Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eROAD RACE ! Moto/Liberty Nankai II ~ crowned in season finale AMAfCCS EBC B rakesEnduranceC hallenge:Final Round '---:-_- - -- - l-I Q) ~ Q) > o Z it, likely a rock p icked up on the wa rmup lap according to team captain Jeff Stem. Once' fixed, there was no stopping Barnes and teammate Sco tt Zampach and the d uo com pletely dominated the race . "We came here in March a nd won the race and now we're back again, " said Barnes, w ho ce lebra ted hi s 25th birthd ay on October 21. "It's a pret ty good way to finish off the seaso n. Scott did a g re a t job and he 's been a great teamma te." The Fas tline/MCM team completed 79 laps, or 281.24 miles, on the 3.56-mile course at an avera ge speed of 93.415 mph. Their margin of victory was four minutes, 17.899 seconds. Second p lace, a lap d own, was taken by H .N.S. Ra cing w it h Two Bro th e rs another lap behind in third, and form er cham pions Dutchman Racing yet another lap adrift in fourth. Two Brothers Racing fin ished the se as on with a 30-point cushion in th e series po int standings, 387 to Fastline/ MC M Ra cing ' s 357. Dutchman ended the season with 305. GTU Three teams spli t at the start, Mot o Liber ty /Nankai II, 4 & 6 Racin g, and Fastline/MCM Racing II. 4 & 6 Racing's Weichel was in the lea d wh en the race was red -flagged on the eighth lap. Moto Liberty/ Na nkai 11 stayed wi th the ir ch oice of tires and d idn' t ch an ge By Henny Ray Abrams Photos b y Abrams and Daytona International Speedway his was racing the wa y it sho uld be. After 11 races in nine states over a period of eigh t months, the top two teams in the GTU class of the EBC Brakes Endurance Series, Moto Liberty / Nankai II and 4 & 6 Racing, we re sep arated by a single poin t. The re was no strategy in the final three-hour race at Daytona International Speedway; the team that finished in front of the othe r would likely carry the number one plate for 1994. Tha t honor will go to Mot o liberty / Nankai II, a team that ran a troublefree race and chose the right tires on a day that rain sho wers ca used a number of unscheduled p it stops and, ultimately, d ecided the cha mpionship. Started under a clo udy bright sky, the race wa s red -flagged af ter abo ut 15 m inutes due to oil on the track. Wit h rai n clouds threatenin g ove rhead, a number of teams changed tires, wi th 4 & 6 Racin g going to grooved in terme di ates. The rain began, bu t ended quickly and by the end of the firs t hour 4 & 6 Racing found themselves in 14th place and never able to catch up. "It was our mistake when they had the red flag," said 4 & 6's Jona tha n Cornwell, who teamed with fellow Canadian Owen Weichel. "We should have looked a t the sky and guessed it might blow over. We gambled with our tires tha t it would rain." 4 & 6 wo uld finish third beh ind Moto Liberty /Nankai II's Takahito Mori and Doug C a rm ic h a e l and AGV Sport Group's Steve Crevier and Michael Tay lor. "This is great, to win the title two years in a row," Doug Carmichael said after the team wo n its fifth race of the T 10 (Ab ove) 4 & 6 Racing (5) leads Mota Libertyl Nankai II (38) in their battle for the GTUclass championsh ip at Daytona International Speedway. (Right) 4 & 6 we re forced to change a tire and that proved to be - the difference in the race. year. "We'll be back next yea r to do it again." . Carmichael and Mori, who finished fifth overall, covered 76 laps of the 3.56m ile tra ck with both th e secon d and third placed mach ines finish ing on the same lap . The fi na l poi n t s ta ndings h a v e Mot o Libe rt y / Nankai at th e top with 339, s ix bett er th a n 4 & 6 Raci ng. N o rthwest Racing, fif th today with Andy Fenw ick and Dean Mizdal sharing the riding, ended the season thi rd with 271 p oint s. The GTO cha m pionship had been clinched by Two Brothers Racing at the penultimate rou nd at Sears Point International Raceway . Th is race would be wide open and the very decisive w in w ould go to Fastl ine/MCM Suzuki who caug ht so me luck in their final race with th e number one plate . With Michael Barnes in the lead d u ring the openi ng s tages of th e race, th e Fastline/MCM