Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE W RA NATIONAL E ENDURANCE SERIES Round 5: Indianapolis Raceway Park • (Left) Arclight Racing'. Chris Hughes waves the checkered flag on the team's Victory lap after Its win In the WERA National Endurance race. (Below) Team Sozukl Endurance had its 19-win streak broken by a crash In the third hour of racing. Here. t he team tr ies unsuccessf u lly to repair the dama ged bike. TSE was credited with 34th pl ace. By Aaron Mintz Photo s by Sco tt Carpenter O.AREMONT, IN, JUNE2B is tory was revisi te d at Ind ia na polis Racew ay Pa rk w he n Team Suzu ki Endurance had its 19-consccu tive-w in s trea k broken by a mechani cal failure that resulted in a crash during the third hour of racing. T h e r e to ca p it ali ze on the rare mi shap was Ardig ht Racin g, w ith it s vetera n rid er comb ina tion of Joe Prussiano III a nd Chris H ugh es, who too k their GSXR600 to the win in the Suzukidominated d ass som e th ree laps ahead of second- placed Team Fury. Team Fury rid ers Brian Lantz and Ty Howard put the ZX6 in the runner-up spot unchallenged , as the third-pla ce team of Tapeworks Racing III was a lap behind at the finish . . Gra nt Lopez was on the Team Suz uki Enduran ce Suzuki GSXR1100 when oil leak ed from a case gasket and dripped dow n o nto th e r igh t foo t peg . Team Suzuki End ura nce coi nci den tally sustained its last loss at this very track two season s ago, du rin g the fifth rou nd of the WERA National End ura nce Series in 1995. . • At the midway po int of the National Endurance Se r ies, Te am Su zuki En du ra nce is s ti ll in co m ma nd of th e points lead over Arclig ht Racing, 492.11463.9. Tapeworks Racing I is third with 432.59, and Nie lson Racing is in fou rth pl a ce overall , jus t b ehind o n 43 2.09 points. TKO Racing sit s in fifth w ith 429.33. ill 30 The race started in ty pical fashion , w it h Tr a y Ba tey p ilo tin g the TSE' s GSX R1l00, a nd Bat ey went r ig h t to work by posting lap times in the 1:37 ra nge. Team Suzuki pitted and comp leted its rider excha nge, w ith Lopez taking ove r. Halfway th ro ugh Lopez's stin t, however, misfortune struck: He found hi mself collidi ng with another rid er in tu rn tw o. A. th e tw o bounced off of each othe r, the se verity of the im pact was too great - bo th rid ers we nt d own. Neither was inju red, but Tea m Suzu ki En d u ra nce suffered significa n t bi ke da mage that knocked them ou t of the race. "I was going into turn one when my foo t sli p ped off th e too tpeg," Lo pez said. "This shifted my position on the bike. I almost hit a lapped rid er in the rear. I s teered away and tr ied to go arou nd the outside. We hit each other and I crashed ." And thus TSE's impressive winning strea k ended. "It looked to me like oil was leaking between the cases in front of the ignition on the right side," lead ride r Batey said. "When 1 was on the bike , my foot was slipping off the foo tpeg, too. When 1 pitted the bike, I saw some oil-misting on m y boo t. Th e crew dea ned u p the oil, but we didn't have enoug h time to investigate the problem. Appa rently, it got wo rse for Gra nt. The law of ave rages came into play. Sooner or lat er, it's gonna catch up to you, and this time it was mechanical." Ca p it a lizi ng o n Te am Suz uk i' s dem ise was Arclight Racing, whose race victory came only after the team ad jus t- plete o u r pit s top: ' co-rider Hug h es said . "This u nsel fish be hav io r greatly con tributed to our ability to stay ou t in fron t." Second place went to th e Chica gobased Team Fury Racing . Team manag· er / owner Steve Boucher had his hands full repairi ng the bik e after a bad cras h in St. Louis d u ring the previou s Nati ona l. Bouch er d id hi s work ri ght, a nd Lantz and Howard demonstrated their rid ing ability to take so le pos sess ion of seco nd place. "Every thing is working great: ' Lantz said. 'The Kawasaki Steve provid ed u s to rid e is bo ne-stoc k. Ty is ru nn ing the sa me la p tim es as me, w hich h as been key in keeping us in contention ." " We e nded up ha v in g to us e t he backup mot o rcycle after we discovered a fe w p rob le m. w it h the A b ike. " Howa rd said . "Steve and Bob Richards did an excellent job setting the sus pe nsion, and sacrificed the bikefor us to use d uring the end urance race." ~ Over com ing a s ma ll mec h a n ical proble m, Tapcworks 111 Racing filled the las t podiu m positio n. During the third hour of the race, Carpenter pitted ea rly when he wa sn ' t abl e to tu m th e mo tor cyde anymore. "I was going in to turn six a nd 1 co uld tu rn the b ike in:' Carpen ter said . "I looked down and sa w that the bolt that holds on the steering da mper had come loose, and the dam pe r was hittin g the -- J ed the bike's sus pens io n to su it the bu m py bu t extremely fast road course. "The trac k is ex tre mely bu mp y," team manager Chuck Wa ren said. " It req uires a compromise. You have to set th e s us pension soft e n ough for the bumps and also stiff enoug h to provid e adequa te drive exiting the comers." Once Arcligh t d ialed its bi ke in, it was all over. "It was really unfortu nate, what happened to Team Suz u k i Endurance ," Prussiano said . "Af ter 1 knew we had a cha nce to win , I put my head down and ra n m y own race. Th e track is reall y bumpy and 1 had to put more input int o riding the ma chi ne tha n normal." Arclight rode consisten tly, and was able to eventually put three laps on the field as th ey rod e to th e u ncont es ted win. "1 have to let you know tha t Tea m Suzuki Endura nce stopped working on their bike after the crash to help us com- lower trip le d amp. That was defini tely a moment on the bike." Lee Acree tea med w ith Ca rpenter, who rod e furi ou sly after the extended pit s to p a n d d ropped the team' s lap times to the low 1:40's. "I looked a t my last stint on the Tapeworks Suzuk i as a sprint and d id just tha t:' Acree said . "1 put my head down and rod e as hard as I cou ld ." TBR Racing had a terrifi c run at first p lace, a n d eve n s tar ted to pre s sure Team Suzuki End urance early on. Local hotshot La nny All en teamed up with ve te ran Wa r d Cook. Cook, however , overcoo ked the TBR Su zuk i GSXR1100 in tu m one d uring the second hour, reenter ed the tra ck and pitted' for a rider exch a nge. Th e team elected to lea ve Allen on the bike for two hours and fin' ish the ra ce as they pressured Ardigh t Racing. Fatigu e se t in, and Allen made . mistake that sent him into the hay bales exiting the carousel. ,~

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