man Racing Husqvarna FX450.
The record size turnout led to a
record number of lapped riders
early on in the race, and it set
the tone for what was to come
over the next 23 1/2 hours. By
the end of the first hour, Surratt
had closed the gap to within 30
seconds of the lead team. On lap
five, as the second rotation of
riders logged their first laps, the
number 7x Honda team moved
into the front of the race, the
position they would hold for the
remainder of the event.
Over the next few hours, the
7x team maintained control of
the race, though the Yamaha
team would fall back several
minutes or close to within 30
seconds of the leaders through
-
out the rider rotations. Sitting
comfortably in third, the KTM
team rode consistent laps just
behind the leaders with little
drama or hiccups throughout
the day.
As the afternoon sun began
to drop and nighttime loomed
in the distance, the Yamaha
team suffered its first mechani
-
cal issue with a mousse failure.
The premature wheel change
set the team back a few min
-
utes, but it was a quick fix, and
they maintained second place.
However, just one lap later,
the team suffered a heavy fall,
resulting in bent handlebars and
a broken throttle, among other
things, forcing a long pit to piece
the bike back together. In the
process, the team lost an entire
lap to the leaders and fell back
to third.
Over the next hour, pit strate-
gies came into effect as teams
began installing lights and
adjusting for the 12 hours of
darkness that loomed ahead.
With lappers playing a big fac-
tor, the Yamaha team used the
lapped traffic to their advantage
to sneak around the KTM team,
passing in a rocky creek to take
over the runner-up position as
night fell, while SLR Honda num
-
ber 7x remained solely out front.
VOLUME ISSUE OCTOBER , P45
Trevor Hunter, Clay Hengeveld
and Justin Seeds, on the
DirtBikeTest.com Yamaha
YZ450FX, were second overall.
