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Endurance Plaster City West OHV Area 24·HOUR OFF·ROAD ENDURANCE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS Jonah Street cranks off laps on the winning XR600R with about an hour to go and more than a 15G-mile lead over the runner-up team. Street and teammates lorsten Bostrom, Greg Bringle, Johnny Campbell, Craig Smith and Ron Wilson set a new world record of 1362.30 miles. By Mark Kariya PLASTER CITY WEST, CA, MAY 15-16 Six-man desert squad put together by Honda went further than any other team in history at the sixth 24-Hour Off-Road Endurance World Championships. The effort smashed the old world record of 1313.10 miles en route to a new standard of 1362.30 aboard a Precision Concepts/ K&N/Pirelli/ A<:erbis/FMF/RG 3/ Renthal/IMS-backed XR600R, beating the .second-place team by more than 170 miles. Captained by Johnny Campbell, the team included Greg Bringle, Torsten Bostrom, Craig Smith, Jonah Street and Ron Wilson. They averaged 10 minutes, 34 seconds per la I" on the 10-mile course, which was located in the very rugged AMA District 38 desert. Every participant faced a course that, though relatively fast and not technical, tortured bikes and bodies. Not only did it get rougher and more chewed up with each lap as riders sought smoother, faster lines anywhere they could find or A 24 make them, but a strong Wind made all but the first and last few hours miserable, both for riders and pit crews. Put .on by FRT Motor Sports Promotions and sanctioned and timed by the San Diego County Sport Committee Inc., many used the event - also known as the 24 Hours of Le Fud - specifically for 24hour distance world-record attempts. Of the 26 teams entered (bikes, ATVs and one sidecar), eight set world records for their classification. Eight also DNFed. Promoter Otis Fudpucker waved the green flag to start the event at 7:00 a.m. on Saturday, with one bike heading north toward Coyote Wash every five seconds. Paul Krause, on his White Brothers Yamaha YZ420F, enjoyed the pole, as both the defending champion and world-record holder. Meanwhile, Ron Lawson missed his appointed start time by a few minutes when his "painfully stock" White Brothers Yamaha WR400F refused to fire. Todd Hoy held the lead at the end of the first lap on his IMS/FMF /Regina/909/Pro Circuit/F&L/Smith/ Clark/MSR/ Goat-sponsored CR500R, completing the first lap in 9:26. That gave Nm a one-second lead physically over Krause, with Campbell, the third starter, lurking in third just six seconds behind. . Hoy's team glory faded after that, with Campbell taking the lead on the second lap and basically checking out. Hoy's CR500 suffered a broken hose clamp and lost too much water and seized, which necessitated a top-end swap with a spare bike. It also required a head , gasket and two light frame repairs la ter. Krause's team fared worse. Their bike blew a gasket and lost practically all its oil, which did horrible things to the top end. The big YZ420 also needed two clutches, seemingly within a couple of hours. Ultimately, a broken rod after 310 miles prevented Krause from defending his championship. That is not to say the lead Honda XR600 did not have its own problems, though they were few. The high-speed, choppy terrain overtaxed two shocks and caused a fla t. The bike also needed a few repairs after Street crashed late in the afternoon. "The bike ran real good the whole time," Campbell said at the finish. "We changed a couple shocks, went through a few rear wheels, broke a couple spokes, we had a front flat, changed a handful of air filters - but other than that, everybody was healthy. When we put the lights on, we put some new bars on (to replace the damage from Street's crash) and just kept going from there. Everybody just kept plugging along and did their part. I can't believe the amount of problems we didn't have. It (this event) really, really works the bike more so than the Baja 1000." "Yeah, you had to find new lines every time," Smith, a