Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

GROADRACE AMAICCS EBC Brakes Endurance Challen e: Round 3 ~ Team Suzuki Endurance's Kurt Hall Oeft) and MicIYel Martin (right) celebrate their win in the ~minute GTO Team OWlenge. Team Suzuki beat FastlineIMCM Roaeing. Team Suzuki Endurance sprints to GTO win by Henny Ray Abrams DAYTONA BEACH, FL, MAR. 5 hen Team Endurance Suzuki takes to the track, they usually race for six hours and they usually win. Today they only had 90 minutes to race, but the result was the same, riders Kurt Hall and Michael Martin winning the inaugural AMA GTO Team Challenge on the blustery high banks of Daytona. "Kurt and 1 are used to really long distance races," Martin, who rode the W 30 second shift, said. "It seemed real short without a tire change and all that stuff." Aboard last year's WERA championship-winning Suzuki GSXRllOO, the team completed 4S laps of the 3.56-mile course at an average speed of 106.766 mph to win the "big bike" portion of the third round of the EBC Endurance Challenge Series. Their margin of victory over second place Fastline/MCM Suzuki was 59.170 seconds. Fastline/MCM was forced to make an unsched uled tire change on their GSXRllOO late in the race while second rider Dave Sadowski, standing in for Scott Zampach who was off dirt-tracking, was cutting into Martin's lead. Third, well back, was Team Suzuki Endurance II, Chuck Graves and Steve Patterson riding the team's new watercooled Suzuki GSXRll00. With their second place finish, Fastline/MCM takes over the championship lead. After three of 13 races, they lead Two Brothers Racing 97 to 93. Two Brothers was in the hunt today, but was hurt by having to change rear tires three times and finished fifth. Team America, fourth today with Fritz Kling and Woody Deatherage splitting the riding, is third with 83. For their efforts, Team Suzuki Endurance earned $2000 from the $6500 GTO purse, with Fastline/MCM taking $1250, and Team Suzuki Endurance II pocketing $750. From the drop of the green flag it wasn't immedately apparent who was in the race to win and who was in to test. Diesel Jeans Ducati's Raymond Roche and AJcira Yanagawa, aboard a Yoshimura Suzuki, swapped the lead back and forth until Yanagawa pitted while in the lead on the 18th lap. Roche continued out front, but pulled in on the 28th lap while approaching the one hour mark. The 9O-minute GTO rules stipulate that no rider may ride less than 30 minutes, nor more than one hour. Since Roche had no second rider, he was done after about 55 minutes. The real race was just behind the pair, the trio of Fastline/MCM's Michael Barnes, Two Brothers Racing's Rick Kirk, and Team Suzuki Endurance's Kurt Hall circulating as one until the 10th lap when Kirk began to experience rear tire trouble and pulled in for his first tire change. It was up to Barnes and Hall and Hall was content to stay in Barnes' draft. "Barnes had a killer draft on the straight," Hall said. "1 was trying not to use too much tire so 1 could save it for Michael. We couldn't have run those lap times without a tow and we couldn't have gotten the gas mileage we did. When we switched over, Michael continued with consistent lap times." The switch came right at the halfway point, most of the teams changing them. Tommy Lynch took the Two Brothers Honda CBR900 over from Kirk and a few minutes later, Barnes was in to hand off to Sadowski. Feeling the bike sputtering his last few laps, Barnes told team manager Jeff Stem that the battery was dying, and it was replaced. But it wasn't the battery at all. "I came in a lap early for the battery, but it was out of gas," Barnes said. Like Hall, he'd hoped to use the draft, but found that Kirk was going too slow. "I was going about one-third throttle and 1 was still passing him." When Sadowski returned to the tr~ck he was looking at about an 18-second deficit. But he was forced to pit unexpectedly at the one-hour, l1-minute mark when he felt a vibration in the rear tire after cutting the margin to about 12 seconds. Sadowski is especially sensitive to vibrations, since he was thrown over the handlebars, crashing spectacularly and tumbling down the front straight when his rear tire failed while in sixth gear during the fall AMA/CCS Daytona races in 1991. "I'm a little leery about