Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

minutes an d two places in the overall standings. They would have to work hard to make up ground. By 7 p.m.• when the sun began to drop below th e horizon, Hattiesburg CycleslTeam A commanded the o verall lead, whil e th e SETRA Young Guns had e stablis hed their presence in th e Sportsman class, and Phillips contin ue d to hold off Aspden in Ironman . At dusk, the pits begin to buzz as ride rs and teams prepared for the lo ng night ahead of th e m . The crews re adied their lighting systems as replacement riders awaited the arrival of their teammates. Mos t riders equipped thei r bikes with powerful lights and affixed supplement lighting to their helmets. Man y of the Iro nmen elected to re st until dawn. Down Pit Row the hum of gene rators was drowned out by the m usic of the Acadiana Dirt Riders as they danced and took song requests: A good tim e was had by all. Hattiesburg Cycles/Team A co ntinued to hold their overall lead througho ut the night . Team Hed ge hog (Aaro n San ders, Clay Hedge path , Steve Gordon. T immy P'Pool, Jeremy Ke tch um ) moved into se cond place after posting so me fas t lap times. " We did several practice sessions at night, " Hedgepath sa id . ':t\nd all our riders felt comfortable riding w ith the lights ." The Knight Racing team was able to keep th eir KX250 close in th ird , whi le th e SETRA Young Guns held off Deep Sou th Racing in the Sportsman class. Phillips chose to rest and found himself behind as Aspden clicked away laps in the lronman class . As dawn broke on the Alabama woods and the clock tic ked closer to 10 a.m., the sense of urgency set in. Knight Racing took over second behind Hattiesburg CycleslTeam A Team Hedgehog dropped to fo urth after a fo rced pit stop th at required a new pipe and front wheel asse m b ly. This allowed the EElKTM! My OWN Ste p he n Reed helped lead the Hattie sburg Cy cles team to the win. RACE Graham Kawasaki/KTM Last Dime 7th 4th Plagued with bad luck. Team Hedge hog proved that cons istency and teamwork are vital in a long race . "O n the 10th lap, our rear brake pin lell ou t. causing us to lose our rear brake pads ." Jeremy Ketchum said. "Th e piston began to we ld itself to the rear caliper." Th is required a complete caliper exchange and new wheel assembly. Even with th is setback the team persevered and moved from II th overall to second overall by Sunday morning . Then more bad luck struck. "We somehow managed to lose most of the fluid in our right fork leg and knocked a large hole in our ex haust pipe ." Clay Hedgepath said. "O ur Iront foam insert also began to disintegrate. forcing some unscheduled pit stops." But once back on track. the team still managed a fourth-overall finish. Mike Phillips Kemmen . Jon McCabe , Marcus Ped rero, Ian She-weed. Marcus Ricketts). 40+ EX: I. Spaceport Cycles Blue Team (Conrad Eigen mann . Randy Faul, Scott Sears . Randy White . Rob Brantl e y. Robbie N eel e y); 2 . All N ight l ong (Mark Rogers. lArry Zim me rman. Darryl Smith. Tom Allen . Davis Taft. Davis Cu lpe pper). Pro line team to move into third. After a long night Phillips put his head down and set out on a miss ion to regain his lead and defend his Iro nman title . After 24 ho urs of racing, th e checkered flag fell fo r Landon Carter as he took the overall win fo r Hattiesburg CycleslTeam A. He celebrated by do ing a bu rnout on the porch of the clubhouse. "T his just feels so good because there are so m any great r iders and teams here," Carter said . "W e had a good