Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127388
GROAD RACE SBS/Performance Machine WER! National Endurance Series: Ronnd7 e Wes Cool ey (shown) and T eam Suzuki II teammate Donald Jacks scored the win. Britt Turkington (I) and his Team Suzuki teamm ates finished runners-up by 20seconds. Team Suzuki's secondary team wins Seattle By L arry Lawrence Photos by Lawrence and Andrew Crain KENT, W JUNE22 A, n a mild upset, Team Suzuki II , with riders Donald Jacks and Wes Cooley, won the Seattle Six -Hour by a scant 20 seconds over Team Suzuki's p rimary team consisting of Kurt H all, Britt Turkington and Michael Martin. Both teams rode Keith Perry-tuned Valvoline Suzuki GSXRlIOOs. The ride by Cooley was called by his teammates hi s best since hi s 1985 Sear s Point crash that nearly ended his raci ng ca reer. It ma rked only th e second time this season that Team Suzuki has been beaten (the o ther was at Nelson Ledges by Dutchman Racing). Local team Hu tchins Racing took third o verall with Seattle racing veterans Bruce Lind and Mark Haskins r id i n g a St ewart Hutchins-built Yam ah a FZRlOOO to finish nine laps behind the lead ers. Sea ttl e specia lis t Doug Renfrow bl a st ed by Turkington (who h ad nearl y crashed after a wicked highspeed tank-slapper in tu rn o ne) to "take th e earl y lead on th e Renfrow/ Littlejohn Racing Kawasaki ZXl l. Renfrow 's I:29 lap times were th e fastest of the race and he pulled ou t to 20-second lead over Turkington on the number one Va lvolin e Suzuki. About 40 minutes into the race, Renfrow's lap tim es began to steadily rise, and it was obvio us some thing was wro ng with the team 's Kawasaki. Steve Lit tlejohn specula ted that the bike was ru nning o ut of bra kes: " We are using ne w six-p iston brakes and th e pad s ju st aren' t lasting, " said L ittl ejohn. " The ZX I I isn 't reall y a race bike; i t's pretty heavy and hard on brakes." Soon T eam Suzuki passed Renf row ! L ittl ej ohn to take th e lead . Ten I Force Racing refue ls and makes a rider change en route to a fifth -place finish . Team Suzuki and Team Suzuki II begin their celebration after finishing 2-1. 24 minutes later T eam Suzuki II, with Cooley a t th e controls, bl asted by relegating th e local team down to third going into th e second hour. Wh en Renfrow brought th e Kawa saki in, Littlejohn's diagnosis proved to be correct, and the crew went to work changing the brake system . The team temporarily dropped out of the top ten, bu t would steadily mov e back up through the rankings. Hutchins Racing moved up to fourth overall befor e their shift linkage broke, caus ing them to drop ba ck. They too wou ld hav e to gradually climb back up in the standings. Force Racing recruited SIR ace Joe Pittman for this race and the team was reaping the ben efits. At the en d of two hours Fo rce was up to third overall on thei r production Yamaha FZRIOOO. Jacks, meanwhi le,was flying on the Team Suzuki II mach in e. By the end of the second hour he had Suzuki's second team ou t front , a position th ey would hold for th e major ity of th e race-, T he two leading Suzukis stayed on th e sam e lap most of th e day, and even th e gap between the two stayed fairly con sisten t. Alan Schwen, Shawn Roberti and Ed Sa d va r rode th e Petti bon Ra cing Yam ah a FZR600 to sixth overall and won the Mediumweight Superbike class over T eam Pas ta Marin. Pettibon Ra cing won the Lightweight class at Portland in 1989, but since have had littl e luck. T he Seattl e win was even more impressive consi dering the fact that Schwen rode the last half -hour of the race whil e using only th ird and fourth gear. T o shift Schwen had to -reach down . with his hand and jiggle the shifter io engage the stubborn gearbox .