Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Br ia n Ga rrahan teame d wit h 6 an d 12 Hours winners Joey Lanza and Kurt Caselli, a l o n g with Ben Hale, and finished fourth in the Open Pro event, winning the series' overall title in the process. a nd Willy Musgrav e p ull ed off th e tea m . Joinin g reg ulars T im Sharp and T y Renshaw were J aso n Abbo tt and Sean O 'C onnor o n an oth er 450 Honda. Said O 'C on no r: "It' s m y first-e ver 24 Hours, and I'm a littl e nerv o us." The fo u rt h and fi na l squad in the 251 -0pen Pro class was the defending ra c e-w inn ing co m bo of Ty Davis, T er ry Fo w l er, N athan W o o d s and Ryan Dudek. "W e we re going to have Russ Pearso n o rig inall y , bu t he had a Hare [, Hound today, " ex plai ned Davis of the M on t cl ai r Y a ma ha g r o u p, " so w e ende d up getting Ryan ... T here are a lot o f fast guys who ride Yam ahas, so it w a sn't re a l h ard t o find a fast repl ace m ent. " With mo re t han 50 t eams finall y suit ed and h oned, the st arti ng -g ri d butterfl ies q ui ckly evapo rat ed as th e long haul began . To abso lutel y nob ody ' s surprise , Ku rt Ca selli pl ac ed the T eam KTM entry into a runaway lead at the very sta rt, and as lap ti mes hovered at 1516 m inu tes, an hour's worth of raci ng had so rte d things out w ith the KTM still up fr on t , th e d ef en d ing cha mps second and th e fa ctor y Honda sq uad th ird. A lread y f eelin g pressure was BRT j Spectrum Mo to rsports' first rider Ty Rens haw , who was being bea te n nearly to death by the tough circuit. "I don 't know wh at 's happened to Ty ," said Bie rman shaking his head. " He should be up there thi rd or fou rth ove rall, but he's back abo ut 12th. " Rensha w wa s shaking, to o, having fa llen th ree ti mes. Once , on the pavem ent , he found himself sliding on his helmet almost fac ed own . " T he co urse was better last year," Renshaw said after he had a chance to ca lm down . " It's not fun thi s yea r. It's hard an d technical. T hey 're go in g to ha ve to tak e ou t pa rts of this track before it's da rk; nob od y will be ab le to make it through . T here was this o ne rut when yo u c o me out o f the sa ndwash; it 's already like fo u r feet deep . I had t o sta nd up and walk th e bike through it. " The other cla sses were also fa lli ng into th eir grooves. In th e 25 1-0 p en Exp ert cl ass, o ne step down from the fou r-t eam Pro battl e, the six -me m ber KTM team of Ron Lawson , Bob Rut ton , Darry l F ol ks , M ark Till ey , Sc ot Hard en and Paul K raus e had a slight l ead o ve r th e Hond a - sh ar ing f ou r som e of Larry Roeseler, T om Webb, Danny Gurnsey and Ryan Cox . Topping th e 25 1-0pen Sp o rt sm en we re th e half- dozen Yamaha -shari ng Gl en H el en Rac ew a y - b a c k ed Bra d an d Robbi e G o ol sb y , K r i s N el son , Sean Borkenh agen , J osh Coffey and J ared Minor, while the smaller-bore 12 5-250 Sp ortsm en were be ing led Terry Fowler was one of t h e three motocrossers who helped nail down th e w in for the Montclair Yamaha t eam . b y t h e t e a m of M a tt Br ey e r , J o h n Alexander, Brian Cur rey , Kev in Mont gome ry and J a so n Je llerson o n a Yam ah a 250F. In th e Over 30 classes , the t eam of K e ith L o o n sf o o t , And rew H o p so n , Mike Martell, Steve Phill ips and J eff Fine had p laced th eir Honda in th e Expe rt lead with Shaun Hanson, Jeff Di gb y , Br ad Yeckley , Mark Miller and J oseph and T erry Pic chiottino head ing u p th e Sport sma n. T he O ver 4 0 Sportsman leading team at on e hour was Dou g Yarnell , Kris Goolsby , Alan Kent , Mark Hesse and Marc Prin c e. Th e gu tsiest class - the five-rid er lron ma n c lass - h ad Ric k Dani el in fi rst as ex pec t ed. ec ho ing Rensh aw 's assess me nt of th e track . " T he t oughest part of th e course was any of th e ridg e lin es, " Rensh aw h ad sai d. "T he sil t was ju st h an g in g there, a nd w he n t he t r a il dropped down into t he Bl ockbuster Pavil io n , th e go ing was toug h if you go t beh in d so me body . Th ere wa sn 't much room for error - you could eas ily fall o ver into th e bu shes." As th e ra c e progresse d , f a lli n g over wa sn 't the only proble m . About six hours in , the KTM "j ust c o ug h e d and sp uttered an d died, " ex p l a ined KTM' s T on y Ca sell i. " W e got it back to the pit and found o ut it had no water in the radia to r and had overheat ed and cracked ." Wit h th e radia tor repl ac ed an d m ore than a n hou r lost, th ey were back in. Th e Montcl air Yam aha Zip-T y cla n h a d ta ke n over t he l e ad . Said T y D av is, feelin g confide nt in spite of his o wn injuries, "I am the anc ho r on th e team t h is ye ar, and I've got som e br ok en ribs, so I wa s j ust goi ng t o let th e fas t gu ys go fast , an d I'll go last. " T wo weeks earlier, he fl ipped ove r th e b a r s a fte r hi tti ng a po t ho l e du r ing practice and ha d crack ed two ribs. N ot lon g after that , however , the Honda t eam , foll owing thei r ga me p lan w ith the rabb its o u t o n the co urse, had taken ov er. " We' re j ust k eep ing o ur pa ce now" said Bel l. "The re's no reason t o hurt the bik e o r the riders now.. . it's still a lo ng 24 Ho urs.. ." As the SL.n began t o set , another lead c h ange occ u rred . In th e O pe n E x p ert class , t he tea m o f C h uc k D emps ey , Ni ck Bla i s, C h ri stophe r B la is, Rick O 'Do nnell , Beau Ha yd en and Jon Ortn er h a d p la ced the ir Hon da int o the lead w hil e th e former lead ers had dropped to eig ht h , a lap behind. Ano th er world began after dark . T h e g re mlins ca me out on t he hillsid e, and all hell bro ke loos e. O n Yam ah a Hi ll , t he r e w a s n o Ni ghttim e at Glen Helen i s peaceful w hen you' re not o n t h e course. cue I e n e vv S • S EPTEM BER 24 . 2003 47

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