Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128632
track that will ca rry the names of the 200 0 winn e rs of th e 24 -hour race . At 9 :30 a.m. , with a hal f hour left in th e ra c e , the Davi s gang s uffe re d o ne last test of th eir res olv e . Nic k Pears on e xp la ine d, "My Dad filled up the bike with ga s , he put too mu ch gas in it a nd it pr essurized and went ove r the overflo w. Somehow the engine s parke d an d it caught on fire . Luc kil y we h ad plenty o f d irt. We threw dirt on it a nd wa ter a nd got it out." As Fowl er pu lled out for the fina l leg he said , '" hop e it doesn 't d o it aga in" as he wheelied a wa y. Fowle r finis hed the final la p to take the win. "Thank God it's over. We' re luc ky it wa sn't 24 hou rs and o ne-ha lf, o ur b ike 's on its last leg and I'm not sure it'd make it ," excla imed Fowle r. Davis added , "It fee ls really good . It was a re a lly to ugh ra c e . At 4 :00 th is morning , it was re a lly tough to get ba ck on th e bike . All the teammates did re all y good , we s t ayed to get her a nd did what we needed to do ." An e xha us ted Lew is c rossed th e fin ish lin e t o take seco nd . Le wi s, refe rring his 2001 CR250 comment ed, "The cool thing about this bike is that it' s runn ing as good as when we st a rted, in fa ct, I th ink it' s run ning a little better now. I wish we could have ke pt the lights up ; we could have put a little time on them at night. They rod e a great race , they kept us honest all day , we kept th e m hon est. This is the k ind o f rac ing I lik e . Ou r who le t eam gave it 100 p erc en t a n d I' m s to ked to be on a team with all of these guys , especia lly with how hard they rode." Du ring th e 24 hours, othe r tea ms fac e d th e ir own c ha lle nges an d triumphs . " No ne of us h a ve a ny s ignifica nt night experie n c e ," sa id An dy G rider of t he Mon tcl a ir Ya ma ha / Feat he r Surfboards /N igh trider Lig hts - backed t e am . G rid e r' s crew , c o n s ist in g of d es e rt race rs Ro b Zimm e rma n , E d McCoy , a nd Q uinn Co dy e ntered the nig ht h o u r s two la ps behi nd the Davi s /Lew is te a m s. By dawn, they were five la p s down . However , the e n t h u s ia s m lev el o f the team rema ined high throug hout the e vent. During the toughest part of the morn in g, a c o u p le h ou rs b efore dawn , Cod y got on th e bik e and sa id, ''I'm re ady to go. Th is will be th e la st one in the dark . I'm having a bla st. I'll do th is again . Now he re else you ca n do th is . "This is by far th e gnarli est th ing I've e ver don e , th e gnarliest," Grid er added . Th e te am finish ed thi rd with 77 lap s com pleted. KTM 380 -m ounted S cott Myer s, of t h e Ti m Be atty , Craig Dav is , Ron Wilso n te am , led th e O pen Pro riders at t h e s t art , b u t a firs t - la p cras h resulted in a broken ra d ia tor, which put them d o wn a co u ple la ps. T h e tea m wo u ld eve nt ua lly have to replace the radiator, four sets of rear brake pads, thr e e si le nce rs , one shock, several wheels a nd tires, two spark plug s , three seats, a ra d iato r s hro u d, a stabi lizer po st, a nd "w ho knows h ow m any " ai r filt ers before th e e nd of th e race. Even aft er runn ing o ut o f gas while o n the tra c k, th e team finish ed fourth . cue I e In sp ite of a ll of th e m e chanical probl ems th e te am had, Myers said, "The KTM 380 is th e perfe ct bike for this. We wer e s upposed to get a new bike. Thi s is th e bike I've been riding a ll th e Grand Prix on , so it's got a lot of tim e on it." An other Pro group who dea lt with major mechani c al problems was th e Mike He a le y , Larry Ro e s e ler , Ke vin Tow nse nd and Kurt Case lli t e a m . Ea rly in the race , Roeseler ackno wledged , "It [the bike] m a y be ge a red a little low, there's some lo n ge r st rai g htawa ys th an I tho ug ht th e re 'd be. It's a good vari et y of ter ra in ." T hre e hou rs late r, the He al e y p it c rew did em e rgency s urgery on their b ik e as th e va lve of th eir Kaw a sa ki m e lted to th e to p of th e piston . Th is p la c ed th em in last pla ce go ing into th e e vening hou rs . By 3 :00 a .m ., th e te am clo s ed th e gap, ch ipping aw ay at t h e te ams in s ixt h and f ifth . He a le y's tea m com ple te d the event in fifth place after completing 73 la ps . The Open Pro Hus qva rna te am of Bre nt Fa rre ll, Joey Lanza, Matt Burrough s a n d Randy Newman h a d a un iqu e m e ch ani cal problem . At 2 :25 p.m ., La nza a nd Fa rrell pu shed their bi ke ba c k to the p its with th e rear s p ro c k e t m an g led a round th e swing a rm . ne.-vs S EPTEM B ER 27 ,2000 25