Road A tlan ta is almost as d em anding
on motor s as Dayton a. By the end of the
sea so n, en d u r ance bikes ar e tired ,
regardless o f how many tim es they arc
rebuilt. The long stra igh taway at Road
Atl a n ta e xpos ed th is fa ct, as seve ra l
teams fell out d ue to mechanical problems . Tea rn Fu ry wa s on e of th e victims
of mechan ical gremlins. T KO Ra cin g
was also runnin g w it h th e chase pack
w hen they started su ffering problem s
which wo uld eventually take the m out.
"Thro ug h the esse s, the bike died on
Cha d ," Jam es Byn u m sa id. " It was too
lat e. He was alread y lea ned over and he
couldn' t save it. We got the bike fixed
and then thi rd and fifth gear went (bad)
in th e tran smission."
Midway thr ough the race, the leaders
settled int o a comfo rtab le pace. TSE was
stiil dominating and had a tw o-lap lead
on Nielse n Racing. Arclight was holding
strong in third place with its 600cc Suzu-
seve n and took himself ou t o f the race.
"I d ran k a littl e too much Geri tol this
mo rn in g," Kirk said . " I go t into sev en
too hot and lost the fron t en d ."
With Kirk o ut of the race, Alexander
too k third uncontes ted .
"I am in pain," Alexand er said, "but I
was able to hold off the pain u n til th e
end . I'm happy for third, considering."
In a heated bat tle for fourth place, a
pai r of Nielsen Racing teammat es, Dar ryl Say lor and Ma rk Ju ng e, went back
a nd fort h the en tire ra ce.
"It is always fun to race with Darryl,"
fourth-placed Ju nge sa id . "The Nielsen
Suzukis were running excellent and the
ne w Pirellis w ere ex tremely g ri ppy
throughout the entire race."
Saylo r settled for fifth.
"Mark ran a great race," Say lor said.
"I tried to d raft by him , but he seemed
to ha ve th e be tter g rip and held me in
the corners." .
1100cc FINAL
Wh en the green flag dropped, Emgo
Valvoline Suzuki' s Gran t Lopez took the
holeshot, with teammate H ayes a d ose
second. Ha yes passed Lope z going int o
fi ve and took the lead. As Ha yes was
d riving through seven, he sta rted to lose
the rear and cho pped the thro ttle, w hich
threw off Lope z and kep t him out o f the
race.
"I came out of seven and Josh we n t
sid ewa ys," Lopez sa id . "I mom entarily
flinched in my mind, and I lost it avoid ing Josh . I think 1 tor e som e ligaments,
be cau se I can' t m o ve m y k nee ve ry
(Above) Ooug
Poien (23) led
Richard Alex ander
(54) in the 750cc
Suz uki Cup race .
Alexander took the
final pod ium·s pot
from Polen.
Alexander also took
third in the 600cc
race .
(Right) Josh Hayes
won both the
11D
OCc Superstock
Expert race and the
11 DOCc Suzuk i Cup
final.
Ldflrr; 9 . Chr-i", R..mil.in 10 . Ti m
;
&-mi~erlt>l'.
600 SU ZU KI CU P; t . J; 5. Darryl
;
Saylor: 6. Josh HdY~ 7. Chris R.anl.in; R. Grant Lopez; 9.
Reuben Franlu:nfield; 10. Ja rrw..~ Randloph.
1100 S UZ UK I CU I' : 1. J0 5h Ha ye s: 2. Tim
Bemisdcrfer; 3. Seth Ha hn : 4. Ru !'l.,'OC'U Ma~r; S. Bria n
1
Jon t,S; 6. Jason Cttching; 7. Scott H. rwcU; H. Wa rd Cook;
'
9. Keoilh You ng .
WERA National Endura
nceSeries
Final Round: Road Atlanta
well."
W it h Lopez o u t. Hoo ters Ra cing' s
James Rand olph st a rted to ru n Hayes
d ow n, bu t he was show n th e black flag.
" I k new w ha t they w e re tr yin g to
poll me in for," Ra'ndolph said. "We had
just put o n th e new lowers a nd they
were hitt ing the pipe, bu t they weren' t
co m in g lo ose. I kn ow when the bik e
isn 't safe, and it was fine."
Af ter a po st-race p rotest,. Rand olph
w as d is qua li fi e d . As a r e s ult, Ti m
Bemisderfer took over second place an d
ran very hard in a back-and-fort h ba ttle
wit h Dan Bailey.
"Bailey stay ed behind me and on the
last lap he lost it," Bem isd erfer said . " I
cou ld hea r his bike slid ing and kne w I
had the position at that poi nt."
With Bailey out, Seth Hahn inherited
thi rd place.
