Yamaha and Power Team up for 24Hour Reliability Trail Victory
For Immediate Release: Friday, July 16, 2010.
In the hands of New Zealand’s Chris Power, the Yamaha WR450F has again proven its unmatched reliability taking the overall victory at the Swann Insurance 24Hour Reliability Challenge in Kapunda, South Australia.
The legendary race, now in its 78th running, saw Chris Power charge home on his Yamaha WR450F, three minutes ahead of Shane Diener second, Jehi Willis in third with Brendan Roberts fourth, also on a WR450F.
The event is grueling on man and machine with competitors starting at 11am on Saturday before riding through the night and freezing conditions, finishing at 11am on Sunday. Throughout the race, there are 12 special tests per loop, four loops in 24 hours and a total of 48 special tests for the event. Effectively, this punishing schedule is the same as running the 4ADE in one day.
“This year was the toughest year of the three I have done so far. The dry conditions kicked up plenty of dust and the ruts were quite deep. It was a technical loop, but I really enjoyed the challenge of racing it,” offers Power.
“I had a big moment towards the end of the race where I had a big crash over a drainage ditch and cartwheeled down the track, but amazingly, I got up and hit the start button and the WR fired instantly. I would have lost 20 seconds at the most,” Power recalls.
“It is a tough race having to deal with the conditions. It’s not so much the cold, but vision at night with the dust and ruts. You simply can’t afford to take your focus off the trail for one second or it can bite you in a hurry,” he continued.
The event rules don’t allow for any outside assistance during the event and the result becomes a true testament to the quality and durability of the machine. The Yamaha WR450 again built on its reputation as the most reliable and bullet proof off-road bike on the market taking the top spot at this years’ event.
“Outside of the extra lighting required for the bike, the bike Chris used was a standard WR450F. He serviced the oil around the 12 hour mark, changed the airfilter regularly and added fuel. He hardly laid a spanner on it from the start and covered around 1000k’s,” offers experienced technician Rob Darbello.
Last years’ winner Sean Throup, also mounted on a YamahaWR450, was a pre race favourite but a crash early in the race took away his changes of an overall victory. The crash damaged the alternator cover when a rock when through the casing and oil began spilling out.
Amazingly, Sean was able to get the bike back to the work area, patch up the broken cover, add some oil and continue on with the rest of the event where he clawed his way back to 10th place out of the 98 competitors that complete the event.
“Sean’s issues again highlight the durability of the WR,” continues Darbello. You just can’t break them, and even when you do, they keep running. This race is so hard on bikes and the WR450 came through with flying colours,” he finishes.
While former junior motocross and ex road racer, Brendan Roberts punted his WR450 around to a very respectable fourth place overall.
For more information and official results on the Swann Insurance 24Hr Reliability Challenge; http://24hrtrial.com/2010/
Swann Insurance- 2010 Overall Result
1st Chris Power- Yamaha WR450
2nd Shane Diener
3rd Jehi Willis
4th Brendan Roberts – Yamaha WR450
5th Tom Oye
6th Nick Throup
7th Tristan Throup
8th Damien Grabham
9th Ben McCosh
10th Sean Throup – Yamaha WR450
