Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Force Racing finished second overall and first in class, two laps behind DAK Racing, DAK Racing tu rned in 1004 laps to win th e 24 Hours of Nelson Ledges. Motion Systems Racing pits en route to winning the Mediumweight Production class. fifth hour to in sta ll ligh ts. P it me m ber s were not rea dy for the stop and ro ughly five m inu tes were lost due to the confusion. T eam m embers lat er co nfronted the race director and th e ul timate decisi on which came down was tha t WERA was wrong. H eilmen was sent out to reel in Force and T eam Machine a nd he del ibera tely hit the. 15 bra cket again. Force had a slig h t m iscue in the second hour wh en Tom Bickerstaff was bumped by eventua l Lightweight winner G-M Racing. O ther th an that th e o nly m echanical problem it would face would be a tigh ten ing o f the rea r suspensio n ; a prob lem th ey worked on during th e seco nd red £lag while they changed Dunlo ps. Mot ion Systems Raci ng led its class for five o f the first six ho u rs over T eam Swine Du des a nd lost it in th e six th hou r by six la ps 2 18 to Dudes' 224. This section o f ligh tweigh t raci ng belonged to F-S Racing rid ers Chris Sween ey, Reuben Frankenfield , Matt Nowashadly and Dan Fine. T hey held a five-lap lead o n next in class a nd would cont in ue to build a com ma nding lead until . r oughl y h alfwa y through th e 23rd hour when they would lunch the motor o f th e FZR with Sweene y aboard. They had a Z6-lap lead on the class at th e time. Night ra ci ng brought o ut tea m strategy with Force brin ging in highly experienced Nelson pilot J eff James. James was making hi s first National race appearance since a Road Atlanta crash several years ago . He was al so taking his first ride on th e FZR I000 and brought in a stead y hand. DAK cou ntered with Ralph J ohnston o f th e ex-No rt h rid ge Yamaha National team and hot pilot Andy Deatherage, who helped Dutchman Racing to its six -h our win at Nelson. Kirian knew that these two would pull the bulk of the night chores and he turned them loose for seven hours of error-free racing which allowed regular riders to rest for the fin al cha nge the nex t day . J ohnsto n stepped aboard the machine he had ne ver before ri dden j ustas full darkness hi t a nd he match ed Hei lman's daylig h t times of 1:15 o n his first five laps. Wh en Dea th era ge p ulled hi s sti nt, he followed sui t and bo th rid ers qu ickl y settled into th e same pace th at was being set by Force Racing. Night also produced th e first inkling of -tr a n sm issio n prob lem s whi ch would nag th e team for the remainder o f the race and preclude the accelera ted wear on fourth gea r which had many For ce ca p tain John Ross ; should th ey j us t sp las h in gas in th e fina l hour a nd spri nt for the win or pit for tir es, also? One-m inu te 59 seconds after pulling to a stop, a new rider - Pagniano two fresh Dunlops a nd more fu el sealed Force's second pl ace fin ish. After th e race, OAK prai sed th e po ise of Force a nd co m mended th e ser io us top-end advantage Force had on them a nd how gra teful they were for th e red £lags. Ron McGill o f Heschimura said th e team did not have a real strategy; o nly to follow Red Hot. H e said he ac tually had to slow down lat e in th e race because the rear end was worn so badly that it would sq u irm arou nd when runn ing in th e 15s. G -M Racing took th e Li ghtweight clas s wi n by surviving th e adage th at it's not over until it's over and end ing u p 13th overall. The once-a-year team motored o n despite being down for so long to cla ss leader F-S Racing and go ing through three crashes. While G -M was probably the least noticed of the sma ll bor es (if winning a class in inconspicuous ), the most unique was Rap id Cycle Racin g which finis hed second in the Ligh tweig h t ranks on a n FZR400 with three wom en and o ne male rider. Th is o ne-time deal had Darr ell Allen as th e so le mal e mated wit h eig h t-yea r veteran Cathy Creighton, seven- year rid er Leth a j effers a nd th ird-yea r rid er Fer Appel wh o was making her first appearance at Nelson Ledges. The tea m d id extr em ely well , 14th me m bers usin g o n ly fifth gear nea r the end. . Twelfth hour resu lts had the top five teams being DAX a t 497 lap s; For ce with 495; H esch im u ra a t 489; F-S Racing with 475 and Red Ho t with 473. Those resu lts would remain a co nsta n t factor u n til th e 18th hour wh en H eschimura rider Chris Th om a s would do a din dance. Thomas had just been ro used for his sti nt and on hi s third lap he ca me whistling down th e front straight a nd went stra ig h t instead of mak ing turn o ne. The team had to pit for repairs a nd the y lost much gro und. Heschimura had been averaging o ne pit stop per hour a nd was ru nni ng ' a modi fied/stock fuel tank which had been enlarged to gain an ex tra gallon of fuel. Motio n Systems Racing was quietly ch u rn ing o u t laps with Chris H ughes do ing doub le ridi ng shifts th roughou t the night a nd co nsis tent ly turning 1:15/1 :16Iap tim es. This, cou p led with Dudes frequent sp ills, allo wed Motion to ha ve a 730-7161ap advantage in hour 18, Red H ot had moved to third overa ll under the streng th of Kenney's 1:18s t>n th e 400 a nd T ribou's eig h t yea r 's of 24-hour experi ence. Bu t a t th e th ird red £lag th e tea m would notice the m ot or tightening up near th e end o f Nelson 's back straigh t and some times had to coast to th e p i ts bef o re loosening. Force's downfall started with Tom J organ in th e saddle in th e ea rly da yli ght hours. Apparently, Mor gan was co m ing o ut o f th e high-spe ed caro usel when he went off th e tra ck a nd cras hed, cos ti n g th e team a n exha us t pipe, bra cket, lights a nd most importantly, time. Force had been just a lap and a half orr DAK's torrid pace and had been running very co nsistent lap tim es throughout th e race. Th is cost th em nearly seven minutes in the pits and str etched OAK's lead to almost nine laps in the 20th hour. With o n ly a couple hours rem aining in the race , DAK a ppeared to have th in gs under control u ntil the bike thre w a cha in wi th young speedster Wilson aboard. The tea m lost six m in u tes in th e pits an d a llowed Force to close to wi thin the sa me la p. Wi lso n handed off to H eilman wh o pin ned th e throttle with what little gea rs he had remaining to hit the I:14 ra nge and not all ow Force to walk away. T wenty-second hour results had Force leading OAK across th e line by o nly five seco nds. No w th e decisio n rested squarel y on th e shoulders of overa ll with 892 laps, and has plans of runnin g a t least o ne more race thi s year a nd definite p lans to do th e series next yea r. C1II R esul ts O /A: 1. DAK R acin g ( 1004); 2. Fo rce Raci ng ( 1002); 3. Hesch im ura Racin g (97 1); 4. Mot ion Systems Ra cin g (963); 5. Red Hot Racing (960); 6. Eh lerdi ng Mo torsport s (950): 7. T eam Rushn Racing (946); 8. Tea m Swine Du des (946); 9. T eam Machin e (940); 10. Northern Boys Raci ng (934); l I. Rochester Road Racers (929): 12. Columbus Cycle Racing (9

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