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/713106
VOL. 53 ISSUE 31 AUGUST 9, 2016 P103 series over the previous couple of seasons, with Ray Yoder and Phil Kress; the '92 AMA/CCS Champs Fast- line/MCM with Scott Zampach and Michael Barnes and a slew of other fast squads such as Team America, N2 Racing and Team Yamaha Endurance. In the three-hour race, Team Suzuki Endurance featured WERA standouts Kurt Hall and Michael Martin racing a relatively stock Keith Perry-built Suzuki GSX-R1100. That was one of the main differences of the bikes of the two series. With its shorter events the CCS squads normally ran pumped up big-bore bikes to get the maximum speed, while WERA's longer races put the emphasis on reliability, thus the more stock machines. In the three-hour, Team Suzuki Endurance was leading late in the race with Two Brothers and Fastline giving chase. With less than a half-hour to go Team Suzuki's Hall suddenly slowed and then pulled into the pits pointing down at the left side of the bike. "The footpeg bracket worked loose," Hall explained. "And when I went to shift on the banking it jammed my foot on the track." The team made hasty repairs, but soon Martin was pushing the bike back after just going a little way down pit road. The shift linkage had broken. The team ended up finishing sixth. It must have been frustrating for them after coming so close to winning. That left the 90-Minute Team Challenge during Fri- day of Daytona 200 weekend. Even though with their mostly stock machine they'd be at a disadvantage in the shorter race, Team Suzuki Endurance was determined to leave with a victory. They also entered a second squad in the competition with Steve Patterson and Chuck Graves. The battle for the race victory was being waged between the Two Brothers Racing Honda, the Fast- line/MCM Suzuki and Team Suzuki Endurance's main squad. The huge speed advantage reportedly held by the monstrous Fastline/MCM Suzuki, which had been tested by Sport Rider at 195 mph on a remote public road, was not evident. The three leading machines seemed to have almost identical top speeds around the fabled Daytona banking. Two Brothers had the speed, but the team's Bridgestone tires were not lasting under the stresses of Daytona International Speedway. On lap 11, Kirk pulled the Honda in for a new rear tire and was back in the fray just inside the top 10. They would have to pit again with tire problems, dropping them from contention. Now Fastline and Team Suzuki ran nose to tail. Hall later explained he drafted on the Fastline bike to save gas. Team Suzuki pitted on lap 22, gas and rider only, no tire change. The controls were taken over by Martin who would finish the race. Suzuki's stop was quicker than Fastline's. When David Sadowski—re- placing Scott Zampach who was dirt tracking his Harley 883—took the seat he was 16 seconds behind Team Suzuki. There was 40 minutes remaining in the race. "I didn't really know where we stood when I took over," said Martin. "I just decided to set a comfortable pace (2:00 range) that would not burn up the tires." As it turned out that were the strategy that would win the race. Sadowski shaved a few seconds off the margin and got to within 12 seconds of Team Suzuki, when suddenly Sadowski felt a vibration in the bike and quickly pitted. "I've already had the experience of blowing a tire here at top speed," said Sadowski, who crashed on the front straight in 1991 with a blown tire. "I'm a little leery of these open bikes at Daytona, you can only ask so much of the tie manufactures, so I pulled in. It turned out to be a mistake." After the unscheduled tire change Fastline/MCM's already slim chance to catch Team Suzuki dimmed to nil. Team Suzuki's Martin cruised home to victory with an average speed of 106.766 mph in the 90-minute event. Fastline took second and Team Suzuki Endur- ance II, with Patterson and Graves, rounded out the podium. Team Suzuki Endurance left the CCS Series hav- ing made its point with two teams on the podium. "A lot of people think that the AMA series is the ul- timate, but we have two WERA teams in the winner's circle," said Team Suzuki's Graves. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives