Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eROAD RACE e WERA VansonlPM National Endmance Road Race Series: Round 4 . . Chuck Graves teamed with Donald Jacks on the Team Suzuki GSXR600. Team Pearls (11) won the Mediumweight Production class at Putnam Park. Team Suzuki remains undefeated By Larry Lawrence MT. MERlDIAN, IN, MAY 9 ea m Suzuki's Kurt H a ll a n d Michael Martin rode the Keith Perry- tu ne d, Va lvoline-b acked Suzuki GSX R I IOO to victory number four in the WERA Nationa l End urance Series at Putnam Park Raceway, .marking the opening of th e new 1.8mile circuit loca ted 40 miles sou thwest of In dianapolis. Motosport Ra cing, wi th Lee Sh ierts, Peter Christense n, Craig Stevens a nd William Beck, finished second, five laps behind Team Suzu ki. Motospon s also fielded a Suzuki GSXR l lOO, in recording their best finish of th e year. Todd Dofflemyer and J ay Bartl o w rode the Virginia Breeze Yamaha FZRIOOO to third overall, j ust II seconds behind Motosports aft er six hou rs of raci ng. To help th e teams get a handle on the new race course, WERA held an open practice the da y befor e th e race. Most of the riders were im pressed with the layo ut of th e new track , alt ho ug h several said it was a difficult track to master. A full gri d of 50 teams signed up, and 47 of those teams gri dded for the start of the six-hour race. The large turn-out on the relati vely sho n course would mean heavy traffic th rough out the day . At the drop of the green flag, Shierts (known by most riders as a Will o w Springs specialist) pu t the Mo tosports entry into the early lead , followed by Hall on the Valvoline Suzuki and Dean Hayes wit h DAK Ra cin g . Man y expected H all to mov e int o th e lead but Shierts was full of determination. "His bike was definitel y fast," said H all. " Bu t I think the ma in thing was that he (Shi erts) was jus t riding very well. " T h e leading trio qu ickl y pulled away from the rest of the field and began enco u ntering slow er traffic aft er r Motosports Racing (14) leads Team Suzuki (1) and DAK Racing (4) at Putnam Park. ---- Virginia Breeze Ra cin g made it to the winner's circle for the first tim e. 20 on ly four laps. Sh ierts again showed that he is mor e than j ust a Willo w spec ialist by working th ro ugh traffic better than H all or H ayes. Shierts was actua lly pu lli ng away whe n 20 min ut es into the race Team Savannah crashed in turn five bringin g ou t the red flag. TKO Racin g's Don Fielden cras hed o n th e first lap in turn three. Ben Roeder of Arcligh t Racin g II had no where to go and cras hed in the inci dent. Both teams too k adva ntage of the red flag to mak e repairs and get back in the race. Arclig h t II charged back to fin ish fo urth in class, 17th overa ll; while TKO fin ished in 27th p lace. After a lO-minute delay the race was on aga in. This tim e T ea m Suzuki took th e early lead befor e bein g chased down by Motosports j ust after the one hour mark. DAK stayed in content ion throughout the fir st hou r jus t a few ticks behind the battle for first. Force Racing ran about 20 seconds beh ind the leading trio on the tea m's Yam aha FZRIOOO. Virgin ia Breeze, Roswell Ra cin g and Moti on Systems ran whee l to whee l in the battle for fifth during hour o ne. A big mover in the first hour was Team Suzuki GSXR600 with Donald Jacks and Chuck Graves. T eam Suzu ki's Mediumweigh t Su perbike effort was a last-minu te decis io n. T he bike the team fielded was a magazin e test bik e and was hurriedl y prepared for th e track th e morning of the race. T eam Suzuki GSXR600 took over the class lead from Red Ho t Ra cin g at the to p of the first hour. When Shierts hopped off th e Morosports Suzuki th e team was at a big disadvantage. The o ther three riders on the team weren 't nearl y as fast and the always fast T eam Suzuki pulled out a full lap lead during the second hour.

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