GTU winners Southwest Motorsports switch riders at the halfway mark.
(Left to right) FastlineIMCM Suzuki, Southwest Motorsports and American Flyers.
Two Brothers Racing (21) finished second with Tommy Lynch and Nick lenalsch.
Deatherage brought the Team America
bike home with victory in hand, then gave
credit to Kling for getting them there:
"Fritz made it real easy for me," he said.
"They put me on it and 1 just cruised in.
We're totally happy."
Kling's only problem came early on in
the race: "The first lap I missed the chicane," Kling said. "The pads weren't
buffed in and I made the first part but not
the left. I got it up to second and made it
easy on Woody (Deatherage). I hung with
'em."
(N
Results
GTO FINAL: 1. Team America (Hon); 2. Two
Brother.; Racing (Han); 3. N2 Racing (Kaw); 4. Duldunan
Racing (Yam); 5. 8lackhawk Racing (Yam); 6. Team Magic
(Yam); 7. T~am Yamaha Endurance 11 (Yam); 8.
Fastline/MCM Suzuki (5uz); 9. Full Td. Molorsports (Suz);
10. Ondagass Racing (5uz); 11. K.W S. Motorsports (Han);
12. Suzuki Motorsports Team Biaek (5uz); 13. Action
Machin.. (Suz); 14. Keystone Racing (Suz); 15. Raceco
(MG); 16. Camel Honda (Hon); 17. Team Mirage (Kaw);
18. Fastline/MCM Suzuki n (Suz); 19. Team Yamaha
Endur"""1 (Yam).
Time: one hour, 29 min., 33.407 sec.
Dist.1nce: 60 laps, 303.75 miles.
Av....ge Speed, 90.445 mph.
MMgin of Victory: 45.398 sec.
GTO C'SHIP POINT STANDINGS (After 5 of 13
rounds): 1. Two Brothers Racing (157/1 win); 2.
Fa••line/MCM Suz.ulci (150/1 win); 3. Team America
(144/1 win); 4. Dutchman Racing (124/1 win); 5.
Blackhawk Racing (118); 6. N2 Raang (117); 7. Team
Magic (88); 8. If-a-second after an hour of racing at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The Southwest Mqtorsports combination of Danny Walker and Chris Taylor
'proved to be better than the
Fast1ine/MCM duo of Scott Zampach and
Michael Barnes - but not by much. In fact,
it was Barnes putting in the ride of the
day just to put Fastline in position to
worry Southwest at the end.
Third place went to American Flyers
and their Honda CBR600 with Todd
I
Harrington and Mike Murphy holding off
fourth-placed Moto Liberty/Suzuki's
Doug Carmichael and Robin Holiday and
their Suzuki GSXR600. AGV Sport
Group's Andy Deatherage and Robert
Von Nessen finished fifth on a Honda
CBR600.
Walker and Taylor combined to tum in
40 laps of the 2.25-mile race track for an
average speed of 89.804 mph to just beat
out Zampach and Barnes by .02lH>f-a-second.
Southwest Motorsport's second win of
the season combined with the engine
dilemmas that allowed series points leading Hornblower Racing to only finish
15th, translates to only a three-point lead
for Hornblower, 141-138. American Flyers
is third with 133 points while Moto
Liberty/Nankai II and Xtreem
Performance Racing, 10th at Charlotte,
round out the top five with 102 and 95
points, respectively.
Moto
Liberty/Suzuki's Doug
Carmichael led the field into tum one as
the clock started on the 6O-minute race.
He was followed by Keystone Racing II's
Craig Gleason and Moto Liberty /Nankai
II ridden by Takahiro MorL Keystone
would eventually finish 16th and Moto
Liberty/Nankai would fade to end up
sixth.
Meanwhile, both AGV Sport Group's
Deatherage and Moto Liberty's Mori
would be penalized with a stop-and-go
penalty for juinping the start. Deatherage
and his teammate Von Nessen would battle back to finish fifth.
By the fourth lap, Harrington had
American Flyers up front, leading Moto
Liberty/Suzuki and the surprise of the
race - Raceco and their Moto-Guzzi. Lead
rider Ronald McGill, on the comeback
trail after breaking his neck in an automobile accident in September of last year,
was doing an admirable job on the twin,
until going into tum one too hot and having to go straight. He would fall back to
seventh but climb back into the top three
before handing over to Peter Johnson.
