Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

by fou r lap s. "When I got on the second time we were up by three laps. I just p ut it on cruise. That's a long hour ." Martin, Stanton and Batey completed 152 laps (383.04 miles) of the 2.52-m ile track. The win increased their point tota l to 990.48 ove r Team Pearls Suzuki, second today and second in the cha mp ions hip with 723.25 po in ts . Compet it ive Edge Racing, which was d isqu alified fro m thei r fourth-plac e finish tod ay for having illegal bodywork, dropped to third for the year with 703.19 points. Dutchma n's pit stop had dropped them well back and they wer e out of the rac e near the 3:20 mark with a severe overheating problem. "It was losing water throughout the race," Stroud sa id . " At th e top of the bridge it stopped ." When the Dutchman ba ttery failed, seco nd overall was inherited by the first Heavyweight Superstock team, Tea m Pea rls Suz uki's Darry l Saylor and Frank Wilson . The Suzuki GSXR750-mounted duo had run in third for much of the r ace and was well in front of fourth pl ace when th e Dutchman bike p itt ed the first time. "Peter Jones (team man ager) told us goi ng in to th e race to put o ur heads down and run as hard as we can, " Frank Wilso n said . "At the time, we were looking at being third in class, fourth overall. We put ou r heads d ow n and finis hed seco n d ." W il s on ' s mos t exciti ng momen t ca me when a deer ran across the track in front of him goi ng into tum five. " It wa sn 't what I expected goi ng over the hill," Wilson said . Team Pearls Suzuki's dri ve to the finish w as mostly unimpeded and at the finis h they were two laps better than the third-place finishers, No rthwest Ho nda Racing 's Greg Abbo tt an d Gordon Miller, who'd struggled with tire a nd clutch problems throughout the event. "The clutch went out after the first hour," Miller said . "I suggested we nurse it as far as it would go . We slowed down two to three seconds a lap. A couple of times I couldn't get it into top gea r." The team also chunked a rear tire late in the race and were rapidly being ca u g h t from behind by Competitive Edge Racing, but would cros s the line with five seconds to spare. It wouldn't matter. During the post-race teardown Compet itive Edge was found to be using a GSXR750 tailpiece on their GSXRllOO, an illegal modification for th e Super stock class. The team had been using the bod ywork for the entire season, Mark Ju nge explained, because he'd raced a 750 last year. "According to the ru lebook it's thinner and performance enhancing, " Junge said . "We jus t m ad e a mi s take . W e woul d've been second overall and second in class." Arclight Racin g m ov ed into fourth overall with H&H Racin g taking over fifth. Third, fourth and fifth all finished on the same lap. / ., Th e field of 49 fook the gree n on a sun ny a nd cool Saturda y aftern oon, with Martin immediatel y ou t fro n t for Tea m Su zu ki Endurance, w ith Te a m' Pearls Suzuki second and Competi tive Edge third. Du tchman had started from the very last row, but Stroud was on a tear and by the sixth lap he was up to third. The race w as red-fla gged soon after and regri dd ed for a complete restart. The second tr y w as no d ifferent, Martin sp lit and Stroud stormed, and by the end of th e sixth lap Stroud wa s in second, though Martin had close to 14 seconds in hand. (Above) Team Suzuki Endurance (1) got the jump on the fi eld at the start of the endurance fina l at Road Atlanta. (Righ t) The race turned Into a Dutchman Racing (3) vs. Team Suzuki (1) battle, but Dutchman was forced out of the race by a falling battery. TSE went on to an easy victory, the 101st ofthe team 's career; The margin d idn't change mu ch for seve ra l lap s, but on the 12th it was down to 8.5, a gap that wouldn't change app reci ably u n til th e en d of the first ho ur wh en Strou d closed it down to under five seconds. Ten minutes into the second hou r, Stro ud passed Martin for the lead , a move that Martin had been expecting. "Once he passed me I wanted to stick wi th him," Martin said, bu t he was finding th e Suz uki d own on power to the Dutchman Yamaha. "Tha t Yam ah a is pretty friggin' fast. I was having to wo rk hard in the infield to keep up . Ou t of the comer going onto the back straight he was gapping me big. Once someone gets away it's ha rd to reel them back in." The pace of the race quickened during this part of the race, the fastest laps d ropping down to the 1:24.3 range as the pair knifed through traffic. At the 1:18 mark Stro ud came in and Barnes tookover with Stroud saying tha t he was trying to conserve the tires and brakes. The stop had been about 19 seconds with Martin taking over the lead before pitting about three minutes later so that Stanton could get his first ride on th e Team Suzuki Endurance bike. Their's was a slightly quicker stop, even though the y changed a rea r tire. Barnes took over and when Stanton rejoined the race he was better than 15 seconds behind a gap that would grow to more than 18 before Stanton began reeling him in. Dutchman led at the two-hour mar k -as th e se co nd wave of ride'r ch anges began. Barnes was in front w hen he came in for both a tire and rider chan ge. " T' rn just a litt le tir ed, I' m a li ttle rusty," Barnes said, add ing th at traffic was so "congested" it "felt like d riving through the middle of Miami." _ Ha rth went ou t, but the lead wen t to