Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eROAD RACE ! AMAlCCS u.s. EndU13DCeSeries: RoundS r----~~~ John Hopperstad led Gold Hill Racing to the win at Texas World Sp eedway. Jeff Heino joined Yamaha of Jacksonville and the team finished third . Gold Hill strikes it rich in Texas By Bren t Plummer Photos by Henny Ray Abrams COLLEGE STATION, TX. ocr.5 old Hill Racing's Dan ny Walker, Christian Gard ner and John Hopperstad o u tlived a falteri ng gro up of co m p etit ors to take th e overa ll win at Texas Worl d Speedwa y - but just barel y. The Gold Hill Racing team was fort una te in that the ir ba d luck waited until after the race to stri ke - a big end rod bearing was sq uea ling qui te loudly at the finish . Luckily for them , the bearing held, mandating on ly a rebuild ins tead of a DNF. Anyway, the point here is twofold. First, that Gold Hill stuck to thei r ga me plan , according to crew chie£! rider John H oppersta d, of " ru nning fast and steady, and just being the re G in the end. " Second. many o ther teams had decidedl y rotten luck, rui ning what was shaping up to be a mad -cap fin al la p da sh for the win. . Team Mad Dog's Rick Kirk was hot in Texas, and in the clos ing laps, he had Wal ker in his sights. Now it is important to note here why Mad Dog was in a position to be playing catch up. Co-rider David Sadowski was ou t o n th e Dog 's Yamaha / Mo lUIIR K/ D&D/Miche li n -sp o ns ored Ya ma h a FZR IO O, so mewhere past the two-: O ho ur mark. Sad owski was planni ng to pit soo n for gaso line when th e bike started gasping for fuel up on the NASCAR ban king. then sput tered to a halt in the infield. Sadowski did the Dave Sadowski and Rick Kirk rode the Team Mad Dog bike toa second place finish. na tural th ing - he began push ing the big Yamaha back to the pits. T he bike eventually made it back, was filled with gas and sent back o ut with Kirk aboard. Mad Dog's woe s were not over, however, as thi ngs were about to get wors e for the Dall as-based team. Kirk was reeling Walker in and with five laps rema ini ng was within striking distan ce of Walker. With three laps remaining, th ough , Kirk began to notice some stra nge signa ls coming from the front wheel - the tir e was go ing flat. H e hung on tigh t, d ropped from six secon ds behind Gold Hill to over 12 o n the next lap , and finis hed the final la p almos t 20 seconds down . , T hird overall went to Yam aha of Jacksonvill e, who has had their sha re of rid er swaps th is year. After lead rider Kevin Ren tzell shattered a thigh bone at Cha rlotte, the team was left a bit , waywa rd , with o nly Dean Mizdal as its steady rider. For T exas , J eff Heino ma de another a ppeara nce .on the bike, and the J acksonville (No rt h Carol ina, not Florida ) gu ys made an excelle nt cho ice by picking veteran Scott Zam pach to head up th e Dunl op/Ph il Flack /Fox / Arai /Syed/EBC/RKlZ ero G ra vity /D&D /P- 3 Fa ctory In c/ Wiseco-backed team . Zampach demonstrated his considera ble wealth of kn owl edge wi th th e not so sim p le task of setting up the J acksonvill e Yamaha FZRIOOO. By adjusting it to where he felt it was correc t, Zampach not o nly decreased hi s la p times on th e bik e, but Mizdal's as well. Even Hein o agreed tha t th e bike was better, tho ug h he " rode lik e -&¢%. I j ust co uldn ' t get going, but th is track - wi th the grease and oil comi ng up - made it hard to get th e bike to work." Evident ly it worked well enough for the team - headed by crew ch ief Bernie Davis - to finish on the same lap as the Gold Hill and Mad Dog while taking the fin al ros tru m position. What abo ut perennial en dura nce fast runners T he H uman Race Team? T hey were pres ent, 'sort of. Lead rid er Dale Quarterl ey had ente red h is RC30 superbike, ra n away from everyo ne in the opening laps, and then retired , his practice sessio n finished. According to Quarterle y, the official Human team is " o ut of mo ney." Seri es leaders Du tch ma n Racing were ano ther team who had a spo u t ' of horrid luck . Shor tly after th e two ho ur mark, lead rider Chris Ha ldane came skiddi ng past the usual Dutch man pits, feet p lanted o n the gro und in an effort to get the bike sto p ped. Dutchman o wner/cre w ch ief Dave Schl osser pushed the big Suzuki back down pit lane, and it became clear that th e right side had taken abuse, in an uncharacteristic Haldan e cras h. Pi ecing th e wreck back together from Haldane's . scant memories co ns isting of " I saw something come from the corner of my eye, and then I was down" - was diffi cult. In one fell swoop, Dutchman went from leading to 10th overall. Haldan e would remount and fight back up to , eig hth overa ll. Securi ng fourth overa ll was T eam O.T.S., spearhea ded by Erich Klemen tich, and sponso red by Oil Tech no log y Services. The Houston based team co nsisting o f Eri ch and Frank Klernen tich , J oe Brett Williams and Co lin Edwards - was in the hunt all day , ru nni ng as high as second overall. In the end, O.T.S. fin ished o nly a lap do wn on the leaders . Fifth overa ll went to the La ke Ariel, Pennsylvania-b ased Keyston e Racin g T eam, lead by George Fitts. Mar io DuHamel and Ni gel Gale were hir ed on as co-riders here at T exas, and the duo did a resp ectabl e job as they fini shed slig htly behind O.T.S. , and still only a la p down o n the leaders. GTU class cha m p io ns Team T oo mer took sixth overall, first in " their" class. Indeed , th eir class is an excellent wa y to describe GTU ra cing, as T oomer ha s dom inated th e 1991 season in com ma nding fash ion - th ey've won five of the eigh t last rounds, and hold a co m ma ndi ng lead over seco nd seede d Or ion Ra cing, 132-81. In add iti on to riders Michael Barnes, Gl enn Barry, a nd Crai g G leas o n's speedy riding, one of the main contributin g factors to Team T oomer 's con tinued success is the fact tha t they ar e sponsored by Team Muzzy Kawasaki, who ta ke the bike back hom e to Muzzy's headquarters after every race to check o n the mo tor. Fastline-MflM raci ng was sevent h overa ll, and com promised the main interes t of the openi ng laps of the race. At the start, Kirk j u m ped off the line to lead into the first turn with a wh ol e slew of peo p le o n his tai l. After a few la ps, th e race filt ered down to the Mad Dog bike, Scott Zampa ch on the Ya ma ha of Jacksonvill e machine, Du tch man 's Halda ne, and Mad Dog defector Mike Harth on the FastlineMC M Su zu ki GS X R l I OO. Ha rth started a tad slo w, bu t by the fifth lap, he was u p dueling wi th ex-team mate Kirk, nei ther giv ing any q ua rter. Ha rt h soo n took the lead, and the pair began ru nning Jap times down

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