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/1547087
WIND IN THE P46 es, the Zip-Ty Racing Husqvarna team held a commanding 22-min- ute cushion, seemingly cruising toward a comfortable victory. As the temperature dropped, the raindrops fell harder, and the night sky got darker, the Zip-Ty machine began battling nagging lighting gremlins. Every unscheduled pit stop to troubleshoot the beams cost the team several precious minutes per lap, slowly bleeding away their hard-earned lead. What followed was a classic, heart-pounding duel between raw speed and metronomic consis- tency: The Hare (Zip-Ty Racing Husqvarna) set untouchable, blaz- ing lap times whenever they were on track, charging back up to the leaders, only to be bitten by more is- sues, fall back, and repeat the cycle. The Tortoise (Hero Racing Ducati) ran a masterclass in clean, calculat- ed endurance. Turning near trouble- free, steady lap times through the black of night, the Ducati quietly cycled right back into the hunt. Throughout the night, the Husqvarna team closed in minutes, a lap at a time, to the Ducati team, but a run-in with a lapped rider saw them pushing the bike back to the pits with broken throttle cables and a broken headlight, the final blow just as they were inching up on the number three's rear wheel. During a maintenance pit stop, the team found water and sand inside their airboot, signaling the engine had an expiration date. Undeterred, the team carried on, setting fast laps to see how far they could push it and finish the race. As the clock ticked into the final hour of the marathon, the tension in the pits reached a boiling point. The Zip-Ty Husqvarna squad left nothing on the table in a desperate bid to salvage the win. However, the relentless pace took its ulti- mate toll. In the final 60 minutes of the 1440-minute race, the Zip-Ty machine ground to a dead stop on the track. Refusing to let a DNF rob them of a finish, the team fa- mously pushed the bike across the finish line to secure a heroic, hard- fought result and still maintain second overall, a true testament to the speed they showed allow- ing them to miss the final laps and still finish with 76 laps, three laps ahead of the next team. With the Husqvarna sidelined in the final hour, the Hero Racing Ducati team played it safe and waited at the finish to take the checkered flag. Torrential rain all night long left the 10-mile course nearly unpassable for many rid- ers, with rivers flowing through the sand washes, bottomless mud packing the famed uphills, and bikes and riders expiring left and right. When the checkered flag flew, Hero Racing Ducati cap- tured a monumental breakthrough victory for the newest off-road motorcycle manufacturer, proving their machine can deliver in the right hands. Riding a nearly trouble-free race, something hard to do under normal conditions and even harder with this year's weather, the Tyler Nicholson team clicked off consistent laps from start to finish to finish third overall and Open Pro with 73 laps to their credit. Danny Cooper and co. finished first O/A Expert with 71 to- tal laps aboard a Honda CRF450RX. Kyle Wade's Yamaha-mounted team finished first 30+ Expert and rounded out the top five overall Sunday morning with 68 laps. The Ironman class had 23 entrants, and Hayden James came out on top. Completing 53 laps, James finished 29th overall, besting Zane Frisk by two laps at the checkers. Frisk finished 34th overall with his 51 laps, while Kevin Jansen rounded out the podium with 41 laps to finish 44th overall. CN Overall (Top 5, Rider of Record) 1. Ciaran Naran (Duc) 2. Dustyn Davis (Hus) 3. Tyler Nicholson (KTM) 4. Danny Cooper (Hon) 5. Kyle Wade (Yam) Dustyn Davis and his Husqvarna crew had a shot at the win until a mechanical relegated them to second.