Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eROADRACE SBS/PM WERA National Championship Enduran~e Road Race Series: Round 6 ~ (Left to ri gh t) Team Lips, Team Suzuki Endurance and Fo rce Ra cingcelebra te their finishes in the winner's circle. Team Suzuki Endurance overcame 'a leaky oil cooler to sco re the vic tory. Team Suzuki Endurance rolls on By Tom Stein PORTLAND, OR, JUNE8 omething had to happen. For five hours an d 45 min utes, everyone on hand had watch ed and waited as th e Team Suzuk i Enduran ce GSXRllOO droned aro und Portland Internat ion al Raceway. Team rid ers Kurt H all , Michael Martin and Wes Cooley effortlessly clic ked off lap after lap in the one-mi nute, 13-second range as the winninges t team in WERA . endu ra nce road raci ng history cruised toward s certa in victory over a relati vely slim 35-bi ke field . Then , wi th on ly 15 minutes to go in the six-hour race, th e blue and whi te machine began to pour smo ke from somewhere in side its fairi ng and was the quick target of a black £lag. Eight or 10 laps up - dep ends on who you asked - on the second p lace team , Team Lips, Cooley dove into th e pits to see wha t coul d be done to get back on track before T eam Suzuki Endurance 's advantage disappeared. What he found was a leak in g oil coo ler th at was spray ing the slippery stuff on to the bike's hot exhaust system. "I felt like a villian when I threw that black flag ," said turn marsha ll J ohn Christen sen , " but you have to do what th e tower tell s you." Coo ley put the flagger at ease. "T he turn workers were rea lly great and helped me ou t. I went by turn thr ee and saw a guy holding an oil £lag and wondered if he was loo king at me. I look ed down and saw the smo ke, and about then I saw th e black £lag in turn five. ' Focus, Wes,' I th ought to myself," Cool ey sai d. " I JUSt tried to motivate aro und to the pits, and hoped that we'd make it back out for the last few laps." Make it back they did , re-entering S the fray with about five mi n utes to spare, and holding off the T eam Lips GSXRIlOO to win with a four -lap advan tage at th e checkered £lag. Those several minu tes in the pits were tense ones for the Team Suzuk i Enduran ce crew as they had no idea of what was wrong or wha t to look for until Cool ey's arrival. T uner Keith Perry and 'team cap tain J ohn Ulrich quickly had the bik e's fairing off to inspect for dam age and just as quickly found the bu ildup of smo king crud on the number four cylinder's exhaus t hea der - directly under the offending oil coo ler. " We're lucky it ' was just the coo ler and not a fitting or something where we'd have to take the whole th in g apa rt to fix it," Ulrich said. "I hat e th is kind of drama." T he team also took a mo ment to repl ace a tired battery, confiden t th at it would ru n th e distance bu t at the same time fearful that it was too low to po wer th e starter if more problems sho u ld develop on course. On ce out of the pits, Coo ley had to keep it running to win. "It's a superstition thing, " said Hall when asked about the prob lem. " You never load u p befor e the race is over. On e of the mechanics put somethi ng in the tru ck, and all of a sudden we're black-flagged. " Alt hough they recognized the op po rtu n i ty for an overa ll victory, the T eam Lips riders - Avery Stewart, Kenny Reyn olds and Peter Ch risten sen - were more interested in their battle wi th the Heavyweight ProductionYam aha FZRlOOO o f Fo rce Racing. " I wo uldn' t wa nt to win that way," said Stewa rt. " I mean, I' ll take any win .I can get, but my real dream is to race Kur t Hall on evenly matched eq u ipment an d win heads u p. " We had a great race with Force Racing," Stewa rt contin ued. " We ran in fourth place for the first 20 minutes or so, right behind them. Peter was able to keep it on the same lap as (Force rider) Joe Pittm an , and when I went out in the second hou r, I was a ble to catch them." Force Racin g and Team Lips then cont in ued to ru n very close. Although contesting two different classes, they raced for overall position. Lips rider Reyn olds went off in turn three in the th ird hour and then fell a t somet hing like walki ng speed. Following a quick ch eck by co rnerworkers, Reynolds returned to the pits to rep air a bent sh ifter and clu tch lever. " Force go t by us during our pit StOP," Stewart said. "But the damage was so minor that we go t back out befor e they la pped us. T hen, in the fifth hour, I was riding when all of a sudden the motor JUSt died. I went around for a while with it cu tti ng in and out like it was starving for fuel. Even th ough I knew it had lots of gas, I £lipped the petcock onto reserve while : I was in turn nine, and the po wer came on so hard it nearly £licked me off the hi gh side." Force, meanwhile, had problems of their own. " We would have held them (Li ps) if it hadn 't been for our long pit StOP," said th ree-time OMRRA champ J oe Pittman, who was th e team's guest rider. H e was referring to a rela tively late and lengthy stop to rep lace the big Yamaha's