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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128105
24-Hour Off-Road Endurance World Championship Plaster City OHV Area (Left) Jo hnny Ca m pbell (1 00) a nd his five partners rod e a fast·paced, relatively trouble·free 2 4 hours to set a new world record of 1418.39 miles. A Campbell·captained team held the previous record of 1326.30. (Ab ove) When the leaden came Into the pits, every member of th e cre w had a Job. Here, at dus k, the bike Is getting a new rear wheel, headlights and other Items. PLASTER CITY WEST, CA, APR. 28-29 me rican Honda 's off-road racing tea m called up on it s t r u st y XR650R and all of it s regula r riders, as well as a co uple of part -timers, to set a new w or ld record of 141 8.39 m iles in the se ve nth edition of the b iennial 24 -hou r Off Road Endurance Wo rld Championship on an FlM -cert i fi ed course west of EI Centro, Californ ia. Th at total smashed th e pre vious record of 13 26.30 and p ut A merican Hon da co mfortably ahead of the sparse fiel d of fi nishers. Held every other year on a 10-mile l oo p in the Pl a ster C ity O HV Area , th is edi tion of the race saw team capta in Johnn y Cam pbell joine d by his regular partner T im Staab , as well as Honda Off Road Team partners Steve Heng ev eld and Jona h St ree t. Night specialist Cra ig Smith and part-ti m er Greg Br in gle were also recruited. This se xtet proved to b e t he class of a small fiel d of motorcycle teams. A s the d e f en d i n g champ ion , C am p b ell was the first to get t h e green fl ag from promoter O tis Fud p uc k er at 7 a.m. on Saturday, with the rema inder of the teams starting eve ry 10 seco nds . (ATVs started after the bik es and ou tnumbe red them by a small m argi n.) Campbe ll and the Prec ision Con cepts/H RCA / Dunlop-backed number100 XR came around after 10 miles or on e lap in fro nt , a sight that would become monotonously fam iliar for the next 24 hours. Behind him, howeve r , young local hot shot Aa ron Tuck had moved the Du nlo p/ Preci sion Concepts /Moose number -400 WR426F u p to second pl ace, giving teammates C h a d Houck , Ma rk Kariya, J im Loh , Tex M itchell and Phil Zieger something to cheer. Third turned out to be the Robert Barnum /Sa l Garcia /Robert Light foot /Jimmy McCay /Tim Pfeiffe r XR650 R, running num ber I l l . As the hours marched on , temperatures cl imbed (reach ing a reported 102 degrees at the Ho n d a pit) , accompanied b y a fairly constant wind, though it was no where near as bad as t he p ast fe w eve nts , which were run in May. Campbell and com pany easily remained out front , despite a close call when Br ing le got rear-ended by a SuperLite in the first few hours. Fortunately, ne ith er he nor the b ike suffered ma jor inj u ries . In 34 neVIl's S TO RY AN D P HOT O S BY .MARK K A RI YA M AY 23,200 1 • cue • e fac t, Staab re portedly turned a la p that un offici ally broke th e record 8 :25 set by KX500 -mounted Rex Staten in 19 93 , but th at couldn 't be confi rm ed as of press time. The race fo r second went back and forth betw een the nu mber-400 Yamaha and the number-Ill Honda. A bro ken p ip e and then steering-dampermount woes put the WR in the pits for more than 40 minutes for repa irs , handing the runner-up spot to 111 for severa l hours. Later in the afternoon , however, the Yamaha came back , only to suffer a term inal gearbox failure just after the 10-hour mark. That essentially set the results , with the Honda-mounted team finish i n g second overall , second Open Four -stroke , at 1223.39 miles. The Dewey Belew /Mark Brown /Dan l Hagen /Ch r is Hoppe/Bill McNeer team , on another XR650 R, finished third overall , first Op en Motorcy cle , with 12 17. 86 miles. Throughout the n ight, the Cam p bell team roared on , hampered by a few m inor failures as well as routine pit stops. Twice, the team's HID light setup fizzl ed , though running a halogen si m ul t aneously meant the rider could still safe ly and quickly m ak e it back t o the p its . A round 4 in the morn ing , the y also re p l a c e d the clutch , whi ch seemed to be sta rt ing to slip . ( In the heat of th e day , the crew replaced the head pipe and the shock, as it w as fadin g du e to the pac e and te mperature.) In all, they also went through five rear tires and three fronts , one set of rea r-brake pads , four bottom cha in -guide sliders and added only a quart of oi l. "The bike d id good , " Campbell praised, " as fast and as hard as we beat that thing , man. I've been k ind of reserved at our other races , like the 20 00 -m il e races - 'Ok ay , it's got to go a long way.' This one, we knew we had to go a long way, bu t to break that reco rd , we had to just go, had to hammer. " Wh en th ey fi nally saw th e frazzled Fudpucker wave the che ckered flag , they k new th ey ' d set a record tha t should sta nd for a long time . "Hopefull y , we won 't have to d o it agai n," Campbell la ughed, " but it's ha rd t o say th at we won't do it again , because of all the good data that we receive in a controlled race-test envi ronment: In most [desert] ra ces , you 're not doing lap after lap, so it' s hard to get a data/mileage on headlights , clutches , t ire s, b rak e pads , whatever. It's just a reall y good test, especia lly for lights. One reason we rac e the race is fo r du rability testing . "Th e majority of the goal was to [set a new record] , because this wa s the first ti me we'd competed [at this race] on the XR 6 50R . .. and set one that would, hopefully, never be broken." CN PIas1I!r City OHV Area PIas1I!r CityWest,California Results: April 28-29, 2001 O/ A : 1. Greg Bringle/J ohnny Campbell /S teve Hen g e ve ld/ Cn:l ig Sm ith /T im Stlle b/ Jo nah Street ( Hon), 14 18. 39 m il es; 2 . Rob ert B arnum /S et Garcia/ Robert Lightfoot/Jimmy McCay{Tim Pfeiffer (Hon) , 1223.39; 3 . Dewey Belew/ Mark Brown/ Ollnl Hogen/Chris Hoppe/Bill McNeer (Hon), 1217.86; 4. M ark Bak er /M arty Kam er y / Art Pi f er /D av e Slade/ Dave Watkins (Kew} , 940.13. O PEN 4 -STRK : I . Greg Bringle / John ny Ca mpbell /S teve He ngeveld /Crllig Smith/Ti m Stoo b/ Jonah Street ( Hon ) , 1418.39: 2. Robert Barn um /Sal G arcia / Rob er t Lightfoo t/J immy McCaymm Pfeiffer (Hon), 1223.39 . OPEN M/C : 1. Dewey Belew/ Mark Brown /Dent Hogen/Chris Hoppe/Bill McNeer (Hon), 12 17.86. CL·3 250 VET: 1. Mark Boker/Marty Komery/Art Pifer/Dave Slede/Deve Watkins (Kaw) . 940.13 .