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IN THE WIND P56 TEAM MAX TOPS PERRY MT. 24-HOUR T eam Max Motorsports Suzuki claimed the overall victory at the 17th running of The Perry Mountain 24-Hour challenge in Maplesville, Alabama, June 16-17. Riding a 2018 RMX450Z, the six-rider team completed 64 trouble-free laps en route to the overall win. Tim Castrone, Suzuki's South- east district manager, teamed up with Max Motorsports in Pelham, Alabama and put together a strong an unbeatable team with riders Jase Lewis, Geoff Braico, Scott Keegan, Andrew Matu- sak, Garrett Edmisten and Joey Baker. The team's strategy had them riding three laps between pit stops. Australian rider Geoff Braico set the fastest lap of the race early Sunday morning with a 19-minute, 31-second lap time. However, most of the Pro-class riders were turning 21-minute laps with an average speed of approximately 25 mph. Coming in second was team NAP XC Gear #2, which was made up of Dalton Riddle, Jeff Covan, Corey Jordan, Will Seiv- enpipper, Payton Attaway and Mi- chael Ashe, riding in the six-bike Open class. They finished 62 total laps between one Yamaha, three KTMs and two Husqvarna motorcycles. This year the club added the Six-Bike class, so each rider could race their own bike instead of just one bike for the entire team. This was a popu- lar option, but it took you out of contention for the prize money if you finished top three. The Gear #2 team fought most of the race with the NAP XC Gear #1 Team, who were the defending champs. The team of Brandon Fergu- son, Jake Froman, Cole Kirchoff, Tanner McCoy, Zachary Nash and Steve Nicholas lll, riding a Sherco 300 SEF-R Factory, started out strong but had their share of problems. They finished 61 laps for third. Right on the heels of the Sherco team was Team Sakai/ Victorious Secret 6.0 with riders Cooper Currie, Max Currie, Cameron Reed, Matt Crouch, Evan Chisolm and Trent Whisenant, aboard an S&T Cycles GasGas EC300 in the Elite class. They were in the hunt most of the day until their bike seized and had to be pushed into the pits forcing the use of their backup bike. They finished with 60 laps. One of the more adventurous teams was Team BRAAP For Brains that was riding for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Founda- tion. Tim Williams rode a Honda Africa Twin, Tod Zacher a KTM 1090, Christopher Jones a BMW HP2 and Harrison Kendrick a KTM 950 SE. They completed 32 laps. They had a few issues, mainly small ones like the KTM overheating, the Africa Twin hav- ing fan problems, and the BMW making it just a lap before over- heating. But the biggest issue riding the course, they said, was the whoops. Finishing first in the Iron- man class was Eric Meeks on a Sherco 300. He rode an impres- sive 37 laps. In the Ironwoman class, it was Florida's Aurielle Henry who took the win aboard her 1988 Honda XR200, making it 25 laps. Kenny King The winning Max Motorsports team members celebrate their win at the Perry Mountain 24-Hour. PHOTOGRAPHY BY CAROLYN REED