Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

el. Kurt Hall fell in the carousel turn that leads on to the back straight. Tea m Suzu ki's m isfortune moved Virginia Breeze Racing into first place at the end of the eighth hour and they were followed in the standings by Team Pearls . and Team Indy Cycle 'N' Ski. Force Racing was running fourth, with Red Hot Racing, Royale Racing, Team 20/20 Track 'N' Trail, Northern Boys Racing, TBA Racing and TKO Racing rounding out the top 10. Then, shortly after the crash truck had dropped off Team Su zuki' s battered GSXR in the pits, both Team Pearls and Krol Cycles crashed in the kink, a fast right-hand dogleg section of the back straight. They were both victims of wa ter that had been spla shed onto the apex of the kink. The crash truck picked up the Krol bike first and Pearls lost valuable time waiting for their bike to be taken back to the pits. The Pearls' GSXRwas on its stand in pit lane at 11:04 p.m. an d at 11:12 p.m. Kubik rocketed out of the pits intent on making up the lost time. At midnight, Virginia Breeze Racing's lead had been cu t to four laps by Team Indy Cycle 'N' Ski. Force Racing was running third, and Team Pearls was fourth, 13 laps behind the leader. The clock ticked on in to the ea rl y morning hours and the war of attrition escalated. Roswell Racing went down in turn 13, bringing out the red flag shortly befor e 1 a. rn. Durin g the break, tired crews changed worn tires and tended to their bikes needs, scorers wen t in search of coffee, and relief rid ers were shaken awake. Team Indy, who had been running second, su ffered major motor problems and drop ped back in the running order. With Indy dropping off the pace, Force assumed second behind Virgin ia Breeze with Pearls trailing in third. Team Pearls began a charge as Kubik and Saylor set their sights on Force Racing. At 3 a.m. Pearls was one la p behind Force Racing, b ut at 4 a.m, they were in second with a 58-sec0nd margin over Force. As the sun rose over Nelson Ledges, Virginia Breeze con tinued to lead over Team Pearls Suz uk i w ith Force Racing close behind in third, At the end of the 20th hour, Virginia Breeze's Charlie Safely, Craig Gaver, Glenn Szarek, Taylor Massey, Jim Tribou and Jeff Atwell had turned in 852 laps, three more than Team Pearls and four more than Force Racing. But a three or four lap lead could quickly disappea r in the four hours remaining an d everyone knew that. One mista ke and it was anybody's race. That mistake happened d urin g the 21st hour of the race and the Virgi nia Breeze Yamaha we n t down and caught fire. The fire was quickly extinguished an d the tea m got bac k into the race after losing many laps, but a subsequent cras h that left Jeff Atwell dazed relegated them to 26th posi tion. Force Racing seized the opportunity when Virginia Breeze went down the first time, passing both the downed and buming bike and then Team Pearls to take over the lead. At th e end o f th e 21st ho ur, Force Racing had a scant five-second lead over Team Pearls Suzuki. Despite having lost 52 minutes due to their eighth hour crash, Team Suzuki End urance had soldiered its . way back into the third position, but they were 22 laps down on the two front-runne rs, Royal e Racing was fourth and . Virginia Breeze fifth. Force Racing pad ded its lead over the next hour and at the end of the 22nd hour they had a two-lap lead over Pearls and had maintained the 22 lap margin over Team Suzuki. Hour 23 revealed the top three teams ' stra tegies: Force Racing had stretched their lead to eight laps and they were cruising to minimize the chances of an Team Pearls Suzuki tu rned in a David versus Goliath kind of performance, tak ing th eir Suzuki GSXR600 to a second place fi nish. unforeseen mistake that could rob them of the victory. Team Pearls Suzuki was doing likewise, knowing they had put together an outstanding effort that would net them second place barring any unforeseen catastrophe. Team Suzuki Endurance, on the other hand, had taken their glo ves off and had go ne to wa