,~
Road Atlanta
Braselton. Georgia
Resu~s:
October 12, 1997
750 S UZUKI CUP : 1. jason P ridmor e: 2. Tripp
Nobb; 3. Richard Aleunder; 4. Doug Polen; 5. Jamie
Ro wm.tn; 6. Michat.'l B.. m O!!J; 7. Grant Lopezr 8. Greg
. By Aaron Mintz
Photos by Andy Chadwell
B
RASELTON, GA, OCT. 9
unn y skies and thousa nd s of spectat ors lining the fences set the stage
for th e u npredictable an d exciting
four-hour endurance race wh ich tu rned
into tw o races as several teams fell sho rt
wi th m echanical p ro blems. When a ll
was said and d one, it was Nielsen Racing topping the podium ah ead of Team
Suzuki Endurance, as TSE rid ers Tray
Batey and Gran t Lopez gingerly nu rsed
their sp utte ring llO O monster aro u nd
cc
the high -speed 2.5-mile course in Braselton.
Yamaha of Texas Racin g in heri ted
third p lace o n th e d a y a fter Arcligh t
Ra cing suffered its fi r st ra ce-endi n g
mechanical problem .
S
a.:
Th e fou r- hour end u ra nce ra ce was
broken d own in to two chapters: Chapter
o ne w ould te ll th e tale o f TSE co m m anding th e race; th e se co nd chap ter
would d escri be Nielsen Racing ru nning
dow n a nd capi tali z ing up on TS E' s
mec ha nica l woes.
The race started ou i in typical fash io n, with TSE jumping ou t to an early
lead, exp loiting the b ike 's high power
ou tp u t a long th e straig h taway. Lopez
jumped ou t fas t to establish a 27, second
lead 15 minu tes into the fou r-hou r race.
"I ha d a fair sta r t a nd pas sed Junge
a nd Prussiano going up th e hill into
tum one," Lopez sa id. "Once I ha d d ear
track , 1 pulled th e trigger. The bike is
also rock-steady, becaus e Keith Perr y
tuned the machin e."
In a di stant seco nd pl a ce, N ie ls en
Racing w as b u sy ke eping a pu rsuing
posse at bay. Ard igh t Racing was lead ing the cha rge, wi th the Semoff Brothers
Racing, Team Fu ry Racing, a nd TBA
Ra cin g g iv ing ch a s e . Brian Lant z of
Team Fury got by Ardig ht Racing and
h eld th ir d pl a ce . Howeve r, trying to
keep their Kawasaki 600 in fro n t took
too much out of the rear tire.
"Bria n got a little car ried away and
tried to set the 600cc trac k record during
the first hour and left me with an overcooke d tir e," Teamma te Ty H oward
sa id . " We ha ven 't d on e a rear-tire
cha nge in a while and they put the axle
through without ha vin g the cha in on the
sproc ket, w hich hurt us."
The long pit stop set Team Fury back,
but when the y blew a valve, which was
later found in the exhaust pi pe, its d ay
was over for good.
ki, with TBA Racing's Lan ny Allen in its
sha do w.
"La n ny is a li tt le u nco m fo rtabl e
today," teammate Ward Co ok s a id .
"We're having a suspe nsio n sag an d the
canister is grounding out and it is making for a sketchy rid e, but we fixed the
probl em in the pits."
TBA Racing's p roblems continued .
The sp roc ke t bolts o n it s bike ba cked
out o f the rear w hee l and locked up the
back end, which sent Allen back to the
pi ts in the crash tru ck and ou t o f contention.
Jus t as it s ee med TSE w o uld w a lk
away with ano ther wi n, the team began
to suffer probl ems. Firs t, during Ba tey' s
o pen ing stint, he s tarted to s lo w a nd
allowed N ielse n Racing's Da rry l Say lor
to ge t past and make u p one of tw o laps
that the team was d own.
"Tw en ty minutes into my stin t, the
rea r en d s ta r ted to d rift a ll over th e
place," Bat ey sa id. " It fell like the ax le
h ad beco m e lo os e o r the w heel ha d
cracke d. I sta yed ou t a nd finished m y
stint. We fou nd out tha t so mething had
p unctured the rea r wheel an d we o nly
had 12 po u nd s o f p ress ure in the tire."
This was only the beginning of TSE's
problems.
Lopez took the bike after the rear tire
w as cha nge d duri ng th e thi rd hour.
Abou t 20 minutes into his stint, the bik e
sta rted to mak e funny noises.
In the pits, TSE crew chief Keith Perry
changed the ba ttery and the black box,
and for 10 mi nutes Batey rod e flawlessly; th en sud denly th ere was a sputter
from the engine d own the fron t straigh t.
[i
B
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