Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ ROADRACE WEll Vanson/PMNational Endurance Series: Round 7 ~ DAK Racing completed 424 miles in winning the six-hour endurance race at Grattan Raceway in Michigan. Force Racing (3) finished fourth, while Virginia Breeze (66) ended up second. DAK is back with Grattan win By Larry Bell GRATIAN, MI, ruNE 27 AK Racing notched its first win of the Vanson/PM National Endurance Series by taking a near-stock, two-year-old Suzuki GSXRlloo to the win in a red-flag marred six-hour race at Grattan Raceway. Team riders Steve Heilman, Dean Hayes and Tom Wilson turned in 212 laps (424 miles) on the two-mile, 13turn circuit, which features four elevation ch~ges and a reputation for being hard on brakes due to the corners at the end of several high speed sections. Blowing in --with a second-place D 30 finish was Virginia Breeze Racing with 210 laps. Riders Todd Dofflemier, Charley Safley and Jay Bartlow turned in a superlative effort with the ex-Mad Dog Yamaha FZRlOOO by racing at their own pace, and not making any mistakes. A relative newcomer to the WERA endurance series, R.A. Racing, finished third, also with 210 laps and just 24 seconds behind Virginia Bre~ze. Canadians Tim ~euhl and David Klassen were seeing the race track for only their second time and had only Friday's practice to sort out the suspension on their "ancient" 1986 Suzuki GSXRlIOQ. The team may have been so concerned with setup that they forgot about fuel consumption as the bike finished the race on reserve and ran dry as it was crossing the finish line. Force Racing continues to dominate the Heavyweight Production ranks and stands second overall in the series. Force riders Ron Crum, Rick Pagniano and Jeff J ames again won the class and finished fourth overall with 209 laps. The team's only miscue came after the second restart when Pagniano had made only a lap on fresh brakes when he came whistling down the front straightaway and grabbed a handful of brake only to discover they had glazed over. He overshot turn one and went dirt tracking. Rounding out the -top five was the Barely Human Racing entry with riders Mark Brubaker and Mark Kowalski. They also turned in 209 laps on their Yamaha FZRlooO, encountering trouble early in the race when both lower fairings came loose and Kowalski had to pit slightly earlier than scheduled to zip tie them together. Both riders said after the race that they were not contesting the series and had only entered the race for the sheer enjoyment of the racing. But both were quick to point out that they could not have finished without the efforts of engine builder Scott Miller and Zdeno Cycle Shop. The race was stopped in the first 15 minutes when a bike went down in a right-hand hairpin turn, smashing the master cylinder and spewing brake fluid on the track. The second red flag occurred just into the second hour when a rider crashed on the front straight sending debris across the track. This round also marked the first time this year that Team Suzuki Endurance didn't win. Suzuki only entered one bike in the race, and, as usual, led the early laps from the rest of the 46-team field. At one point, roughly an hour and a half into the six hours, they had lapped all the way up to ninth place. All that was for naught as 93 laps of early excitement turned to dejection and fear as the machine rolled into the pits with Michael Martin aboard and a broken crankshaft inside. The team elected to pull the number one machine, and sent out number two in the hopes of gaining miles of points and experience for its newest risin~' star, Steve Patterson. After the race, Suzuki crew chief Keith Perry said this was the team's first mechanical failure' in years and the crankshaft had recently been inspected -for wear after the Summit Point sprint races. Despite the breakdown, Team Suzuki Endurance still leads the championship by an astounding 163.18 points over Force Racing, 695.53-532.35. An ecstatic Rod Kirian of Shoei/ Wiseco/Kenko-backed DAK Racing was nearly tongue-tied after the race and said that the win was more a measure of good Iuck than good management. "Naturally we were hoping on finishing'second," he said. "We didn't plan on beating Suzuki. They are good and their bikes never break. We got lucky." What he failed to mention was DAK was forced to race its production GSXRIIOO because its superbike version was ailing due to carburetion problems. Apparently the jets and carbs had become contaminated due to a poor fuel quality. Also, just before the second restart, Tom Wilson tripped and fell on the grid when his foot became caught on the footpeg. The fall broke the clutch lever and, to add insult to the injury, when he rode back to the pits he did it the wrong way and the team was fined. Perhaps the biggest contributor to the team's win was a huge six-gallon fuel tank which was manufactured for the team by Phil Scott of Team Suzuki. According to DAK team members, the motorcycle has never run dry with this tank. At today's lap times - in the one-minute, 27-28-second rangethe stock bike was able to generate one hour and 15 minutes of track time before having to pit for fuel. The team used it to the fullest as Hayes finished the race with the bike on reserve and less than half a gallon remaining. Coming out of nowhere was the Virginia Breeze entry, supported by -:Taylor Auto Body, Airtech, Syed, Wayne Cycle Shop, and Massey Motor Sports. The team finally put together a race-long effort of good laps, management, and rider skill to breathe new freshness into the series. Veteran Jim Tribou and Charly Safely have pulled the old Mad Dog Yamaha FZRlOOO into serious contention by emphasizing consistency in rider lap times, and machine preparation. This was readily apparent in the fourth hour when Dofflemier was having front tire trouble and was briskly signaling for a pit stop and fresh rubber. Tribou held him off for a few more laps in an effort to even out the rider stints and a belief that the tire was good. He was right. When Dofflemier pitted several laps later, the tire was fine. There was a brief moment of elation in Breeze's pit about halfway through the race when members mistakenly thought they had moved into first place. This was a result of DAK's scorekeepers inadvertently mis-scoring three laps as they didn't properly count the team's entry/exit from the pits. DAK protested the scoring but due to time limitations were only able to recoup one lap. Going quietly unnoticed throughout the race was the performance of R.A. Racing. They ended the first hour in 10th place overall and very method-

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