ON THE PIPE II - The hurt of Hattah

there is no other motorcycle race in the world like hat are over 400 riders from all over Australia are here some have come to win some just to finish every rider has a goal is chasing a dream but eight laps of this 38 kilometers and can break you after four hours of racing in the sand up to sixty bikes will have expired at least thirty riders will be injured four will leave in an ambulance and only one will become the 2016 hat our champion I once raised Hatter but now my goal is to create a small race team and help another rider chase a dream but to do this right I'm going to need a team mechanic enter Steve Moritz former Aussie veteran motocross champ who's raced bikes all over the world and now runs his own engine and suspension tuning business here in Perth we'll keep minimal hours on it get this set up but it this is probably what you're going to get you get around most 19 liters yeah he's going to join next those right J meet the settings that are in there with that tank and oh yeah and then seal it does this boy won't need much at all nah I mean most people's in standard trim these things are pretty hard to hang on to what we're trying to achieve I guess is to make it even more competitive so Lewis can run against 510 454 Scott I am some mild porting mods performance pipe and muffler a 19 litre tank and revamped suspension the sandblaster is born it's very close now that's sweet I can go on more he's only going to be riding a heart Lewis could almost run that pot for the whole race it like it to be hard to hang on to harder than stand it but let's let him call it back I wouldn't want to be swinging off this for four hours no there's a bunch of things I still need to get I'm going to get the phone rally grips yeah that'll save his hands yeah you've heard of MX store yeah yeah Mike I've got desert King stick pegs yeah I got to get moose online shopping and overnight Freight a team managers best friend by now you're probably wondering where our writer is where is Lewis Kelvin he's been out near Southern Cross working working away so here sits along two weeks so it's been almost 20 years now I think a dirt bike racing and traveling around the country is a family and all that sort of stuff it's been awesome coming from a race announcer how was that even see yeah good then that would be the end of the conversation you know you wouldn't elaborate he wouldn't talk about anything else that's all he would say many they'd go out and get his little dirt bike and start playing in the sand and then said right it's time for your race now and you get up and just go like a good snake quietly it's hard to get a conversation out of them some people think that he's you know the arrogance but but once they get to know him the nod that that's just the way is it's just quiet me try the pipe anyways mom yeah Lewis hasn't written for three weeks the sandblasters power must be tough on his hands and arm it's time to go back to the standard pipe and muffler just clean it just a little bit that has been on the pot yeah Martha is it did you feel like it was any slower up top and quite it felt faster good just goes like you come out rockets driving better yeah good so you can get up to speed return and the bots already do on standard pipe and muffler it is now just one last thing to test Louie's been here before he finished third outright on his first ever attempt at Hatter in 2014 but struggled to back it up last year finishing eighth outright and so it begins 400 competitors pushing toward a single start gate to begin qualifying for tomorrow start order last year's top 10 finishers are seeded at the front KTM Australia's Ty Simmons is first away on the factory 500 exc followed by his teammate Daniel sandy Yamaha Australia's boroughs Nathan trig on the big KTM Husqvarna Australia's Glenn Kearney on a factory Fe 500 1 and then bartology films Lewis Kelvin on the two-stroke sandblaster right on his hammers husqvarna Australia's Lachlan Stanford on the big Fe 501 Lakis tag Louis right off the line to hunt him through the test come on Lois keep that 300 pin Stanford's father ones closing the gap on the Straits he makes the pass Louis clocks a 26th overall prologue time he's disappointed but I think he's done well given the limited bike time he gets these days KTMs Daniel Sanders clocked the fastest prologue time on his factory 500 exc he'll spearhead this dirt bike army into a sandy battlefield for over four hours stopping only momentarily to refuel every two laps his heart is pounding adrenaline is peeling his eyes wide open and his only focus is to win twenty-five positions down sandblaster is waiting go for it Simmons passes the first checkpoint ahead of Sanders for their only second the rest of the field are emerging from lap one where's Lois no it's not him there is hot on the heels of Nick Tomlinson two laps down and Simmons is narrowly holding back Sanders Louie has pushed through to 19th place and needs to refuel Tomlinson is right on it we pit Louis efficiently and he's looking good Tomlinson is in full race mode he checks out in a hurry Sanders takes the lead after 90 minutes but Simmons is not letting him out of sight nearing the end of lap three Louie is looking strong and the sandblaster is charging like a beast checkpoint three down lap four begins Luise going from strength to strength four laps down and he's pushed through to 15th place the sandblaster is hunting the big four strokes now and Louie is closing in on the top ten yeah in racing the only greater concern than what a mechanic holds for his engine is the concern that a father holds for his son none of us realize the sandblaster has suffered a spiked radiator hose is hemorrhaging coolant and slowly overheating Oh sandblaster is losing power and can barely make it up the sand you just keep going here lies the spectrum of racing at one end of the track a dream is breaking at the other a dream is coming true after four hours and six minutes ty Simmons takes the coveted outright win of hata in what has been one of the greatest battles in the events history Daniel Sanders crosses the line just 12 seconds behind to take a hard-fought but disappointing second place coming through till the hard work and get so close and then so far

Channel: ARiemann1

Views: 9,040,286

Rating: 4.5405746 out of 5

Keywords: KTM, Enduro, desert racing, 300EXC, 500EXC, Tye Simmonds, Toby Price, Ben Grabham, Adam Riemann, Louis Calvin, Hattah, Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki

Id: cIDMGHmYbfI

Length: 19min 11sec (1151 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 07 2016