Stanton . Five minutes later Stan ton pitted to hand off to Batey an d, again, a rear tire was changed. Harth was running in second place . w hen the bike slowed, then stopped on the back straight at about the 2:45 mark. "I gue ss th e battery started sp uttering before the straigh taway. It died just before the pit ," Harth sa id. "I wa sn' t , about to posh it up the hill." Tha t w as the race. Martin took over from Batey just into the fina l hour and cruised to the fou r-lap victory. "I think we had it covered with Dave (Stan ton) and Micha el (Martin)," Bate y said after his stint. "They jus t let me ride to blow the cobwebs out. " Behind the leaders came Team Pearls Suzuki. The tea m of Frank Wilson and Darryl Saylor was second after the first hour, third after the second hour, three laps down on the lead d uo, then back to second when Dutchman d rop ped out. For the final hour they were a lap ahead of third, then picked up another .Iap by the end. "We were pretty well just circulating," Wilson said. "Darryl we nt first, I wen t second. By the third hour we were , about a lap up. We went the whole way on one set of tires ." Wilson said that 15 . minutes into the last hour was when he encountered the deer entering tum five. "It was close enough. By the time I got into turn five he'd jumped over the rail." Behind Team Pearls came the closest racing of the day, four teams all racing on the same lap righ t to the very end. Northwest Honda Racing moved from fifth to third in th e third hour, though there was so me concern their H onda CBR900 wo uld n' t finish the race. "The clu tch went ou t after one hour. A couple of tim es I cou ldn't get it in to top gear," Greg Abb ott sai d, ad di ng it was becau se of newly found power the team had d ev elop ed. "We never had this m uch ho rsepower. W e' ve been picking up power as time went on. We picked up quite a bit of power befor e this race and the clutch showed it." The clutch wasn' t their only problem. Their stra tegy was to not change tires, but th ey. ch u n ked th e rear late in the race and had to nurse it to the end. "I was counting it by the end of the race. I was counting it and th e interval behind us was getting smaller," Gordon Miller said. The fourth-placed team, Competitive Edge was also cou n tin g it and letting Mark Jung e know it was time to pick up the pace. "The crew was waving a hat for me to go faster," said Junge, who rod e ihe first and last stints. "I was just out there rid ing. I saw I was 25 seconds behind third place. Then, in the next couple of laps, I was only down 15. I could see him going into tum one when I got my. pit bo ard . My tires were gone. It was wiggling going into the dip." Though t hey fin ished a closing fourth, all of their hard w ork would be wasted when they were disqualified for having the illega l bodywork That moved Arclight Racing's Chuck Warren and Pete Martins up to fourth, the highest spot they 'd held all day. The Suzuki GSXRllO -equipped team beat O fifth-placed H&H Racing to the flag by 38 seconds. 01 Road Atlanta Braselton, Georg ia Results: October 29, 1994 ENDURANCE: 1. Team Suzuki Endurance (Suz); 2Team Pearls Suz uki (Suz); 3. Northwest Honda Racing (Hon); 4. Alclight Racing !Suz); S. H&H Racing (Yam); 6. ~. Racing (Suz); 7. O hio Superbike Racing (Yam) ; 8. Ca nto n Racin g 1 (Ka w) ; 9. Airport Racing (Hon); 10. Team lSBA (Ka w); 11. Royale Racing (Hon); 12. Can-Am Racin g (5uz); 13. Plan Ho nda Endurance (Han); 14. TKO Racing (Ka w); 15. Eag le Racing (5 uz ); 16. Cycle Tech (Yam); 17. N icholson's Ann Arbo r (Han); 18. Brian Gi b bs Racing (Hon) ; 19 . Stray Bullet (Han ); 20. AndersonlJardine Racing (Yam); 21. Virgi nia Bree ze 2 (Ya m) ; 22 . P u re Sp o r ts Racing (Han); 23 . Tea m Powe rbar Suzuki (Suz); 24. AMS Racing, Inc. (Yam ); 25. Am erican Dream Racins _ (Yam); 26. BHR Racing (Yam ); 27. Ann y of Darkness (Yam); 28. The Rayce Tea m Too (Hon) ; 29. The Rayce Team (Han); 30. TBA Racing (5 uz); 31. Red Hot Racing (Yam); 32. FBL Racing l AKA Bare ly Hu ma n (H an); 33 . Fires torm Endurance (Suz); 34 . Pro bst Bros . Racin g (Hon); 35. Mars Racing (Suz) ; 36 Amore Racing (Ho n); 37. RU4 Racing (5uz);38. Tea m speed (H on); 39. Fungi '. Racing (Hon); 40. Dutchm an Raci ng (Ya m); 41. Desi re Ra ci ng (Ya m); 42. Recycle Racing (Suz); 43. Pe nn Sta te Cycles (Hon ); 44 . Lig ht speed II (Kaw); 45. Am erican Ha rley-Davidson (Buell); . 46. Cheetah Racing (Suz); 47. Cheetah Racing II (Suz) ; 48. Cy cle Motion Raci ng / Team Prudential (Ho n); 49. Amore Racing n (Han). Time: 3 hr. , 59 min. , 58 sec. Di stance: 152 laps, 383.04 miles Mugio of victory: Four laps. FI N A L NAT'L EN D U R A N C E S ERI ES POINT STANDINGS (After 11 of 11 rounds): 1. Team Suz uld Endurance (990.48); 2. Tea m Pearls Suz u ki (723.25); 3. Competitive Edge Racing (703.19); 4. Red Ho t Racing (68 5.77): S. Arc lig h t Ra cin g (670.S1); 6. O hio Super Racing (668.9); 7. Royale Racing (664.09); 8. TKO Racing (646 .32); 9. R.A . Racing (64 4.56); 10. H &H Ra cing (623.91); 11. AUporl Racing (562.82); 12. Amore Racing (553.43); 13. Nicholson's Ann Arbor (551.31); 14. CanAm Racin g (540.56); 15. Tea m TS8 A (533.26); 16. Pure Sp orts Racin g (531.2): 17. Virginia Breeze Racing (520.46); 18. Northwest Honda Racing (491.64); 19. Team Powerbar 5uz uJd (479.29); 20. AMS Racing Inc. (410.19). "d" 00- rl \l:) ' rl l-< Q) "E Q) :> o Z 15

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