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/146679
~ ROAD RACE VansonIPM WERA National Endurance Series: Round 10 ~ Team Suzuki Endurance (1) won its eighth WERA endurance championship with a win at Memphis Motorsports Park; TSBA (82) finished second overall. .Eight is great for Team Suzuki Photos by Tammy Schroder MILLINGTON, TN, AUG. 29 verything came up eights for Team Suzuki EndJ,uance at Memphis Motorsports Park as the team clinched its eighth career WERA National Endurance Series championship with its eighth win of the season and 80th career victory. The Valvoline-backed Suzuki GSXR1100-mounted team of Michael Martin, Kurt Hall and Stevie Patterson were never headed as they streaked away to a six-lap victory over the Suzuki GSXRllOO of TSBA R~cing's Robert Marsh and Mark Black. Roswell Racing's David Harman, Craig Ren~k and Kent Soignier finished third, one lap behind TSBA, with 241 laps on their Suzuki GSXRllOO. Fourth place went to the Yamaha FZR1000 of Yirginia Breeze Racing's Jay Bartlow and Charlie Safley, seven laps clear of the fifth placed Heavyweight Production dass winners Noble Nights Racing (Jeb Bridgeman. and Marcus McBain) and their Suzuki GSXR1100. The outcome for the Middleweight Production victory was in doubt until the finish, with Team Pearls' Tony Barchetti narrowly holding off the charging Dave Stanton on the Arclight Racing II entry for the class win and sixth overall; both teams were Honda CBR600 F-2-mounted. R.A. Racing, Beast Racing (first in Middleweight Superbike) and Royale Racing rounded out the top 10 finishers. At the completion of the twice redflag interrupted six-hour race, Team Suzuki Endurance had completed 248 laps of the 1.77-mile Memphis road course in winning their eighth race in 10 starts, clinching the title with three races E Roswell Racing finished third overall, seven laps behind Team Suzuki Endurance. Team Pearls pits en route to winning the Mediumweight Production class. 24 remaining. The team also set a record, becoming the first endurance team in any National series to win its fourth straight title. They lead Force Racing in the championship point standings by an insurmountable 321.78 points, 1072.83751.05. Force Racing didn't compete in Memphis after running into mechanical problems with their truck somewhere in Kentucky. The race was stopped after only 22 minutes and 40 seconds when debris Hom a crash littered the race track set in the southwest comer of the Volunteer State, but by this time Michael Martin had. already put the Team Suzuki Endurance entry some 22 seconds ahead of the DAK Racing Suzuki with his consistent one-minute, lO-second and 1:11 lap times. Martin stayed at the helm for the restart (at the 40 minute, 35 second mark) and eventually put a lap on TSBA on the 71st go-around. By this time, DAK had lost four laps, , pitting in the second hour to replace fuel filters that had been plugged with rust. They would drop out of the race all together on the 91st lap when their Suzuki suffered a blown motor, bringing out a second ~nd final red flag at the two-hour, 18-minute mark. After twq hours of racing, Team Suzuki ~ndurance. had established a . two-lap lead with 82 laps; TSBA, who would run consistently in second place for the duration of the race, had completed 80 laps along with Roswell Racing; Virginia Breeze, Team Pearls and DAK had turned in 78 laps; Arclight Racing II, Noble Knights, Beast Racing and R.A. Racing were deadlocked with 77 laps. R.A. Racing's Tim