Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ ROAD RACE AMAICCS EBC Brakes Endurance Challenge: Round 9 ~ . , Eventual winner FastlinelMCM Racing (25) leads third-placed N2RacinglNational Car Rental at Texas World Speedway. • • • 's I e Ime In exas By Henny Ray Abrams COLLEGE STATION,TX, OCT. 10 n order to win an endurance race you first have to finish. Simple enough, it seems, but the three-hour EBC Endurance Challenge at Texas World Speedway was one of the starkest confirmations this year of that simple adage. Gold Hill Racing was easily the fastest team on the track, lapping up to second place by the end of the second hour. But with just less than half an hour to go, Fritz Kling pulled the team's Yamaha FZRI000 behind the pit wall, the engine expiring with a broken rod. The GTO class win went to Fastline/MCM Racing, Tommy Lynch playing iron-man, riding double duty when teammate Jeff Heino was weakened by a recurrence of the flu after his first stint. For Lynch it wasn't a problem, the Californian pulling away to win by over a lap over defending National Champions Dutchman Racing to clinch the class title. "Toward the end 1 relaxed a little bit," Lynch said. "My lap times came down and we pulled it off." "I went to bed early last night and stayed there until 11:00 this morning," Heino said. "I rQde for 45 minutes and was totally drained." , Still, they scored their fifth win ot the year and the number one plate for 1993. The Dutchman team, which has been plagued by numerous problems this year and has yet to win !in AMA endurance race, suffered again today. The abrasive surface and fast sweeping left-hand turns abused the tires, forcing them to make two unscheduled tire changes. Scott Zampach shared the Suzuki GSXRllOO's saddle with newcomer Ray Yoder. Third went to N2Racing/National Car Rental, with Doug Phillips and Jim Sabin splitting the riding on the team's Honda CBR900. Like'Dutchman, and many other teams, they were forced to I 12 change a tire late in the race, dropping them out of the lead. The key today was trouble-free riding and, except for Heino's illness, that was the secret for Fastline/MCM. Lynch was out first, handing off to Heino at about the 45-minute mark with the team in fourth place. Lynch took back over at about the one-hour, 20-minute mark and would ride to the end. ''I'm sick as shit," Heino said after his ride. "I've got the flu big-time. It's like the fourth day. 1 rode for 45 minutes and I'm totally drained. 1 took my helmet and leathers off and got chilled. Hopefully, Tommy can gas up and go out again." Out he went, steadily dropping his lap times, until the race was 'his. Team America recovered. from lead rider Michael Barnes' second lap get-off to finish fourth, with Woody Deatherage doing most of the riding on the team's Honda CBR900. And Keystone Racing replaced much of their Suzuki GSXR1l00R on their way to fifth. The team changed the gas tank, carburetors, black box ignition, and battery. Keystone's riders in Texas were John Condron and Nigel Gale. Only 14 teams started the race with six finishing it. The GTO championship goes to Lynch and Heino, their 154 points unmatchable with just the season-ending Daytona Race of Champions to be run. Team America is second with 131, while Dutchman holds third with 114. The GTU championship was also decided in the Texas heat with Moto Liberty/Nankai's Danny Walker and Doug Carmichael lapping the,field on their Honda CBR600 F2. The pair led from the green light, quickly moving through the GTO field to finish an impressive fourth overall. Overpowered by the big bikes on the front straight, the duo rode like demons in the infield to move to the top of the overall standings. "We're hoping for top three overall when we're done," Walker had said after handing the bike to Carmichael at the 1:20 mark. "We can make up a lot of time through turn one" and the back esses. 1 was using (Team Magic's Doug) Moe as a gauge and just reeled him in. But 1 got stuffed by a backmarker and he pulled away from me." Second best in GTU went to 1 Can Jam as regular Craig Gleason teamed with first-timer Gerald Rothman Jr., who was subbing for the injured James Leslie. The paic moved into second just before the halfway mark and held it to the end. "This is the first time I've. ever done an endurance race," Rothman Jr. said after his runner-up finish. "Jim Leslie found the other day that the screws in his hand had moved a little bit. He'd done some testing at Lime Rock and Loudon the week before. He asked me if 1 wanted to ride. 1 was pretty tired when I got off. 1 was beat." American Flyers' Dr. Bob Meister and Todd Harrington finished third after having run second early in the race. , "My second shift was great. 