Ryan Nitzen | October 30, 2023
A record turnout of 78 teams lined up at this year’s 3Bros 24 Hours of Glen Helen at Glen Helen Raceway, on October 28-29. The team of Tyler Nicholson, RJ Warda, Thomas Dunn and Clayton Roberts (KTM) put together the best race over the course of 24 straight hours, taking the coveted overall victory.
As the clock struck 10 a.m. Saturday, the Open Pro/Expert bikes fired to life with a fast field of riders barreling into the famous Talladega first turn. As one might expect, retired Arenacross/Supercross racer Jacob Hayes, on the number-24 Kawasaki, quickly took the lead around the first few turns on the motocross track, riding on a Kawasaki/Precision Concepts-backed KX450X with teammates Jacob Argubright, Zach Spano and Mario Testa.
The first lap saw an intense battle between Hayes and Blayne Thompson (number 228), riding a Skaggs Racing/TAS Insurance Services Honda CRF450X, with the two going bar to bar for the first 19-minute lap. Sitting just a few seconds behind in third, Clay Hengeveld piloted the DirtBikeTest/1-800-Dent-Doc Yamaha YZ450FX to stay in sight of the leaders in the opening stages of the long, grueling race.
One hour into the race, the number-4 Yamaha team with Hengeveld, Tyler Belknap, Trevor Hunter and Nic Garvin passed the number-24 Kawasaki team (Hayes) to move into the lead. Hot on their heels, Tyler Nicholson’s KTM moved in on the front runners, setting up for a three-horse battle in the early stages.
Mere hours into the race, the Kawasaki squad started experiencing some small but time-consuming mechanical issues, forcing them to lose valuable minutes to the two front runners, though they stayed close enough to still be in contention in a race of this magnitude.
In the third hour, the lead changed hands again as the number-710 bike made its way past the number-4 Yamaha for the first time and opened a small gap over the next several laps. As quickly as the lead grew, it diminished even quicker, in just a single lap, as Nicholson’s team spent a couple minutes in the pit allowing for Hunter’s team to close in and eventually make the pass back for the lead around 2:30 pm Saturday. Over the next several hours, the two teams led the charge, with the lead fluctuating nearly every lap between as little as 10 seconds and as large as four minutes.
As night fell, the real race began as teams were daunted by powering lights, deep silt and ruts, thick dust, and a slew of riders scattered all over the course as the difficulty factor increased. Just after 8:00 pm, Nicholson’s team was forced into the pits for a wheel change, allowing Hunter’s team to move back into the lead. Later that lap, the number-4 team suffered a big crash, mangling the bike and lights and relinquishing the lead back to the 710 team. Able to limp the bike back in, the DBT Yamaha squad was forced to get the bike back into working order as best they could and make an unplanned rider change. Over the next couple of hours, the running order remained the same as it had for most of the race, with the gap increasing or decreasing by the lap. Down to just three riders now, the DBT Yamaha team shuffled and scrambled to put together a rider order and change up the number of laps each would do with one rider out for a rotation. Just before midnight, they put Hengeveld on the bike for a two-hour stint and, in the meantime, passed their way back into the lead for a few laps.
Eventually, Nicholson’s KTM team passed back into the lead and started to build a gap over the field. By 3:00 am, the lead had grown to its largest at 13 minutes, but Hunter’s DBT Yamaha team dropped it down to eight minutes, where they’d hover for the remainder of the race.
When the checkers flew Sunday morning, Roberts was first to the line, his team completing 69 laps and covering approximately 725 miles. Second was the number-4 DBT Yamaha team with 69 laps, and third went to Hayes and crew with 67 laps. The top two Expert teams battled to the finish, with Tyler Martin’s team winning the Business class in fourth overall and John Wheeler’s team winning the Open Expert class in fifth overall.
Zac Luce rode to victory riding an astounding 50 laps, or 525 miles, to take the Ironman win and finish 42nd overall.
Zac Commans rode a Kawasaki KLR650 ADV bike to fourth in Ironman class and 53rd overall with 42 laps.
Other notable finishers include the top 85cc team of Larrick Curley, Kaycee Curley, Courtney Curley, Rhylan Benally and Jacob Saganitso, with 50 laps and finishing 55th overall.
CN
OVERALL RESULTS
- Tyler Nicholson (KTM)
- Trevor Hunter (Yam)
- Jacob Hayes (Kaw)
- Tyler Martin (GG)
- John Wheeler (Hon)