Endurance off-road racing is the ultimate test of man and machine, where speed gets you to the front, but reliability gets you to the finish. The 24 Hours of Glen Helen provided another textbook case of that golden rule as Ducati claimed their first-ever victory at the 2026 3BROS Racing 24 Hours of Glen Helen Raceway. The four rider team of Ciaran Naran, Cody Simpson, Ryan Surratt, and Colton Udall showed speed and consistency to complete 77 laps and out duel the 76 total teams that lined up for the 27th edition of this annual event.
When the green flag dropped at 10:00 a.m. under the California sun, Ciaran Naran immediately put the off-road world on notice. Piloting the #3 Hero Racing Ducati, Naran rocketed off the line to grab the holeshot, establishing a blistering early pace that kept the red machine at the head of the pack for the opening hour. Behind Naran, last year’s champion Dustyn Davis on the #58 Zip-Ty Racing Husqvarna FX350 kept him honest as the two stayed within a few seconds through the opening laps.
The early-race supremacy was briefly checked when Dustyn Davis went an extra lap without pitting to slip into the lead. However, the Ducati squad struck right back, reclaiming the lead before hitting their first major roadblock of the day—a sudden bike issue that left the team dead in their tracks trailside.
With the Ducati temporarily sidelined, the Zip-Ty Racing Husqvarna squad capitalized, taking over command at the front. Behind them, the race locked into a steady cadence for the next six hours. The number-22 Dirt Bike Test Yamaha team, anchored by Trevor Hunter, settled solidly into second place, while the No. 111 KTM squad led by Tyler Nicholson held down third.
Through the early afternoon, the Hero squad experienced some small mechanical issues that halted their progress to the front of the pack while the #22 Yamaha team experienced issues of their own. But as day faded into dusk and rain drops started to fall, the race’s narrative shifted. The resilient Hero Racing Ducati team mounted an impressive charge back through the field, eventually passing Nicholson’s team to reclaim a podium position in third.
Meanwhile, disaster struck the Yamaha camp. Trevor Hunter’s team fought persistent fuel pump gremlins, losing nearly a full lap and tumbling out of contention.
The Zip-Ty Racing Husqvarna team held a commanding 22 minute cushion going into the night and they seemed to be cruising towards a comfortable victory. But a 24-hour race never goes entirely to script. As the temperature dropped, the rain drops fell harder, and the night sky got darker, the Zip-Ty machine began battling nagging lighting gremlins. Every unscheduled pit stop cost the team several minutes per lap, slowly bleeding away their hard-earned lead.
What followed was a classic, heart-pounding duel between speed and consistency: The Hare (Zip-Ty Racing Husqvarna) set untouchable, blazing lap times whenever they were on track. They’d charge back to the leaders only to be bitten by more issues, fall back, and repeat the cycle. The Tortoise (Hero Racing Ducati) ran a masterclass in clean, calculated endurance. Turning near trouble-free laps through the black of night, the Ducati team quietly cycled right back into the hunt.
Throughout the night, the Husqvarna team closed back in by minutes at a time to the Ducati team, but a run-in with a lapped rider saw them pushing the bike back to the pits with broken throttle cables and a broken headlight. This was the final blow just as they were inching up on the #3’s rear wheel. In a maintenance pit stop, the team found water and sand inside their airboot, signaling their engine’s eventual expiration date. Undeterred, the team carried on and continued to set fast laps to see how far they could push it and to finish the race itself.
As the clock ticked into the final hour of the marathon, the tension in the pits reached a boiling point. The Zip-Ty Husqvarna squad left nothing on the table in a desperate bid to salvage the win. In the final 60 minutes of the 1,440 minute race, the Zip-Ty machine ground to a dead stop on the track. Refusing to let a DNF rob them of a finish, the team pushed the bike across the finish line to secure a heroic, hard-fought result and still maintain second Overall – a true testament to the speed they showed allowing them to miss the final laps and still finish with 76 laps, three laps ahead of the next team.
With the Husqvarna sidelined in the final hour, the Hero Racing Ducati team played it safe and waited at the finish to take the checkered flag. When the checkered flag flew, Hero Racing Ducati captured a breakthrough victory for the newest off-road motorcycle manufacturer, proving their machine is capable in the right hands.
Riding a nearly trouble-free race, something hard to do in normal conditions but even more impressive with this year’s weather, was the Tyler Nicholson team. They clicked off consistent laps from start to finish to end up third Overall and Open Pro with 73 laps to their credit. Danny Cooper and company finished first overall in the Expert class with 71 total laps aboard a Honda CRF450RX. Kyle Wade’s Yamaha mounted team finished first in 30+ Expert and rounded out the top five overall with 68 laps.
The Ironman class is always the most impressive of the event and this year was no different. 23 brave souls lined up to solo the event and Hayden James came out on top. Completing 53 laps, James finished 29th O/A, besting Zane Frisk by two laps at the checkers. Frisk finished 34th O/A with his 51 laps while Kevin Jansen rounded out the podium with 41 laps to finish 44th O/A.
Other notable finishers include Wyatt Ubrun winning the 85cc mini class, Gunner Luce winning the 85cc Ironman class, Brett Hulburt winning the 125-250 Nov/Beg class, Todd Davis topping the 50+ Expert class, and Shawn Bushnell winning the Family class.
OVERALL RESULTS
1. Ciaran Naran (Duc) 77 Laps
2. Dustyn Davis (Hus) 76 Laps
3. Tyler Nicholson (KTM) 73 Laps
4. Danny Cooper (Hon) 71 Laps
5. Kyle Wade (Yam) 68 Laps
