Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ ROAD RACE AMAICCS ERe Brakes Endurance Challenge Stries: Final round ~ c.o"' ~ v 1 z o AMA Celebration in Daytona International Speedway's Victory Lane: Dutchman Racing (center). Yamaha of Jacksonville (right) and Team O.T.S. (left). Dutchman Racing three-peats By H enn y Ray Abrams DAYTONA BEACH, FL, ocr. 20 u tch man Racin g won a record third consecutive champ ionship in the GTO class of the EBC Endurance Challenge Series with an impressive win in the three-hour series fina le at Daytona International Speedwayan a hot and su nny afternoon tha t saw a number of tire failures, one of w h ich hel p ed deci de the titl e in Dutchman 's favor. Coming into the final race, Du tch man held a nine point lead over T eam Mad Dog with Gold H ill Raci ng ano ther four back. If Mad Dog won, Dutchman had to fin ish no better tha n sixth, a seemi ngly simple task. The task was made easier, and the cham pion ship basi ca ll y deci ded , wh en , just past the halfway po int, Mad Dog' s Dave Sadowski su ffered a massive failure of his Du nl op rear tire whi le running in first p lace at top speed near the start-finish li ne. The cras h was h orrif yi n g - i nsta n tly recalling a similar sp ill by Barry Sheene, al so Dunlop -mo unt ed, in 1975 - Sadowski tumbli ng into turn one, the bik e coming to a rest with the tire cord hanging in nearly foo t long stra nds like a mo p. Mira culously, he was mostly unhurt , a few abras ions on his back and leg the only visi ble injuries. Unl ike "Sheene, who never used 'a Dunlop tire again, Sadowski refused to blame the tire. " We had the tire too close to the front of the swi ngarm and it was rubbing," said Sadowski, who'd cha nged the rear c. abou t 20 minutes before the cras h. " We should have set i t ba ck. We were D 18 cruisin' at 58s." Sadowski said he cou ld feel it rubbing in NASCAR Two and Fou r, the exits to the east and west ba nkings. "That's where there's the mos t downward load on the"tire ." But if the tire did n ' t exp lode - indeed, one report had it still ho lding air - why wo uld a rider go out running 58s kn owin g that the tire was ru bb ing against the swingarm? Sadowski salsa said he wouldn't rule ou t the transmission locki ng up. Wh atever the reaso n, Mad Dog's day and season were over, the race was redflagged , and re-gridded in positions from a lap ear lier. After a 20-minute delay the alrea dy dep leted field was waved off and this time it was Dut chman (Chris Haldane and Mike H arth , Suzuk i GSXR 1100) tak ing over the lead early on and racing to a 9.740 second wi n over Yam ah a of Jacksonville 's Jeff Heino and Scott Zampach aboa rd a Yam ah a FZR I000. T h ird place went to first-li me team ma tes Chris D'A l u sio a n d Col in Edwards vaboa rd th e T eam O. T .S. H onda RC 30. The pair rode conservatively and didn 't cha nge tires and snuck into thi rd. T hey weren't origi nally credited with third, Northwest R a cin g be ing u sh ered i nto the wi n ner's circle. " I th ou ght we were fifth or six th," Nort hw est's Suzuki GSXRllOO-m ounted Dave H an sen said, and he was righ t. They finished fifth , on e po sition beh ind the Suzuki GSXR IIOO Suzuki of Keystone Racing's Nigel Gale and Fab ian Co rtez. Du tchman comp leted 77 laps at an average speed of 91.013 mph. For the sixth tim e th is year, Team Toomer took th e overall honors in the GTU class , Michael Barn es, Glenn Barry , and J on Roberts sharing the riding chores on the team 's Kawasak i ZX-6. " After the re d fl a g , th e raci ng appeared close r, bu t Toomer held a two lap lead , comp leting 76 lap s to second-placed Orion Racing's 74 with Team Bad Boy third, also wi th 74.O rio n and Bad Bo y were both CBR600 F-2-mounte d, Dr.Bob Meister and James Leslie riding for Orion and Laney Cobb and Jam ie Bowman in the saddle for Bad Boy. Toomer had clinch ed the GTU titl e earlier in the year an d fin ished the seaso n wit h 152 point s to Orion 's 98. T he race go t underway j us t after 1:30 p.m. on a su n-sp lashed and wa rm fall Sun day afternoon at Dayton a. T he top th ree teams - Dutchman, Mad Dog, and Yamah a of J ackson ville, im media tely went o u t and set a blistering pace, running 1:58 sand quickly into the traffi c of the slower GT U riders. Chris Haldane was th e lead rider for Dutchman, Ri ck Kirk for Mad Dog, and Scott Zampach for Yam ah a of Jacksonville. T he three swapped places all over the track, the race looking mo re like a sprint than an endurance race, th e Yamahas holding a pow er adva n tage on the Suzuki. " I cou ldn't stay in their draft," H ald an e said after handing th e bik e off to Mike Harth. " On ly if I got onto the banking with Zampach because hi s was a li ttle slower. I had to ride a little harder in the infield to keep up and draft them. I chunked a tire on the very last lap ," he said. It was the 22nd and he rode slowly in dropping th e team to fifth at the one hour mark. Zampach figured that th e " b ig difference was Mad Dog has a six-speed tranny and we have a five-speed . We hav e to work the tires hard and we had to slide it more to keep the drive . At th e end of my session I found out how to work the bike to my abi lity, to my adva ntage." Was Zampach worr ied th at the hot pace wou ld contin ue to destroy tires? " I tho ught about that. They didn' t slow down so I didn 't slow down. I never won a race by slowing down ," he said. One of the teams eli minated fro m serio us contention early was Gold H ill. " I sta rted , and I'm not sure if the clutch smo ked on the line, but I went on th e ap ron and cruised aro und," lead rider Christian Gardner said. " We lo st quite a few lap s right off the bat. We'r e sti ll in conte nti on to finish second in the series if wt!re 'l l th or better." Ga rdner tu rn ed th e bike over to Danny Walker at the one-hour mark after a stop for" fuel and a new rear tire. Gardn er had ch unked his Michelin ear ly in his stint and had to pit for a cha ng e. Out again, he felt a vibration and came in again after about 10 laps . for a second tire ch ange. Erik Moe of Team Magic al so had to change rears, his Dunlop shredded near th e 50-minu te mark, dropping th e team from fourth at the 30-min u te mark to 46th after one hour. After the first hour gas sto ps, Heino took over the riding chores, and the lead, for Yamaha of J acksonville, out on a fresh rear Dunlop. Sadowski was in second without having changed the rear with Keystone's Fabian Cortez out, Nigel Gale resting after his opening ride. Dutchman had worked their way up to fifth with Team America sixth and Team O.T.S. seventh, D'Alusio p itting, Edwards back out. Sadowski came in for a rear change at abo ut the one-hour,

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