Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Sho ichi Tsukamoto had the weekend 's wildest set of leathers; he finished third. R ussell had handed o ff to Steven s o n th e 17th lap, a hea d of Ka wasa ki Two, Dale Quart erl ey o n the Birnot a / 1/4Ley ent ry, MCM /Fastline's Lynch , Du tch ma n 's H arth , Yam aha o f j ack so nv ille's Sco tt Zampach , a nd G old Hill Ra cin g 's Ch ris tia n Ga rd ner. By the end o f the first hour, most of th em wou ld enco u n ter troub les, H arth p itted on th e 24th lap for the fro nt tire cha nge th at -would event ua lly cost th em the race. After handing o ff to Bernard, he sai d th ere was " a lo t o f vib ra tio n th e last two laps. The problem is that th ey weren't read y to cha nge a fro nt tire a nd, because o f tha t, we lost a good bit o f time." Zampach was also in th e p its in the firs t hour , but would n't retu rn to th e tra ck. The team was trying .a new coo li ng system , bUI it didn 't wo rk a nd they retired. Before the race, Zampach , teamed wit h Dr. Bob Meister, said th ey were usin g last yea r's FZR IO Ochassis with O a new moto r, new brak es, a nd other imp rove me n ts . " We' r e behind i n testin g. We're g uess ing o n jett in g, suspension , gearb ox ." Quarterley p ull ed in on th e 26th lap whi le ru n n ing th ird , ha ndin g th e Bimot a/ l /4Ley mou n t to Ph il Kress. Kress made two more fu ll la ps before coas ting down to the a p ro n in turn fo ur with a blow n m otor. Keystone Racin g was a lso out in th e first hou r, lead rid er Fabi a n Cortez stopped by a broken oil coo ler. Go ld Hil l's G ardner pitted o n th e sa me lap as Hart h with john Hopperstad tak ing over. The team was us ing a n Yamaha FZR IOOO engi ne in a n a WO l chassis with a slig htl y lon ger wh eelb ase. T hey'd test ed a kit swi ngarm , but revert ed to sto ck. Ga rd ne r had planned an early rider cha nge to see how the tires wou ld wear a nd a lso beca use they had a slig ht ly sma ller gas . ta nk th a n last year and had to mo n itor fuel usage. " I set tled in to a rea l co m forta ble pace," Gardner sai d. " I did n' t know wha t the tires would do." Tires wo u ld be t h ei r u n doing , th ough not direct ly. A brak e pad was im p ro perl y insert ed on th e tire cha nge so th a t the wro ng side tou ch ed th e rotor. " I to uched th e rear br ak es an d it sq uealed lou der," H opperstad said after handin g.back to Gard ne r nea r the halfway mark. " I didn ' t kn o w wha t it was, so I ca me in. We were ac tua lly runn in g th ird wh en I p itt ed. T he n we Californian Tommy Lynch (25) leads Georgian Mike Harth (I) in a FastIinelMCM Racing vs. Dutchman Racing showdown. Thomas Stevens (sho wn) an d Scott Russell put the Muzzy Kawasaki out front until they ran out of gas late in the race. melt ed a no ther rear, a nother Michel in " A" co m po und they bro ugh t for th e 200. We pu t a n H o n, whi ch we ra n before and we'll u se an other one lat er tha t's half wo rn -ou t." At th e halfwa y mark , Stevens was lead in g' wi th H eino seco nd, .T ea rn Ma gi c' s C ra ig Shambau gh t h ir d , So hwa fou rth on the second Kawasaki, and Ray Yoder fifth o n the T eam America Suzuki 1100, Carm ich ael was sevent h overa ll, a nd first GTU, a position they woul d hol d to th e end. Bernard was back u p to sixth just ahea d o f Go ld H ill Irs Rick Shaw . The second ro u nd o f rider cha nges bega n just after halfwa y wit h H eino , Ru ssell, Ts u ka moto , a nd Ga rdner ta king over for th eir team s. H eino faced a number o f prob lems, o ne of which was shifting. " I use a G P gearbo x, o ne up, five down , but Tom my lik es a stree t bi ke gearbox, o ne do wn , five up," H ein o sai d, " It 's th e fir st time I rod e somet hi ng like th a t in 10 years. T here's too mu ch movement for me." H e a lso said he had to co nce n tra te harder th an n orm al beca use wh en " it's that hot , it's easy to get on th e ga s too soo n an d ma ke a mistake. " Th e team changed both tir es for Lyn ch "to be safe," H ein o said, addi ng he ex pec ted to do th e fina l sh ift on the bike. The japanese tea m' was lapping in th e I:55 ra nge a nd rid in g m ore aggressively in traff ic tha n a nyo ne else. T hey had cha nged a rear tire after Tsukamoto 's first shift , a fter So hwa's first sh ift a nd again d uring Tsu kamoto 's second shift. They wo uld co me in one fi nal time wi th less tha n half a n hour to go for a rid er cha nge on th eir way to second, Russell decided to do the last hour a nd 15 minu tes a lone. H e was ou t front aft er ta ki ng over th e Muzzy Kaw asak i with fresh tires, bu t p itted a few laps lat er to have th e rebound adjusted o n th e rear shock. Fro m the n on , he had a clea r track to the fini sh , until his d ay ended, "I th ink it ran o u t o f gas ," he sa id , so mewhat sheep ish ly as H eino spe d in to the lead . " Wha t a bit ch . T hat's m y life sto ry, End of da y." Russell ad mitted tha t the day wasn' t a total loss. " We've got so me stuff figured ou t. We go t an idea o f w hat we need to do fo r the race." Muzzy agreed: " We usually come to Da yton a way beh in d , p lay ca tch-u p a ll week and by the tim e the Dayto na 200 ro lls a ro u nd we 're just gett ing star ted. This time we figured th a t we 'd ge t as m uc h testing o ut o f th e way as we cou ld, before pro week started. We're abou t as well p repared as we've ever been for T uesday mo rn ing (the firs t da y of superbike pr actice)." Muzzy sai d they were usi ng the harder end urance tires because th ey'd only tested a few o f th e su pe rbike tires. " We j us t tri ed to p lay it smart and keep a rein o n th e riders," said jeff Stern, Fas tline/MCM's team cap ta in. " T hey j us t went o u t and had a good time a nd cruised. We cha nged one rea r tire right a t th e end, just to run with wh oever we cou ld ru n wit h and try to salvage wh at we co u ld, a nd th e break s went o u r way." " I push ed th e bike everywhere, b ut kept it u nder control," H ein o sai d. " I 13

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