Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Fastline/MCM, Dutchman and Team America Endurance, with new team member Jacques Guenette Jr. riding the Yamaha FZRI000 for the first time. Meanwhile, American Flyers, Moto Liberty /Nankai and IRC Racing took their hold on the top three places in the GTU class. Fifteen minutes in, Barnes crashed the Team America Honda CBR900 in the esses, blaming a sticking throttle. His teammate Deatherage qUickly jumped on a pit bike with a crew member and headed out to find the bike; he later pitted, and a drastic effort was made to make quick damage repairs. Moto Liberty/Nankai was the next of the top teams to make an unscheduled pit stop. The team discovered a cracked engine case on the CBR600, damage incurred when Carmichael crashed the bike in a morning practice session. "It must have opened up when it got hot," Danny Walker explained. "We ran it' and ran it in the pits and it was fine. We're probably about six laps down, so we'll see what happens." GTO regulars, N2 Racing, had also run into early problems, with two stops early on - one to tighten a loose handlebar and the other to repair crash damage. The Honda CBR900 team of Mike Myers, Jim Sabin and Doug Phillips would fight back to finish eighth in class. At the 50-minute mark, championship leaders Fastline/MCM Racing came in for their first scheduled pit stop, with Lynch handing over to Heino. By this' point the clutch on the team's Suzuki GSXRllOO was already slipping, yet Lynch failed to inform the team, instead upset by the bike's poor handling characteristics. "We've got to make some changes," Lynch said. "It's way soft. I don't know what changed since Road America - it was bitchin' there." Gold Hill pitted a lap later, with Gardner handing the bike over to Clarke. "I was just setting a nice pace, not pushing anything," Gardner said. "My only problem was in turn three early on I clipped my knee and lost my sensor (knee puck). That took some getting used to. The traffic is pretty bad. I don't know if it's hard to pass here or if I'm just having a bad day." Gardner wasn't concerned about the others catching up: "This is Linnley's favorite track, so we should be okay." Fastline made an unscheduled stop shortly after Heino took over, the New Englander somewhat upset about finding the clutch problem. The team also took the time to make suspension changes, front and rear, before sending Lynch back out on the bike. "The clutch is slipping," Heino said. "Tommy should have told 'em when he came in." Team Yamaha Endurance began to slip in the standings, with the team dropping to fifth at the 30-minute mark, and eighth after an hour. They would move up to sixth at the finish despite drastic handling problems with the FZRl000. "I don't have much time on the bike," Guenette said after handing off to teammate Robbie Petersen. "They have a new front end on the bike and I can't even hold it wide open on the straight. The less gas the bike has in the tank, the scarier it is. The lap times keep going up and up. I think the spring rate or oil level needs to be stiffened." Dutchman Racing was holding down third place, with Andrew Stroud giving .over to Scott Zampach during the team's first stop. "It's sliding around a bit," Stroud said. "It's really hard to pass on this track because it's all comers and the racing line isn't very wide. It's a bit of fun Class Racing borrowed a bike from Gold Hill and then finished second overall with Fritz Kling, Ray Yoder and Dean Mizdal. trying to get through them." Stroud spent a portion of his break telling stories about his successful 500cc Grand Prix rides in Hungary and France, where he finished 11 th and 12th, respectively, in his first outings on a GP bike. Clarke gave the Gold Hill bike back to Gardner just after the halfway mark. They led Class Racing, Dutchman, Keystone Racing and Fastline/MCM at this point, with the top five staying the same with the exception of Fastline moving past Keystone priQr to the finish. "It's going really good," said Clarke, w):\O was haVing his second ride of the season with Gold Hill. "I've actually sfarted to back off. I was only revving it to 11,500 on the backstraight instead of 12,000. We're staying right at plus 20 (seconds), plus 24. I think everybody is playing it pretty conservative at this point." Class Racing, meanwhile, was having a good race, holding down second place on their borrowed bike from Gold Hill. Kling had led the team early on before giving way to Ray Yoder, with Mizdal only getting the bike briefly before the red flag came out late in the race. He would