Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

GROAD RACE WERAProSeries:Round2 ~ in the short corn ers. It 's just differen t. You hav e to take a different, unfamiliar approach ." But Graves is no longer a privateer, and now draws on th e vast knowledge of T eam Suzuki Enduran ce's Keit h Perry, who knew exactly wh at to do to help Graves get th at po le po sitio n at o ne-min ute, 27.57-seconds. And it was Perry, along with Scot ty Beach , wh o tamed Martin's methan olpowered Suzuk i, a llowing Marti n to hound G raves wi th a close 1:27.70. Gray and the " Big Ape " was third with a 1:27.85 while J ack s and Sh ierts trailed in fourth and fifth . Notable qual ifie rs included Yam ah a TZ250-m ounted Colin Edward s in si x th, Stroud a n d th e Br itten in seventh, befor e th e bike hurled its belt , and SCOll Zampach in 10th aboard hi s Yamaha OWO I superbike - which he and J eff Hieno destroyed in Saturday's endura nce race, putting him out of Sunday's final. The transm ission on Ri ck Kirk 's Two Bro thers Racing Honda RS250 blew up on Friday, but he managed to qualify an un lucky 13th. Chuck Graves (24) led the start of the first F-USA leg at Road Atlanta; here he leads Michael Martin (96) and Lee Shierts (21). Jacks edges teammate Martin at Road Atlanta By Brent P lummer Photos by George R o ber ts BRA TON A YI7 SEL ,G ,MA alvoline Suzuki 's Donald J acks lean ed back in his chai r, smili ng ear to ear, as he reflected upon his victory in the Road Atlanta ro und of the WERA Formula USA Series: " It was like . . . I j us t can't beli eve it," he said. " I cam e here th is weekend , and I felt like I was the underdog," But come race ti me, that was ha rdly the case. J acks too k a close second to hi s tea mma te Mich ael Martin an d hi s " Met ha no l Monster " S u zu ki GSXR II 00 in the first leg, but edged Martin by a miniscul e .20-of· a-second in the secon d, tie-br eaking leg to tak e the o vera ll win. In doing so, J acks, wh o was also aboa rd a GSXR I IO O, pocketed the $5000 winner's portion of the $ 17,650 F-USA purse, plus an extra $2000 in continge ncies. Marti n, wh o turned 33 o n race day, woul d ra th er hav e ce le bra ted h is b irthday with a win , an d was somewhat disappointed with second , bu t he kept things in perspective: "(Jacks ) is a teammate and go od frie nd, and V 10 it was reall y good to have the Valval in e Suzukis fin ish one-two, but I would have really li ked to have won on m y bi rth d a y. Bu t h ey, that 's racing," Ca liforn ia n Lee Shierts pilo ted th e fas tes t mo to rcycl e, a no th er GS X R 1100, clocked wi th a back straigh t radar g u n at a to p spee d of 161 m p h, to third in both legs, and naturally , third ove ra ll - o ne spot ahead o f arch -riva l Chuck G raves, who too k a pair of fourths tod ay. Graves, thou gh, sti ll leads in the cha m p io ns hi p title ch ase wit h 33 points, just o ne po int ahead of Shierts' 32 points, J acks and Martin no w hold down third and fourt h with 28 and 23 points, respectively. Fast By Ferracci's Step hen Ma thews fin ished fifth overa ll aboard the team 's Ducati , afte r lit erall y bumping Mark Ch in o ut o f fifth in th e first leg. " I spent the who le fir st race covered in oil, because (SC Oll) Gr ay blew up in front of me and mis ted me with oi l," Mathews sa id lat er. Gray had recently blown up his favo red Kawa saki ZX7R, and was pil oting a se lf-spon sored Suzuki GSXRIIOO. By using an APE big block and man y other tri ck parts, Gray was able to coax 203 horsepower out of the 1340cc motor, which was more than the cra nksha ft could withstand - it promptly let go in turn eight after only o ne lap . Gray's race was over, though he returned in the second leg o n a Dut chman Racing ma chine to finish ninth and 17th overa ll. Sixth overa ll was earne d by J oe Pillman, who was " ha ppy with six th, that was my goa l, to be at the top and earn so me money." The Britt en V-1000 sho wed for this rou nd of un lim ited competition , and rider And rew Stro ud sent some fear rippling th rough the p its in practice as he power-whee lied down the front straight, in full view of the pa ddock. But, alas, th e Britt en again failed mechanically. T his time, th e lengthy , serpentin e cam belt sna pped, and top end destruction was the result. The tea m says that the faulty belt is th e last weak lin k o n the motor cycle, and they have plans to remedy the situat io n for future event s. The weekend's festivities began with Fr iday's ti med qualifyin g. Graves, who has a lon g standing di slik e for Road Atlanta, nabb ed the pole. " I was reall y surprised to find o u t that I was goi ng that fast - it didn 't feel like I was, becau se the bik e was work in g so well ," he said. " I' ve never been able to come to gr ips with th is p lace, and a lot of it has to do with set u p for this particu lar co u rse , because the trac k is rea lly bumpy, and yo u don 't spen d much ti me lean ed over Formula USA The first leg began with a mad dash for the first turn, out of which Graves eme rged su preme by clos ing the door on Martin. Shierts , meanwhile, unsuccessfu lly tried to di ve under th e wedged 'Mart in for second. J ack s was fourth : "Those guys banzai off the start, and I'm kinda conserva tive - tryi ng to save the tires off the turns." . Gray was fifth until th e fat eful botto m end explosion, at whic h point, he p ronounced : " The 'Big Ape ' is dead." Lu ckily, the dropped eng ine oil was safely off the raci ng lin e where it bothered no one , and WERA officials allo wed the race to cont inue. Kirk and Edwards were soo n o ut, with both of them pulling in simultaneously on the second lap - they were just scrubbing in tires for the followi ng Air Tech Formula II race, Graves ran into problems on the third lap. "The steering damper jammed," he said. " All the heat from the motor 'coo ked it. " At that point, he started having steering problems, and began to slow. But not Martin. He loo ked possessed, as he slid the big Suzuk i around the 2.52-mile circuit. By the third lap , Martin had already open ed a lead on sec o n d-p laced Graves, wh o was trying to fend off a charging Shierts, and also Jacks, who was just beginning to up his pace. Meanwhile, J oe Pittman was leading th e four-way fight for fifth , and fending off Mark Chin. J oe Brett Williams was in si x th (u ntil the seventh lap , when h e DNF), an d Stephen Mathews was working up from a poor sta rt to hold eig h th. On the sixth lap, th e top four started to shu ffle wi th Graves down to fourth behind Jacks, Shierts , and th e runaway Martin. Two laps lat er and J acks dispatched Shierts for second in turn eight, an d started closing in o n Martin, who was exper ie n ci n g rear su spe ns io n problems. On th e 12th and fin al lap, Martin cros sed th e line nor.quite a full bike leng th ahead of the rapidly gaining J acks. Shierts followed closely with Grav es a good di st an ce beh in d. Ma thews and Ch in descended the hill towards turn 12 together, bumped in the middle of tha t turn, with Mathews getting the bett er of it, and fini shing fifth; Chin finished six th. .T he start of th e seco nd leg was ruled by Sh ierts. " O n the first lap, I was

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