local racer extremely familiar with the area and the race, added, "because the ones from the last 24-hour race are still wore out two year later, so we're running low on smooth lines now." The Mike Barnhill/Rod Hamby / Francisco Real/Arturo Salas/Edward Tyynismaa team moved into second early in the day on their Precision Concepts/Cycle Parts West/ A&L Lithobacked XR600R, but various problems slowed them to an eventual fourth overall, second Open Four-Stroke. After their delayed start, the Dewey Belew / Aaron Huntington/Gary Jones/ Ron Lawson/Matt Murphy/Tim Staab -team steadily churned their way toward the front. The WR400 ran nearly every c.omponent stock, as in out of the box even the handlebar. It did, however, sport a popular and bright high-intensity discharge bulb in the stock headlight shell to handle the dark, and the team finally found a steering-damper setup in the afternoon. By 890 miles, in the wee hours of the morning, the team found itself in second overall to stay. Third went to the Barnum's Pro Products/Race Tech/J&Jyl/IMS/Star Milling/O'Neal/Sunset Design-backed team of Robert Barnum, Sal Garcia, Neal Goldsmith, Jason Hunter, Tim Pfeiffer and Andy Stevens. Riding a 1995 KX250 in Class 3 (bikes three years Of older) 250cc Two-Stroke, it toyed with second overall for a while late in the race but could not hold off the newer Yamaha 400. "Our goal was to get top-five, because we did that two years ago in the Open Four-Stroke class on an XR600R," Garcia said. Three flats and running short on gas did not bother the team as much as a fouled plug did. With just 30 minutes to go, with Pfeiffer on the bike, it just quit. Luckily, it just turned out to be a fouled plug. Since the rules state the bike must be running at the end of the 24 hours, those who break on the last lap and do not make it to the finish line fall into the DNFcoJumn. "We thought we blew it up or something," Garcia admitted. "It scared everybody." Despite the wind and the hacked-up course and lack of sleep and mechanical worries, Garcia enjoyed his' fifth 24Hour Off-Road World Endurance Championship experience. "You do it once," he said, "and you get addicted." eN Plastic city West OHV Area Plaster City, California. Results: May 15-16, 1999 O/A: 1. Torst'cn Bostrom/Greg Bringle/Johnny Campbell/Craig Smith/Jonah Street/Ron Wilson (Hon) 1362.30 miles; 2. Dewey Belew/Aaron Huntington/ Gary Jones/Ron Lawson/Matt Murphy {Tim Staab (Yam) 1190.81; 3. Robert Barnum/Sal Garcia/Neal Goldsmit~/Ja$On Hunter/Tim Pfeiffer/ Andy Stevens (Kaw) 1152.85; 4. Mike BnrnhiU/Rod Hamby/Francisco Real/Arturo Salas/Edward Tyy:nismaa (Han) 1143.15; 5. Jason COffman/Chad HOlick/Mark Kariyn/Jim Lohl Aaron Tuck/Tim Telford (Yam) ]]32.80; 6. Brent Farrell/Todd Hoy/Craig Hunter/Jon Parks/Eric Wolfe (Hon) 1059.00; 7. Andy Dohrer/Jeff EdwarCls/Jim Gavin/Dano Legere/Darren McGarvie/Sean McGarvie (Suz) 956.98; 8. Mike Calvin/Jason Gardner/Brent Healy/Jason Ingersoll/Randy Niswander (Hon) 940,19; 9. Eric Brue/Steve Carver IJames Henderson/Chance Whitaker/Oana Zilrrabi (Yam) 687.48. OIJEN 4-STRK: 1. Torsten Bostrom/Greg Bringle/ Johnny Campbell/Craig Smith/Jonah Street/Ron Wilson (Hon); 2. Mjke Barnhill/Rod Hamby/Francisco RealiArturo Salas/Edward Tyynismna (Hon). OPEN 2-STRl<: 1. Brent Farrell/Todd Hoy/Craig HUl1ter/Jon Parks/Eric Wolfe (Hon). 400 4-STRK: 1. Mike Calvin/Jason Gardner/Brent Healy /Jason LngersoU/Randy Niswa.nder (Hon). 250 2-STRK: 1. Dewey Belew/Aaron Huntington/ Gary Jones/Ron Lawson/Matt Murphy/Tim Staab (Yam). 250 4-STRK: 1. Jason Corfman/Chad Houck/Mark. Kariya/Jim Loh/ Aaron. Tuck/Tim Telford (Yam). CL-3/250 2-STRK: 1. Robert Barnum/Sal Carcia/Neal Goldsmith/Jason Hunter/Tim Pfeiffer/ Andy Stevens (Kaw); 2. Eric Brue/Steve Carver/James Henderson/01ance Whitaker/Daria Z,rrabi (Yam). CL-3/350 4-STRK: 1. Andy Doh.rer/Jeff EdwardsIJim Gavin/Dano Legere/Darren McGarvie/ Sean McGarvie (Suz). SOCR: 1. Daman T. Doherty/Jim Brown Lee/Scott Gregory /Glen L'Hevreux/Jozef Perralovic/Chnstopher Jones (Yam).