Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

GROAD RACE AMAlCCS EBC National EnduIanceChallenge: Round 4 ~ Defending ch amp ion Du tchman cou ld do n o better than 12th ove rall in the ra in. Championship leading Fastline/MCM Ra cing pi ts for rain tires early on. Moto Li berty's Doug Carmichael gives chase to T eam T oomer' s Craig Gleason. , (Left to right) Class Ra cin g's Jason Prid emore and Fritz Klin g celebra te along with Team America's Wood y Death erage and J ohn Choate, who won at T exas World. Team America w ssecond straigh in t By Brent Plumm er Ph otos by Pa ul Ca rru thers COLLEGE STATION, TX, MAY30 or the second race in a row, a red flag ended the EBC Endurance Challenge just a few minutes shy of the official three-hou r fi nishing mar k, aga in givi ng th e H onda CBR900-mou nted Team Ame rica, the vi cto ry, t h is tim e at Texas World Speedway. ' "I w oke up in a hospitaLI do n't know what happened," said Keystone Racing's John Con dron, w ho caused the red-flag wi th his frigh tening crash in a Texas rai nstorm . Cond ron was pit ched off th e Keys tone Raci ng Suzu ki GSXRllOO while exiting turn 12 onto the NASCAR banking of the spee dway's oval, a nd sla mmed in to F 22 the retaining wall where he lay, imm obile. Th e Keystone bike burst in to flames, fire crews scrambled, and the red flag flew . The race ended , an d Team America was leading at that specific mom ent, the re by earning th e ' Frank Slaughter-ow ned team its second win of the series. Woody Dea therage piloted the winning Team America effort for the first two hours and 10 minutes, at which point, John Choate, who usually competes for Team Toomer, took over to complete the event. Condro n was fortunat e. H ou rs later, when he awoke in the hospital, he discovered one of his colla rbo nes wa s broken, but beyond tha t he was relatively fit. The victory moved Team America, wh o is sponsored by AGV, PermatexLoctite, Ts uba ki, Cycle Spo rt VA, C oleman Pow ers p o r t, Stree t and Competition, Capi ta l Ser vice, Maie r Manu facturing, V&H Signs, and EBC Brakes, to second in the championship point st and ings; and they now trai l Fastline/MCM Racing by eight points, 72-64. Sec ond overa ll was take n by a Hond a CBR600-mo unted GTU team , Moto Liberty/ Nankai, the GTU championshi p leaders. Ridd en by Dann y Walker and Doug Carm ichael, the pair actu ally led the entire GTU and GTO field for a while in the closing stages of the race un til Team America slipped by, leaving Moto Liberty un aware that they had, been shove d back to second overall. " If w e ha d know n that Am er ica was' in th e lead , we wo ul d ha ve stepped it u p," sa id a happy Doug Carmichael after the race. Third overall went to another GTU class competi tor, Beast Raci ng. The H ouse of Wheels-spo nso red team of Joseph Pru ssia no III, Bryan Hanson , and Robert Bradlaw piloted an aging Yamaha FZR600 and stead ily weeded -their wa y up through the faster, crash prone (at the slick Texas track, at least) GTO teams to have their best ever finish. Team Scream w as fourth ov erall, and may have finished higher. With less than an hour of the race completed, rain started to pour down in the tu rn one area, an d all of the lead ing (mo s tly GTO ) tea ms , w ho were riding on slick tires at that time, we re in for a b ig slip pe ry sur prise when they reached the wall of rain. ' A few teams fell - a waving yellow flag eme rge d - ma l)Y wen t s traig ht d own the ru n -off road , and many , made the turn, but Team Scream, riding on DOT tires, was affected by the rain in one wa yrthey wer e docked a lap for a n alleged turn one pass, one, that rider Mark Black cann ot remember making. What about perennial front-runners Dutchman Racing? They were running seco nd behind Gold Hill Racing un til the tu rn one rain s torm ca use d new member Scott Zampac h to fall. "I slid 360 yards...the water wasn 't eve n stopping me," he said later. An d after a not he r sim ilar crash later in the day , Dutchman pulverized b ot h of th eir la rge en d ura nce gas tan ks, an d settled with a stock replacemen t, and 12th overa ll, fifth in GTO. Class Racing had no such problems. W hen the rain s ta rte d in turn one , end ura nce class rookie Jason Pridm ore s howe d wi sdom be yond his years when he alone pu lled on to the pit entrance road located at the far end of the stra ight. Th us, Class Racing was the firs t leading GTO team to fit groove d tires, DOT Dunlops being their choice. So whil e ev eryone else w a s sli ding, falling, a nd battling to stay upright for the remainder of tha t firs t, wet lap, Cla ss was a lrea dy fitted wi th ra in ca pable tires, a nd w as charging u p thr ough the field. And it was that smart move - along with 'good rid ing from both Pridmor e and Fritz Kling - that allowed Class to take fourth overall, second in GTU. This season 's en d u ra nce p ow erhouse Fastline/ MCM Racin g wa s sixth overall, third in GTU, a position they were quite ha pp y with. "Tom my Lynch and I are all in one ' piece, the bikes are together, and we're read y for th e ne xt rou nd , " said Fastline lead rider Jeff Heino. Team Toomer's suffered a setback that Craig Gleason described: "1fell in

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