Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Fo u rt h w ent to J.S. Racin g' s Sean Sweeney, who'd teamed with Jim Lester. Sweeney said his last lap was interrupted by a couple of lappers an d it slowed him eno ugh that he couldn' t mak e a run at the end. "We wanted one more podium finish. Two wasn't enough," Lester said . Not long afterwards the third -place team was d isq ualified and J.S. Racing had their third, but wi thou t the podium ceremony. Plano Honda Endurance took over the fiflh spot on the fin al lap with Iizuka brini ng the second Moto Liberty bike home sixth. Both moved up one position with the d isqualification of the third0'1 place bike. Road Atlanta Braselton, Georgia Results: september 17, 1994 M IDD LEWEIGHT TEAM CH ALLENG E: 1. Moto Liberty/Honda (Han); 2. Terrell/Nakada Motorsports (Hon); 3. JS. Racing (H on); 4. Plano Honda Endurance (Han); 5. Mota Liberty/ Nan ka i (Han); 6. M&M Racing (Hon) ; 7. Team Manno (Hon); 8. Team Triad Roadracing (Han); 9. K.W.5. Motorsports (Han); 10. SBR-IRC Racing (Yam); 11. Light Speed II (Han); 12. The L.O.D. (Han); 13. Northwest Racing (Hon); 14. Anderson/Dynamic Racing _ (Hon) ; 15. D&D Racing (Hon) ; 16. Amherst Motorsports (Hon); 17. Tea m Triad II (Ho n); 18. Team Knee Dragon . (Han); 19. Psalm Racing (Suz); 20. Team Dia mand (Han); 21. Honda/H-D o f Prestonsburg (Hon); 22. Fea rless Racing (Hon); 23. Two O ld Raci ng (Hon); 24 . Hyvac/New Tech Cycle Racing (H a n); 25. Team Racing Motorcycle Works (Hon); 26. Recycle Racing (Suz); 27. AGV Sports Gro up (Hon) ; 28. Produmax Racing (Hon); 29. Mint Racing (Hon); 30. Din osaur Racing (Hon); 31. _ Mota Liberty/ Brid ges tone (Han); 32. K.W.5. (Han). Time: 1 hr .• 11.361 sec. Distance: 24 laps, 60.48 miles . Average speed: None d ue to red flag. Margin of victory: 39.246 sec. F1NALM IDOLEWEIGHT TEAM CHALLENGE CSHIP POINT STANDINGS: I. Moto LibertylHonda (284/7 wins); 2. AGV Spo rt (259/1); 3. Northwest Racing (223/ 1); 4. Amherst Motorsport (198); 5. 1.5. Racing (187); 6. Kiyo Watanabe Racin g (149); 7. Iicanlla Apache Race Team (141); 8. Mot o Liberty/Nankai (118 /1); 9. Tea m Red Baron (97); 10 . H I Racing 2 (88 ); 11 . Tea m Technology (87); 12. Hyvac/New Tech Cycle (BO); 13. Mint Racing (73); 14. (TIE) An derson/Dynamic Racing (70); 16. Recycle Racing (60); 17. Westfield MLR Racing (59); 18. Tri Mid Racing (48); 19. Light SPeed II (45); 20. SBR-IRC Racing (43). AMAlCCS EBC Brakes Unlimited Team Challenge Erion's title By Henny Ray Abram s BRASELTON, GA, SEPT 18 hey won when they needed to, settled for less when they had to, finished every race; never worse than fifth, and, all the while, kept focused on the ultimate goal: to defend their EBC Brakes Unlimited Team Challenge championship. Erion Racing, which had won the 1993 heavyweight endurance title under the Two Brothers Racing banner, finished a comfortable fifth in the red-flagshortened final event at Road Atlanta and easily won their second consecutive crown. The race was won by Virginia Breeze Racing's Glenn Szarek and Chris Taylor, la te of the WERA series and quickly adapting to AMA competition by scoring a win in their first outing. When the red flag was thrown, with about 15 minutes ' left in the one-hour event, Szarek had about a four -second lead on Dutchman Racing's AI Salaverria, who had that, and more, on Fastline/MCM Suzuki's Aaron . Yates, finishing up for James Randolph. That's how the final scoring would read for the top three. The second Fas tline /MCM Suzuki was fourth, David McGrath riding the second shift, with Erion Racing's Larry Pe g ram a stea dy fifth, aware that his main rival, Muzzy Kawasaki, had lost a lap to electrical problems. Three teams were mathematically capable of winning the title, but it would have taken some bad luck by Erion for Team Kawasaki Muzzy to win it. And T (Above) Moto LibertylHonda (1) leads the way into turn one at the start of the ' Mlddlwelght Team Challenge. The team went on to win, earning the class championship in the process. (Right) FastlinelMCM Suzuki (66) leads eventua l UTC winner Virginia Breeze Racing (29) Fastline/MCM Suzuki, also still in it, needed a miracle. Neithe r happened. The Muzzy Kawasaki unde r Tripp Nobles had the bad luck, and the Honda CBR900 was king for the second year in a row, this tim e ridden by Nick Ienatsch an d dirt tracker Larry Pegram. "We needed to finish second if the Muzzy Kawasaki won," lenatsch said. '1 just kind of rode like 1 was going up the freeway looking in my rearview mirror for cops . I'd come up on a backmarker and panic. 