Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Events WERA National Endurance Series, Round 4 (Left) Tray Batey led the Arclight Suzuk i team to their sec ond WERA National Endurance Series win in 'four rounds of competition. (Below) The batt le for the Mediumweight Superbikeclass honors between Ta peworks Racing (4), Army of Darkness (99) and Leaning Lizard (71) was tight for much of the event, but it was Tapeworks that came away with the division win. .' By Dre w Lincoln Photo by Darby Parks li'iDIANAPOUS, IN,JUNE 26 n d ia na p o lis Raceway Park hosted the fourth round of t he lO-race WERA National Endura nce Series, and it marked a r e tu rn win for t h e Arclight Suzuki End urance team, which wo n th e season opener. In the last tw o events, Arclight was plagued with we tw eath er crashes and a rare mech anical fa ilu re. The reignin g WER A National End urance Cha m pions, Semo ff Brothers Racing (SBRl, capi ta lized on the misfortunes of their com pe titors and wo n th e last few rounds. With six even ts left , the race for the cha m pions hip is still up in the air . From the wave of th e g reen flag , SBR's Glen n Szarek gra bbed the holesh ot on the team's number-on e-plated Yamaha YZF R-l. Even with the extra weight of th e massive ly e n la rged fuel tank, Szarek was unable to p revent the R-l from lofting the front wheel the majority of the wa y to tu m one. Tray Batey slid in be hind the quick-sta rting R- l on the Arclight Suzuki GSX-R750 Superbike for the first lap. When he was certain the tires we re fu lly up to temperature" Batey pus hed his way past Sza rek in the tu rnthree-and-four section on the seco nd lap . Once in the lead , Batey pu t h is head down an d atte mpted to break away from the competition and possibly force SBR into a faster race pace than they felt comfortable with. Batey immediately opened a lO-bike-length lead but Sza rek was content to let Bat ey set the pa ce ou t front. On e of the surprises of the w eekend • wa s th e a p pea ran ce of Chuck Gra ves and his Tea m Graves Yamaha, straight ' fro m the Loudon AMA Na tional. Graves pu t toget her a team of some of the bes t yo u ng tal ent in th e coun try to rid e th e e n d u ra nce race o n o n e o f hi s m an y Yamah a YZF R-6 s . Graves was a ls o signed u p to race the end urance as a last resort but left th e long-distance ri di ng duties in the hands of Michael Hannas, Mike Mashewske and Ben Spies. Starting from the very last position on the grid, Hanna s m ana ged to take over thir d place overall by the seco nd lap, passin g I 54 24 bik es in less than three minutes on the ra ce tra ck . Arclight and SBR w ere pulling away from Hannas at about tw o seco nds per lap, while Hannas wa s getting away from the rest of the stru ng-o ut field by another seco nd per lap. At 15 m inu tes into th e ra ce , th e tw o leaders were in to la pped traffic and cutting through the backm arkers with ease. By the 4l -m in u te mark of the first hour, Batey had lapped the third-placed Gr aves team an d one lap lat er SBR did the same. The two lead ers were the on ly bikes o n the sa me lap. Wi th o nly 10 m inutes rem a inin g in th e firs t hour, Batey ran off th e course to avoi d a lapper, letting Sza rek m ove into the lead . Sza re k th en began to p u sh his bike a second pe r la p faster than Batey, who brou ght the Arcligh t bike in for its first pit stop at th e 59-minute m ark for two tire s, fuel. and a change of rider. Chris Hughes too k to the track for Arclight Suzuki down one lap and one minute to Semoff Brothers Racing. SBR made their first pit .stop 17 m inu tes in to th e se co nd hour with a lapand-a-half lead over the Arclight Suzuki squad. Scott Brown took the controls of th e SBR R-l a nd re-entered th e track right in fro nt of Hughes, on the Arclight e n try. Hughes, with the benefit o f already being up to speed, easily caught and pa ssed Brown for the lead 'and in the process u nlapped himself. Brown w as determined not to let H ughes disappear, bu t the burd en of a fu ll fuel load allowed Arclight to extend its advantage by abou t two seconds pe r lap until the gap reached 12 seconds. Mea nwhile, Mashewske, a board th e Graves Ya m a ha R-6, worke d h is way back in to fourth,overall, first in cla ss, turning s imilar la p times as the Hea vyw eight-class lead ers. At the one-hour-45mi nute mar k, just 15 minutes before the close of th e seco nd hour, Mashew ske b rough t th e Team G rav es b ike in to chan ge only the rear Michelin Pilo t, ad d fuel and send Spies ou t in sev en th place and second place