Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ ENDUlANCE SBSIP.M.WERA National Endurance Series: Round 8 e ~ The 24·Hours of Nel son Ledges gets underway with Force Racing (7) lead ing DAK Ra cing (537) and T eam Mach ine (9). DAK ham-mers the rest at Nelson Ledges By Larry Bell GARRETTSVILLE, OH,JULY 13-14 AK Racin g ca me o f age in its first ever 24·ho ur end urance event to post a meti cul ou sly cra fted effort in winning th e 23rd running of the 24-Hours of Nelso n Ledges. , DAX's B-G Moto ACC/Wellman Ren tal & Supply/ RodkirianiSouthwich Honda-Suz-Yam -backed riders Steve Heil ma n , Sco tt Seferian, Tom Wilson, Ral p h J qh nston a nd Woo dy Dea th erage po wered their Suzuki GSXR II O O Hea vyweight Su perbike to lead 18 of the 24 hours despite th e fact th a t the mot orcycle had no third gea r for nearl y half of the race a nd th ey also lost fourth gear in the fin al hours. In additio n, the team used o nly two sets of rear Metzler racin g slicks and threw a chai n wi th a precarious seven- lap lead with ro ughly two hours remaining. And they still logg ed 1004 la ps for 2008 m iles on th e serpe ntine circui t. DAK ' s cord uroy effort wa s t he a nto ny m o f secon d-p lace finis her Force Racing 's jewel-like precision. Force's team of Ro n Crum, Tom Bic kersta ff , R ic k P agn ia n o , Tom Morga n , Da n Giddeon and Jeff James D 10 were th e epitome of polish with rapid fire gas a nd gos, efficient tire changes - six total - a nd consistent tea mwide la p tim es. ' What brought the team's production 7-Up /Yam of Warre/Sheldon Ga nu/Bieffe/Fox/ Dun lop/E BC / R K-backed Yamaha FZRIOOO down was an early Su nday morning daylight crash by Morgan which ulti ma tely cost th e tea m seven m inu tes in th e p its (10 laps) and a ny last-shot hope of a n overall win despi te finishi ng with 1002 laps. Finishing thi rd overa ll was m ultiti me 24-hour wi n ne r H esc himura Racing o n a H onda CBR600 F2 wit h 971 laps. Heschimura riders were Bill Wilke, Ron McGilI , Steve Pinkley, Chris Thomas a nd Keit h Marshall. T he bigges t setbac k th e team had was T homas' early Su nd ay da ylight cras h which leveled vari ou s parts o f the motorcyc le a n d their scorecard o f ro ugh ly 28 minutes a nd 25 laps. Tires were a lso a maj or concern for the team beca use afte r two rea r changes of the Dun lop ru bber the tea m was forced to finish the race on its practice lire and the front was grooved almost beyond , racing use. T he team was especially confident of a good showi ng th is year because tuner-rider Marshall was participati ng in his 13th event, they were gridded on row 13, a nd the event started on July 13. Northgate H on da and Bob Hesch back the team. La nding fourt h overall was Mot ion Systems and its Hon da 600, straight ou t o f the Producti on class, with 963 la p s. Riders C hris Hughes, Mike H ug hes, Mike Les lie, a nd T on y Auseo were dicing almost whee l to wheel wi th series co m petitor T ea m Swi ne Dudes for th e bulk of th e race a nd despite a cras h by Mik e Hug hes, wh ich cost ro ug h ly nine and one -ha ll -m inu tes, th ey were th e o n ly Med iumweigh t Product ion bike in th e top five. Motion is back ed by Montgomer y Cycle Cente r a nd J ack Smi h Cycle Products . Rou ndin g o ut th e top five was Red Hot Racin g with 960 laps. T he tea m showed up a t the track wi th its usu al ' battery of FZR600 parts a nd machi nery only to d isco ver d uring-Friday's night practice th at th ree dogs o f fourth gear were bro ken a nd th at it was unusable. Faced with a critica l decision o f regeari ng or ri di ng a nother bike, riders J eff Wood , Pa ul Blak , Pat Kenney, Lyn n Reath m ull er , j ari Walac h a nd Jim Tribo u elected to race th e team's two-year-old Yama ha FZR400. The transmissio n p ro b le m was so lved, but it ra ised a sus pe nsion adjustment p rob lem due to the weig ht dif ference between the hea viest rider (Tribou at 195 pounds) and the lightest (Black at 125 pounds); a real test for the stoc k fro nt end and Ohlins rear shock. T he tea m co mprom ised a nd set th e suspension for th e th ree fastest guys and let th e rest wo rk a t it. Th is edi tio n of th e 24-H ours of Nel son lo ok a decidedl y differ ent flavor with th e add it io n of red a nd green sta rting ligh ts a nd a one-wave mass 3 p.m . sta rt for th e 26-bike field.' The starting dri ll would be repeated th ree tim es through out the weekend du e to red flags bein g thrown 10 stop th e racing ac tio n: th e firs t being at one hour, seven minutes in the event wh en T eam Swi ne Dud es dumped its 600 Honda just o uts ide of turn 13. The m achi n e was lying in th e middle of th e racin g line spew ing fuel fro m its bowels a nd officia ls th ought it best to sh u t i t do wn to clean every thing u p ; down time was 16:25. The next red flag was a t one hour, 54 minutes whe n all th e a mb ula nces were a way fro m the track, resu lting in a 43minute, 38-second delay. All teams uti lized the time to make repairs, check fue l, tires, etc. Especially Swi ne Dudes; the team spent th e entire first flag making repai rs and didn't even grid for the restart, but rather just fired the machine up and blew down pit row as the field was entering turn o ne from the start. .T he lea rn's riders of Tim Taylor, , Peter Jones, Darryl Saylor, Joe Mai er and Marty Lentz would encounter numerous other cras hes, on the track and in the pits, en ro u te to a sixth o vera ll fin ish . T he team had p u t together a stoc k fresh runnin g motor wi th a factory sh ift a nd ca rb kit, ran Works Performan ce shocks and forks wi th new A.P. Lockh eed brakes. It is worth noting th at after the event a quick chec k o f th e brak es revealed they were on ly hal fway wo rn through. Will carbo n pads a nd rotors be here la ter in th e year? With series leader Team Suzuki a nd stro ng ru n ne r Hal.! N ' Still not a tte nd ing due to stro ng pe rforma nces at the Willow Springs 24-H our, most teams real ized it was a nybody's race. . Darkhorse DAK p ro ved how serious th ey were by ga mb ling to run sli cks in the firs t hour o f the race despit e intermi tte nt ra in and very threatening skies and by keeping th em on a nd slowing down its rider Heilman when ' rain d id come. This gamb le paid off handsomely by a llowing the team the fina l degree of speed ca pa bi lity fro m its GSXR l IOO. In fact, the team o n ly changed tires twice, both times a t redflags to conserve ti me. Team o wner Rod Kiri an ad mitted h is tea m was n't as organi zed as Fo rce and wo uld need all th e help it would get. It go t 13 an d a half hours from tha t rear slick. Force, DAK a nd T eam Machine, ' which would act ua lly be a co n tender in the firs t quart er o f th e race until a cras h in th e sixth hour dashed its hopes for to p overa ll, made up th e top thr ee overa ll ea rly o n; at times o nly a seco nd apart as they flas hed past th e scoring tower and were ru nn ing sprint race laps tim es in the I:15 bracke t. DAK wo ul d be forced into a major pit stop by WERA officials around the

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