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/127394
eROAD RACE AMAlCCSU.S.EnduranceChampionship_Seo_'es_:R_OUD_d_6 ~ Dutchman Racing (1) leads the way at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, followed by The Human Race Team (16). Team Mad Dog finished second, a lap behind Du tchman. ChriS Haldane an d John Choate led Dutchman to the win. Dutchman regains momentum atMid·Ohio . By Paul Carruthers LEXINGTON, OR AUG. 3 ust when it appeared as though Mr. Momentu m had. become permanently affi xed to the bac k of The H uman Race T ea m' s Birno ta, th e somewha t fi ck le ma n of m o tio n jum ped back on board th e Dutchma n Racing Suzuki at th e Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. J 30 The Dave Schlosser-ow ned Dutchman team of Ch ris Haldan e an d john Ch oate ended Th e H u m an Race T eam 's three-race win streak wi th an im maculate win as the AMA endurance series visited central Oh io and th e impeccable Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. New Zealander Haldane and his American teammate Choate comp leted 108 laps of the 2.5-mile facility in the three-hour race, averaging 85.842 mph in the process. T eam Mad Dog 's Mike Harth and Rick Kirk finished a lap behind Dutchman in second place, with Kirk _ doing an admirable job of riding the last portion of the race unable to shift the Yamaha FZR I000. Kirk kept the big Yamaha in fifth gear , and maintained his cornering speed to move the bike past Team R.E.S. and Gold Hill Racing to finish second. R.E.S . and Gold Hill had a spirited battle to the end for th ird with Fritz Kling and Tripp Nob les on the R.E.S. Suzuki getting th e best of Gold Hill's Christian Gardner and j ohn Hopperstad. And what of th ose recent phen oms of th e en du rance series, The Human Race Team? Winners of three straigh t races, the Bimota-mounted p air of Dale Quarterley and T om Douglas managed onl y a fifth today as Douglas crashed the bike in tire opening stages of the race, leaving Quarterley to tum in an iron man performance. The veteran New En glander battled bra vely through a n ear two-hour-and- Saminute riding stint to bring th e team back from the dead and into fifth p lace, only a lap behind the leaders. Dutchman's win not only ended a four-race dry spell for the team, but also helped them drastically in their bid for another. AMA Endurance Championship. The victory gives the Pittsburg, Pennsylvania-based team a 12-pointlead over Team Mad Dog, 7571. The Humans hold down third, another four points back, with 71 points while Gold Hill remains in contention with 70 points. Team Toomer's Michael Barnes and Craig Gleason gave team owner Bill Toomer his third GTU win of the sixrace-old series on the Kawasaki ZX6. The dominant duo completed 104 laps to not only top Honda CBR600 F2mounted Orion Racing by .a lap, but also to put the team in sixth place overall. . Third place behind Toomer and O rio n in the GTU class was the Yamaha FZR600 of Team Magic II. BH Raci n g and Su per BRa cing rounded out the top five finishers in class. Although rain wasn't falli ng at the stan of the three-hour race, the tra ck surface still had plenty of damp spots, especially in the turn seven area where water actually seeps out of the . paveme nt cracks on the entrance to the right-hander at the end of the back straight. And turn seven was the place that caused the most havoc throughout the race, especially in the opening laps. At least 12 bikes went down in tum seven in th e open ing 30 minutes of the race, in cludi ng The Human Race Team on only th e second lap. Douglas was sent back out on the bike after losing two laps to the leaders, Dutchman, who were having it th eir way from the beginning with Haldane at the helm.' The opening la ps saw Haldane " leading Mad Dog's Harth with Team O.T.S. also in the hunt until they crashed to earth in turn seven on the fourth lap. By this time, Toomer had already established that without a major problem this race was theirs to win. They were pressured on ly by Team America GTU, but when john Condron crashed an hour and 15 minutes into the race, th at threat went away . Team America's GTO squad of Andy Deatherage and jeff Atwell opted to us e their Supersport-sp ec bike because of the threat of rain, and were never really in cont ention; they finished 10th overall. " We thought it was going to rain more and the su perbike is too hard to handle in th e wet," Frank Slaughter said. "It was the wrong decision, but sometimes you do that." California-based Fastline-MCM