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HYR Endurance Series Round 1: Glen Helen Raceway Winner Joey Lanza (91, Dennis Gallagher (53) and Nathan Woods (51) charge hard right off the start at the Six-Hours of Glen Helen. I THE KTM DUO WINS A STORY AND PHOTOS BY JOHN BETHEA SAN BERNARDINO, CA, MAR. 23 ndurance races are supposed to be about pacing yourself, trying to keep the aggression level down a notch or two and taking it easy on the bike. After all, just getting to the finish line is usually half the battle in long races. But for Brent Harden and Joey Lanza, this year's grand prixstyled Six-Hours of Glen Helen was anything but a cruise. Instead, it pretty much turned out to be a six-hour sprint race - a full-on moto - for the winning duo, because that's what happens when you're leading and the second-place team is always right there lurking in the shadows. (And IE 64 APRIL 9, 2003' c u e I e NAIL-BITER getting a flat tire doesn't help much, either.) So much for taking it easy. Yes, for Harden and Lanza this year's Six-Hour was a heated race from start to finish (but mostly at the finish), so there wasn't much time to relax. In fact, after nearly six hours of racing, the race boiled down to a lastlap shootout between the Hardenl (Right) Ty Renshaw (pictured), last year's wtnner. shared duties with Willy Musgrave and finished a close second. (Below) More than 130 teams competed in this year's SIxHours of Glen Helen. n e vv s Lanza team and the Ty Renshaw and Willy Musgrave team. When it was all over, it was the KTM - albeit a very loud one - of Harden and Lanza that crossed the finish line ahead of the Honda of Renshaw and Musgrave. More than 133 teams turned out for the 10th running of the Six-Hours of Glen Helen, which is now a round of Glen Helen's new three-race endurance series. Rounds two and three will be Glen Helen's 12-Hour and 24-Hour races held in June and September, respectively. Dirt Bike magazine's Ron Lawson was again in charge of this year's track layout, which incorporated Glen Helen's main track, parts of the REM and Supercross tracks. and, in the surrounding area, a few good off-road sections, which included, believe it or not, a couple of "natural" mud holes and running streams. All told, one lap equaled 6 '/2 miles. Event organizer Lori Yarnell just shook her head at the start of the race, as wave after wave hit the Talladega first turn under full heads of steam, resulting in nearly a half-dozen separate crashes in the early stages. "I tell 'em every year that it's a sixhour race, not a motocross! It's a long race," Yarnell joked. Things did settle down as the adrenaline began to subside, except for Dennis Gallagher of Gordon Keller's team. "Every time I team with Dennis, he comes back in with handlebars bent, shift levers broke: Keller said. "I asked him to bring it back to me all in one piece. But when he hit the first turn in third place, I had that feeling." Sure enough, Keller's feeling unfortunately turned out to be correct. The only hospital transport for the entire race involved Gallagher, who, while running third or fourth on the back side of the course on lap three, took a header when the bike swapped over some rocks, and he went face first into a tree, splitting his helmet and cracking a few ribs. He was released from the hospital later that night. Meanwhile, Lanza, who started on the Harden KTM, opened up a sizeable yet wary lead in the early part of the race over the second-place bike of Renshaw and Musgrave. But that wouldn't last the whole way. Near the four-hour mark, Harden's front tire sprung a leak, and he had to run almost an entire lap at a significantly reduced pace. Harden came into the pits with a small lead, and while they frantically changed front wheels, Musgrave moved in for the kill, taking over the point and opening up a twominute lead. With only 50 minutes remaining, Lanza went all out in hopes of catching Renshaw, who was now on the leading Honda. Lanza closed in on Renshaw as the final minutes ticked away. In the last rider exchange, Renshaw turned the bike over to Musgrave, who expressed apprehension, saying, "I hope we have enough gas." Brent Harden teamed with Lanza and was on the bike for the last-lap sprint.