Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

\: "'R ADR' C · ,. & O ' A··E:· : ':" ,' -~ ~' ;: . . .. . . : ': . : :; .' : . .:. ':,'" ' '. :. .. A MAlCC SEBCBrakes UnUrilitild TeainCha11elige series' .' Round 1: Daytona International Speedway Merkel/Nobles give ZX-g debut win By Henny Ray Abrams DAYI'ONABEACH, FL, MAR. 11 new power emerged in endurance racing at Daytona, w ith Fred Merkel and Tripp Nobles teaming up to give the Team Kawasaki/Muzzy ZX-9 a victory in its competition debut. Merkel, who was drafted onto the team when Takahiro Sohwa injured himself in Su pe rbi ke qualifying, ran down Andy Fenwic k on the leading Dutchman Racing bike with about 10 minutes to go.and we n t on to win by over a minute. The clu tch on Fenwick's Yamaha FZRI000 began to fail in the final stages and he was pa ssed on the last lap by Jacques Gue ne tte [r., the Canadian putting th e Fastline/ MCM Suzuki into second and relega ting Dutchman to third. Nobles and Merkel completed 31 laps of the 3.56-mile course at an average sp eed of 108.583 mph to win by one minute, 4.99 seconds. "Once we came in we had an excep.tionaI pit stop, thanks to the Kawasaki crew, and I handed it over to Fred . He brought it home," Nobles said . "I feel a little better now, after the Supersport race (where he broke an ex ha ust pipe and finished fourth), " Merkel said. "I thought about that one the whole race. 1 want to thank my teammate, Tripp, for making up all that d istance and riding a great race. It was a last-minute thing. We decided to do this last night and I'm glad we did . As soon as we get to a race track with some corners, those boys will be in tro uble. We came ba ck (fro m Eu rope) to wi n and that's what we're doing." To mmy Lyn ch, who team ed with Guene tte on the Fastline/MCM Suzu ki GSXRll O , realized they we ren't read y O to win and was happy to be in Victory Lane. "We we re ha vin g a bit of a struggle today. It wasn' t ou r day," Lynch said . "We lucked into it, because Dutchman was running great. Dutchman had some problems, unfortunately for them, but fortunately for us; it bumped us up one." Like theMuzzy team, Dutchman was running an impromptu team, having had to replace Miles Baldwin after he crashed in qualifying. Andy Fenwick got the call and took the second stin t after the hand-off from Scott Gray . Because of Gray's big-bike experience, the team chose to keep him on the bike for 40 minutes, the maximum time allowed in the new one-hour format. Fenwick took over with 20 minutes to go, but quickly ' ran into clutch troubles that would drop him to third. "The last six or seven laps the clutch was slipping, " Fenwick said. "To tell . you the truth, I didn't even know if 1was going to make it around to the pits on the last lap, it was slipping so badly." Erion Racing's Christian Gardner and Andrew Stroud finished fourth, with Stroud replacing Hikaru Miyagi, who was injured during the AMA/CCS weekend. Fifth place went to K.W.S . Motorsports' Kevin Hunt and Gene Church, who -b lew by Anderson/ Dynamic Racing's Jan Svensson at the finish line. Uncharacteristically cool temperatures and swirling winds greeted the 27rider field as they were green-flagged on Friday afternoon. Gray jumped to the front of an early quartet with Lynch sec- A so I moved my leg, but it didn't help," Guenette said. Harth brought the Team America bike in at the 37-minute mark for rider and tire changes, but the team had trouble getting it up on the jacks and they lo st va lu a ble time before Woody Deatherage could re-join the race. A m inute later, Fenwick took over the leading Dutchman Yamaha from Gray. When the pit stops were over, Fenwick was in the lead with Merkel second, Guenette third, Deatherage fourth, and Gardner fifth. Deatherage dropped out of th e race on the 24th lap with a clutch failure, handing fourth to Gardne r. Merkel was lapping in the 55's, and Fenwick had slowed to 58's and 59's, so it wa s only a matter of time before the lead changed hands. It came with abou t 10 minutes to go and it was decisive and pe rma nent. From that point on, it was a (Left) With riders Fred Merkel and Tripp Nobles at the helm of the new ZX-9, Team KawasakllMuzzy (17) rode to an Impressive win In the Unlimited Team Challenge. FastlinelMCM Suzuki (2) finished second. (Below) Dutchman Racing (3) led with approximately 10 minutes remaining, but slipped to third. FastlinelMCM Suzuki (2), Team America (4) and Erion Racing (1) give chase. ond , Mike Harth third o n th e Te a m America Honda, and Andrew Stroud fourth on the Erion Racing Honda, the defending National Champion, w ith Tripp Nob les a distant fifth, having started on the eighth row . No one could match Gray 's pace, the Californian pulling out a IS-second edge . on the seventh lap, and the ord er behind him d id not change. But Nobles w as moving up, the Georgian slicing through the field and catching the group behind Gray on the eighth lap. He went around Harth on the backstra ight and was hounding Lynch by the tim e they hit tum one. On the next lap he we nt into second, passing Lynch on the brakes going into tum one . Ten laps into the race Gray's lead on Nobles was 10-plus seconds,with Nobles beginning to pull awa y from the fight for third. As the race approached the midway point rider changes began, with most all of the top tearns pitting within a lap or two of each other. Nobles came in right a t th e 30- m in u te mark, a tire was changed and Merkel was gone. "We started on the eighth lap and I knew Gray would be out there at the start. 1 got into a pace of running 55's, low 56's, and I wasn't going to toss it away. 1 knew that Fenwick would be next and that w ith a good pit stop we could be close enough to run him down," Nobles said. In qu ick succession, Lynch handed the FastIine/MCM bike to Gu enette, and Stroud gave the Erion Racing Honda to Gardner. Guenette qu ickly d isco vered that the bike wasn't running well, something Lynch was aware of. "In my session we had a bit of a carb or ignition problem on top end. It really cut out on us," Lynch said. Since it was intermittent, Lynch wa s worried i t would cut out on him at the wrong rune. "I would go from major acceleration to major deceleration. There was the possibility of getting packed in the rear end." " My fir st thought wa s that 1 was holding the air from going into the carbs matter of how much Merkel would win by - and it would be a lot. "When I took off we were 17, 18 seconds behind, and dropping three to four seconds a lap," Merkel explained. "I was watching th e big scoring tower and 1 kind of calculated what was going to happen. 1 got him with plenty of laps to spare." Fenwick struggled to hold onto second, a spot he lost on the final lap as the Dutchman Racing Yamaha lurched to the finish. "I started seeing him, but 1was losing traction because we ran the same tire the wh ole rac e," sa id Guenette, who fin ished about e ight seconds behind Merkel. "I was making time up on braking and began pushing harder when I saw him ahead of me." "I don't think we would have caught the Kawasaki, but we lost second because of the clutch," Fenwick said. He finished better than 11 seconds behind Guenette. "Andy (Fenwick) did a great job with

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