Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Team America (9), Dutchman Racing (I) and Gold Hill Racing (3) battl e for second place; Gold Hill's John Hopperstad and Christian Gardner eventually finished second. off, bu t had lappers Zampach and Barnes between himself and H ein o. Gardner never ga ve up, bu t neither di d H ein o, wh eelyin g at the finish as p ieces of his windscreen broke off fro m h is earlie r near- cra sh , littering the fro nt straight. "It was great. It worked out perfect, " H ei no said. " I got by Zam pach , I got by everybody . It coul dn 't have worked ou t any bette r. I got Zampach goi ng into th e cor kscrew. H e got stuffed o n th e insi de and I go t by about four guys. I was pushing the bike to its limit, Just pushi ng the shit out of in every corner. I went faster at the end. I did a 1:34.4. I was slidi ng bo th wheels at the end, bu t I had to do that to win. " " My second stint was a little bit better," Lynch said. " I was a little more comfortable wit h the bike. The traff ic is definitely tough here. T he track's difficult fo r endurance 1100s. The flywheel effect ma kes it difficult to tu rn. That and the hour sti n ts ma kes it difficult physically." "I was rejuvenated wi th 50 min ut es to go, " Gardn er said. " T he pit boards were really good. I didn't kn ow what n umber Hein o was. I tho ught I was ca tching Zam pach. Once I passed him, I had to push aga in. I knew I had to make up some time. I was pushing the bike as hard as I could. I go t down to 33s. A big part of it was traff ic. I' d ge t a good lap in, then get stuffed." At the end, Gardner also suffered a cram p on th e ins ide of h is thi gh and cou ldn 't move it. " I had to sta nd up on th e pegs on the coo l-down lap ," he said. Dutchman Racing wasn' t origina lly credi ted wi th third, the AMA scori ng m issing them o n the 87th lap, and Yamaha Endurance was gi ven th e spot on th e victory sta nd. But th e problem was traced to simp le human error and the Stroud/Gra y team took third. Mike Harth was conte sting a round of the Asian Ch ampionship in Malaysia, but wo u ld be back [or Charl otte. " It was pretty low-key," New Zeala nder Stroud said. " I got a bit behind When I go t o n, maybe fifth or sixth, the n I picked us up to third with a ga p to fourth. I was kind of hoping to pi ck it up and get in the next position. I was unsure of how much I could do . Riding a big heavy bike is different than rid ing a 750." " A lo t of people want me to do end u ra nce," Stroud's par tn er Gray said. " I needed the track time and they 're taking care of my superbi ke.' Fourth-pl aced Zam pa ch ended up riding two hours and 10 minutes and felt it. " R idin g a motorcycle that makes 150 horsepo wer an d weighs over 400 pounds, it's a real workout." " H e's the workhorse," Meist er sa id o f his teammate. " I'm still learning to ride th e big b ike. We wer e a li tt le worried we'd run out of fu el a nd we changed a rear tire after th e first hour." Meister said the y'd tried a high-horsepower engine, but had decided against i t, instead using a different one with a five-speed gearbox in stead of a six- sp eed for th e torque advant age. Team America 's Deatherage said he knew that Barn es was faster than he was, and that he never got in the groove, though he did like the [eel of the Honda 900. " It felt like a 600," Deat herage said. "The improvement is so great, there's no more twitching. Neither one of us were here before." John Condron , who rode the second hour and a half on the Keystone bi ke, said it was onl y the second time he'd ridden a n 1100 and he found he was able to drop his lap times during the hour an d a ha lf stint he rode to finish the race, much of which he spent dicing with the Dutchman II 's Lee Sh ierts . Shie rts was paired with Brian Bernard who was ridi ng with a left wrist broken from a sp ill three weeks prior at Willow Sp rings. The GTU class ha d none of the drama of its bigger bro ther. Lead ride r J im Leslie put th em in front on the eig hth lap with a pass of Team Red Baron on the brakes for turn I I. He q u ickly p u lled