Has Honda Finally Put the Record Out of Reach?

2001 FRT 24-hour Off-road Endurance World Championship

Sep. 01, 2001 By ORC STAFF

Two years ago, Johnny Campbell and five trusted teammates spent a day riding an XR600R in the Plaster City OHV Area west of El Centro. Around and around a 10-mile course they went, taking turns on the bike as day turned to night and back again. After 24 precisely measured hours, the team had covered 1362.30 miles, breaking the record of 1313.10 miles set two years before in the biennial event.

At the time, with the course suspected to be slightly shorter than the original FIM-certified 10 miles, few people believed anyone could break the new distance standard-except Campbell and the rest of the American Honda squad who showed up for the seventh edition of the event also known as the 24 Hours of Le Fud. After all, they now had a full year of experience with their XR650R, and it had proven both faster and more reliable than its air-cooled, flexi-framed predecessor. And there's the confidence factor that comes with having won every Baja race plus the Best in the Desert crown in the preceding 12 months as well.

The American Honda pit stops were a model of efficiency, with everyone involved having a role and playing it out with practiced, fluid motion.

As in Baja, the team's only real competition was the self-imposed pressure to break the old record. Instead of 26 teams that showed up in '99, less than half that number entered this year. So, as Campbell revealed, "The majority of the goal was to [set a new record] because this was the first time we'd competed [at this race] on the XR650R?and set [a new standard] that would, hopefully, never be broken."
Joining him in the effort was his usual partner, Tim Staab; fellow Honda teamsters Steve Hengeveld and Jonah Street; on-call Honda racer Craig Smith plus part-time teamster Greg Bringle.

Being the defending race champ and record-holder to boot, the Campbell team enjoyed the honor of starting first when promoter Otis Fudpucker gave the go signal at 7:00 A.M. on the last Saturday in April. And in front is where they stayed, despite a momentary and unofficial ceding in the first couple laps when fast local youngster Aaron Tuck worked up into second physically on the WR426F he shared with Chad Houck, Mark Kariya, Jim Loh, Tex Mitchell and Phil Zieger. But with the Honda riders able to run comfortably in the nine-minute range nearly without exception, they gradually put time on the rest of the field, most of which DNFed for one reason or another.

Bill McNeer gets the green flag. Twenty-four hours later, his team would have 1217.86 miles in the books, good for third overall and first in Open Motorcycle.

That's not to say the Honda squad was without its problems, though. It's just that they were quickly fixed and generally minor to begin with, thanks to superior preparation and experience in this sort of thing. For example, Bringle got rear-ended and tossed off the bike in the first few hours, and as the day wore on and the course wore out at midday, the crew replaced the head pipe which had cracked and, later, an overworked shock-just to stay on the safe side. (With temperatures hitting a good 100 degrees, the shock wasn't the only thing feeling a bit faded.) At night, they also lost the HID lighting system twice; fortunately, a halogen backup mounted next to the HID lamp got the bike back to the pits both times without losing much time. They also replaced the clutch in the wee hours of the morning, as it began to slip a little as 24 hours crept closer.

More routine maintenance included five rear-wheel changes and three fronts, four bottom chain-guide blocks, one set of brake pads and adding only a quart of oil.

Overall ATV winners Alfonso Castro/Jesus de la Flocha/Doug Eichner/Enrique Felix/Allen White took their Honda-powered Roll Design to 1097.88 miles, breaking the old 250cc ATV and overall ATV mark of 1080.00 set in '89.

"The bike did good," Campbell pointed out, "as fast and as hard as we beat that thing, man. I've been kind of reserved at our other races, like the 2000-mile races-'Okay, it's got to go a long way.' This one, we knew we had to go a long ways, but to break that record we had to just go, had to hammer."

It wasn't until three or four in the morning that they were fairly confident that they'd get the record, however. By then, of course, they were literally hundreds of miles ahead of their nearest competitors, the other Open Four-stroke team of Robert Barnum, Sal Garcia, Robert Lightfoot, Jimmy McCay and Tim Pfeiffer, also on an XR650R. The privateers would eventually cover 1223.39 miles.

Third went to the Dewey Belew/Mark Brown/Danl Hagen/Chris Hoppe/Bill McNeer squad on yet another XR650R, their total coming to 1217.86 miles and earning the Open Motorcycle class victory.

Not to be outdone, the ATVs fared quite well, despite the heat and constant wind, with the first two finishers setting records. Though not expected to be a big threat, the Alfonso Castro/Jesus de la Flocha/Doug Eichner/Enrique Felix/Allen White quintet kept a steady pace on their Roll Design 250, taking the overall ATV lead within the first six hours. They ended up covering 1097.88 miles, barely surpassing one of the oldest marks in the books of 1080.00 miles set in '89.

There's always someone daring to be different. Though these guys didn't finish, they let everyone know that there are still a few sidecar enthusiasts out there.

 

Second in the ATV ranks and first Open ATV also set a record. Riding a 310cc Honda, the Eric Dollente/Todd Hunter/Tim Neidhardt/Cain Smead/Jim Stephensen team did 1043.48 miles, squeaking past the previous class mark of 1035.20 miles set in '95.

In all, 10 teams managed to reach the finish. The last, SuperLite entry Ronnie Golden/Bryan Saasta/James Saasta/Jordan Saasta/James Skipping, managed 59.84 miles-just under six laps in 24 hours for an average speed of something like 2.5 miles per hour. That's because their first lap required an astounding seven hours, 18 minutes, 16 seconds. Due to the rules and how downtime is computed, that dictated the complete the remaining laps in an average time of four hours, 25 minutes or else they'd go too fast and end up with more than four hours of accumulated downtime, thus houring out. By contrast, Campbell's winning team averaged 59.2 mph for the 24 hours.

But finishing with a new record is something the Campbell team can savor for two more years when Fudpucker holds the next edition of the event. More than one person in the pits claimed something along the lines of, "He only holds it every other year so you forget how miserable you are out here!"

Even Campbell, asked if he looked forward to defending the title in two years, replied with a laugh, "Hopefully, we won't have to do it again!"

"But," he added, "it's hard to say that we won't do it again because of all the good data that we receive in a controlled race-test environment. In most [desert] races, you're not doing lap after lap so it's hard to get a data/mileage on headlights, clutches, tires, brake pads, whatever. It's just a really good test, especially for lights. One reason we race the race is for durability testing."

All he's got to do is gather up five other individuals who can prove their durability as well as their speed because they've obviously got a machine that can do it.Mark Kariya


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