lat e Night Racing (Ho n); 28. Lizard King Racin g (Kaw); 29. HDBS Racin g (SOl): 30. Equity Racin g (Ya m): 31. Deals Gap Racing (Ya m): 32. NOrl hWl:S1 Racin g (Han ); 33. No rth ern Boys Racing (He n ): 34. Knee-On Racin g (SUI); 35. Penn State (S uz): 36. O z Racin g (Ya m); 37. Team Machine (S uz); 38. Qu esera Racing (Yam): 39. Sam Speed Racing (Suz); 40. SAS Racing (Ya m); i I. Team Extrea m (Ya m ); 42. T eam H aw aii (Ya m ); 43. Team Dreaded (Ya m); 44. T eam Rush'n Racin g (Ya m): 45. T eam Yama ha of Jacksonville (Yam); 46. Redi Racing (Suz): 47. 1/ 2 Fa.. Racin g (SOl); i8 . Cras h T ruck Raci ng: 49. Team Machine 02 (Suz): 50. Cycle Speed Racin g (Ya m). H /W SRI\: I. Team Suzu ki End ura nce; 2. Vision Ques t Racin g: 3. Class Racing: 4. Barely H uman ; 5. Cycle: Nuts & Bolls Racing. H /W PROD: t. H all N' Still Raci ng: 2. Force Racing : 3. Roswell Racing: 4. TBA ; 5. Raci ng With The Beaver. M/W SRK: I. Team Toomer; 2. Red Hot Raci ng ; 3. Ehlerding Motorspon: 4. T eam Savannah; 5. Voa Racin g. M /W P RO D: 1. Mot ion System s: 2. T eam Swine Du des; 3. Rebel Racin g: 4. Columbus Cvcle. 5. Cyclecra h End u rance. LIW: 1. f 8cS Racing: 2. 129 Race Team; 3. Lizard King Racing; 4. Equ ity Racin g: 5. Deals Cap Racin g.

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