Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ ROAD RACE e" WERA Power-MistlPerformance M achineNational Endurance Series: Round 9 ~~------:----:-:~~ Team Suzuki Endurance won its 91st career WERA endurance race and its ninth National Championship at Mem phis Motorsports Park. Kurt Hall and Michael Martin led Team Suzuki Enduran ce (1) over Virginia Breeze Racing (4) by three laps afte r six hours of racing. Team Suzuki Endurance clinches title at Memphis (From left to right) Arcligh t Racing. Team Suzuki Endurance and Virginia Breeze Racing. By Clair Fra n ks Photos b y Tiny Franks MILLINGTON, lN, AUG. 28 ea m Suzu ki End u ra nce not only picked up their 91st win but their ninth WERA N ation al En d u ra nce title as well at the s ix -ho u r race. a t Memphis Motors po rts Park. Riders Ku rt Hall and Micha el Martin took turns on the team' s 1993 Su zuki GSXRII00 an d crossed th e finish lin e three laps a hea d of Virgi nia Bre eze Racing. Arcl igh t Racing finished third . Team Suz uki End urance wa s founded as Team Hammer in 1980 by southern California ns Bru ce Ha m mer and John Ulrich . Team Hammer competes as Team Suzuki Endurance under contract to American Suzuki. The latest champi onship makes Team Suz u ki End u rance the first team to win the series title five consecutive years. T 34 With three rounds remaining in the series, Team Suzuki Endurance has an uncatchable 1120.1 points. Thirty-one teams gridded for the race -and the odds-on favorite, Team Suzuki Endurance, sat on the inside of row one wi th Tea m 20/20 Track 'N Trail, Team Pearls Suzuki and Virginia Breeze Racing alongside ready for the spri nt to tum one. As the starte r threw the green flag to get the first of two waves of bikes off the line, Virgini a Breeze got a grea t sta rt, leading Team Suzu ki into the first tum. Red Hot Racin g ran thi rd, jus t off the leaders' pace and they were followed by .Force Racing and H&H Racing. Duri ng the ope n ing laps, it appeared as though Virginia Breeze had some top e n d o n Te a m Su zu ki, b ut lost tha t adva nta ge in the tight section s. Glenn Szarek was behind the bars of Virginia Breeze's Yama ha FZRI000 for the first stin t with Hall piloting the Keith Perrytuned Team Suzuki GSXRI100. Virg in a Bre e ze a n d Tea m Suz u ki p ulled away from the rest of the field as the y se t a blistering pace w ith several one minute, .09 second laps before se ttling in to an ea rly race pace just a second slower. On the fi ft h la p , three b ik e s g o t tog et he r in the " M" section a nd wen t down, depositin g oil on the trac k. The red flags flew and after a brief clean-up period, the restart sa w a reve rsal of roles as Team Suzuki Endurance gra bbed the lead w ith Virigin a Breeze close behind, Arcligh t Ra cin g ru n ning third, H&H Racing fourth and Force Racing fifth. The top positions re ma ined pretty much the same for the nex t hour and a half although an exci ting race ensued w ith a n occasional lead swap as th e front-runners worked their way through traffic. Approaching the end of the second hour, Team Suzuki had opened up a lead of 17 seconds and a t the 1 hour, 48 minute mar k, Virginia Breeze made its first p it stop , allowi ng Team Suz uki to extend its lead . At the two-hou r mark, Team Suz uki was a full lap ahea d of what ap peared to be a s truggling Virg inia Breeze team. While backma rkers had played a major role in a llowing Team Suzuki to str etch ou t it s le ad , an ov erheatin g p robl em was ham pering Virginia Breeze. Du ring the th ird hou r, Hall brought the Team Suzuki machine in for a rider cha nge and fuel. At ap p rox ima tely the sa me time, H&H Racing d ropped out of th e top five w it h Tea m 20/20 tak ing over the thi rd spot a lap beh ind Virigina Bree ze. Force w as ru nn ing fou rth and Arclight was holdin g down fifth. Virgin ia Breeze 's worst nightma re came tru e as th e overheating p rob lem worsened and they fell five lap s behind Team Suzu ki during hour number three. Desp ite their probl ems, they were able to m ainta in a one-lap lead over w hat had now beco me a four-team battle for th ird bet w een Force , 20/20, Arcligh t and R.A. Racing. Then, three and one-half hours in to the race, the seco nd red flag was flying. An entrant's mot or ha d let go in turn one, oiling d own the tra ck all the way around to tum two . For Virgin ia Breeze, the s top p ing of the race could n' t have come at a better time. Th e 30-mi nu te break allowed them to tend to th eir overheating problem and once the race resumed it was apparen t that they had solved the problem. After a sighting la p that ena bled all to see wh ere the oil had been cleaned up , Virgin ia Breeze knocked one lap off th eir d efici t as th ey took the on- track lead fro m Team Suz uki by ou t-dragging the latter into tum one at the wave of the green. Red Hot Racing ent ered the picture by squeezing in to third ahead of Force Racing and Ardight Racing.

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