Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eR RACE DAD AMAICCS EBC BrakesEnduranceC eng- -eSenes :_oun_d1 haU ,- _ _'_ R _ _0 ~ ("I") 0\ 0\ T"""'l Two Brothers Racing's Tommy Lynch and Nick lenatsch won their fifth GT O en duran ce race of the season at Mid-Ohio. Two Brothers unbeata le a id h b tM-Oio By Henny Ray Abrams LEXINGTON, OH, AUG. 7 inners generally have little to say and for good reason. The re are no problems to explain away, no bad choices to b e m o an , n o mista kes to r e gret. Afte r th e 90 -minu te EBC Endurance Challenge for GTO machi nery, Two Broth ers Ra ci n g ' s To m m y Lynch ha d little to say. "No problems at all. 1went out, circulated, got aw ay from them. 1rode around and had a good time on that H onda," Lynch sa id aft er he an d Nick Ienatsch rode the Two Brothers Racing Honda CBR900RR to their fourth GTO win in a row and further extended their championship points lead. "My thinking was: Tommy's the finisher," said Ienatsch, who rode the first stint and took over the lead just past the half hour mark. The pair completed 56 laps of the 2.25-mile Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course at an average speed of 83.474 mph, not extremely fast, but fast enough. "I was pulling away as it was," Lynch said. "There was no reason to wick it up. " Second place, 16.642 seconds back, was Fastline/MCM Racing's Scott Zampach an d Michael Barn es. Zampach rode first and held the lead un til the 36minute mark when Iena tsch d isp laced him. Barnes brought the team's Suzuki GSXR1100 home. "It was like a sprint race," Barnes said. "I had to slip around the last 45 minutes. I was happy to bring it home second." The top two teams are also the top two in the GTO championship race. W 20 With two races to be run, at Sears Point a n d D a ytona , Two Br oth ers lead s Fastlin e/MCM Racing, 329 to 292. "If you look at the math they have a pretty good lead right now, but we're not giving up the fight ," Zampach said. The first time pairin g of Tray Batey and Dave Sadowski finish ed th ird , the fina l team on the same lap as the leaders, aboard Tea m Kinko 's Yamaha FZR1000. Formerly Hall-n-Still Racing, th e team p ick ed up a three-race sponsorship deal from Kinko's Copies which they hope to extend. Fourth w ent to v eterans John Jacob and Gary Lenzme ier aboard the Keystone/Northstar Yamaha FZR-1000. They completed 55 lap s, one better than fifth placed Mile Hi Motorsports, another debut effort. The Boulder, Colorad o based team had Don Hough and Mark Schellinger aboard a Yamaha FZR1000. The GTO race was green-flagged on a cloudy, warm afterno on with Two Br o th e r s ' lenatsch, Fastline/ MC M Suzuki 's Zampach, and Dutchman Racing's Christian Gardner bolting from the field, soon to be joined by Jacqu es Gu enette [r., the Canadian getting some testing time on his Yamaha superbike. Guenette soon took over the lea d, but pulled ou t on the tenth lap and the race began in earnest. Zampach was in front of lenatsch and Gar dner was sud den ly in the pits and out of contention with a carburetor problem. The slide on the number four carburetor had fallen down after the synchronizer screw had been im p r o p er ly ti ghten ed . Te am owner Dave Schlosser knew what the problem was immediately and fixed it, thou gh he later regre tted no t d oing the same to the number th ree carb o Th e team would have to pit again 20 minutes lat er when th e sli d e on that carb sli d s h ut a n d would eventu ally finish 11th, five la ps down on the leaders . H alf a n h our in t o the ra ce a n d Zampach w as still in front, lenatsch second , with Bate y thi rd on the Tea m Kinko's bike. John Jacob was out on the Keys tone ZN orth s ta r entry with Don Ho u gh taking the first stint for Mile Hi. Eric Moe had the Team Magic bike in sixth . Tho ugh there was an hour still to run, the only changes would take place between the top two teams who would take 'tu rns leading, lenatsch taking over at about the 36-minute mark. " I led the first couple of laps and I knew it w as plus-zero, then Zampach cam e by. He was faster in a straight line an d he was riding better than me and it picked me up a little