a way leavi ng Red Baron to deal with Moto Liberty/ Nanka i' s Dann y Wal ker and New T ech 's Mike T aylor and, basically, that was it. Craig Gl eason rode the secon d ho ur and J ohn Choate the third and, besides winning th eir class, th ey finis hed eighth overall. " I tried to pa ss as man y GTU guys as possible on the first lap , pu ll away and get a comforta ble lead ," Leslie said. "Once I got ou t front I wanted to be careful. We got a full lap ahead of the GTU filed and Craig prett y much stayed there." T he only problem the team had was gri ndi ng the left engi ne case cover in turn five befo re the Dunlo p Bridge. " We checked it when we carne in and it was okay." Leslie 's best lap time was a 1:36.7, Gl eason ran 37s and 38s, and Ch oate averaged in the high 38s. Leslie compared the track to Bridgehampton with its elevation changes. " It' s a little wider here. I love the cours e," Leslie cont inued. " Fo ur years ago I carne o ut here to wa tch th e GP. I didn 't know I'd be winning endurance races and on the front row for the 600 Su persport.' They completed 108 lap s, one better than MOIO Liberty/Na nkai who moved into second to ward the end of the second hour after Do ug Carmichael rep laced Walker. T he Moto/Liberty team was using an oversized gas tank on their CBR600 Ho nda and planned only one pit sto p for a rider change, though they had to corne in just a fter the first ho ur to fix a pi nched vent tu be. Carmichae l rode the second half of the race in considerab le pa in having cracked a bone in his tibia socket during 250cc practice. . " It was bothering me pretty bad ," Carmichael said. "I knew we were a ll toge ther and I had to finish up th ere to keep the po ints. I thi nk I tras hed the transmission. I had to shift real hard. O ur bikes were a ll pretty even. I ha d a little bit of motor on the #40 (Red Baro n ) bike. T he 112 (T ea m Toomer) Yamaha and the #4 (New Tech Ra cin g) were pretty much eq ua l on power." For the last hour of the race they were on their own, Carmichael in front of New Tech's Taylor, now into hi s second one hour shift, and that 's how they'd fini sh . " I alway s wa n ted to ride Laguna Seca and it was a blast," New Tech 's J on Rob erts, wh o rode the middle hour, said. " It was th e most fun track I've ridden . I was la pp ing in the 40s and T aylor wa s doing 38s and 39s. We miscalcu la ted a little on our times and ra ther than run o u t of gas and not finish, we came in for a sp las h-andgo . If th e dump can had been full for th e ear lier stop, we would've gotten second. The bike ra n perfect. We ran a slick front and a Dunlop SportMax rear. We pu lled the forks in and it was ton's better steeri ng. We were fifth whe n I go t on and I too k us back to second . T aylor was second the who le time , until he had to get gas." In Sunday's Monster Bike Shootout, Fastline/ MCM repea ted their victory from Saturday , with Hein o pass ing Du tch man 's Stroud on the final lap of the five-lap dash. ~ Results CH ALLEN G E GT O: I. Fa, t1in e/MCM Racing (Suz); 2. Go ld Hill Racing (Ya m); 3. Du tchman Racin g (Suz); "4. Team Yamaha Enduran ce (Yam); ,s. Team America (Hon ); 6. Keystone Ra cing (Suz); 7. Dutchman Ra cing II (Suz); 8. T eam OTSI So uth wes t Mot ors pons (H o n ); 9. Northwest Ra cing (Suz); 10. L ucky Dog Racing (So2); 11. Atomic Racing (SUl ); 12. E T icket Racing (SUI ); 13. Flymo Racin g (Suz); 14. Team Magic (Yam); 15. Team Fossil Enduran ce (Suz); 16. N2 Racing (H a n); 17. Clas s Ra cing (Ka w); 18. No Fear Factory T eam (Due); 19. Spcrt un e Ra cing ( Kaw); 20. T eam Cali co Jacks (Kaw); 21. T eam H ol ida y (Hon); 22. Bimota1/ 41ey (Kaw ); 23. Freelan ce Racing (Suz); 24. Pow er Play Racing (Suz); 25. Carm ichael Honda Racing (Han); 26. Vance &: H ines (Ya m); 27. Z10ek Raci ng (Ka w). T ime: ~ hrs. , 22.054 m in s. Margin cf Victory: ~ . 223 sea. Avengr Speed. 81.751 mph . GT O SER tES PO!l" STAN DING S: I. Fasrlin e/ MCM Racin g (40); 2. Dut chman Racing (32); 3. Gold Hill Ra cin g (26); 4. Team America (24); 5. Kawasaki Ra cing T eam

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