HYR 12 HOURS OF GLEN HELEN

The Honda/Yamaha of Redlands 12 Hours of Glen Helen ran its course this weekend with very familiar results. The Johnny Campbell Honda team was first and the John Burr Team was second. That’s the default order with all of Glen Helen’s endurance races recently. But the results don’t tell what a nail biter it was for the entire 12 Hours, with the two teams switching places on every lap, and the final order unsettled until the end of hour 12.

Something distinctly different this year was the start time of the race. It bagan at 5:00 p.m. Saturday and ended at 5:00 a.m. Sunday, making it almost entirely a night race. Riders had just a few hours to familiarize themselves with the Dirt Bike Magazine-designed race course before being plunged into darkness. At the start, John Burr’s Gordon Ward grabbed the initial lead on his KX450 and showed the way around the ultra-slippery 7-mile course. Colton Udall followed on the JCR Honda. From there, the two teams went back and forth.

Justin Imhoff and Justin Seeds kept a KTM 2-stroke in second most of the time, while Justin Jones, Ty Renshaw and Richie Owens had to work their way up, eventually finishing third. More details will come, but results are posted at www.glenhelen.com.

What would a Glen Helen Endurance race be without a night shot of the infamous bridge?

Gordon Ward has to be tired of second place. He has to be.

A water main broke in the middle of the night, flooding the lower sections of the race course. Richie Owens had no trouble with the resulting conditions.

Dirt Bike magazine fielded several entries, including this BMW-mounted team. Scot Harden left his Husky in the garage to join us.

Cody Knauss won the Ironman division with 37 laps. Tough guy. Lee Fulmer was only a few minutes behind at the finish; another tough guy.