DBT’s Young Guns Take Yamaha’s YZ250FX Past 100-Hours
Photos by Mark Kariya, Owen Russell and Nick Baehr
Leading up to the race, I was very excited to be riding a 2015 YZ250FX supplied by dirtbiketest.com. It is the long term test bike they have been running all year. About a month earlier, Preston Campbell had asked if I wanted to be on the team and I immediately responded with a yes. The other teammates were Jarett Megla, Renton Minuto, Willy Simons Jr., and Kel Postel. Looking at our lineup, I knew we had a good shot at winning the 250 expert class. Saturday morning, me and Preston got the team signed up and did the finished touches on the bike. Slowly, the rest of the team arrived at Glen Helen Raceway for the 10 AM start. Preston would start the race for us and he got us off to a great start. Following Preston was Jarett, myself, Renton, Willy, then Kel.
Jarett handed off the bike to me for my first rotation and I set off on the somewhat fresh course around 12:00. My first lap, I was feeling good on the bike and had some fun until I reached the first single track canyon. Immediately after dropping in I was halted by a slower rider and another frustrated rider behind him. More and more bikes caught up to me and we were all revving the bikes and yelling in hopes of the slower rider pulling over for us. We reached the end of the canyon and headed up a rocky single track where the slower rider let the rider in front of me go then jumped in right behind him leaving me and 3 other racers frustrated once again. At the end of the singletrack, there was a short but steep rocky uphill where I saw 3 riders all stuck on at once. There were also 2 riders sitting in front of me leaving me no where to go but wait. I then watched one of the JCR Honda riders and Ox Motorsports riders make their way by and attempt to get up the hill. One made it while the Ox Motorsports rider got stuck and fell down. After riders getting out of the way and watching Ryan Kudla loop his bike out, I made my attempt. I got close to the top before tipping over; however I was able to pick the bike up and continue on. A few minutes later, I got passed by 2 riders right before going up into the blinding dust on the West ridge of Glen Helen.
After completing that lap, I knew my lap time wasn’t good at all and that I needed to have another 2 good laps to make up for it. As I closed in on the East ridge on the beginning of my 2nd lap, I just missed a lapped rider and was forced to make my way through the dust at a slow pace. Again, after dropping into the single track again, I found myself stuck behind another slower rider for the duration of the single track. I was able to make a pass after exiting and continued on my way. For the second time, I got caught up in the dust on the West ridge and couldn’t improve my lap time. At the end of the lap, I noticed 2nd place in our class was closing in after my first 2 terrible laps and I knew the rest of my team couldn’t be happy to see that.
Heading out onto my final lap, I was determined to set a faster lap and I did. For the third time, I got stuck in the single track behind a rider but about halfway through, he was nice enough to let me by. I pushed forward and was lucky enough to not have a lot of dust or slower riders for the rest of my lap and I was able to stretch out our lead again. The rest of the riders completed their laps and we were still in the lead. As the sun went down, my turn to get on the bike again was getting closer.
After Jarett rolled into the pits, we put the lights on the bike, changed a rear wheel, and replaced the air filter. After all of this, we checked the oil level and noticed it was low. We then had to add oil and I was riding out shortly after around 6pm. This time around, I had very little dust and lappers and was able to get some consistent lap times in. I still wasn’t happy about my speed but I didn’t crash or ruin the bike which is always the number one priority in a race like this. I handed the bike off to Renton and we were still in contention for the win. Around midnight, I got on the bike for my third time. I encountered a lot of dust and lapped riders again this time around and I wasn’t happy with my times again. After getting off the bike, I went to get some sleep before my next ride. After an hour and a half of sleep, I was awoken to hear that Kel had crashed and gotten a concussion and we were down to 5 riders.
After getting ready for the 4th time, I set out into the darkness. This time around, my luck with dust and lapped riders was better and my lap times were much faster. After getting off the bike, we were looking at the live results and we were shown a lap down from the leaders but the number of laps shown hadn’t changed in several laps. This led to a lot of confusion but after it started to work again, we were shown in 2nd. With Kel not being able to ride, it was a fairly quick turnaround time for me to get back on the bike so I decided to not go to sleep again.
As we were all waiting for Preston to complete his 2nd lap, he came in with a bent shifter which prevented him from shifting. After a few moments of panic, we got it straight enough to work and he was off. After he handed me the bike, I set out on my final ride of the long race just as the sun came up. On my first lap, I came around to the corkscrew, which had just been watered heavily, before the bridge and a rider was stuck on it. After stopping at the last minute, I tried going up but didn’t have enough momentum with the slick tires and coming from a complete stop. I was forced to go back down and on my 2nd attempt, I made it up with ease. After I completed my final lap, I gave the bike to Jarett and went and changed out my gear. After the checkered flag flew for Willy Simons who was on the bike, we ended up 2nd or 3rd 250 expert and a top 10 overall. As a team, we were all happy to finish the race but disappointed we didn’t get the win we desired for.
As always, a few days after the race when I’m not surviving off of less than two hours of sleep, this race was very fun and I can’t wait for next year! Congrats to all the teams and riders that finished the race and thank you to everyone that helped out my team before, during, and after the race. Lastly, thanks to the team sponsors: Dirt Bike Test for giving us the opportunity to race on the YZ250FX, IMS for the gas tank and foot pegs, Baja Designs for the light, Fasst Co. for the flexx handlebars, DT1 Filters for providing air filters, TBT for doing the suspension, and Megla Designs for making the bike look good. Also, I would like to say thank you to some of my sponsors: 1-800-Dent-Doc, MSR, Bell/Motorcycle Superstore, Sidi, and Prairie Dogs MC.
Here is a link to a video of our team’s run:
http://dirtbiketest.com/fresh-dirt/dbt-yamaha-yz250fx-24-hour-race-recap-video/