1was in fifth, right with fourth." After taking over for Takahiro Sohwa right at the halfway mark, Nobles was running a tight third when he sputtered across the line about 38 minutes into the race. He pitted the following lap, a battery was changed, and he went back out. Afterwards, team owner Rob Muzzy said it was something electrical, though they hadn't pinned it down. They would finish a lap behind the leaders in ninth place, the top eight teams all completing 30 laps of the 2.52-miIecircuit. Erion Racing's point total for the 10race season was 315, Muzzy was second at 300, with Fastline /MCM Suzuki third at 288. The race, the final one of the day, began just after 4:00 p .m . with a four rider breakaway that lost one of its group by the fourth lap . That's when lenatsch backed off to let the lead trio fight it out. That would be Fastline/MCM Suzuki's James Randolph, Muzzy Kawasaki 's Takahiro Sohwa, and Dutchman Racing's Mike Harth aboard a new bike that team owner Dave Schlosser had just finished building the Wednesday before the race. (It was a YZF 750 motor in a YZF 1000 chassis.) Behind lenatsch a group strung out, led by Keyston e/Northstar's Mario Duhamel, and the second Fastline/MCM bike ridden by Jacques Guenette Jr. Sohwa soon mov ed the Muzzy bike into the lead with Harth second and Randolph third , lenatsch alone in fourth with Virg inia Breeze Racin g's Chris Ta ylor now at the head of the fifth place pack. Sohwa had tried to inch away, building better than a three-second lead on the 15th lap, then Randolph wicked it up and left Harth to go after the leader. He would catch him on the 20th lap, taking the lead a lap later. Now was the time for ride r changes, Taylor in first at the 22-minu te mark to hand off to Szarek. A minute later, Salaverria took over for Harth, and at the 27-minute mark David McGrath took control of the second Fastline / MCM bike from Guenette Jr. . Sohwa pitted at the halfwa y mark and . I a lap later James Randolph gave up the lead to get Aaron Yates in the saddle. lenatsch would be the last to pit, running second when he came in at 36 minutes so Pegram could finish. The leader on the track w as Key stone/Northstar's Duhamel, sta ying out un til there were about two minutes left in th e 40-min ute window when changes have to take place. When he pitt ed , to give way to Anth ony Lupo, Nobles was in the lead in front of Dutch man' s Salaverria and Virginia Breeze Racing 's Sza rek . Not fa r back w as Fastline/ MCM's Yates in front of McGrath, with Pegram sixth. Not lon g after that Nobles came in and the Erion Racing crew used their pit board to let Pegram know the main competition was out of it. Szarek then took over the lead from . Salaverria and quickly opened up a gap, though he wasn't entirely sure it was for the lead. "I didn't know where 1 was running," Szarek said, after joining the race. "I saw ' t hre e' (Dutchman) and '17' (Muzzy Kawasaki) right in front of me. 1 thought they were lead ing. I just took care of them (going down the backstraight) and that was that." On the 30th lap he had close to four secon ds and the race was red- flagged shortly afterwards when a blown engine coa ted the track th rough the "Gravity Cavity." Scoring reverted back to the 30th lap. With less than 15 minutes to run, the riders sat in the pits watching the clock by the finish line wind down. Getting the track in racing shape would take longer than the fifteen minutes, and, since the ride rs would need a five-minute board before racing, the clean-up time would have had to be a quick 10 minutes. Vir gi n ia Breeze Raci ng wo uld be declared the winner, Dutchman would be second, with Fastline /MCM Suzuki third. 0'1 Road Atlanta Braselton, Georgia Results: september 1B, 1994 UNLIMITED TEAM CHALLENGE, 1. Virgin ia Bree ze Racing (Yam); 2. Dutchman Racing (Yam); 3. Fastline/MCM Suz uki (Suz); 4. Fastline/ MCM Suz uki II (Suz); 5. Erion Racing (Han ); 6. Erion Racing 2 (Han); 7. Keystone / Northstar II (Yam); 8. Team Ame rica (Han); 9. Team Kawasaki/Muzzy (!

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