Team Elephant, with riders Dave and Tom Sartorius, finished a very solid fourth overall in round five of the 1988 WERA National Endurance Series at Rockingham, North Carolina. The Sartoriuses were among fast company. They finished not far behind Solmax Racing’s Scott Russell, Kevin Rentzell and John Eidenberger and held off a late-race charge by Hard Core Racing, which featured Shawn Nicoloff, Ray Yoder and Jeff Harder. North Carolina Speedway (or Rockingham as it was more popularly called) was perhaps the most unforgiving racing circuit the WERA series raced, and that was saying something. Even the bravest of riders cringed when they were faced with the prospect of coming out of the infield road course and running at near top speed on the 25-degree banking of the tight one-mile oval.
Team Elephant, with riders Dave and Tom Sartorius, finished a very solid fourth overall in round five of the 1988 WERA National Endurance Series at Rockingham, North Carolina. The Sartoriuses were among fast company. They finished not far behind Solmax Racing’s Scott Russell, Kevin Rentzell and John Eidenberger and held off a late-race charge by Hard Core Racing, which featured Shawn Nicoloff, Ray Yoder and Jeff Harder. (Larry Lawrence photo)
mike tiberio says:
I for one loved the Rock. Of course I wasn’t on a 4 cyl superbike, but a 1000cc guzzi twin. I did love it more BEFORE they put in the chicane. It took big ones to go down the tri-oval straight, and pitch it in without chopping the throttle. The G forces were like no other track, and every time I went, I wished I had spent the previous 2 weeks doing push-ups…
December 6, 2010, 3:37 pmKen Essex says:
I hated the Rock. I raced it twice and vowed to never return. There was not a single thing I liked about that track.
December 6, 2010, 5:16 pmMark Long says:
I loved Rockingham on my RZ350. Hated it on my TZ250. What bike is that in the photo?
December 6, 2010, 10:51 pmadmin says:
Mark, It appears to be a GSXR750 or maybe an 1100.
December 6, 2010, 11:15 pmDave Sartorius says:
This is me in the picture. This is the only time I raced at Rockingham. I enjoyed the track just OK, but I hated the transition leaving the infield back onto the banking – very harsh transition.
Anyway, good piece of nostalgia from some very fun years.
December 6, 2010, 11:28 pmDave Sartorius says:
By the way, the bike is a 1986 GSXR-1100. Happy riding!
December 6, 2010, 11:31 pmMark Conlon says:
Dave;
Did your team make it to the Grand National Finals that year?
December 7, 2010, 10:47 pmDave Sartorius says:
No, that was the only WERA race we did that year. We primarily ran AAMRR (later LRRS)in the northeast. We never competed a whole series, just raced as much as we could each year.
December 7, 2010, 11:38 pmShawn Nicoloff says:
That was a wild weekend,during that race I remember someone had crashed in the banking and the bike slide @ 50 yards cought fire damn near blew up! the good ole days.
December 26, 2010, 8:30 pm