Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE WERA NATIONAL ENDURANCE SERIES : Summit Point Raceway Team Suzuki Endurance rode to it s 125th victory In the WERA National Endurance series , tho ugh it only co mp leted 82 lap s in four hours; due to adverse weather co nd itio ns, the race was red-liagged lor nearly an hour and a hall. FILE PHOTO BY STAN EDGAR By Aaro n Mintz SUMMIT POINT, VA, AUG. 2 eam Suzuki End u rance cha lked up it s 125th WERA Na tiona l End u rance Series w in . And w hil e th ere' s nothing par ti cula rl y unusual abou t tha t, there is something u n us ua l abou t how the race wa s ru n, and about w ho the wi nn ers we re. ; The "u nusua l" rid ers were Michael Martin, the veteran TSE rider comi ng ou t of sem iretiremen t, an d up-and -coming racer josh Hayes; TSE's usual rider co mbina tio n of Tray Batey and Gra nt Lopez were bu sy wi th the Formula-USA round at Road Am erica . The unusual -man ner in which the race wa s ru n was du e to t he fact th at wha t w a s b ill ed a s a four -hour end u ra nce co n tes t ended up fea tu rin g about 2 1/2 ho ur s of actua l racing, d ue to red -flag del ays. Summit Point Racewa y is nicknamed "Slip pery Po int. " There is a reason for this. In ad di tio n to accommodating the normal challenge of a tech nical 2-mile, IO-turn road cou rse, racers also had to d e al wi th p ainted por tio n s o f th e ' asphalt , w hich could be very slick. Ad d rain to t he eq ua ti o n , whi ch Mother Na tu re did, and the situ atio n gets eve n wo rs e : Af ter th e r a in b egan falling , W ERA o ffici a ls we re fo rced to temporarily suspend racing until the track was deemed safe. And so, due to the weather and track co nd it io ns, T eam Su zuki Endurance rod e to the win, but completed nnly 82 laps in four hours. As a bonus, though, th e high number of red flags leveled out the playin g field by not letting anyone team pull too far awa y and .d ominate the race. Semoff Brothers Racin g put th eir Yamaha YZ FlOOO on the box in second place afte r a very cons isten tly run race fro m rid ers jeff A t we ll a n d Eva n Semoff. N ielsen Racing, leaders of the Middlew eight Supersport class, rou nd ed out the podium. The Army of Darknes s e xec u ted fla wless J l-second pit s to ps and w ere in th e ri ght place to snatch fou rt h place from last year's Middleweight Superbike champs, Team Ten 40. T j osh H ayes s ta rte d th e ra ce o ff for TSE and too k the holeshot en tering tu m one. H owever, Chris Taylor was filling in for the inju red Scott Harw ell when he hig h-s ided o n lap th ree, s top ping th e race as corn er wo rk ers sc ramble d to clea n u p fuel on the tra ck . Th en ca me the rain, w hich was eno ug h to stop the race at the precari ous tra ck. A t the conclusion of the first hour, it was TSE in firs t place with three laps in the books. Arclight Racing wa s in seco nd p lace durin g th e seco nd h o u r u n til C h r is Hug hes co llecte d a lap ped rid er a nd was taken d own in tu rn fou r, w hi ch pus hed the tea m o u t of podium conte nt ion . Du rin g th e same la p , G le nn Sz a rek cras hed in tu rn nine when he a lso co llecte d a la p ped rid er. Th e red flag came back out. The seco nd ho ur concluded wi th 1 I laps in the books an d TSE still on top. By the third hour, raci ng ha d fina lly got. ten un d er way and the racer s se ttle d into a pa ce. Whil e the yo ung Hayes sta r ted the race for TSE, it was the very experienced end u ra nce racer , Mar ti n, w ho w ould ride the balan ce of the race. During Martin' s activ e ca ree r w ith Team Su zuki End u rance, he con tribu ted to 49 of the team's 125 overall victories . "This is real emo tional for me," Martin said . "john Ulrich called me up and asked if I felt u p to a n end u rance race after two years o f retirem ent. It wa s great to be able to ride ag ain and en joy the victory. I reti red aft er I got burned out on chas ing cha mpio nsh ips, and this was a stress-free race." "I nev er really wen t a way," Ma rtin con tinu ed . "I have d one some testi ng for the team , and now I started a bu sin ess ma kin g exhaus t syste m s fo r the new Su zu kis . A nd I teach r acin g w ith th e CMRA. " Hayes ended up ridi ng most of th e ra ce du e to the red flag s a nd d el ays, wi th Martin rid ing one stin t. "josh is an active membe r of the Valvo line Suzu ki Team," Martin said . "I'm a visi tor and I wanted to see him rid e first to ga in the expe rience, since he's on his way to fulfilling his career . Hayes really did it all, too . He had to end u re the rain and mo st of the red flags. I rod e last after he built a one-lap lead over the field , and I just cruised aro u nd ." Semoff Broth ers Racing took second with two lo ca l r id e r s , A tw e ll a n d Semof f, shari ng sad d le time . "Co ns isten cy was instru me ntal in ou r victory," Atwell sa id. " Bo th of us w ere turning abou t the same tim es and were there in the end. The bik e was set up phen omenall y co ns id ering th e tr ack conditions and really absorbed the inco nsisten t sus· pe nsion