Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

the corners like I usually do. I wasn't coming out of the big sweepers and hammering it. You've got to be there at the end." . Tommy Lynch took over just before the halfway mark not knowing that he would have to finish the race due to Heino's illness. "Hopefully Tommy can gas it up and go out again," Heino said. "1 was just trying to maintain a smooth rhythm. I wasn't pushing it." Heino knew that clinching the championship would depend on' where Team America finished. Just before the two-hour mark Z.ampach took over for Ray Yoder Jr. The team was running with an enlarged gas tank on the Dutchman Suzuki to cut out one pit stop, but they were slowed when they had to chang~ another front tire. "We blistered another one/' Yoder, who was riding with the team for the first time, said. "1 was doing lIs and 12s. When we replaced the first one, the spare wheel had the same compound as . the one we blistered. Mine had a big knot with the threads hanging off it. It ·was chattering badly in turn one. I could feel it in the first corner. You go in, and the next thing you know the front end is jackhammering. I toughed it out until Scott could get his leathers on. When I .pulled in we were three seconds behind Fastline and catching them a second a lap.". Gold Hill's Kling was still well in the lead when he took the bike back from Gardner at the 2:14 mark. But just over 20 minutes later he pulled into the pits, the engine expiring with a broken rod. "It happened on the front straight," Kling said. "It didn't have as much power on top." Whether the engine failure was related to the overheating problem was immediately unknown. N2 Racing/National Car Rental's Sabin, who'd taken over from Myers just before the two-hour mark, inherited the lead with Gold Hill's departure. But with less than 20 minutes' to go, and a 30-second lead, Sabin was forced to pit when he chunked a front tire. "When I went out, Gold Hill was out . of reach. We were just trying to finish," Sabin said. "After I chunked the tire, and_~hanged it, I wasn't sure if we were a lap up on Dutchman or not. " Fastline/MCM's Lynch had come inat the 2:19 ma,k to take on gas. Heino was done for the day. And as soon as Sabin pitted, Lynch was in the lead and pulling away. He would lap the field, taking both the race and the title. Dutchman was on the same lap as N2 Radng/National Car Rental, Zampach urging the bike into second place. "We were pushing for it," Zampach said. "We blistered two front tires 'and that cost us quite a bit of time. Otherwise, we might have won it." "1 haven't ridden a bike in over two months," Myers said after finishing third: ''I'd chipped my elbow in practice at Indy. Now the elbow's great; the rest of me's out of sync." Team Ameri~a's Deatherage brought the damaged Honda in fourth. Aside from the damage from the crash, the left lower fairing blew off on the front straight near the start/finish line during Barnes' first stint. "The bike just slowed down, then the fairing flew off," .Barnes said. Deatherage, who'd come in for gas only with about 15 minutes to go, and rode one hour, 40 minutes, said he was exhausted toward the end of the race. "1 was really having brain fade with 20 minutes left," he said. Still, the team was 13 laps in front of fifth-placed Keystone Racing, Nigel Gale and John Danny Walker led Moto Liberty/Nankai to the GTU class win; they also clinched the class championship in the process. Condron suffering a number of mechan, ical problems. "We changed the gas tank and it wasn't running right. So I came in again and we changed the battery," Condron said about his first shift. "Then Nigl71 rode it and we changed the carburetors and black boxes. " For the first time, the team was using a 1255cc engine in the George Fitts-prepared Suzuki, but it wasn't running right and the tires weren't sticking. "The front was pushing everywhere. I never get blisters riding this bike and I got them today. If We didn't have a problem in the beginning we could've been right up there. I cut down to 13s and 14s and the tire seemed to get worse and worse," Condron said. Gold Hill Racing was credited with sixth place, completing 126 laps before being forced to withdraw. GTU Danny Walker of Mota Liberty /Nankai said the team was shooting for a top three overall finish. And, judging from his pace in the early laps, it wasn't that far-fetched. Walker jumped into the class lead and quickly made up the handicap of starting in a wave behind the GTO bikes. By