Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Vesrah Suzuki’s Tray Batey, Mark Junge and John Jacobi clinched their fourth consecutive overall WERA National Endurance Series Championship earlier this season, but that didn’t stop the trio of veteran riders from ending their season in style, with a dominant victory in the four-hour season finale Friday at Road Atlanta.

Riding a Pirelli-shod GSX-R1000 Superbike, Vesrah Suzuki completed 140 laps, four laps more than their closest competitor, and also took the Heavyweight Superbike class win.

Team Velocity Racing’s Chuck Ivey, Bradley Champion, Steven Breckinridge and Reuben Frankenfield rode a Pirelli-tired Yamaha YZF-R1 to second overall and the Heavyweight Superstock class victory.

Team Velocity Racing won the Heavyweight Superstock class Championship and, as a result of a rare mechanical DNF by Army of Darkness (AOD) early in the race, took second in the overall Championship.

Second in Heavyweight Superbike and third overall was Team Schwantz School Suzuki, or what was unofficially referred to as “The Dream Team:” Kevin Schwantz, Jamie James and Ben Spies. Riding with virtually no practice on a Michelin-slick-shod Suzuki GSX-R750 that was built into a racebike in one day, Team Schwantz School Suzuki finished 97 seconds behind Team Velocity Racing.

Fourth overall and first in Mediumweight Supersport was Eagle Racing Team’s William Lindsay, Joe Prussiano and Shawn Conrad, who completed 134 laps on a Pirelli-equipped Yamaha YZF-R6.

Third in the Mediumweight Supersport race at Road Atlanta but first in the class Championship was Four Feathers Racing (Scotty Van Scoik, Chris Normand and Matt Lynn) on a Michelin-sponsored Yamaha YZF-R6.

Four Feathers Racing came into the season finale leading Neighbor of the Beast (NOTB) by only 11 points, but NOTB ran out of fuel before the first round of pit stops and lost several laps, which allowed Four Feathers Racing to run the rest of their race conservatively to secure the title.

NOTB (Melissa Berkoff/Scott Fisher/Chris Pyles) 20th overall and fifth in MSS on a Yamaha YZF-R6 rolling on Michelin tires.

Velocity Racing Crew’s Kevin Perkins and Paul Youngman only got a total of 10 laps of practice Friday morning, but it didn’t stop the experienced pair from taking the Mediumweight Superbike class win on a Michelin-backed Suzuki GSX-R600. AOD clinched the MSB class Championship, their sixth consecutive, earlier in the season.

Dixie Mafia’s Bruce Stanford, Derek Keyes and Bo Morgan won the Lightweight Superbike class on a Michelin-tired Suzuki SV650 and, thanks to problems for Bell’s Suzuki early in the race, was able to also take the class Championship.

WERA National Endurance Series Four-hour Provisional Overall Results:

1. Vesrah Suzuki (Tray Batey/Mark Junge/John Jacobi), Suz GSX-R1000, HSB, 140 laps.

2. Team Velocity Racin (Chuck Ivey/Bradley Champion/Steven Breckenridge/Reuben Frankenfield), Yam YZF-R1, HSS, 136 laps

3. Team Schwantz School Suzuki (Kevin Schwantz/Jamie James/Ben Spies), Suz GSX-R750, HSB, 136 laps

4. Eagle Race Team (William Lindsay/Joe Prussiano/Shawn Conrad), Yam YZF-R6, MSS, 134 laps

5. B&S Roadracing (Brian Dalke/Josh Smith-Moore/Blake Young), Suz GSX-R600, MSS, 133 laps

6. Velocity Crew Racing (Paul Youngman/Kevin Perkins), Suz GSX-R600, MSB, 133 laps

7. Four Feathers Racing (Scotty Van Scoik/Chris Normand/Matt Lynn), Yam YZF-R6, MSS, 132 laps

8. Arnchu Racing (Randy Sherman/Rick Knuckles), Suz GSX-R600, MSB, 132 laps

9. Canton Racing II (Rob Palmeri/Sean Dillon), Yam YZF-R6, MSB, 131 laps

10. SMP Racing (Michael Shallcross/Mike Roeser), Yam YZF-R6, MSB, 130 laps

More, from a press release issued by Proforma:

TEAM SCHWANTZ SCHOOL RACES TO THIRD IN WERA NATIONAL ENDURANCE AT ROAD ATLANTA

Racing as Team Schwantz School, the celebrity trio of 1989 AMA Superbike Champion Jamie James, 1993 500cc Grand Prix World Champion Kevin Schwantz and 2003 AMA Formula Xtreme Champion Ben Spies raced to third overall in today’s 4-Hour Dunlop WERA National Endurance event at Road Atlanta, part of the 2004 Parts Unlimited WERA Grand National Finals, Suzuki Cup Series Finals and Suzuki Worldwide GSX-R Cup Final. The Michelin-shod Suzuki GSX-R750-mounted team completed 136 laps and finished four laps down to overall winners Vesrah Suzuki on their GSX-R1000, but were on the same lap and closing in on Velocity Racing on their Yamaha R1 at the end of the four-hour race.

The idea of running in the WERA endurance event had been kicked around for a while among instructors at the Kevin Schwantz Suzuki School, which is based at Road Atlanta. “Wednesday night we went and comandeered a GSX-R World Cup bike, and the main reason we did that was because it already had stainless steel brake lines on it,” joked Kevin. “It’s actually a bike that got crashed when they were running bikes in for the World Cup. So it was a bit bent up and skinned up anyway. We just threw some new bodywork at it. Ben showed up from VIR Monday night and was like ‘We gotta do that endurance race'”, and kept on and kept calling. Me and my instructors, especially Harry Vanderlinden, Jamie James and myself, were like ‘Sure, we’ll ride it if it gets built, but we don’t want to have to work’ (laughs). Jamie took off Thursday morning to get the forks rebuilt at Ohlins. Brembo had sent us some brakes for one of our school bikes, just for students to look at, and we figured this is a good use for them. We threw them on, and everybody that got off the bike said that the brakes were better than all of us.”

Kevin started the race and came in during a red flag at the 50 minute mark, then went back out for almost two total hours of seat time. “For me, that’s probably the longest I’ve ridden in quite some time,” said Kevin. “Doing that endurance race in France a couple of three weeks ago, I did fifteen laps, fell off the bike, then waited for them while they fixed the bike, then did a full stint after that. Physically, today felt pretty good. Spies got on after I did, then Jamie James went out and rode, and then we threw Ben on at the end hoping that maybe we could gobble up Velocity Racing and catch them for second. They built up a pretty good lead on us with pit stops and stuff.”

With the casual approach to the project, the race strategy was equally as casual. “We were still talking about what to do as late as this morning,” said Schwantz. “We had a change to make to the shifter, because I shift one down, five up, and everybody else shifts backwards. We did it when we were changing the rear tire at the end of my stint. This was fun to do. The really fun thing about it was there was a complete parts truck over there, anything we needed, we had complete extra wheels, everything. Had the bike fallen over somewhere out there when we were riding it, we probably wouldn’t have done much work to it to fix it. We’d either have ridden it the way it was, or we’d have just stopped (laughs).”

Jamie rode the middle stint of the race, competing in a race for the first time in six years. “The last time I raced was in 1998,” said Jamie. “I was happy with my ride. Considering we just kinda pieced a bike together, a group of guys just lended a hand and we really had fun doing it. Doug Crawford, who works with me at the shop, just dove in there and we built the bike in a day and a half and we went racing. Didn’t even think about it hardly, which is probaly the only reason I did it. That’s what it was all about, just going out there and having fun.”

Ben Spies rode twice, being thrown on with 30 minutes left in an effort to run down the second-place Velocity Racing entry. “It was good,” said Spies. “Everything worked real good, the bike was still pretty much stock. We had some suspension on it, but the way they put it on is the way we rode it. I got to ride on tires with 130 laps on ’em (laughs). I tried to stay away from everyone and not pass them too close. I hope I didn’t make anybody mad. It was good fun. It was good to come out and ride in WERA and ride with all the guys I grew up racing.”

For more information on WERA, visit www.wera.com.