HHORA - 6 HOURS OF HOLLISTER - HS

Monday, June 25, 2007

PIT ROW - DURBAN UNDER THE DH CYCLES TENT

Hollister Hills Off Road Association hosted their first annual “6 hours of Hollister” this past weekend. The Grand Prix track at Hollister’s OHV private upper ranch was the venue for this event and even for the fact it fell in the middle of June, almost 100 teams were entered and raced. Durban Racing entered a team of 3 riders (Tony Palandrani, Bryan Pruter, and Steve Varni) in the “Junior Class” which limits the age of the riders to 35 and under but allows for “open” bike displacement; it had some of the fastest riders on the track. The course was roughly 4.5 miles consisting of MX/GP track sections, tight single-track trails, high-speed fire roads plus a great 300 yard “Enduro Cross/Obstacle” section.

This was a teamed relay style race verses a traditional single-rider endurance race with all riders doing a part to finish with the best overall amount of laps within the 6 hour time limit. The classes consisted of Ironman, Unlimited, Junior (35 and under), Senior (36 and older), Family (at least one 12-18 year old racer) & Woman.

We submitted 3 - 2007 KTM’s into the event tech inspection and each of us planned to race our own bikes on our legs…BUT…Varni’s 250xcf didn’t pass the 96 dB sound test, Pruter’s bike had major jetting issuing due to the fact he was coming off a riding trip in the Havasu desert, plus a sticky throttle cable didn’t help, so bottom line we raced Palandrani’s 07’ 450xc almost 5 ½ hours straight.

When the checkered flag fell after 6 hours of racing Durban Racing finished strong with 27 laps in 6:07 hours securing a 3rd place finish out of 15 teams in our class and 13th overall out of the 100 teams entered. Motion Pro Industries had plenty of swag to give out for the podium finishers… we received great team plaques, Gift Certificates and high end camping chairs as prizes for “on the box” finishes.

Thanks to all the sponsors that help make this happen:

• DH Cycles (Modesto KTM dealer),
• Durban Racing
• IMS Racing
• FMF
• Renthal
• Red-Bull
• Pro-Wheel racing
• Utopia Optics
• RXR Protect
  
• Cycra
• N-Style
• No-Toil
• Cruz Tools
• Pivot Works
• S.U.S.inc
• Garvey (and this time not just my Wife but all the lovely wives of my fellow racers for letting us have “hall passes” to enjoy a Boys weekend at the races!!!)

Next year this is a must attend race for all our families, fans and local supporters bacause after doing it once, we’ve got the know how to get an even better finish next year!!! Cheers’

The TEAM - PRUTER, PALANDRANI, VARNI