Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

--~-------------------------- ROAD RACE . W RA National E E ndurance Series Roun Road A d2: tlanta • (Left ) The Team Suzuki Endurance duo of Tray Batey and David Stanton (shown) lapped the co urse some two to f ive seconds faste r than the com petition en route to victory when rou nd tw o of the WERA Nation al .Endurance Series visited Road Atl anta. (Below) TK O Rayce Team' Suzuki Too's Joey Gill iland (sh own) and Gregg Blackwell fin ished seco nd overall and topped th e Heavyweight Supe rstock d ivis io n after batt ling with several teams. By John Blackstock Photos by Yanlv Ad lr Pho to graphy BRASELTON, GA, MAY 4 nd u rance. Mr . Webs ter describes it th is way: "The ability to bear pai n, ha rdsh ip, or adversity." . Round two of the WERA National Endurance series at Road Atlanta provided plenty of each for the competing 49 team s. to bear. W ith the m ercury nearin g th e 90-d egree mark, the sixh our eve n t promi sed to be ve r y demanding on man and machine. After Michae l Martin dep arted from th e mi gh ty Team Suz uki End urance at th e en d of the '95 season, some of the competition mig ht have hoped for more eq ual footing this year. But after the team 's so und lashing of the fie ld at Road Atlanta, that doesn't appear to be the case at all. Tennessee native Tray Batey and Pleasant Hill, California's Dave Stanton lapped the scenic 2..5:-mile course at two to five seconds quick er than their nearest com pe titors all day on th e team ' s potent GSXRll DO-based machine. . Althou gh Team Su zuki d om inated the lead , th e race for second place on down was qu ite inter esting. TKO Rayce Team Suzu ki Too, Arclight Racing, KWS Motorsp orts, R&D Racing a nd H&H /RK Motorsports had a ferociou s battle thro ughout. As the green flag flew an d the clock st arted ticking, H &H / RK Motorsports with" Revin" Kevin Rentzell riding, put its Suzuki 1100 Supe rs toc k m ach ine thr ough tum one and up the hill first to lead a fr an ti c p ack that in clu d ed A rcl igh t' s Joe Pru ssiano, Ba te y, a nd TKO's Joey Gilleland. H&H and Arclight crossed the stripe ah ead of Team Su zuki to end lap one but by the next time around Batey had stormed into the lead and, as it tu rn ed ou t, led every lap to com e. Before five la p s were d own, lap p ed rid e rs were al rea dy co mi ng into pl a y but Team Suzuki's Batey sliced th rough them E effortlessly and by lap 10 held nearly a 15-second lead. A preview of th ings to come happ en ed jus t o ve r 40 m in u tes into the event as two riders went down in tu rn four, spilling oil and brin gin g ou t th e first of five red flags for the d ay. Tr ack personne l w ere fe verishl y cleaning the racing surface as pit crew s sc r a m ble d to e ns u re their machines were capable of the feat to come. All engines were s till silen t as the official clock struck the one-ho ur mark. Score shee ts showed Team Suzuki Sport followe d by H&H, TKO Too, HP Motorspo rts, and KWS Motorsports roun ding ou t the top five. At this point only fou r teams remained on the lead lap. The fir st attem p t a t a re s tart was aborted wh en the four th-p lace machine of H P crashed in t urn five o n the wa rmu p lap. Once again the racing line was soiled, causing another delay. This mishap b rought the lead lap .count down to three wi th only one-sixth of the race comp lete. Tea m Suzuki End u ra nce seemed unfazed by th e loss of their once-comfortable lead. As Batey cooled off under the tent, his mod est confide nce was eviden t. "Th e bike wa s good right o ff t he truck," Batey said . "All we really had to change from last year's GNF setu p was the gearing. We're running a five-spee d transmission this year, and it requires a little d ifferent combina tion. I'm pretty su re we can d o 24s if someo ne push es U S, " When racing resum ed just before the 90-mi nu te mark, Stanton took u p right where his teammates left off. Riding the Michelin shod, Va lvoli ne-sponso re d GSXRllOO around like a rocke t sled on . rails. . With Stanton going way out fron t, a spirited batt le was taking place for second. TKO Rayce Team Suzuki Too rid- ing a Suzuki Sport, Metzeler Tire-sponsored GS XR750 a n d th e H &H RK Motorsp orts Suz uki 1100 were going at it tooth and nail. The tw o remained fairly close wi th the help of the forementioned red flag stops until jus t past the four-hour count when Rent zell, aboard the H&H ride, pu t a sligh t gap between himself and the TKO Too entry. Rentzell turned th e riding over to teammate Brian Lantz early into the fifth hour. H&H wa s tra ilin g Suz u ki by a couple of lap s but was in good shape to capitalize should any th ing go awry with th e lead er s. Un fo r t u na te ly d isa ster stru ck six laps in to Lantz's stint as he ' crashed in turn five, handing TKO Too second overall as we ll as first in class. A hole was kn ocked in the engi ne cases end ing any hop es for a return. Meanwhile Team Suzu ki continu ed to stretch its lead betwee n red-flag stops w ith Batey, Stant on, an d the big Suzuki . not missing a beat. At the end of hour

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