front brake pads. The pre cious moments lost in the p its cost Force the number tWO spot in the winner's circle, but did not affect their po sition in class . " It was a fun race, and I got along reall y well with the other guys on the team ," said Pittman . Ron Crum and Ri ck Pagniano, the other riders, were great. T hey just called me up and asked me if I wante d to ride with them. It 's still really ear ly, and it's all j ust verbal at th is poi n t, but we talked about pooling ou r resources and running the whole WERA series together in '92." While the dra ma played out among the overall leaders, a similar situation developed at mid -pack for tOP honors in the Midd leweight Production class. Event ual class winner Arclight Racing led every hour, but was also faced with unexpected tim e spent in the pits. Their Honda CBR600, piloted by Ben Roede r, T ony Tugwell and Charles Warren , was sen t to the pits with m oderate damage w h en R oed er dro pped it in turn thr ee in the fourth hour, allow ing the CBRs of Cannon Racing and Cycle Country of Salem to move perilously close. , " We lost 18 minutes in the pits, not counting the tim e I spent down on turn three," Roeder said. "We had pl an ned on going another hour on that rear tire, but I guess we really learned a lesson , 'cause it just shr edded. I was going thro ugh tum th ree whe n all of a su dden th e back end Came aro u nd and I was on the ground. Just that quick." T ho se 18 minutes in the pits meant every th ing for Cannon and Cycl e Country as th ey suddenly had a chance to pl ace catch-up on the leader. Then, a len gth y stop by Cannon allowed third pl ace Cycle Coun try to move into second position in class in the fifth . hour. But Cycle Country also had problems of their own. " On on e of our first pit stops, I noticed that we'd lost the clip on the ma ster link," said Cycle Coun try's Andy Crane. "Then, in th e last ho ur, the front brakes went away comp letely and I cou ld on ly use the rear." That explained wh y Crane and his teammates, Ralph Yenne and MarkMathhews, could u rge their Honda to do lit tle better tha n a 1:30 lap time during the final hou r, some 10 seconds off the class pace. It kept them from catch ing th e Arcli ght team , but was sufficient to keep the Salem , Oregonbased team one pl ace ahea d of Ca nnon at th e finish . " Man , we're pumped," said Crane as he accepted the trophy for the team' s only WERA outing th is season. Crane . thanked Cycle Country Honda/Suzuki of Salem and Mike's Cycle Parts for their a ssis ta nce. Susan Warren , Arclight Ra cing's crew chief thanked sponsors including Motul , Shoei , Dunlop, Barnett, Factory Racing and All American Honda of Santa Cruz, California. Members of ' Team Suzuki Endurance thanked sponsors Suzuki, Valvoline, Dunlop, Kerker, EMGO, SBS, Tsubaki, Arai, Sunstar, F&L, Bates, Performance Machine, Fox and Cosworth, Team Lips, in their first-ever visit to the overall winner's circle, thanked Cycle Racer , Kal-Gard, Suspension By Jake, and SBS for their support. Force Racing is sponsored by Vanson, Motul , 7-Up, Dunlop, Fox, Cl' R K Chain, and EBC Brakes. Results 0 1A: I. Team Suzuki Endurance (Suz); 2. Team Li ps (Suz); 3. Fora: Racing (Yam); 4. Long Beach Yamaha (Yam); 5. T wist &= Shout (SUI); 6. T eam Pas ta of Marin (Yam); 7. Three Men &:: A Bike (Yam); 8. Green Extreem (Kaw); 9. Danco/Pcttibon Racing (Yam); 10. Hot Licks Racing (Yam ); II. Loe Saare Body Shop (Yam); 12. T eam Hawaii (Yam); 13. Arclight Racing (Han); 14. Brisco Racing (Yam ); 15. T eam Belchfire (Yam); 16.. T eam Belchfire 11 (Yam ); 17. Cycle Country ol Salem (Han); 18. Sass Racin g (Yam ); 19. Team Hawaii T oo (Ha n); 20. Cannon Racing (Han); 21. Hi Hopes (Yam ); 22. N.S.F. Racing (Suz); 23. Team Extrem e (Han ); 24. Thunder Struc k Racing (Yam); 25. Madn ess Racing (Yam); 26. MileR Racin g (Kaw); 27. R enlrowl Littlejohn Racing (Kaw); 28. Double E Racing (Sur); 29. Lickiryspl it Racin g (Sur); 30, Nic Lake Auto Racin g (Sur ); 31. Flashlight Racin g (Yam); 32. Everett Suzuki Road Warri on (Suz); 33. Top Flig ht Racin g (Kaw); 34. Team Spud (Han); 35. T eam T orco (Yam). HIW S/BI': I. T eam Suzuki End urance; 2. T eam Lips; 3. RenfrowlLittlejohn Racin g; 4. Double E Racin g: 5. Nic Lake Au to Racing. HIW PROD: r, Force Racin g: 2. T wist &: Shout; 3. N.S.F. Racin g; 4. MileR Racing; 5. Lickitysplit Racing. . MIW S/BK: I. Lon g Beach Yamaha; 2. Team Pasta ol Marin; 3. Three Men lie A Bike; 4. Green Extreem : 5. Dan co/Pettibon Racing. MIW PROD: I. Arclight Racing; 2. Cycle Country ol Salem; 3. Canno n Racingr.d. Flashhgh t Racing; 5. T eam Spud. LIW: I. Lou Sarre Body Sho p; 2. Team Belchfire 11 3. Sass Racing; 4. Hi Hopes. ; WEII.A NATIONAL ENDURANCE POINT . STANDINGS: I. T eam Suzuk i Enduran ce (910.31); 2. Hall 'N Still Racing (650.93); 3. Force Racing (642.38); 4. Roswell Racing (578.3); 5. Team Lips (479.47); 6. Madnes s Racing (440.59); 7. Team Pasta (407.78); 8. Arclight Racing (400.75); 9. Lon g Beach Yamaha (333.17); 10. Oz Racing (332.62). <

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