Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128343
t's Selltember.S. 2004. anll it' a cool, cloUdy day in Springfield. Illinois. but the sun is shining on Team Suzuki Flat Track. Afte r a year and a half of spotty. almo st nonexis tent performances by the team. Kevin Varnes is racing his factory-b acked Suzuki DL I000 in the lead dr aft. running down a pack co ntaining all of the usual mile heavies, such as Chris Car r. Rich King. Johnny Murph ree and Kevin Atherton - guys who usually figure into the top thre e at eve ry Spr ingfie ld Mile. Tod ay, rat he r t han flound ering aro und half a lap behi nd t he m , Varne s is r unnin g t hem dow n. w it h no less than a legen d of th e sport. Jay Springsteen tucked t ightly in his wake as they eat into the 30 lengt hs t ey have spotted the leaders since the start of the race . Pits ide ra ilb lrds . wh o hav e he retofore laughed off Suzuki's effo rt s in running a production-based engine against the venerable. highly specialized Harley Davidson XR7S0. aren't laughing today. The Suzuki is in the race and looking strong. Some even wonder if today will be the day that the team has been dream ing about for two long. arduous years ... I 28 to put together a facto ry-backed twins To get to the end. you must start from the beginning. and the beginning begins Wit~ I ~ffort for the 2003 racing seaso n. "Knowing what it takes to run the a mock-up Suzuki TLI000 dirt-tracker tha\t showed up at the Dealem ews Powersports' Harleys wit h Kopp and Kenny Cool beth. Trade Show in Indianapo lis in 1998. A conand the money it takes to win the Cham ionsh ip... Wit h the Suzuki. we cept machine built by F&S Suzuki owner neve r did anyt hing but wash it and put gas Gary Stolzenburg. it gave the industry a in it." Burks said. "We never spent a dime glimpse into the future of the sport . Start ing o n it, and the bike paid for itse lf the first with the 1999 season . versions of t H bike e year that we raced it. We w on t he started hitting the track in a new AMA class. Supertracker series and also won a co uple Supe rtracker; which was designed to foster Formula USA nationals wit h it. and it was the use of production-based e ngines. just bulletproof. " Supert racker lasted three seasons before After ne ither Kopp nor Coo lbet h co uld the sanctioning bOdy folded it into the Grand National Championship class. pitt ing come to terms that would justifythem parking their Harleys in favo r of machines that the prod uctio n-based 1000s against the rachad yet to be proved at the top level of the ing-o nly XR7S0s head to head. sport. Burks landed two new riders, veterRight fro m the start , the TL idea capan cam igner Kevin Varnes of Pennsylvania tured the imagination of Missouri flat track tea m owner Dave Burks. a longtime Harley and the relatively unknown O klahoman AJ. Eslick for the 2003 season . In what was campaigner intrigued by the high-pe rformexpec ted to be a year of development, ance . low-maintenance potential of the Varne s and Eslick' understandably struggled Suzukis. Starting with a privateer Suzuki w it h the Suzukis. but ther e was an early effort in Supertracker and the Fo rmu la USA bright spot in the year when Varnes put his National Dirt Track Series , Burks and rider Suzuki TI.! IOOO-based machine in t he Joe Kopp won the Supertracker title the Springfield Mile main event on Memorial first year they ran it. A sharp business man, Day Wee kend 2003. He would limp around Burks went on to strike a deal with Suzuki SEPTEMBER 29, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS 40th Anniversary the track well off the pace . finishing 13th not bad if as the team believed, there was . more where that came fro m. Fast fo rward to Springfield 2004 . where prior to the main event Varnes reflects on the suggestion that his 200 3 main event performance has bee n dismissed by most as a case of the trac k being tailor made for the bike that day. "It pro bably was. fo r that ver sion of the bike ," Varne s admits. "This is a typical track to day. though. and it's probably even a little slick. At Sedalia this year, that was the ep itome of dry-slick. and we were going to make it into the main there before the rear tire blew." Indeed. between the team's DR-Z400based singles and its new, fuel-injecte d DL twins. it headed into the Springfield Mile having qualified for four of the last five main events, and the Sedalia incident . they say. was a fluke. Tire failures are something that the Suzuki tw in-powered machines racing o n the circuit have ex perienced on occasio n. The excess horsepower that the TLJDL motors genera te can be very abusive to the Goodyear CD8 rear tires that are spec for the series. At Sedalia, Varnes