Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eROAD RACE e WERA SBS/Performance Machine National Endurance Series:Round 3 Hall N' Still Racing makes their last tire change on the way to fin ish ing secon d. Team Suzuki Endurance (1) leads Hall N' Still Racing (3), Force Racing (7) and RosweIl Racing (6) during the early laps of the 24-Hour West. Donald Jacks helped Team Suzuki set a new American 24-hour mileage record. 1 Team Suzuki Endurance wins 24-Hour West By Larry Lawrence ROSAMOND, CA, APR. 12·13 eam Suzuki Endurance won the 6th Annual 24- Hour West a t Willow Springs Raceway, sell ing a new American 24-hour race mileage record at2215 mi les (a lit tle more than the road mi leage between Los Angeles and Atlanta ) at an average of 92.292 mp h. T he' Lak e Elsinore, Californiabased team bro ke its own record , 2207 miles turned in at last year's aro undthe-clock race. Kurt Ha ll, Michael Martin , Donald Jacks, Brill Turkington, Don Canet, David Deveau and Wes Cooley were part of th e record selling effort. Hall N' Still Racing fini shed second, 37 laps down, an d Roswell Racing too k third , four laps beh ind th e ru nner-up team . . T 20 At 3 p.m . Friday the race began and Hall N' Sti ll Racing's ' Bruce Baldus led the opening lap around the 2.5mil e course. Team Suzuki Enduran ce took th e lead start ing the second lap as Turkington drafted by Bal dus on the front straigh t. As the first ho ur progressed, four team s emerged in th e lead pack. The runnin g o rder was T eam Suzuki En duran ce, Vision Qu est Racin g, Hall N' Sti ll Racing and For ce Racing. T he racing between the top four team s was quite intense for an end urance race and each led the race du ring the first hour. Vision Qu est Racing came to Will ow with a n impressiv e lineu p . Tea m regulars J eff Ha gan, Joe Breu William s and Ch uck Gr aves were joined by en- durance specia list Dou g Toland, Mark McDan iel, Peter Koci and Dale Quarterley. T he Californ ia team led at the tim e of the first three hourly pos tings. Team Suzuki Enduran ce, despite early suspens io n probl em s, staye d withi n a lap of Vision Q uest. Soo n the vetera n raci ng team had th e handling o n their Valvoline Suzu ki sorted o ut and th e six-ti me WERA Endurance Cha m pions began clo sing o n th e leaders. By the end of hour four, Su zuki was back in the lead , taki ng adva ntage of a much q uicker tir e cha nge than Visio n Quest. Ron Crum crashed the For ce Racing Ya ma ha du rin g the fourth hour, droppi ng th e team out of th e leading group. " f was driv ing aro und th e o uts ide of Vision Quest on turn n ine and lost track of wh ere 1 was," sai d Cru m, who was having a hard time forgivin g him self for hurtin g his team . "T he bi ke slid sideways. 1 thought 1 had it under contro l but 1 ran o ut of trac k," Crum added. For ce Racin g's Yam ah a FZR IOOO was wedged under a fence and the team had a tou gh tim e freeing the ma chine. T hen WERA officia ls didn't want to let the bik e go back -o u t since it was co vered in dirt. Event ua lly the Ohio team was back underway, but had dropped to 13th p lace. As the su n fell to the west over the high-desert ho rizon , Suzu ki led the 21 other team s into the night. / At 9 p .m .; six hou rs into the race, T eam Suzu ki Enduran ce had opened up a two -lap lead over Visio n Quest. T eam Pasta Marin surprising ly moved th eir Yama ha FZR 600 into third overa ll, first in the Mediumweight Superbike class. Pasta Marin is q uickly gaining a repu tation as 24·hour specia lists. The Bay Area based team won the Lightweig ht class here last year. Pasta Marin 's Eric Elvin was very fast at night and credited hi s speed with a group of rid ers in the Bay Area who hold a weekly Wednesday ni gh t ride. During the midd le of the ni ght, Wes Cooley turned a string of I:31 laps to help extend Suzuki's lead to five laps. T he former two- tim e U.S. Super-bike Cha mp io n was incredi ble in the dark. Whe n asked ho w he was able to go so fast a t nig h t, Cooley joki ng ly rep lied, " I can' t see an yth ing, so 1 ju st stay o n the gas," Vision Quest began experiencing probl ems on their Suzuki and at I a.rn, McDaniel hopped off th e bike, covered in oi l. The crew thought the oil was coming fro m a leaking valve cover gasket or oil cooler fitting. The leak wasn 't co nsidered a major problem and the team continued on. At the halfway point in the race, Team Suzuki Endurance was in the lead and running a record pace , having logged 450 laps at that po int. Vision Quest had 445 laps and was in second but th eir bike was beginning to fade. Pasta Marin was in third with 425 laps. Also on lap 425 was HaIl N' Still Ra cing a nd RosweIl Racing. The baili e between the Jailer two teams was just beginning to heat up. During th e 13th hour, Vision Quest finall y had to fix the oil leak problem on their Suzuki. The lengthy pit stop dropped the team IS laps behind Team Suzuki Endurance. The race between HaIl N' Still and Ro sw ell Ra cin g temporarily took th em pa st T eam Pasta Marin at around 4 a.m. in the morning. As the sun shed its first light of morning on Will ow Springs, Suzu ki was firm ly in cont ro l of the race with a 20-lap lead on Vision Quest. Pasta Marin's fast ni ght riders had their team up to third 'a ga in, but with the coming of daylight the more powerful Suzukis of Hall N' StiIl and RosweIl wou ld soon make their mov e past the Yamaha FZR600 of Pa sta Mar in. Roswell made a tire change during the 16th hour, just before th e race's only red flag. The short red-flag delay gave Hall N' Still a chance to make th eir tire change whi le the race was stop ped, effectively gaining a coup le of laps o n Roswell. H our 17 saw the end of the strong cha llen ge by Vision Quest Racing. A cam chai n on th e team 's Suzuki broke and they retired fro m the race. Misfortune first struck T eam Del Amo early in th e race. Robert Mill er was ru nni ng in fourth wh en a gas fill ing brok e, spe wi ng gas all over. Then early in th e night Mill er was on the bik e agai n when th e cha in brok e in turn eight. Mill er had to pu sh the bik e through the infield in th e dark. After their problems Del Amo was way back in 11 th pl ace, but through the night Del Amo rode steadily up th rough the standi ngs . Once in daylight, the team - Peter Carroll , Bruce Tebo, Steve Biga nsk i, Dean Mizdal, Cu rtis Adams and Mill er - was making a final driv e to get to the front. With four hours to go, T eam Del Amo had moved all the way up to fourth place, only one lap down to Roswell. With two hours left in the race, Suzuki contin ued to char ge towards a

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