team and a great bike . This just feels wonderful." The Knight Racing te am e arned the runner-up position followed by t he EElKTMlProline t eam and Team After team member Dustin Gibson put their KTM 450 MXC out to a five-minute lead, he had this to say: "Eve n though we're out front right now, we still have 20 ho urs to go be fore the money is handed out!" This turned out to be true. They lost the lead on the ninth lap but co ntinued to stay in the top five overall until a light malfunction knocked them out of the money-paying positions . Team Hedgehog Jr.}; 2. Spac eport Cycles Red Team (Joey Arge ntine . Richard (Abo ve) Last year's winne rs , team EE!KTM/SE/Proline , ca me away third. (Right) Mike Phillip s w as able to rake the lronman wi n for th e third year in a row. 1st Iron man The two-time re igning Ironman Champion came back again with his Honda XR4oo . He led his class all the way to 2:44 a.m. "I went to bed about 3 a.m., and I o nly got two hours of sleep ." Phillips said. "Wh en I woke up, I was close to 20 minutes down." Phillipsmounted a comeback, and with two laps to go , he passed Fletcher Aspden for his third consec utive Ironman victory. "I'm three for three right now, but th is was for sure the toughest race yet ." O PEN SPTS MN: I. Deep South Racing (John l ewis. Mark Lewi s. Rob Roberts. WesleyWyan . WylesGriffin. Billy DiGiorgio); 2. Passion for Christ (Jason Hutchins. Mark lloyd . Chris C lark e . Hark Benson. Chance Benson. Phillip Hobb<); J. Sunday Soda! Club IVII E (Adam Barr. Earl Desid. Jeff Ph illips) . 2S0 SPTSM N : I. SETRA Young Gum (Alex MoRee. Ast6y M<.Ree. Cameron Allen. Ryan Overton. Andrew Matusek . Justin Monsrud); 2. Blue Ridge Yamaha (Paul Thisde . Terry Hughes . Corey Garrett. Justin Davenport, Edd ie Davis. Carl Grizzle) , J. H & H KTM (Brett Burkitt. Barry Higgins. Wesley 0id0ns0n. J ohn Carr. Ryan Nolan, John Fere ). Hedgehog. The SETRA Young Guns capture d the overall Sportsman w in and a remarkable fifth overall; the team was comprised of rid ers ranging in age from 14 to IB. The Deep South Racing team Oohn Lewis. Mark Lewis, Rob Roberts, Wesley Wyatt, Wyl es Griffin, Billy D iG iorgio ) finished second in the Sportsman class. w ith the Passion of th e Christ team ro und ing o ut t he top three. In t he Iron man class , it was aga in Phillips taking the w in - his third in as many years ca tc hing Aspden with two laps to go; Phillip Whisenant completed the podium . At the tro phy presentation, Ha ttiesburg Cycles/Team A members were presented with a $2500 w inn ing check along with t he $250 th ey re ce ive d fo r le ad ing at the halfw ay point. They promptly donated the entire $27S 0 to Gasper " Do ty" Pizzolato, the Southern Enduro Riders Association ch aplain, to aid in the purchase of motorcy cle transportation for missionaries. eN REYNOLDS P ASTURE MApUSVlW, A lA BAMA RES ULTS: JUNE 5-6, 2004 OIA: I. Hattiesbut Raa>g; J. E~; 4. Te.vnHedgehog; s.SETRAYomg Guns. OPEN EX: I. Hattiesburg CydeslTeMTl A (LIDdon Carter, Glen Myatt , Stephen Reed . Frank Davis , Taytor Reynolds. Eric El m). 2. Gn>hamKawasa!dlKTM Lw Dime a (Dean Grewe. Josh Scott. Thomas Bennett, Lance Smith . Dus tin Gibson. jack Bailey ); 3. Village Cycle Center A TeMTl (Cby Boreing, Chad Earl. Zach tvey. Clint Robinson . Kyser Smit h. Ben Weathen). 2S0 EX, I. Kn;ght Raong (Nolan Knight. Nathan Kn;gh<. Matt S"'vb/>. Rodney JUer); 3. Sunday School Social 0Jb(Hean:l o f Turdes Team Racing (Greg Armour. Herb Coleman. johnny Futo . David Holb

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