then give the bike back to Kling for the team's dash to the flag. At 2:50 p.m., two hours and 20 minutes into the race, the red-flag was thrown when oil was discovered in turn 11. "It was there for five or six laps before they threw the flag," Mizdal said after stopping the Class Racing Yamaha. The restarted race became a 16-lap sprint to the finish. Fastline/MCM (Heino) led Dutchman Racing (Stroud) and Gold Hill (Clarke) at the drop of the -flag and those three battled until being caught by Class (Kling) on the sixth lap. Gold HIll took the lead in the four-way battle a lap later, but gave it back to Fastline on the 10th lap. Then Class took a turn at the lead for laps 12 and 13 before Gold Hill took it back for good on the 14th go-around. They were able to hold off Class and Dutchman at the checkered flag. IRC Racing, meanwhile, took the lead at the restart in GTU, before giving way to Cornwell and the Hornblower Honda CBR600. Cornw.ell put his head down and left the others behind, giving Hornblower not only the win on the race track but also on the clock. "I didn't think we'd win this one," Bill Hornblower said. "They all ran away at the start, but the red flag fell into our lap. We hadn't made our sec- FastlinelMCM (25) finished fourth with Dutchman Racing (1) ending up thiid. ond stop yet and it became a sprint to the finish. It was Cornwell's tum and he was the fastest guy. This is our first race on Dunlop slicks. I bought a wheel big enough (5.5-inch) to carry the big tire. It was Cornwell who won it for us." Himmelsbach Endurance's Mike Himmelsbach said the team had no problems en route to its second place finish in GTU. "I had some tire slides in the beginning, but nothing real bad," he said. Mike Himmelsbach teamed with his father Bill and Jim Bonner. American Flyers were forced to change brake pads during the race, but riders Dr. Bob Meister and Todd Harrington were able to make up some time to finish second in class: "We were sliding all over at the end there. It was fun," Meister said. Dutchman's Stroud blamed traffic in part for him not being able to catch Gold Hill at the end: "I got really messed up in traffic," the New Zealander said. Gold Hill team manager John Hopperstad's decision to let Clarke finish the race paid off: "We had used Christian (Gardner) up," Hopperstad said. "If I had thought we couldn't beat them, I would have put Christian out." The team also completed the final sprint without fitting a new tire. "If I had to do it over again, I'd put a new one on," Hopperstad added. Heino wasn't pleased with being beaten, still he was happy to have extended Fastline's championship lead: "You can't beat those OWs (Yamahas) here," Heino said. "1 was sliding both wheels. I didn't have any riding time. I had one practice on Friday and my third practice was my race. The bike I practiced on I never raced. Those Yamahas can go anywhere they want, while I was just fighting it. At least we kept it on the track and had some fun. And we kept the points lead. I just want to win the championship - we'll see what happens." (;N Results CTO: 1. Gold Hill Racing (Yam); 2. Class Racing (Yam); 3. Dutchman Racing (Suz); 4. Fastline/MCM Racing (Suz); 5. Keystone Racing (Suz); 6. Team Yamaha Endurance (Yam); 7. Team Magic (Yam); 8. N2 Racing (Hon); 9. Team OTS/Southwest Motorsports (Hon); 10. Northwest Racing (Suz); 11. R.A. Racing (Suz); 12. Graphic Racing (Kaw); 13. Team Blackhawk Racing (Suz); 14. Mid Oties Motorsports (Suz); 15. Part TImers (Suz). Tune: 3 hours, 17.292 sec. Distance: 99 laps, '1Zl.6 miles. Average Speed: 79.073 mph. Margin of Victory. 4.492 sec. CTU: 1. Hornblower Racing (Hon); 2. American Flyers (Hon); 3. Himmelsbach Endurance (Hon); 4. IRC Racing (Yam); 5. Team Holliday (Hon); 6. AGV Sport (Hon); 7. Island Boys Racing (Hon); 8. S&K Racing (Hon); 9. Competition Cowlings (Suz); 10. Mid-Cities Motorsports (Hon); 11. Team Cycle Sport (Yam); 12. RS Racing (Hon); 13. Moto Liberty/Nankai (Hon); 14. Super B Racing (Hen); 15. scr Racing (Yam). CTO C'SHIP POINT STANDINCS: 1. Fastline/MCM Racing (134); 2. Team America (118); 3. Duthcman Racing (97); 4. Gold Hill Raci!1£j75); 5. Keystone Racing (60): 6. Oass Racing (56); 7. (TIEl Team Magic/N2 Racing (55); 9. (TIE) Northwest Racing/Team Yamaha Endurance (53). CTU C'SHIP POINT STANDINCS: 1. Moto Liberty/Nankai (107); 2. Hornblower Racing (85); 3. IRC Racing (65); 4. (TIE) T.B.R. Racing/American Flyers (62); 6. Team Toomer (57); 7. (TIE) Himmelsbach Endurance/AGV Sport/Team Holliday (49); 10. New Tech Racing (47). 21

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