After 24 hours of racing, just seven minutes separated the top two teams at the eighth running of the Perry Mountain 24-Hour Challenge in Mapplesville, Alabama, June 6-7. Team KTM-Cycle Specialty successfully defended its championship with another strong performance at the ever-increasing popular race, which saw 125 teams and riders sign up to do battle on the 10-mile-a-lap race course.
The winning team was made up of National Enduro Champion Russell Bobbitt, WORCS racer Mike Brown, Cole Kirkpatrick, Jason Chancey, Allen Gravett and Joey Baker. The team relied on a KTM 300 XC two-stroke to get the job done. An issue with the lighting system, however, was the team’s only real mechanical snafu of the race. It would cost them the lead after the sun went down.
As the KTM made repairs, The Race Shop – Husaberg North America Team took over the lead, but by dawn, the KTM squad had worked its way to the front, once again. The team would never be headed again, finishing the race out in front after completing 50 laps.
The Husaberg team, made up of Mike Grizzle, Nick Fahringer, Corey Sullivan, Mark Hutchinson, Robbie Jenks and Tommy Pierce, took runner-up honors, crossing the finish line seven minutes and 45.974 seconds behind the winning squad. They were the only other team to finish on the lead lap.
Putting in 49 laps and taking third overall was the House of Horsepower/Rekluse KTM team, made up of Kyle Henderson, Bryan Vaughn, Caleb Ramsay, Dustin Stevens, Zach Ingram and Josh Young.
Fourth overall went to the Dirty South Boyz Team (48 laps), with the Planet Fittness Team (47 laps) rounding out the top five overall.
