Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eROA DRACE SBS/PM WERA National Endurance Series: Round 9 ~ Team Suzuki Endurance (I) leads Roswell Racing (6) and Team Pasta Marin (88) at Brainerd International Raceway. DAK Ra cing fin ished third overall and third in Heavyweight Superbike, • Team Suzuki winsagam By Brent P lummer Photos by Jay Vergenz s 28 BRAINERD, MN, AUG3 o what else is new? Once again, T eam Suzuki Endurance decimated all ch a llen gers. Th ey en tered two teams, the second predictably named Team Suzuki II, and placed one-two in the six-hour endu rance race held a t Brainerd International Raceway. " The only drama for either 'Suzuki team - in a race that can only be labeled as uneventful, at best - came after the six-hour event when Donald J acks rod e a celebra tio n wheelie for the entire length of the front str aight, and then did a reverse wh eelie on the front wh eel wh ile comi ng to a stop in the p its. This victory had the looks of an easy win , bu t no t so, co unt ered team owner J ohn Ulrich: " Nobody told u s it was easy in 1985 when we lost to Cycle Tech , or in 1988 when we lost aga in (to the H uman Race T eam )." The wins were not " easy," they were pl anned, and th eir ga me pl an usually works to perfection , as the Brainerd race exemplified Continued Ulrich: " There is nothing on the bike that could not be bought over the co unter, everyth in g here is available." . The race got underway with ominous clouds ranging overhead, stretching as far as the eye could see across the flat plains of Minnesota. The rain would o nly come intermittently, misting the track infreq ue ntl y. After the initial lap, T eam Suzuki already had a sizable lead. Opening rider Kurt Hall zipped the large Suzuki around the first lap in one-minute, 50. 28-seconds, placing himself nearl y two seco nds ahead of the mel ee over second. Hall remained in front for his entire stint, excep t, of course, when the m ystery rider bl asted past him. On the third lap, a machine bearing the number 24 whipped past Hall a t the exi t of turn 10 - wh ich leads onto the front straig h t - li ke he was standing still. This rider was not 0':1 th e entry li st o r grid sh eet : and on top of that, no o ne kn ew who he was - WERA officia ls included. Not th at co nf us io n was out of the o rdi na ry; it is th e way of endurance ra cing Team Su zuki II was not o n the entry li st ei ther. Number 24 cruised out in fro nt for a few more lilPs and pulled in, a short end ura nce race for th em (on Sunday , it was di scovered th at the rider was Chuck Graves, who was fine tuning hi s Yoshimura F-USA bike, th ough how he got on th e track is still a mystery). . . Just when the initial confusion involving th e phantom rider was over, things began heating up on pit road. A bit after the first quarter hour, Force Racing - who, at the time, wa s co n testing second with Suzuki II, Dak Racing, and ar ch rivals Hall 'N' Still - was black-flagged. Rick Pagniano was riding at the time, and pulled in to th e p its, halting where the officials sa t a t th e beginning of pit road. The team saw him stop, and began scrambling for an emergency, unscheduled sto p . After less th an a minute, Pagn ian o wa s o ff, sh ru g g i n g his shoul ders as he passed the the Force pi ts. A few moments la ter, when the Force raci ng guys cornered WERA officials, a ma ssive, heated arg ume n t was underway. A cor nerwor ker had seen sparks flyi ng off the bike in the turns, which, acco rding to ri der Ron Crum is quite natura l: " T his is a prod uctio n bike , eve ry th in g dra g s. First the p egs dr agged, so we shortened them , a nd now the pegs and pipe drag." About the in cid ent, and why the y were so mad, Crum added: " You know, we spe nd a lot of money to go racing, abou t $75,000 per yea r. We have big sponsor s who wa nt top results, not excuses, and we don't need delays like this." Force racing, with 7-Up as its main sponsor, does have a lo t to worry abo u t. They had previously never beaten class , rival s Hall 'N' Still in head-to -head combat (Force, however, ' won top Heavyweight Production honors a t Brainerd), which means that when the Hall guys drop their low est two race finishes, they will be ahead of Force in points. Vengeance was on the side of th e Force team, for in th e third hour, the Hall 'N ' Still bike failed to circu late around the track. Mike Reed was out on the Suzuki GSXRllOO a t th e time. -- Wh en he felt the bike sp u tter and cough, he reached down to twi st th e petcock to reserve, and th e bike promptly stopped - ou t of gas. It seems the p et co ck was posi tioned between the reserve and main settings, accidentally leaving reserve on . They lost 10 minu tes while taking a jug of petrol out to the bike, dropping them

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