Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ ROAD RACE AMAlCCS EIC Brakes Endurance Challenge Series: Round 6 ~. FastlineIMCM's Tommy Lynch (25) leads Team America's Michael Barnes (9) and Dutchman Racing's Andrew Stroud (1). Fastline/MCM Racing fastest at Loudon By Henny Ray Abrarhs LOUDON, NH, JUNE 20 t was a. sweet homecoming for Fastline/MCM Racing's Jeff Heino, the former New Englander returning to his home state to team with Tommy Lynch to win the 3-Hour Endurance Challenge in threatening weather at New Hampshire International Speedway. ''I'm so psyched," said Heino, 34, who now lives in Florida but grew up racing in New England. "I finished second so many times here. Now it's two (series wins) in a row. We want to win the championship. Second place is out." Fastline/MCM's Lynch took over the lead just over two hours into the race when Gold Hill Racing's Christian Gardner crashed with a stuck throttle while leading. The Suzuki GSXRIIOO mounted Lynch, who wasn't irp.mediately aware he was in front, backed off when he realized he had over a one-minute lead and the track was becoming slick from a light drizzle. "We didn't have to show what we had," Lynch said. "I remembered we were in the lead in points. We want to keep it." The team completed 132 laps of the 1.6 mile course, totalling 211.2 miles at an average speed of 70.447 mph. The win, their.fourth of the year, was their most dominant, finishing 1 'minute, 07.184 seconds in front of secondplaced Team America. America's Michael Barnes set a blistering early pace, destroying the rear tire on their Honda CBR900 and causing teammate Woody Deatherage to struggle with it through the middle hour of the race. An unplanned tire change near the two-hour mark slowed the team, but a furious late charge by I 24 Barnes put him into second place, a wheel length in front of Dutchman Racing's Andrew Stroud, who'd also been forced to make 'a tire change. "I didn't know where we were," Barnes said. "I just knew I had to get on the gas real hard." The New Zealander Stroud took over Dutchman's GSXR1100 near the one hour, 45 minute mark following a tire change after teammate Scott Zampach's shift. "That was the wildest hour" of riding in my life," the experienced Zampach said. "There were ambulances on the track, blown motors, oil. There was a girl on a FZR400 going 10 mph, but not in a straight line. She was going from white line to white line." Fourth and fifth went to teams that chose to only make one pit stop: N2 Racing putting on Mike Myers for Jim Sabin on the team's Honda CBR900 near the mid-point with Class Racing's Fritz Kling replacing the exhausted Jason Pridmore on Class's Kawasaki ZX-7R. Pridmore was given oxygen after his 90 minute stint and took an ambulance ride to the infield hospital, but was soon released. Fastline/MCM added to their GTO Championship lead, now totalling 112 points to Team America's 98. Dutchman is third with 82. The GTU class win went to a team formed the day before the race, with second and third place going to teams that were only a week old. After blowing the transmission in his GTU bike, William Himmelsbach was asked by Laney Cobb to join him on the T.B.R.Endurance bike. The Honda CBR600 pairing worked perfectly, the team completing 127 laps and finishing over a lap in front of Hornblower Racing's Bill Hornblower and Owen Weichel. Hornblower had asked Weichel to join him aboard the team's Honda CBR600 the previous week at Brainerd, the same week that American Flyers was born, teaming Dr. Bob Meister w~th Todd Harrington, also on a Honda CBR600. American Flyers was third at Loudon, three laps down on the winners. Team N.O.S. finished fourth with Team Holiday's Robin Holiday and Keith Code taking fifth. Like the top three, the fourth and fifth place finishers were aboard Honda CBR600s. The top two teams in the championship both had days to forget. Team Moto Liberty/Nankai's Danny Walker had an engine let go on the team's Honda CBR600 on the II th lap. Team Toomer lasted into the third hour when they were black-flagged because their Yamaha YZR600 was smoking badly. Rider James Leslie pitted, and the team lost about six laps while oil was added and the situation was discussed with AMA officials. Leslie