Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Inside Team Suzuki Flat rack we need to get the thing close r to their parameters. and then get it to tu rn before we can start feed ing power back to it. Otherwise. it's like tak ing a kid off an 80 and putting him on a 250 and saying. 'Go get it on, dude ...· Losing horsepower in favor of tractability will also capital ize on the main strength that the Suzukis have brought to the dirt track aren a so far : their sto ne reliability. "Y u loo k at the service manual o n this o t hing. and it says to go 4000 miles befo re yo u change the o il and to go 15.000 mile be for e you ad just the valves," Smith said. "They make I 10 ho rsepower stock. so w he n we take the power out of the m. they just roll forever. At the same time . t he Harleys are busting cases wh ere they 're at now. Th e Suzukis are pretty much bulletproof. but in the same breath. I had one break at Spr ingfield - but that was totally my fault and had nothing to do with the motor itself." Smith says t hat he simply got caught o n the wro ng end of an experiment with the mo tor. Even so . he says that he has no plans to quit tw eak ing parts now. not w ith t he impro vements th at have shown t hrough in the re sults. "It's funny," Smith says. "Ou r chassis aren't painted because I we nt to see a buddy at Anderson Fabrications , and we made some chassis changes. welded some bars in differ ent places . and then we went and tried them out. Then when I got back. it was like. 'Well, are we going to run these things over to get them powder coated?' I said. 'N o, because if the y don't work on Saturday. 30 SEPTEMBER 29 , 2004 • we' re going to cut all the bars out of them on Monday and start over.' When I got here. we had to make drastic changes . Fifth and sixth in a semi is terrible ." T hat has been happening far less frequently since the Rapid City Half Mile . wh ere either Varnes. Eslick. or both . have been in the main event or challenging fo r a transfer spot in the second half of the seas o n. regardless of whether they w ere racing singles or twi ns. While Smith acknow ledges that the changes being made are bearing fru it. he is even quicker to point to t he talent of Varnes and Eslick. "Eve ry week until we have a go o d. w inning bas eline setup. we' re trying diff erent things , and I have actually burned AJ. by doing that a couple times," Smith said. "But bot h these guys can ride a moto rcycle. and if you give me a winter of working with th em and testing with the m. we'II do business next year, I prom ise you that. You take a guy like Kevin. w ho finished fourth in this ser ies, and who is so good at giving feed back, and you give him a motorcycle. and he'lI do something with it. We just really started making our run at Rapid City. and he is only six points out of the top 20. and he isn't done. AJ. is still developing , but he has the talent. I told the se guys that after Du Quoin. if we get the green light for next year t he first thing that w e're going to do is take two weeks off. T he n we're going test ing. and we' re going to wo rk all winter. And when we ro ll into Dayto na. we're go ing to be so mebody. These guys are startin g to get their con fidence back now." W ith their mids eason turnaround. Varnes and Eslick are true believers in the Suzuki program. altho ugh Varnes says t hat he always was . since t he end of 2002 w hen. afte r a car eer-best fourth -place finish in the AMA Progressive Insurance Flat Track Championship. he got a call from Dave Burks offering him a ride with a factory Suzu ki dirt track tea m. Varnes knew that he was tak ing a he ll of chance walking away fro m an established. well-financed pr ivateer Harley team. but he jumped at the oppo rtu nity anyway. not on ly because the dea l wo uld provide him with so und financial support w hile the mach ines were being dev elop ed but also becau se he had a sen se of loyalty to the Suzuki brand. " My father was a Suzuki de ale r for 25 ye ar s," Varnes said. "And Suzu ki wa s alw ays goo d for my family. That 's all I rod e growi ng up as a kid. and even wh en I was C YCLE N EWS Though underpowered against the MXbased CRF and YZF competition, Eslick (16) and Varnes (89) put in a great showing aboard their DR-Z singles at the Springfield Short Track, placing ninth and 11th respectively. Both riders are anxious to try the new Suzuki RM-Z450. racing Harleys. I wished that Suzuki had made som ething that I could ride. Th is was a perfect opportunity for me ." Varnes brought co nside rable ex peri ence to th e team. He has won Grand National race s o n Honda RS750s, on Har ley-Davidso n XR750s. ridde n factory KTM singles , and he is a tr eme ndo us halfrniler, part icularly whe n the t rack co ndit ions are slick. He knew that he wo uld have to draw on all of that exper ience just to get the early TL-powered versions of the tw in around t he racetrack. "I knew that it was going to be hard ." Varnes said. "I'd had one ride on a Suzuki Supertracker at the Del Mar Mile, and I was basing part of my dec ision off that. I knew that it was going to take a lot of wo rk . that w e might be o kay on the miles. but that it was go ing to tak e a lot of work on the half miles. But I wasn't pre pared for how hard it was going to be." Going into 2003 , Varnes set what he t ho ught was a re alistic goal of finishing in the top 20 , but as the season wore on . that reality vanished into obscurity as the te am de sperately fought the TL:s sharp powe r delivery and odd chassis quirks. They only made thre e main eve nts all year. "Halfway th rou gh t he year. we got the new DL mo to r with the fuel injection ," Varn es said. "It was better from the start . and we were way faste r on those than we w ere on the TLs. At the end of last season. we got second and third in the Formula USA race at t he Del Mar Mile." Varnes had hop ed to build on that success right from the start of 2004. but it didn't happen that way. "We seem ed o kay at the Hot Shoe halfmile at Savannah , but when we got to the start of the National season. it still was n't happening," Varnes said. "Savannah was just deceptive because it was a really fast trac k w ith a lot of tra ctio n. We rea lized we 40th Anniversary still weren't hoo king up." The performance plateau laste d until Smith's hiring, but getting to the next level proved to be painful. as co nflict developed between tea m me m be rs. For pe rspective's sake , you must understand that the dirt tra ck community is the most tightly knit form grou p in mo to rcycle raci ng in America. Regardless of affiliation. the to uring teams are like one giant family. They loo k out for one another on the road. watch eac h other's kids at the races . root fo r the underdogs in the group . cry with one another when one of their own is lost. And w he n t he re is d issension in the ranks, everybody hea rs about it. That was the case when Smith . who had been fired from t he Kopp KTM team after the two failed to see eye to eye. moved over to Suzu ki. w here forme r co mpetitorturned-tu ner Ken Mohle r was mak ing mos t of the tu ning decisions for the team. An unco mfortable period of strife was followed by Mohler 's departure. The move didn't sit well with Varnes at first. but in hindsight he says that he realizes it was necessary, all part of thinking abo ut the big pictur e and view ing dirt track as a business rath er than just a high-buck hobby. "Kenny was a good friend of mine," Varnes said. "We grew up together. but when yo u're struggling as bad as we we re . it's hard on every body. It was hard on Kenny. hard on me. Dave Burks. AJ.... everybody. I think it was good to get Travis in ther e with fresh ideas . He is really committed to the prog ram . You can see that on the livecam on our we bsite [www.suzukiflatt rack.com]. He'll be there at I I or 12 o'c1ock at night, working. When Kenny left. it was best for him and best for the te am." Smith 's suspension tweaks and his horsepower diet yielded almost imme diate results. as both Varn es and Eslick made the main even t at Rapid City.

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