r s havi ng w hat was a 20-lap d efi cit to Pearls down to 11 laps at the start of the final hour. Pearls, in tum, was running eight laps behind Force as the final hour began. With less than a half of an hour to go to the checkered flag, the race appeared to be settled. Force had built up a lead that would be difficult if not impossible to overcome, Team Suzuki was riding hard bu t time was not on their side to overta ke Pea rls for second, and Pearls appeared to be cruising home the runnerup. Bu t tha t m oo d was broken when Pearls s uffe red a bro ken throttle cab le and had to pi t to replace it. With Force maintaining their lead out fron t, Team Suzuki charged in a final attempt to take second away from Pearls. The Pearls' GSXR600 was quickly back on the track but it was apparent that the bike wasn't running properly, the motor was breaking up. Saylor pitted once again and the crew swarmed over the bike. The team was watching Suzuki whittle away at their ad vantage. Once back in the race, Sayl or put th e bike in fou rth ge ar and held the throttle cable in his left hand and circulated around the track fast enough to salvage second overall, first in the Mediumweight Superbike class, finishing nine laps behind th e w inning Fo rce Racing team and eight laps up on Team Suzuki Endurance, who al tho ugh th ey failed to win their fifth Nelson Ledges 24Hour race to p p ed the H ea vy we ight Superbike class and pad ded their series points lead . Fourth overall and second in the Mediumweight Superbike class fell to the Honda CBR600-mounted, Michiganbased Royale Racing team with an other Michigan squad, Nicholson's Ann Arbor, taking their sirniIar mount to fifth overall and first in Mediumweight Production. The thrill of victory went to Force Racing's Jeff James of New York, Dean H ayes of Ohio, Ch ris Hughes of New Jersey, Ron Crum of Ohio, .Ma r k McDaniel of California, Shawn Higbee of New York, and Rick Pagniano of Ohio. They had earned the right to brag forever tha t they had won the last-ever 24 Hours of Nelson Ledges. In winning overall, they also topped the Heavyweight Production class. Team Suzuki Endurance's John Ulrich summed up' Force Racing's performance: "They ran a perfect endurance race." m Four- tim e 24 Ho urs of Ne lson Ledges w inner Team Suzuki Endurance came back fr om a crash that cost them nearly an hour to fi nis h third. The Red Hot Racing pit crew gets set to get the team's Yamaha PZRlOOO back into the race. Resu lts O/A: 1. Force Racing (Yam) 10211aps ; 2. Tea m Pearls Suz uki (Su z) 1012; 3. Team Su zuki End urance (Su z) 1004; 4. Royale Racing (Ha n) 993; 5. Nicholson's An n Arbo r (Hon) 981; 6. TKO Racing (Suz) 977; 7. Red Hot Racing (Yam) 971; 8., HWi Racing (Su z) 969; 9. TBA Racing (Suz) 968; 10. Light Speed Racing (Hon) %7; 11. Roswell Racing (Suz) 964; 12 Heschimura Racing (Hon) 953; 13. Team Erin (Han) 943; 14. Team Hinda (Yam) 936; 15. Team 20 /20 Trac k ' N ' Trail (Ka w) 936 ; ]6. Roches ter Road Racers (Yam); ]7. Amore Racing (Hon) 920; 18. Team Ind y Cycle 'N ' Ski (Hon) 920; 19. Cigua Cyde Racing (Suz ) 919; 20. Anderson/Jardine Racing (Suz) 917; 21, Pittsburg h Yamaltawboys (Ya m) 90S; 22. Firestorm Endurance (Su z) 902; 23. Arclight Racing (H on) 899; 24. No rthern Boys Racing (Hon) 890; 25. Team Charm (Yam) 810; 26. Virginia Bree ze Racing (Yam ) 867; 27. Ameri can Harley-Davidson (H-D) 856; 28. N .Y. Motorcycles Racing (Yam) 848; 29. Can-Am Racing (Suz) 848; 30. Army o f Da rkness (Yam) 628; 31. Rata Racing (Hon) 432; 32. Vintage Ventures (Yam) 324; 33. Krol Cycles (Hon) 239; 34 . Ha ll ' N' Still Kinko 's (Yam) 149. WE RA POWER-M IST /P ERFOR MANCE MACHINE NAT'!. C'SHI P EN D URA NCE S ERI ES O/A POINT STA NDINGS (After 7 o f 12 rounds): 1. Team Suz uki Endurance (919.74); 2. Team Pea rls Suzuki (701.69); 3. '1fJ/20 Track <5< Trail (662.99); 4. Royale Racing (643.54) S. ; Arclight Racing (631. 36) ; 6. Virginia Breeze Racing (609.19); 7. H 'N'S Racing (605.36); 8. Indy Cyde 'N' Ski (600.59 ); 9. Red Hot Racing (S98.36); 10. Iku Racing (57l.63). 27

• Cover