went back out, only to pull in about 10 minutes later with a blown engine. Moto Liberty/Nankai still holds the GTU points lead with 87. T.B.R.Endurance moved into second with 62, while Toomer dropped to third with 57. Dutchman Racing won the EBC Brakes Monster Bike Shootout, Andrew Stroud riding four laps before Scott Zampach finished off with a thrilling, but narrow win. Za'mpach crossed the line .161 seconds ahead of Fastline/MCM Racing's Jeff Heino - teamed with Tommy Lynch - at the end of the five-lap race, Team America's Michael Barnes finishing third after teaming with Woody Deatherage. GTO An informal poll of the riders before the three-hour race found their two biggest concerns were the unpredictable weather and traffic. Their fears would prove to be warranted. Because of a number of sideshow events run on Saturday, the race wasn't started until 3:30 in the afternoon, but when it was, Fastline/MCM's Tommy Lynch sped into the lead, Class Racing's Jason Pridmore on his tail followed by Team America's Michael Barnes, Dutchman Racing's Andrew Stroud and Gold Hill Racing's Christian Gardner. Barnes took the lead on the sixth lap, pulling a slight lead until Gardner made his move a few laps later. Gardner passed the Dutchman bike when Stroud was forced off the track by a backmarker on the II th lap. "I was outside a lapper and he freaked out and stood the bike up," Stroud said. At the 30-minute mark, Gardner had lost Stroud and Barnes in traffic with Lynch and Northwest Racing's Titian Bue filling out the top five. :Pridmore led Yamaha Endurance of Jacksonville's Dean Mizdal with N2 Racing's Mike Myers eighth. Yamaha Endurance of Jacksonville's fortunes took a turn for the worse when Mizdal crashed on the 27th lap exiting turn two. "When I hit the bump (the transition onto the oval), the suspension unloaded and it spit me over the front. I was stuck out there. I pushed it almost to turn three," Mizdal said, before it restarted. Back in the pits, the team patched the bike back together with duct tape and tie wraps and sent Andy Fenwick out. Other teams were making rider changes near the 45-minute mark, Phil Kress on for Gardner on the Gold Hill bike, Titian Bue handing off to Bob Sandy, and Jeff Heino for Tommy Lynch. Lynch ~aid he was a little off the pace. "The front end was real stiff. When you flick it right to left, the front end is not giving me any feedback. It's real vague and on the big bumps it jars me to death," Lynch said. A bigger problem was traffic. "We see some guys every two laps. If Wayne Rainey thinks he has a hard time with lappers, he ought to come back to America. There are four or five guys who shouldn't be out there," said Lynch. Gardner felt much the same way, his problem compounded by fighting the big bike with a sore ankle. "On a scale of one to 10," Gardner began in rating the severity of the traffic, "It's an eight or nine. Every turn it's riot one rider, it's a clump." Already Gardner noticed his throttle was sticking, but it was Stroud's problem that put him in the lead. "The main reason I got away was Andrew ran off in the dirt. I thought I might as well go for a couple seconds lead." ~cott Zampach jumped on for Stroud just past the one hour mark, the team going for only two stops unless inclement weather forced a tire change, a distinct possibility at the hour mark. A light rain was falling, but the sun was intermittently shining, the track bathed in a cloudy bright light. _ Deatherage replaced Barnes on the Team America bike at the I: 10 mark, the team running in second place when they pitted, dropping back to third after the stop. "It got a little slippery," Barnes, who described the traffic as "rush hour," said after pitting. "I was trying to keep up with Tommy (Lynch). I'm going to go out with a new tire when I go out again." Dutchman had the lead at the hour mark, before their rider change, with America second, Kress third, and Jim Sabin fourth, the N2 Team going for one gas stop. Heino was an aggressive fifth, in front of Class' Pridmore, like Sabin, going for a 90-minute stint. The second set of rider changes began near the halfway point, Gold Hill's Kress in the lead at the 1:20 mark,

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