the 10th lap he was up to sixth overall with American Flyers' Meister second with I Can Jam's Gleason third. When the first hour el~psed, Walker was up to fifth and had better than a 27second lead when he gave .up the saddle to Carmichael near the 1:20 mark. Carmichael came in with about 10 minutes to go for gas, his lead over a lap and growing. Like Fastline/MCM, the GTtJ front-runners won both the race and the championship, though they did it from the front. "The last couple of races we had bad luck," .Walker said. "We had to beat Hornblower for the championship and we beat them all. Doug went quicker than me. He did a 12.9 at the end. It feels good to be able to go out and dominate and that's what we did." Between the halfway and two-hour marks, 1 Can Jam passed American Flyers with Harrington riding for American Flyers after Meister pitted at the 1:20 point just as he ran out of gas. "We were way ahead of third," Meister said. "It started burbling coming into one. I just wanted to see how Jeff Heino (fourth from left) and his teammate Tommy Lynch (third from right) celebrate their victory with team members ftom Dutchman Racing and N2 Racing. long I could go. Three turns from the end it quit and I coasted all the way in." Gerald Rothman Jr. was riding in his first endurance race and he found himself in third place before having to relinquish the controls back to Craig Gleason. "1 ran the middle stint and didn't want to get too burned out. I was pretty tired when I got off," Rothman Jr: said. "We didn't do any tire changes. We started on fresh rubber and it got a little hot in the middle of the day. At the end, I was riding on used tires two hours into it. You get used to it." Gleason was back on fcir the end and held their second place. Meister was back out with a little over half an hour to go, but couldn't close the gap and finished third. Hornblower Racing ran fifth much of the race, taking over fourth from Beast Racing just 'before the 2:30 mark. Weichel had ridden the first shift, team owner Hornblower the second, with Cornwell finishing up. Hornblower knew that the championship was a long shot, especially after trying to keep pace today. , "Moto Liberty has got to po 'something foolish for us to caten'them," Hornblower said. "My ride was pretty uneventful. I wasn't fast enough or strong enough to throw the bike through the esses like Walker and Carmichael. I was riding around the handling. It flops into the corner too much and wants to fal) down. We need to get Jon more time with it to get it set up right." CN Results GTO: 1. Fastline/MCM Racing (Sm); 2. Dutchman . Racing (Suz); 3. N2 Racing/National Car Rental (Han); 4. Team America (Han); 5. Keystone Racing (Suz); 6. Gold Hill Racing (Yam); 7. Team Blackhawk Racing (Suz); 8. Alamo City Harley-Davidson (Bue); 9. Northwest Racing (Sm); 10. Team Magic (Yam); 11. Gold Hill Racing 11 (Yam). Time: 3 hours, 49 mins., 015 sees. Distance: 145 laps, 261 miles. Margin of victory: 1:26.714 mins. Average speed: 87.204 mph. GTO C'SHIP POINT STANDINGS: 1. Fastline/MCM Racing (154); 2. Team America' (131); 3. Dutchman Racing (114); 4. Gold Hill Racing (85); 5. Keystone Racing (Z1); 6. N2 Racing (70); 7. Team Magic (61); 8. Northwest Racing (70); 9. Gass Racing (56); 10. Team Yamaha Endurance (53); 11. Team OTS/Southwest Motorsports (30); 12. Northstar Racing (26).; 13. Mid-Cities Motorsports (25); 14. Lucky Dog Racing (21); 15.. Dutchman Racing II (20); 16. Team Blackhawk Racing (17); 17. (Tie) Gold Hill Racing II/Kawasaki Racing Team 1 (15); 19. Graphic Racing (12); 20. Kawasaki Muzzy 2 (11).. GTU: 1. Mota Liberty/Nankai (Han); 2. I Can Jam (Han); 3. American Ayers (Han); 4. Hornblower Racing (Han); 5. Mota Liberty II (Han); 6. Team Hansen (Yam); 7. Team Tundra (Yam); 8. Team Holiday (Han); 9. Team Velocity Racing (Yam); 10. E.L.B. Racing (Han); II. Island Boys Racing (Han); 12. Team Apathy (Yam); 13. Beast Racing (Yam); 14. Threj! Guys Racing (Han); 15. IRC Racing (Yam); 16. Noble Knights (Han); 17. New Tech Racing Team (Han). GTU C'SHIP POINT STANDINGS: 1. Mota Liberty/Nankai (127); 2. Hornblower Racing (98); 3. American Flyers (77); 4. IRC Racing (66); 5. TBR Endurance (62); 6. (Tie) Team Holiday/Team Toomer (57); 8. (Tie) Island .Boys Racing/Himmelsbach Racing/ AGV Sport (49); 11. New Tech Racing (47); 12. Team Tundra (34); 13. Team Hansen (25); 14. Beast Racing (20); 15. Honda-Suzuki World Racing (19); 16. Super BRacing (18); 17. I Can Jam (17); 18. (Tie) McCall Racing/Team N.OS. (16); 20. Team Scream (15). 13

• Cover