Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE" .' WERAN tional Endurance Series a Round 4: Gingerman Raceway 010 By George Mood Photos by Mike Church SOUTH HAYEN, MI, JUNE 8 eam Suzuki Endurance captured its 113th WERA National Endurance Series win at Gingerman Raceway in the fourth round of the 1996 WERA National Series. Riders Dave Stanton and Tray Batey, aboard a Michelin-shod 1996 GSXR1100 superbike finished si x laps ahead of their nearest competitor. Second overall went to Arclight Racing 's Joe Prussiano Jr. and Chris Hughes, rid in g a GSXR50 Heavyweight Superstock entry fitted with Metzeler DOT tires . Third overall and first Mediumwe ight Superstock went to Triple R Racing rid ers Mike and Mark Reed, going the ent ire four hours with Dunlop 204 DOT tires mounted on their Kawa saki ZX6R. This was the first time thi s ye ar that complete Su zuki domination of the podium was broken. The four-hour event was the firstever endurance race held at th e new Michigan track. Located just off Lake Michigan, Gingerman Raceway featured 11 turns spread over a 1.88-mile track . length. Riders frequently commented on the grippy surface and th e copious amount of runoff area, p raising tr ack owner Dan Schnitta for keeping Armco Barriers out of the picture. Less appreciated w as the sand that w ashed onto the track from the previou s day' s ra in (shades of Daytona), which, when gra ss begins grow ing in cracks, cou ld form bumps in the racing surface. Although T 34 Gingerman is a new faci lity, bumps appeared, most notably in turns one and seven. The track surface caused some DOT tires to resemb le slicks after the event, with the tread substantially worn on the right side of the rear tires. Team s scrambled in practice, searching for the right suspension setups and gearing to handle the tight track. Gearing ten ded to be sho rt to obtain dr ive off the slower corners. The fastest section of the track between turns 10 and 11 was not very long, and the demand for top speed in top gear was in short supp ly. Crew chief Keith Perry had installed the "Talladega gearing" on the v ic t o rs' Suzuki. Triple R's Lou Reed h ad the team's Kawasaki set up for handling with a soft su spension. With this being the first visit to Gingerman, the fie ld was level in terms of track knowledge. Th e 36-bik e field was w a v ed off under clearing skies and warming temperatures, Stanton immediately opened a two-second lead over Arclight, With H&H /RK Motorsports' Bri an Lantz, TKO Rayce Team Suzuki's Steve Doolin and the TKO Rayce Team Suzuki Too's . Joey Gillel and in the hunt for second. This four-wa y battle s aw position changes almost anywher e on the track, with bikes side by side flashing down th e front s tr aig h t before sett li n g in to tum one . . Behind th is group w as a n equ ally entertainin g cla sh among th e M ed iumweight-cla ss contender s that num bered up to 10 bik es running clos el y . Embroiled in th is battle were Royale enID Team Suzuki Endurance once again dominated the WERA Endurance ranks, posting a win during round four of the WERA Nati onal Chall enge Series at Gingerman Raceway in South Haven , Michigan . The team's marg in of victory was six laps . Racing, Team Fury, Team Ten 40 Racing, Tripl e R Racing, Excel Racing, Wing Riders, CAD Racing and Team Triad II /Tapeworks . This swarm of 600cc m a chines mirrored the Hea vy w eight battle but on a larger scale. By lap five, Stanton had a larger lead ov er the all-out Heavyweight Su zuki battle for second. Stanton's crew had recorded lap times in the 1:27 range, close to the 1:27.4 record set by Andy Deatherage two months earlier. Simply put, Stanton checked out and started to lap the slower teams. With 20 minutes sho win g on the clock, the Heavyweight fron t-ru n n e rs o f Arclight / H&H / RK Motorsports and both TKO Rayce teams were deep into the field. Their positions on the track were being determined by which rider worked the traffic to his advantage. In the Mediumweight clash, Steve Boucher of Team Fury had pulled a twosecond lead over Paul Youngman on the SBR entry, Mark Reed on the Triple R bike, Jim Cleeland o n the 0&0 Exhaust / AGV / Aerospace Lu brican ts Kawasaki and Brian Ci n ce r a on the Team Ten 40 entry. Each took turns at the fr ont of this pack a s p ositions swap ped several tim es a lap. Somet hing had to give. Third was Roy ale's Doug Henr y who gave first, low-sid ing in turn ni ne at the 17-minute mark. , "It was a silly mistake," Henry sai d later. "I felt the front just slip away." Henry, one o f the series' most consistent en durance competitors suffered his first crash since 1989. With the prime machine's swingarm bent, Royale Racing reenter ed on a backup bike, whi ch under endurance rules forced the team to start from scra tch. At 40:26 minutes into the race, a red flag was displayed when team Some Fear crashed in turn six with the rider not moving, lying on the edge o f the track. During the cleanup time several teams made more suspension adj ustments . Joey Gilleland on th e Ra yce Team Suzuki Too ride felt his suspen sion wa s too soft and made adjustment s. Upon the re start he found th e bike unable to hook up out of corners and began a backward slide. The team most affected by the red flag was H&H / RK Mo torsports. Tea m Suzuki Endurance had just passed the n on the lap prior, leaving only Arcl ight and Rayce Team Suzuki on the lea d lap. Those teams benefited from the red flag as Stanton ha d closed in and was ready to pick them off. On the restart, at 58:21 minutes into the event, Batey took the Team Suzuki Endurance to the point with RKO Rayce Team Suzuki, Arcligh t, H&H RK Motorsports and TKO Rayce Team Suzuki Too in pursuit. The top five s tayed there through the first hour with Team Fury showing in sixth overall, team Bell s Suzuki seventh overall, second Heavyw eight Superbike and eighth through 20th all 600cc machines with the exceptio n of BHR Racing's Mark Brubacher and Tim Ruhl , who were caught in traffic on their Heavyweight Superbike Yamaha 1000. Batey took serious aim at putting the competi tion behind him, turning a 1:25.9-minute lap with a relatively clear track , giving him the track record . Th ing s were gett ing hot in the Heavyweigh t Superstock battle. TKO Rayce Team Suzuki Too ran w ide, passing a pack.of four bikes in turn six just as Kevin Rentzell on the H&H/RK entry and a b ackm a r ker bumped en tering turn five. At the same time Team Fur y and Wing Riders banged fairings on the front st raight as the faster 600cc riders were still packed together. Th ree incidents were called in at the I-hour, 11minute mark to race control. One h ou r and 28 m inu tes into the race Joey Gilleland on the Rayce Team Su zuki Too crash ed in turn 10 while working a pack of riders . The im pact destroyed the fairing, and it took many laps to put the bike back in safe working order an d effectively cost the team all cha nce for a successful race. Fourteen minutes ,later, Arclight slowed in turn seven and limped back to the pits , After a rider change and some fuel the team returned , c h argin g 'hard. Owner Chuck Warren reported a fuel-pickup problem and was rew orking the pit-stop strategy to work around the problem experienced in low -fuel conditio ns. Th e change reduced the normal 45-m inute stints to 20-minutes, costing the team several lap s during the race. In the H&H / RK Motorsports pits, concern centered on transmission problems. Rentzell reported trouble with sec, ond gear, necessary for a good drive out of slow er corners. Just three minutes aft er the pit stop , Rentzell was hit by TKO Rider Gregg Blackwell, sending the H&H /RK bike down and the number-14 TKO bike o ff track. Blackwell

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