in the Med iumweight Super St oc k class, beh in d Pa ramount Racing, now in third overall. Bot h Army of Darkness and Ta p eworks Racin g ha d to yield fir st in th e Mediumweigh t Supe rbike class to loca l fast guys Larry De n ni ng, j eff Kra mer and joe Ternpe rato, in fourth, fifth and sixt h, respectively, at the end of the second hour. Arclight Suzuki's second pit stop came just one minute into the third hour of racing for new tires and fuel. Batey returned to the helm of the Ardight Suzuki, since his teammate, Lee Acree, had crashed in pract ice , breaking his collarbone and putting a gash in his knee, and wa s unable to ride. During Arcl ight's pit stop, SBR ret ook th e lead by virtue of its largercapa city fuel tan k a nd consistent lap times . SBR was preparing to make its second stop of the day when the red flags flew, putting a temporary stop to the racing acti on . Arclight had just pa ssed the SBR Yamaha for the lead when Penn State blew the motor on their Kawasaki ZX-9R and spilled oil on the track surface. After a 25-minute clean-up delay, the race wa s restarted at the two-hour-4G-min ut e mark. Teams were not allowed to touch their bikes during the delay; therefore, SBR had to tak e the s tart and m a ke a few laps before coming in for a pit sto p, allo wing Arclig ht to stretch its ad vanta ge. By the end of the third hour , Arcligh t led SBR by one lap for first overall as well as the lead in th e Pir elli Hea vywei ght Su perb ike class. Third on the track and first in Medium w eight Su per bi ke w as the Kr a m er Racing tea m , w hic h put the local track knowled ge of its members to goo d use. The G raves Yamaha team he ld d own fourth place and had retaken the lead in th e Med iu m w eig ht Su p er Stock cla ss, w hile the seesaw battl e for second in the Med iumweight Su perbike class between Tapeworks and Army of Darkness raged o n in fifth and sixth. The Heavyweight Super Stock class leader, Carlyle Racing, had worked its way up to seventh place by the time the third hour came to a d ose. SBR cou ld go the ra ce di st ance with th e full load of fuel th ey had ta ken at th eir untimely pit stop earlier, but the Arclight Suzuki crew doubted that Batey could make th e fini sh with the fuel he had. Szarek pushed ha rd to try to close the gap to Batey, who in turn matched SBR's pace to maintain a 1.13-second ma rg in . Taking no chances , Ba t ey dashed int o the pits for a splash of fuel. remou nted and continued to the end. By the checkered flag, the ga p between Arclight and SBR stabilized at 48 sec- onds to lock down first and second in the Pire lli Heavyweigh t Su pe rbike class a nd th e overal l. The Graves Ya ma ha squa d brough t their R-6 hom e w ith the win in the Med ium w eight Su pe r Stock class a nd secured th ird overall, wh ile Tapeworks finall y edged out Arm y of Darkness and Team Kram er for the win in Mediumweight Superbike, filling out fourth, fifth and sixth overall, respectively . Team D readed mad e a lat e -ra ce comeback to earn third in the Heavyweight Superbike cl a ss and sev en th overall after fallin g back as far as 16th in the second hour and running as high as third early on . 0 and 0 Racing won their second consecutive Heavyweight Super Stock race, beating Carl yle Racing by six seconds and garnering the eighth and ninth places overall. Rounding out th e top 10 was American Asphalt Racing, also finishing second in the Mediumweight Super Stock class. _ Indianapolis Racewa y Park Indianapolis, Indiana Results: June 26, 1999 (Round 4 of 10) O/A: 1. Ardigh t Suz uki (Suz); 2. Semoff Broth er s Racin g (Yam ); 3. Gra ves Yamaha (Ya m ); 4-,Tapeworks Racing (Suz ); 5. Army of Darknes s (Suz) . H /W S/ BK: 1. Arcligh t Su z uki (Suz); 2. Scmoff Brothers Raci ng (Ya m ); 3 . Te am Dreaded (Ya m); 4. Cycle speed (Ya m); 5. l -BOO-CROTCH·ROCKET (Suz). HIW S/ST K: 1. D and D Racing (Suz): 2. Ca rly le Racin g (Ya m); 3. Penn Sta te (Kaw): 4. N ielsen Raci ng (Suz); S.Tachy on Racing (Suz). Mf\rV S/BK : 1. Ta pewo rks Racing (Suz ); 2. Army of Dar kness (Su z); 3. Kramer Racing (Suz); 4. Leaning Lizard Racing (Kaw), S. America n Dream Radng II (He n). MIW S/ST K: 1. Gra ves Yamaha (Yam ); 2. American As p ha lt Racin g (Ya m); 3 . Tea m Actio n (Ya m ); 4. American Drea m Racing I IKaw) , S. Ridge Racin g (Suz ). WER A NAT IO N A L EN D UR A N C E SE R IE S O VERALL POINT STAND INGS (After 4 of 10 rounds): 1. Semoff Broth ers Racing (395.68); 2. Anny of Darkness (354.76); 3. Arclig h. Suzuki (348.11); 4. Ta pewc rks Racing (317.29); S. l-WJ-CROTCH·ROCKIIT(282.%).

• Cover