Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eROAD RA e CESBSlPerformance Machine MRA National Endurance Series: Round 5 Team Suzuki (I ) won for th e 65th time, beating Barel y Human Racing. Motion Systems Racing won the Mediumweight Production class at Grattan. The Grattan 8-Hour saw Barely Human (170) have its best-ever finish. Force Racing gets back underway after a brief pit stop. Team Suzuki wins Grattan Eight·Hour Kling's mastery of the hilly Grattan circuit was obvious as he pulled away, ru n ning near record l-rninu te, 26second lap times in the process. Team Suzuki Endurance was nearly two seconds per lap o£f the pace set by Kli ng. " The Bim ota is one of th e best hand li ng bikes I' ve ever ridden," said Kling. " It sits so low to the ground, you feel like you can flick it a nywhere yo u want." While Kling continued to pull away from Team Suzuki Endurance during the Iirst hour, DAK Racing's Tom Wil son was riding co mfor ta bly in third. DAK has been making quite a sp lash on the WERA Endurance Series this year and first-year expert Wilson is a big reason for the team 's success. Wilso n honed his skills at Grattan and he show ed his knowledge of the track by moving by Hall N ' Still's Bruce Baldus ear ly th en widening his lead. Kling was poised to la p Martin after j ust over an hour of racing, when TBA II blew an oil line bringing out the red flag . Rider Ward Cook and the TBA II Suzuki were covered in oi l, but fortunately not much of the slick stuff made it to the pavement. Kling was fu m ing in th e HRT garage , u pset that all of his hard work , on the track would go to naught. At the restart, T eam Suzuki Endurance would still be o n the same lap. In e£feet, the race was starting all over and Kling ha d been just a couple o£ comers away fro m putting the National champs a la p down. The race was restarted after a short 20-m inute delay. Once again, Team Suzuki Endurance took the early lead, th is time with Turkington at the By Larry Lawrence GRATIAN, MI, MAY17 ea m Suzuki Endurance won their fou rth WERA Endurance in five trie s a t the eigh t-hour event held at Grattan Racewa y in west Mich igan. Michael Martin, Britt Turki ngton a nd Kurt Hall, riding a Valvo lin e-backed Su zuki GSXR750, ou tlasted for mer arc h -rivals th e Human Ra ce Team and 50 other teams to win a t the twis ty twom ile circuit. The Grattan win marks the 65th ti me that the California-based tea m has taken the checkered flag in fir st pl ace. Ca nada's Barely Human Ra cing had their best-ever fin ish , taking second overa ll o n a Yamaha FZR 1000. H all N ' Still Ra cing co ntin ued ,their domin ation of th e H eavyweight Production class, finishing third overall and w i nni ng t heir cl a ss for the 14th straigh t time. The Cincin nati-based team's winning streak extends back to th e middle of last season. A cold and blustery da y greeted the 52 teams as they lined up for the start _ of th e on ly ,eight-hour race on the WERA endurance calendar. A considerable amount of excitement was T ge n era te d by the showi ng of the Human Race T ea m . The for mer WERA Na tional Championship team cha nged from Yamaha to Bim o ta over , the winter and is no w co ncentrating on the AMAlCCS Na tional Endurance Series. Another AMA regular, Dutchman Racing, came to Nel son Ledges a few weeks earlier and upset Team Su zuki . Endurance. Many hoped HRT wo uld give the powerf ul Suzu ki team a run for their money. Michael Martin pu t the glea ming Valvo line Su zuki into the lead at the dr op o£ the green flag, but Fritz Klin g sta rted the HRT Bimo ta back in row seven and was q uickly slicing his way to th e front. By the seco nd la p Kling (one of the winningest ride rs ever at G ra ttan ) pu t th e Yamaha-po wered Birnota into th e lead wh ile Martin tried unsuccessfully to give chas e. " I figured I would try to follow Fri tz aro und, but I was nearl y crashing in every comer trying to stay with him," said Martin. " I finally decided to play it safe and let him go." controls. Soon it was Kling and the HRT Bimota winning a drag race with the Valvoline Suzuki down the front straight and the Humans were back in ' the lead. One lap later the lead was three seco n ds; then five ; then eight .. . it appeared it would be a good da y for the Humans. Chesapeake Motorsports moved up into fourth behind DAK Racing and was ho lding off a tightly bunched group of teams that included Hall 'N Still, Team Machine, Barel y Human, and Force Ra cing. Halfway through the second hour Kling was spotted pushing the Human Ra ce Team bike back to the pits. Team Suzuki Endurance flew by, taking over ' the lead. The problem on the Birnota . wa s an ex p eri m en ta l rechargable battery; the compact batteries proved to be good for only an hour and a half o £ racing. The team had several other ' ba tteri es on hand but a big problem was that the battery would expire wi thout warning, shutting down the fuel pump a nd immediately killing the mo tor. After Ray Yoder had a chance to ride the bike for a while the team pulled out o£ the race for good. " I don't think the batteries are going to last that long and we'll end up having to push the bike back in from who knows where," said crew chief Dave Zupan. The Human Race Team threat was over. Team Suzuki Endurance was now out fron t but couldn 't relax as the pesty DAK Racing team was right on thei r tail. DAK had beaten' Kurt Hall and Jim Still on the Hall 'N Still Suzuki in a regional endurance event at Indianapolis last month, and now the Ohio-based team was after the big boys. By the halfway mark in the race, Team Suzuki Endurance led with 140 laps. DAK was close, only one lap down on their Suzuki GSXRIIOO. Hall 'N Still was putting in another con e sistent performance and was running third with 136 laps. Force Racing checked in fourth with 135 laps followed by Barely Human and Team Machine each with 134 laps complete. Team Suzuki Endurance's switch o£ their endurance mount from an Ii000c powerplant to a 750cc motor was proving a good move; the bike was getting excellent fuel mileage. After the rider s' hour-and-a-half stints, the tank still held two gallons of gas. According to their crew chief, the change to the smaller motor was made to accommodate possible forays into other 750cc limit racing; FIM World Endurance Championship events are limited to 750cc motors.

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