Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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Team NAP/ XC Gear Elite Wins Perry Mountain 24-Hour Challenge T eam NAP/XC Gear Elite successfully defended their number-one plate at this year's running of the Perry Mountain 24-Hour Challenge in Planters- ville, Alabama, June 3-4. The Team of Andrew Clark (Sherco 250), Jimmy Hawkins (GasGas 300) Steve Nicholas III (KTM), Ensign Payne (Yamaha 250), Trent Whisenant (Rieju) and Colby Yarbrough (Husqvarna 250) completed 37 laps in a time of 24:00:21 to claim the victory. The XC Gear Elite team got off to an early lead and held it for the entire race. "We got off to an early lead and did two laps each," Clark said. "We really didn't have any issues till nighttime. Jimmy had his throttle housing come loose on his second lap and he managed to make it to the pits and we fixed it. A few light bar mounts came loose and other than that the race went pretty smooth." This year the organizers changed things up with a longer 13.5-mile course. There were 109 teams and over 400 riders and the longer course kept it from getting too chewed up. As usual for June in Alabama, it was hot, in the low 90s and lack of rain made dust a challenge. In the number-two spot was Team MyPowersports.com Elite. Riders Shawn Clark, Korbin Dinkel, Scott Gawler Jr., Josh Duffey, Dylan Rash and Blake Yahraus finished 37 laps a bit over 21 minutes behind the number-one team. The team made the decision to ride one bike, a 2023 GasGas MC 350. "Doing this race on one bike was challenging," Clark said. "I had a big get off on the first lap. All the other teams could just switch riders and bikes, we had to fix the bike first. Fortunately, we didn't have any major issues, just stuff while in the pits. Really a good day. At night we had to do some light swaps. These guys were switching whole light assemblies in like 15 seconds. The engineering that went into the lights before we got here re - ally paid off." Finishing third was Team Su- zuki Yamaha of Dalton Elite. The team consisted of Brody Faulkner, Deke Faulkner, David Greer, Jona - than Green, Keith Holtzclaw and Ty Kelley. They rode 35 laps in a time of 24:04:20. "Things went pretty good, we started out kind of slow, maybe eighth overall and stayed in eighth for the first 12 hours," Faulkner said. "During the night, we had two riders crash pretty good and they only did one lap each, which slowed us down. Around 3:00 AM we started mak - ing up time and inched our way into the top five. By daylight we had moved into third and held it until the finish." The tight racing of the day was between Suzuki Yamaha of Dal - ton Elite and NAP/XC Gear 30+. The 30+ team finished in fourth WIND IN THE P60 Andrew Clark helped lead the Team NAP/XC Gear Elite to victory at the Perry Mt. 24-Hour Challenge in Alabama. PHOTOS: KENNETH KING