movement th rough the slip pe ry stu ff." Prio r to th e e n d u ra nce r a ce, th e Semoff Brothe rs Racing team se arche d - fo r the ca use. of a n elec tr ica l problem , wh ich turned out to be a faulty ignitio n. "We spe n t Th ursday cha sing d own the elect rical problem:' Semo ff sa id. "Once we fix ed th e p rob le m , I was a ble to focus on setup, and we see med to ge t it r ight because the YZFlOOO w a s ve ry easy to ride." N ielsen Racing ha s been a re gul a r front-runner, with trem endous effor t p ut forth from Mark junge and Darry l Saylo r . "The new Metzelers are rig ht there for 25 minutes; then thev slide, but the slid e is very p re d ictable a nd yo u incorpo rate it int o yo ur ri d ing lin e," Say lor said . "I started the race and sat ba ck until I felt ou t the paint stripes, and o nce I saw how the tires were slid ing across it, I picked up the pace." Army of Darkness Racing may hav e felt the y we re given fourth place; howev er, the bo ttom lin e is tha t they ro de well and were th ere in end . "Eve ry one else screwed u p, and we were lucky and didn't screw up: ' rid er Sa m Flemming sa id . "Th ere fo re, th e weak in herit ed the race . Team Ten 40 had an extra pit stop and Tim Gooding, ou r pit boss, and Amy Pickering, our pi t personne l. bailed us out wi th lightning pi t s to ps . an d thus m ad e u p fo r my poor, atrociously slow rid ing ." Rega rdl ess of their pe rson al feelings, Flemming an d jim Will iams turned lap tim es in th e 1:23 time bra cke t, w hic h was enoug h to run up fro nt. Team Ten 40 fini s hed fifth, b ut not before overcoming the mech an ical problems which have p lagued their seas on th us far. Brian Ci nc era and Mark Ian nuzzelli won a class championship last yea r, but this season hav e suffered catas tro p hic me ch anical failure wh ich has not d one the talented duo jus tice in the results d epartmen t this year. "The big story is tha t we had a problem-free even t," Cincerra said . "Using a s to ck H ond a moto r v s, a s u perb ike moto r see ms to be the ticket , and today we were ab le to compete." Team Te n 40 wa s in sec o nd p lac e during the final hour, b ut th e low-fuel ligh t came on and th e team was forced to come in for an extra pit. "For some reas on, we d idn't ge t the sam e fue l mileage that we have seen in th e past:' lan nuzzelli sa id. "W e ra n a su pe rbike motor a nd go t bett er mileage than we go t fro m the stock motor. The reason we ra n up fro n t is becau se the Michel in tir es ne ver lost grip through ou t the entire race. It was the extra fu el Ie, stop that held us back tod ay." Summ it Point Raceway Summit Point. Virgini a . Results: August 2,1997 (Round 7 0110) O /A: 1. Team SUZ Uki Endurance (5u z); 2. Sc mo ff Brothers Racing (Yam); 3. Nielsen Racing Suzuki (5uz) ; 4 . A rm y o f Darkness (5 u z); 5. Team Ten 40 Racin g (Hon); 6. Tapeworks Racing m (Suz); 7. w.e. H armon Raci ng (Suz ); 8. C ycle Spe.....d Radn~ (5u z); 9. Team Sha rkski nz Racing (Yam ); 10. An::tight Suzuki (Suz); 11. ; Rosw ..11 Racing lC;u1.) 12 Fao;t Lan.. Cycles 1 (5u1.); 13. Tea m Chamr; Ampricana (5u1.); 14. Penn 5t.lI(O (5U7.); 15. Uni versa R.1ci ng Team (l-Ion); 16. Ca n/Am Racing (Ho nf 17. Tape w or ks Racin g II (Suz l; 18. Yama ha of C a m p H ill (Ya m); 19 . Th und ...r Ra cin g {Kaw}: 20 . J.A.C.K.L. Il-lon). WE RA N ATIONAL ENDURANCE SER IES POINT STANDINGS (After 7 of 10 rounds): 1. Team Suz uki Endurance (621.91); 2. Arcli~h t Suzuki (582.7); 3. TKO Raci ng (542.93); 4. Nielse n Racing Su zuki (540.29); 5. Tapeworks Racing (521.19); 6. Team Fas t Fo rward (431.78); 7. Team Fury (425.09); 8. Tapeworks Racing II (3Q05 ); 9. Team Sharkskinz Racing 0 76.7); 10. Tea m Ten 40 Rdcin g (376.7); 11. Roswe ll Rilcing (342.85); 12. Cycle 5~ Rilcing (3. 051); 13. Army o f n " rkn..... 034.3); 14. 1 .. Th u nd er Racing (330.5l); 15. MR Racing (2%. 59); 16. Tapeworks Ra ci n g III (293 . 11); 17 . Tea m C h ica go (27 6.77 ); '18 . Firestorm Racin g (271.0 7); 19. C ur tiss Racing (259.05); 20. Can ton Racing Endurance (256.05). Upco ming Round s: Round 8 • Millington, TN, september 6 Round 9 - College Station, TX, September 20 WERA N ational Sprint Series Round 7: Sum m ~ Point R aceway Slick program By Aaro n Mintz Phot os by Scott Carpent er SUMMIT POINT, VA, AUG. 3 unny skies and hu nd reds of specta tors li ni ng the fe nces set th e stage for th e seven th round of the WERA Na tio na l Sprin t Series. Su mmit Poin t is a tech nical track, but there was a sp ecial kink in the equation' as racers d ealt with marginal traction throughout severa l d ifferent areas along th e 2-milelong tra ck . However, the racers were able to accommodat e the ad verse conditions, and provided plen ty of action. Round sev en served up a va riety of victors, wi th Joe Prussiano III winnin g th e Formula Two and the 1100 Superspo rt classes. Local rid er Tim Bernisderfer also won two cla sses : the Form ula On e and the Micheli n 750cc Supersport classes. Bria n La nt z hasn' t w on si nce S

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