open class bikes at Daytona. You can only ask so much of the tire manufacturers," Sadowski said. Any hope they had of winning was gone and they settled in for second, though since S-uzuki Endurance isn't contesting the AMA/EBC Endurance Series, they weren't hurt by not getting maximum points. "We took the points read and that's what we came for," Barnes said. "We want to win the championship." But the day belonged to the Suzuki Endurance teams. "We have very good riders, we have very good mechanics, and we have the best crew chief in the history of racing," team captain John Ulrich said after placing two teams in victory lane. "Life is sweet." His third-placed team of Chuck Graves and Steve Patterson agreed. "Finishing third is great," Graves, who rode first, said. "We didn't expect to do it. We figured we'd just get some time on the new water-cooled Suzuki GSXRllOO. Kurt and Michael did all the setup on it. Steve and 1 hadn't ri.~den the bike until this morning - we got three laps." After a slow start, Team America slowly began to move forward, running a consistent pace and not suffering any debilitating problems. Fritz Kling took over for Woody Deatherage just after he half-hour mark, a move that temporarily dropped them back, but paid off in the end. Seventh officially at the halfway mark, they were up a notch when Roche dropped out, then took advantage of the problems incurred by Two Brothers and Keystone Racing, who were slowed by brake and tire problems. "They were showing us fourth earlier and that's not bad since we've got no brakes and a bad rear tire," Keystone's Fabian Cortez said after handing off to John Condron. "About two laps in I noticed the tire was going. I thought 1 could hang in there, but it went away real.quick. The brakes didn't matter as much since 1 could sit up to slow the bike down." Kling brought the team's year-old Honda CBR900 home fourth, despite fighting a rear tire that was going off, as well as gearbox problems. "The tires were already starting to go off and 1 was just riding as smoothly as I could," Kling said. ':1 was only worried . because the gearbox was making funny noises from the midway point on. It was poppmg out of gear a couple of times." Still, he brought it home fourth, ahead of Two Brothers Racing's Lynch who was given a fresh tire when he went out, and came in with less than 25 minutes to go for the third tire change. And Team America wasn't the only team suffering mechanical ailments. After taking over from,lead rider Phil Kress, Dutchman Racing's Jeff Heino went out with a balky gearbox and dropped out of the race on the 32nd lap with a blown engine. Keystone held onto sixth place, one better than K.W.S. Motorsports. (N Results GTO TEAM CHALLENGE: 1. Team Suzuki Endurance (Suz); 2. FastHne/MCM Racing (Suz); 3. Team Suzui Endurance II (Suz); 4. Team Amuica (Hon); 5. Two Brothers Rollcing (Hon); 6. Keystone Racing (Suz); 7. K.W.5 Mo,o"porlS (Hon); 8. E.L.B. Racing (Suz); 9. Full Tilt Motorsports (Hon); 10. Marietta Motorsports (Hon); 11. Spub Endurance (5uz); 12 Blackhawk Racing (Yam); 13. ) and P Racing (5uz); 14. Deliance Racing (5uz); IS. Diablo Racing (Suz); 16. Action Machines I (5uz); 17. N2 Racing (Kolw); 18. Team Magic (Yam); 19. Dutchman Racing (Suz); 20. Raymond Roche (Ouc); 21. Thomas Does Dayton.a (Suz); 22. Akira Does Daytona (Suz); 23. New t~h Racing (Hon); 24. Hard K Racing (Hon); 25. Guenette Racing (}(aw); 26. Vance &: Hine5 Team J (Yam); 27. Vance at Hines D (Yam); 28. Junior Racing (Yam). Time] hour. 30 minutes, 1.744 secends Dilltu\ce: 4S laps. 160.2 miles Aver.e speed: 106. 766 mph Maqin of victory: 59.170 sea. GTO C'SHlP POINT STANDINGS: 1. Fa.tline/MCM Racing (97); 2. Two Brothers Racing (93); 3. Team America (83); 4. 8lackhawk Racing (68); 5. N2 Racing (62); 6. Dutchman Racing (61); 7. Suzuki Endurance D (55); 8. T.. m Magic (49); 9. K.W.5. Mo_ports (48); 10. Keystone Racing (46), 11. FuJI Til. Moto..ports (44); 12. Team Suzuki Endurance (35); 13. Mari.... Motorsports (30); 14. Team Yaf!\aha Endurance (26); 15. (TIE) ream Racelaw/Guenett.i Racing (24); 17. (TIE) Sponsland 01 Laramie Racing/ELB Racing (23); 19. Team Fossil Endurance (22); 20. (TIE) Dam CIarIc Racing/Nordww Racing/Sparks Endurance (21).

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