Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Road Race Round 1: Talladega Grand Prix Raceway WERA NA TfONAL ENDURANCE SERIES By Drew Lincoln Photos by Andy Chadwell TALLADEGA, AL, APR. 17 0rmer Team. Valvoline EMGO Suzuki rider Tray Ba tey - now riding for Arc1ight Suzuki - picked up right where he left off in WERA ational Endurance racing, by not just helping his new team win but by helping it dominate as it took its Pirelli-shod GSX-R750 to a sixlap victory over its nearest competitor by the end of the four-hour race, turning in a total of 206 laps. Batey was a main ingredient is his old team's endurance success, and after several years chasing Formula USA championships he has returned to the kind of racing he so obviously enjoys. Second overall and first in the Mediumweight Superbike class was the Suzuki GSX-R600 of Tapeworks Racing, also on Pirelli slicks. The Heavyweight Superstock class was won by Team Xtreme Endurance on a Suzuki GSXR750 and Mediumweight Superstock was won by Team Chicago on an oldermodel Yamaha YZF600R. This race was also the premiere for the long-anticipated electronic scoring system that teams have wished for since the advent of such devices. While the Suzuki-sponsored AMB system WERA officials used was still in the testing stages, it was well-received by all involved and hopefully will make timing the many bikes on track for the four-, six-, eight- and even 24-hour events easier in the future. (Above) Arclight Racing Suzuki started the season off right with a big win In the opening round of the WERA National Endurance series. (Below) Semoff Brothers Racing finished six laps down in second overall on its Yamaha VZF-Rl. 9ft HOUR ONE &Ii" iG' :E 52 At the drop of the green flag, Batey, the lead-off rider for the Arc1ight Suzuki team, set sail around the 1.3-mile, nineturn track a t a blistering pace. The majority of Batey's laps were in the low59-second-to-high-58-second range. The current and defending WERA National Endurance Champions - Semoff Brothers Racing's Glenn Szarek on the team's Yamaha RI - was able to maintain a similar pace as Batey only lost 20 seconds by the 3D-minute mark. Batey was able to lap up to and including the thirdplace team, fan favorites Army of Darkness, leaving only Arclight and SBR on the lead lap. Forty minutes into the event, Dale Davenport crashed the Team Twister Suzuki entering turn one, bringing out the first red flag of the season. During the red flag, teams are not allowed to touch their machines while the comer workers clean up the debris on the track. With only a minute and a half remaining in the first hour, the bikes were gridded for a restart. From a stan.ding start, Batey turned in a 1:02 lap time compared to the 1:05 lap time turned in by Semoff Brothers; giving Arclight an immediate three-second lead after one lap. At the start, Brian Lantz, who was a last-minute replacement for Brian Stokes on the Firestorm Racing GSX-R600, stalled the bike on the front row and miraculously missed being hit from behind by the entire field. Lantz, after years of campaigning Kawasakis, had to come to grips with the unfamiliar Suzuki and got under way last from the grid. HOUR TWO Only three laps into the restart, the Nielsen Racing entry oegan to smoke while braking for the turns. At first, officials thought that it may be tire smoke from an unorthodox rear-braking technique, but a sharp-eyed corner worker . recognized the smoke for what it truly was. Last year, WERA rules stated that all endurance vehicles must be equipped with the AMA-mandated oilcatch belly pan to keep as much oil from a blown motor from reaching the track surface as possible. In the case of the Nielsen Racing GSX-R750, just enough oil had filled the pan so that when the rider hit the brakes, the oil sloshed onto the hot headers, producing the smoke. The red flag flew again just three minutes into the second hour. What could have been a disastrous oil spill and a lengthy clean-up was avoided by an innovative product and good corner working. It took only 10 minutes for the comer workers to check the track surface and the bikes to get back under way. This time, Lantz would not stall the Ffrestorrn Suzuki on the line and the field would get away without incident. By the end of the second hour, Arc1ight Suzuki, now piloted by Lee Acree, had lapped the entire field, including second overall, Semoff Brothers Racing. HOUR THREE Ten minutes before the end of the third hour, reports came in from the corners that the new transponder module a ttached to the Firestorm Racing bike was dangling from its mount. The team was running third overall, first in the Mediumweight Superbike class at the time officials asked them to bring its machine in to resecure the timing device to the bike. The team owner, Chris Normand, was less than thrilled with the prospect of losing class position as well as overall position to Tapeworks Racing, which was shadowing them on the track. After several minutes debating with officials about the need to bring in the bike, Normand was told he could be assessed a stop-and-go penalty if he didn't voluntarily bring the rider into the pits. The signal was given to bring the bike in for a quick fix and Firestorm was officially eight seconds behind Tapeworks at the dose of the third hour. Team Xtreme and Team Chicago were having fairly uneventfulraces while still managing to win their respective classes. Both teams simply put together quick, consistent laps along with smart pit stops to stay ahead of the competition. Scott Brown on the SBR Yamaha crashed entering turn one five minu·tes before the end of the third hour, handing second overall and in the Pirellisponsored Heavyweight Superbike class over to Team Dreaded, on another Yamaha RI. At the close of the third

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