EVENTS
EDITED BY CAMERON COATNEY
WERA Nat'l Endurance SerieslNat'l Challenge Series, Round 1
1'-------------------------------------------'
Chris Hughes (2) pilots the Arclight
Suzuki at the start of the four-hour WERA
National Endurance race at Talladega
Gran Prix Raceway. Arclight led the race
from the third lap on.
By Cary Lurie
Photo by Andy Chadwell
TALLADEGA, AL, APR 4-5
rclight Suzuki scored the victory
in round one of the WERA
National Endurance Series at
Talladega Gran Prix Raceway, leading
the Saturday race nearly flag to flag: The
GSXR750-m unted duo of Chris Hughes
and Mark McDaniel led th~ pack across
the line on the third lap and never relinquished the lead.
With the absence of Team Suzuki
Endurance, the WERA National
Endurance Championship is definitely
up for grabs this year, and many teams
now feel they have a hot at taking the
prize in the now-more-competitive
series.
Tapeworks Racing's Scott Harwell
took the holeshot, with TKO Racing's
Luke Yarbrough sliding past on the
brakes to take the lead in the first corner
and hold the spot for the first two laps.
Hughes then grabbed the lead through
turns three and four and quickly
stretched a four-second margin on the
three-rider battle for second.
Included in this fight was Evans
Motosport's lead rider Lee Acree, who
narrowly led Yarbrough and Team Ten
40's Mark Ianuzelli for two laps before
inching ahead and holding second
alone. At the front and pulling away,
Arclight's Hughes hit backmarkers by
lap even on the technical 1.3-mile road
course.
,
At the end of the first hour, the leaders made their first pit stops of the day.
Team Ten 40 rider lanuzelli was the first
of the front-runners to pit, swapping the
rear tire. Second rider Brian Cicero
quickly returned to the fray.
"It's running great right now. It's our
first season on Metzeler," lanuzelli said.
"Last year we were on slicks on a superbike; this year we're on a su pers tock
(bike) and we still picked up two seconds a lap. We're still trying to sort out
the fuel mileage, though."
Arclight's Hughes pitted seven minutes into the second hour, making a
front- and rear-tire change as well as
swapping riders.
"We tried to get a gap of somewhere
around 15 seconds (after the first hour),"
A
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