24 Hours in Paradise - Dirt Rider at the 24 Hours of Glen Helen

The 2005 HYR Endurance Series' 24-hours of Glen Helen took place on October 15 and 16 at Glen Helen Raceway, and once again, the staff of Dirt Rider entered the Business Class. This time it was Joe McKimmy, "Big Air" Tod Sciaqua, Kevin Carpenter, Jesse Ziegler, Chris Denison and Sean Finley.

McKimmy put the time in to get the long-haul Honda CRF450X test bike ready to pound out the 24 hours. The bike was fitted with Pro Circuit modified suspension, a Baja Designs headlight, Ready Filter air and oil filters, Pro Taper bars, Scott's Performance Stabilizer (with new brackets to mount up our trusty resident damper), an IMS tank and Powersport Graphics custom graphic kit.

Dunlop provided a new 952 rear (which ran for 18 hours versus the Dunlop 756 we started the race on) and Sidewinder provided a set of their Tri-metal rear sprockets (one for each of the two wheels we used) as well as a front sprocket and o-ring chain, completing our race-ready CRF450X.

"Big Air" Tod Sciaqua brought the speed and started the team off to a strong lead. From there, McKimmy's time spent on the bike didn't go unnoticed as Kevin Carpenter and Jesse Ziegler proceeded to pummel the bike into the ground repeatedly during the early going of the race—before Mckimmy could even ride it.

DR ad guy, Kevin "Pastrana" Carpenter, wadded pretty good on the track during his first ride, high-siding and going over the bars resulting in a separated shoulder. But Kevin was a trooper—not the squid McKimmy always accuses him of being—and still managed to bring the bike in to the the next guy. That marked his last ride for the day, leaving the team at five to get through the night. But Carpenter still stuck with the team, cooking dinner and helping in the pits. See? Ad guys aren't all bad.

Early in the afternoon the DR team came across their first problem: Ziegler limped the smoking 450X into the pits with a blown shock and flat front tire (victims of the aforementioned "pummeling"). He emphatically pointed to the bike as he wobbled it into the pits. "Yeah, no kidding!"

Luckily, Honda's Ray Conway jumped in and helped out with a new shock. The team performed an impressive pit stop, relpacing the shock, front tire and air filter in under 12 minutes.

The team kept it going from there with only minor problems throughout the rest of the race (including Publisher Sean Finley taking some rock samples). The nine mile course was rough and dusty, but a steady, cool breeze made conditions more favorable than last year's 24 hour.

Where our team really excelled was through the night. The Baja Designs headlight was more than equal to the task, as everyone on the team was able to turn laps under 21 minutes throughout the night. Mini Rider main-man Chris Denison busted out some consistent laps, showing us that freestylers—despite their reputation—don't crash as often as we thought.

The result: we won our class! And we didn't even cheat. We pounded out 73 laps (over 650 miles!) and finished 15th overall. Thanks to everyone in the pits for helping us out and all the great companies that put parts in, on and around our bike.

Zip-Ty Racing Racks Up Sixth 24-Hour Win

Ty Davis and his Zip-Ty Racing, Montclair Yamaha team won the 2005 HYR Endurance Series' 24-hours of Glen Helen. The win marks the Davis team's fifth in six tries and an impressive four in-a-row. This year, Davis had off-road champion Nathan Woods along with Bobby Garrison and Andy Bakken on board to take the team to the front with 86 completed laps around a rough and randy nine-mile loop.

Second place went to Zip-Ty racing's second team with riders Willy Musgrave and Casey Johnson as well our own cover boy Kris Keefer and Dirt Rider's Northwest tester Nick Foister. The group kept it close in under the Yamaha tent, ending up only one lap down from the winning pace.

Rounding out the top three in the pro class was Pro Circuit and their powerful lineup of Andrew Short, Jeff Northrup Tim Weigand and Terry Fowler. Fowler found himself in a nasty spot after a trek into the bush. His team had to haul the bike out of a ravine and make some major repairs in order to get back on pace. Their late race charge was impressive, but not enough and they ended up five laps down.

Unfortunately, Travis Pastrana and his Cernics Racing's number 199 RMZ didn't fair too well as he took a painful second lap get-off and ended up separating his shoulder, breaking his collarbone and thoroughly ringing his bell. He had the collarbone plated that afternoon and vowed to continue his quest to race the Baja 1000, saying he'll be ready to go.

Also suffering racing woes was the Honda team of Johnny Campbell, Steve Hengeveld, Robby Bell and Kendall Norman. A punctured clutch cover resulted in a loss of oil, resulting in the all-too-common gear de-toothing. A complete rebuild was in order as the team split the cases and rebuilt it in time to turn on the lights and rejoin the race at nightfall.

Ironman honors goes to Gayle Hoyt and his #602 Suzuki. Hoyt completed 57 solo laps to best out Bob Roberts' 50.

To see the complete results from the 2005 HYR Endurance Series 24-hours of Glen Helen, visit the Glen Helen website at www.GlenHelen.com/results.html.