1 was told 1 could go for it," Meister said. "Jim Rashid, from' Four and Six Cycles (the bike-builders) said it was okay to rev it to the moon since we're not using' the engine next week at Daytona. Even though the tire was slipping quite a bit, 1 was revving it to 13,500." Fourth place went to Hornblower Racing's trio of riders - Owen Weichel, Bill Hornblower and Jon Cornwell with fifth going to Moto Liberty II's Damon Harvey and Tatsuhiko fino. GTO' Scott Zarnpach took the first shift for Dutchman, speeding to the front, but only briefly. Team America's Mike Barnes led the second lap before crashing near the end of it while exiting the infield. He was quickly up without losing much ground, though the bike needed some hasty repairs. "The bike nardly even stopped," Barnes said. "It caught in the mud and lifted itselfback up. 1 told them 1needed a handlebar and peg. 1 did two laps, came back in for repairs, and went out. 1 don't think we lost that much time." By the third lap Gold Hill's Christian Gardner was in the lead" and pulling away. The shape of the race was formed early on, Gardner leading a trio for second headed by Zampach, Lynch on the Fastline/MCM bike, and N2 Racing/National Car Rental's Jim Sabin. Running alone behind the top four was Doug Moe on the Team Magic Yamaha. Sabin moved into second on the 19th lap and at the half-hour mark it was Gardner, Sabin, Zampach, Lynch, and Moe. The first round of pit stops and rider changes started at around the 45-minute mark. Fritz Kling replaced Gardner on the Gold Hill bike and Jeff Heino took over the Fastline/MCM seat from Lynch. "The bike's running hotter than it ever has," Gardner said while resting after his first shift. "It's almost 30 degrees hotter. It seems to be running fine. 1 just look down every once in a while and it's still up there. "Traffic's not too bad," Gardner added, even though the leaders were in traffic from the eighth lap on. "Unless it's in the heat of battle, it's not worth it." Jan-Erik SvenSson replaced Moe at the 50-minute mark, but was in a few minutes later after nearly crashing when he lost his kn~lider. "1 had one very scary moment. On the first lap 1 lost my knee pad. We put tape around my knee and it was too tight and 1 couldn't feel my foot," Svensson said. "I went up on the grass and onto the banking. I managed to get my fingers underneath the tape and rip it off." At the one-hour mark there were only four machines on the same lap, Gold Hill leading Dutchman, N2 Racing/National Car Rental, and Fastline/MCM Racing. Svensson was three laps down in fifth, with Team America sixth and Gold Hill Racing II seventh. They would pull out shortly after the hour mark. More motorcycles changed hands just after the one-hour mark, Mike Myers on for Jim Sabin and, a few laps later, Ray Yoder for Scott Zampach, but not before a front tire change due to a blistered tire. "There's a big separation on the left side," Zampach said, adding that it gave no warning. "You ever ridden one of these 1100s?" he asked. "1 was going 160 and, it's like 1 couldn't feel it if Mike Tyson punched me upside the head. 1 was trying to keep the load off the front tire. 1 was slowing it down mid-corner, standing it up on the exit. I was running 12s and 13s. 1 need to run ISs and 16s." Zampach said the Texas heat was the' worst he'd ever raced in. "I'm drenched. 1 had sweat ninning down the inside of my faceshield. That's never happened before," he said. Mike Barnes pitted at the 1:20 mark and teammate Woody Deatherage began a ride to the finish. Soon after, Gardner was back on for Kling, the tearn well in the lead at the halfway point, only N2 Racing/National Car Rental still on the same lap. "Everything was going smooth," Kling said. "Right now we're trying to save the tires. We saw the other guys blistered the front. I'm not braking into

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