The Ox Motorsports team ran smooth through the night at the JBC 24 Hours of Glen Helen to take the overall win. Photography by Jean Turner
It may be the early weeks of fall, but summer returned for the weekend at Glen Helen, just in time to torture the racers at the John Burr Cycles (JBC) 24 Hour of Glen Helen endurance race. Despite temperatures soaring near 100 degrees, over 50 teams came out to contest the annual event, with seven entries alone in the Pro division. In the end, after a close battle in the stacked Pro class, it was the Ox Motorsports team of Colton Udall, Mark Samuels, Sean Collier and Justin Jones who took top honors.
Among the fierce competition in the Pro division was the JCR Honda team, the JBC Yamaha team, and of course, the defending 24 Hour champions, Robby Bell’s Precision Concepts squad. All four teams duked it out in the early laps of the race with the JCR Honda team settling into the early lead. Johnny Campbell – who has spent the majority of the 2015 season in the GNCC series – brought his east coast stars out west for some cross training at the 24 Hour. “A controlled, multiple-hour race like the 24 Hour is very good for rider maturity, rider education,” said Campbell. “So I brought two GNCC riders, one being my guy, Chris Bach, and an up-and-coming Honda rider Trevor Bollinger. It’s also good tome come out and participate with a lot of west coast teams that are very strong. It’s just nice to come back out west and hang out with some friends, put JCR in front of everybody once again.”
JBC Yamaha team of Ryan Reina, Jeff Loop, Ryan Surratt and Sean Lipanovich took second overall. Photography by Jean Turner
The GNCC duo took very little time to find their west coast groove, and through the help of seasoned west coast racers Ryan Dudek and Benny Breck, the JCR team was soon pulling away from the competition. Although they dominated the early hours of the race, gaining minute upon minute over their fellow Honda team of Ox Motorsports, the “real race” began when darkness fell.
At about 9:30 p.m., Bach limped the JCR Honda CRF450 back to the pits with an apparent problem. “Crank case breather had come off the top of the valve cover so we suspected some sort of engine problem,” Campbell recalled. “Once we put it back on, the bike would not start. It felt kinda strange kicking it through and we didn’t know if it was a camshaft. We tried a number of things before we broke down and decided to pull the top end down.”
The teardown revealed a cracked piston, and fixing it set them back nearly two hours. As a result of their setback the Ox Motorsports team moved into the lead. With the Precision Concepts team of defending champion Robby Bell moving into second and the JBC Yamaha team not far off. As the laps clicked off through the night, Bell’s team pushed to within striking distance of the Ox Motorsports team, but soon ran into their own complications when they needed to replace a clutch.
After a nightlong battle, Robby Bell’s Precision Concepts team had to settle for third overall. Photography by Jean Turner
The Ox Motorsports team ran steady through the night – their key to dominating the competition by a full two laps by the 10 a.m. checkered flag. The JBC Yamaha team of Ryan Reina, Jeff Loop, Ryan Surratt and Sean Lipanovich earned second place ahead of the Precision Concepts team of Bell, Justin Seeds, Justin Morgan and Ryan Abbatoye.
JCR Honda recovered as well as they could to finish fourth Pro, although fourth overall went to Open Expert winners Mitch Anderson, Beau Barron, Michael DelFante, Ty Renshaw and Noah Kepple riding a Charles Jirsa-prepped Husqvarna.
The 707 Suspension team of Max Parker came out on top in the hotly-contested 250 Expert class. Photography by Jean Turner
The 250 Expert class saw some fierce competition, as well. Young riders Clay Hengeveld and Preston Campbell went toe-to-toe (sons of former Baja 1000 teammates Steve Hengeveld and Johnny Campbell). “These kids grew up together so it’s fun to have them all here racing with each other,” said Steve Hengeveld, who was content to sit back and watch his teenage son do the racing for a change.
In the end, young Hengeveld’s Precision Concepts Honda team edged out Campbell and their DRT Yamaha squad, but both were bested by the 250 Expert class-winning team of Max Parker. Impressively, all three teams finished inside the top-ten in seventh, eighth and ninth overall.
The Kurt Caselli Foundation fielded a team for the 24 Hour with the main purpose of conducting a research study on head acceleration. The team, which included riders such as Ivan Ramierz, Eric Yorba and Skyler Howes, topped the Business class and also carded 10th overall.