The team would eventually finish seventh, with Johnson turning lap times
some five seconds or so slower than
McGill.
"It still has some design flaws in the
suspension, but the motor's there," McGill
said of the Guzzi. "With the shaft drive
it's like there's a reverse packing. I got it
up to. second before I ran straight. There's
a little oil dripping on my right boot, but
it's a lot of fun to ride. It's got a seamless
powerband - it really doesn't care what
gear you're in. It's like riding an automatic. It's very relaxing to ride."
At
one-quarter
distance,
Fastline/MCM was right on Amercian
Flyers with Zampach working hard after
botching his start from the back row. After
25 minutes, Zampach had the Suzuki
GSXR600 in the lead.
"I blew the start from the last row,"
said Zampach after giving way to Barnes
after 30 minutes. "I gave 'em a big.lead
and passed 'em all."
.
Soon after Fastline's stop, Taylor
brought the Yamaha TZR250 of
Southwest Motorsports into the pits to
hand off to Walker. They didn't even take
on fuel, and that may have been the difference in the race. Taylor was off, Walker
was on and the Yamaha was out of the pit
lane before many even noticed they were
there: "I think that's what won the race
because Barney (Barnes) was coming so
fast," Walker would say later.
"It was losing a cylinder down the
front straight early," Taylor said after the
pit stop. "I think it may have had a bad
plug or something. Halfway through it
came alive and [ put my head down and
went after it. It was on one cylinder half
the time and 1 was just trying to keep it
going."
After tl:te pit stop, Southwest was second - behind only American Flyers, who
had taken over the lead with Fastline's
stop. When American Flyers pitted,
Southwest took over the lead with
Fast1ine third.
"Everything's working really well,"
said Harrington after giving the American
'Flyers Honda CBR600 to Nebraska'sMike
Murphy. "We were pretty even with
Fast1ine, power-wise. We'll be okay. Mike
and I are usually within a second of each
other - sometimes he goes quicker."
With 10 minutes to go, the race was
obviously down to two teams - Southwest
and the rapidly gaining Fastline/MCM
Suzuki of Barnes. It all came down to the
last lap. Barnes tried Walker on the inside,
but to no avail He tried to draft past on
the final run to the flag, but that didn't
work either and the race belonged to
Southwest Motorsports.
"I can't believe he (Barnes) 'ran down
that 250," an obviously impressed
Zampach said of his teammate. "He did
27s (one-minute, 27-second laps) at the
end. He must be nuts."
Murphy was able to hold on to third
place on the American Flyers bike, but he
couldn't get close to the lead duo: '1 just
had to finish up," he said. '1 just did what
[could - I couldn't see the leaders."
"Almost don't count," Barnes said of
his second-place finish. "But we'll take
second. 1 tried to catch 'em, but that little
250 went around pretty good. [ hit a cone
and bent the brake lever and it came back
to the bars when I tried to outbrake
Danny (Walker)."
Walker was somewhat surprised to
find Barnes so close.
"[ didn't want to go that fast, but any
times Barnes is behind you ..." Walker
said. '1 got some backmarkers in the last
couple of laps. I felt that Suzuki behind
me. [ felt it, smelt it - I thought he was trying to get into my leathers. 1 managed to
block a backmarker there at the end and
that slowed him."
(N
Results
GTU F1NAJ., J. Southwest Motorsports (Yam); 2.
Fastline/MCM SuzuIci (Suz), 3. American Ayers (Hon); 4.
Moto UbertyISuz (5uz); 5. AGV sport Group (Hon); 6.
Moto Uberty /Nankai II (Hon); 7. Raceco (MG); 8.
Himmelsbach Endurance (Suz); 9. Northwest Racing
(Hon); 10. Xtreem Performance (Hon); 11. Ultra Wheel
Racing (Suz); 12. AGY S~rt Group II (Hon); 13. WeB
Racing (Han); 14. Moronrs (Suz); 15. Hornblower Racing
(Hon); 16. Keystone Raang II (5uz); 17. Semoff Brothers
(Hon); 18. Team Toaster (Kaw); 19. Honda-Suzuki World
Racing (Hon); 20. Fas. By Ferraai (Cag).
lame: one hour, 7.870 sec.
l);sUn.., 40 laps. 90 miles.
Average Speed: 89.B04 mph.
MMgin of Victory: 0.028 oec.
GTU C'SHIP POINT STANDINGS, J. Hornblower
Racing (141); 2. Southwest Motor.;po