Su zuk i GSXRllOO was black-flagged because it was leaking oil. Coincidentally, the race was red-flagged when four bikes crashed oil in the final infield tum. The prob lem for th e Fastline/MCM crew wo uld be a radiator with a hole in d uring the delay . "That was 12 minutes of tire wear," Carmichael said. Weich el jumped out to th e lead on the re-start, bu t Mori was w ith him as well as Fastline / MCM Racing II's Craig Gleason. About 50 minutes into the race, the rain began and pit stops brought some teams in fo r tire a n d rider change s, a mong them Gl easo n 's te am w ho cha nged tires and gave the bike over to James Randolph. At the one-hour mark, Takahito Mori had the Moto Liberty/Nankai 11 Suzuki into second overall while 4 & 6 Racing's Jonathan Cornwell struggled back in 14th place afte r a partic ularly troublesome pit stop. Carmichael too k the mi d d le riding stint as the race approached the halfway point, briefly los in g th e lea d to AGV Sport Group's Steve Crevier who took the lead when Mo ri pitted. Cr evier came in a few min utes la ter and gave the bike to Michael Tay lor, the n revealed that he'd crashed in the second hor seshoe, picked it up, and broug ht it in to the pits. He also said the tea m's Honda CBR600 was having ca rburetion troubles. - - - - - -- - -- At the h alfway point Moto liberty /Nankai II led AGV Sport Group with Hyvac Racing in third in front of Keystone/Northstar 11. Jonathan Cornwell gave up the 4 & 6 Racing entry at th e 1:43 mark to Weichel as th e track b e g a n dryi ng q uickly and the team was up to nin th p lace . Weic hel was making up gro und every w he re, but was over a lap down with an hour to go, w ith Tay lor moving in to the lead and Carmichael a close second. Carmicha el' s sti n t wo u ld en d at the 2:12 mark with Mori taking over again for the run to the flag . " It was pre tty wet when I we nt out at fir st, but it w as dryi ng," Carmichael said. "We were going to run the whole race on th e s a m e tires . We did tha t because it w as d ry in th e beg inning. Mori d idn't want to run DOT's in the rain. He had never ridden on them. Yesterday we gave him the whole practice to try them." With just over half an hour to go, Mo ri was b ack in the lea d a n d the team would not have to make another pit stop. The other teams weren ' t as lucky. Andy Fenwick replaced Dea n Mizdal on the Northwest Racin g Honda. Owen Weichel came in to give Cornwell the 4 & 6 Racing bike for the final 34 minutes and , abou t five minutes later, Crevier was back on the AGV Sport Group bike, taking it from Tay lor. Not long after that Jamie Bowman w ou ld take the Hyvac Racing bike for the final time. ' But all th os e sto ps just added to Libe rty / Moto N anka i' s cushion and they cru ised to the winner's circle. AGV Spo rt G ro up to ok se cond, their bes t finish of the yea r, and 4 & 6 Racing ended up third. " We h ad ou r share of problems," Crevier said after fi n is hi ng seco nd . "We had some carburetion woes . I ev en fe ll down o nc e in the West Horse shoe tum in th e in fiel d just to ma ke matters a littl e fu n ner. We' re jus t pleased we could get second. " " 1 told Steve when he jumped on the bike that with the carburetion problem th e p ower came on li ke a h it with a ha mmer a t 9000 rp m, " Cr evier 's teammate, Mich ae l Taylor , said . "We were fortunate when it starte d to rain that we had stree t tires on it. I was imp ressed at just h ow fa st Steve co uld go in -the rain." Though the season title elu ded them, Cornwell found so me consolation in finishing second. "I'm thankful 4 & 6 Cycle came to the res cue of the Hornblow er Racing bike and allowed us to finish up the seaso n," he said . "It's been real great," Wei ch el agreed. "You've go t to look at the series. We came her e one p oint behi nd Mo to Liberty. On e poin t between tw o teams going into th e fi na l ra ce . We ra n up fron t in the firs t ho ur, but we ga mbled and it di dn' t pay off." Hyvac Ra cin g finished fourth wi th North west Racing finishing fifth. GTO Michael Barnes was running so well at the front of the pack th a t he didn't

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