This photo is from a Grattan Eight Hour WERA National Endurance race sometime in the late 1980s. The interesting thing about this shot is that there are three top teams slicing through heavy traffic. These endurance races at times had huge fields of 50 or more teams so the lapped traffic would get thick. The three fast team in this photo are Royale Racing (5) with Doug Henry (not the motocross champ, but the WERA endurance racing champ), Team America (10) with Don Felden and We’re Human Too (60) with Bruce Baldus. These three teams are battling each other while at the same time wading through the traffic of five other teams. With the kind of racecraft needed to be successful on a crowded track, it’s no wonder some of the best road racers came out of WERA endurance racing.
Royale Racing (5), Team America (10) and We’re Human Too (60) work through traffic in a WERA National Endurance eight-hour race at Grattan Raceway sometime in the late 1980s. (Larry Lawrence photo)
Rider Files 
#10 Team America rider looks like captain Frank Slaughter at the start of the race.
Team America hailed from Fort Washington, MD.and originally started out as Team Gamma, with a Suzuki RG 250, then to a RG 500. Many riders were on the team over the years, including Woody Deatherage, Michael Barnes, Jeff Atwell, to name a few.
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Roger
I remember when those guys endurance raced that Suzuki RG500. Frank told me they tore the thing down after a half-season of 6 and 8 hour endurance races and all the motor parts were easily within specs. They used some sort of special synthetic I think. Same thing with Brian Berney and his Yamaha RZ500. He used a Spectro synthetic.
Larry
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Frank and his father asked me to ride for them in the GTU Endurance at Daytona. Frank rode the first hour and I went out second, in about 9th place. Before my shift was finished, I lost second gear and the oil light was flashing. An oil light flashing, while tapped out in 6th gear on the banking at Daytona, keeps your attention. I came into the pits and Frank was standing there in a t-shirt and pants. They said I was moving up through the field and to stay on the bike. I told them the oil light has been on for the last 5 laps and I lost 2nd gear. They said don’t worry, it always does that and proceeded to push me on my way. It wasn’t long before I only had 3rd, 4th and 5th gear. The motor never quit and the oil light never went off for that last hour. Surprisingly we finished 2nd ! Team America’s highest finish of the season. I can’t remember being more scared in a race…for such a long period of time to boot.
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Riding the Yamaha FZR…not the Gamma.
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Larry, The synthetic oil Team America and Team Gamma used was AMSOIL! Good stuff from the start.
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That’s Don Felden on America’s with Craig Renck, Woody and Frank that day. Terry Bailey and I rode that day in 95 deg heat. Before the last pitstop Joe Ardolino told me he thought Woody was out of brakes. I came out dead even with Woody knowing I could not beat him but that I would do my best to race him to the finish.About five minutes from the end Woody waved me by in turn one. He could not stop the bike. We finished 2 nd overall and I think America was 3 rd. Team Suzuki came back from an earlier crash to win it by a lap over us after Zupan’s motor let loose on Tim Morrissy. Sorry Zup. The FZR trans was junk. The rods were junk. But the bike was the fastest 600 in 1989. Great times.
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Doug
Fantastic update to this photo. Thanks for sharing. I updated the post to reflect Don Felden riding for Team America. It’s exciting to see three riders all zipping through traffic like that.
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