bit," lenatsch said . " H e seemed to sag two-thirds of the way through the stint, then he got his second wind . Even tho ugh he was outriding me, I've got a better bike. It ' s great on the brakes and cha nges dir ection better. Neither Scott nor 1 was takin g any chances in traffic. There's so much thinking toward finishing the last three races." "They definitely had a lighter, quicker bike through the infield," Zam pach-· agreed. _ About four laps after losing the lead, Zampach too k it back, only to give up when he pitted jus t before the halfway ma rk. Micha el Barnes took over, and, a lap later, Lynch was on for the duration for Two Brothers. Two things happened: Lynch d ropp ed th e lap times o n the Two Brothers bike and Barnes wa sn ' t able to m a tch Za mpach' s ti mes . Grad ua lly, Lync h eased away and by the time the race was over had better than a 16 second cushion. "When 1 left the pits 1 was p lus-one," Lyn ch said. "I pulled 10 seconds immed ia tely and with th is endurance team you don't want to crash the th ing. We weren't pushed that hard." " It was a really hard p ace a t the beginnin g of their stint, n Barnes sa id . "We just h ad to bring it h ome. 1 saw Tommy wasn't goi ng that good, but 1 didn 't w ant to crash it. 1 pressed it a couple of times, but there are bumps in spots th a t lift th e front e n d off th e g roun d . 1 was a v oiding da n ger and staying out of the way of the guys we were lapp ing every tw o or th ree laps. It was excitin g, to say the least." For the past several years Tray Batey has ra ced WER A excl us ively and this was his firs t. AMA race since his novice yea r of 1988. The length and pace of the race were something of an adjustment. "I ha ve kind of a WERA mentality," Batey sa id . "We race six or eigh t hours. This is like a spri nt." . It was also his first trip to the MidOh io circu it and if he had any trouble ad jus tin g, he di d n't sho w it. The team's biggest problem was having a s tarting sp ot on the seven th row of the grid . By the time he go t up to speed the leaders we re pulling away. "We s ta rted toward the ba ck and I got up as far as 1 could in the first two or three turns," Batey sai d . "Even when I di aled it up 1 was maintaining my own. 1 was hoping to ge t dose and wa tch and pick up a few things. I'm su re I'll lack a lot when 1 leave here Sunday." Sadowski ro de the fina l 36-min utes for Team Kinko's and was able to put a lap on fourth place and would certainly ha ve been more of a factor in a longer race. "Thi s team's go t the image and the equip men t. All they need is a little factory support," Sadowski said. "I was gaining half a second to two seconds a lap," Sadowsk i s a id . "I w a s gai ni ng o n Fastl ine . As soon as I picked up the pace gu ys would run onto my lines. 1 don't mean to sou nd nega tiv e, bu t so me of these guys jus t need a little more experience b e fo re th ey 're in a n AMA Nationa l." John Jacob, the lead rid er on fou rthplace Keyston e/Northstar, agreed. "I wa s just kind of cruising around," Jacob said after hand ing the bike to Gary Lenzmeier just before the end of th e fir st h our. "Tra ffic is a mess. The AMA keeps saying they'll black flag the slow riders. Some are dangerously slow. "I was try ing to stay with the third place bike for a while. They seemed to have some horsepower on our bike. It's a pretty much stock motor," Jacob said. Mile Hi Motorsports Donnie Hough said it was the first time he'd raced with Mark Schellinger and the first time he 'd raced at Mid-Ohio, "I'll be learning this track for years to come," he said. Once past Team Magic, Hough was able to pull away. · C1I Results GTO: 1. Tw o Brothe rs Raci ng (Hon); 2. FastHn /MCM Suzuki (Suz); 3. Team Kinko's (Yam); 4. e Keystone/Norths tar (Yam); 5. Mile Hi Motorsport s (Yam); 6. Team Magic (Yam); 7. Team Racelaw (Hon);8. Sportsland or Laramie Racing (Yam); 9. Blackhawk Racing (Yam); 10. M &< M Racing (Su z); 11. Dutchman Racing (Yam); 12. Defi cit Racing (5uz); 13. Act ion Machines I (Suz); 14. Team Sardine (Suz ); 15. Wh ite Fire Racing Endurance (hon); 16. Team 2112 Racing (Hon); 17.

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