Grinding Stone 6Hour Endurance Race
Sponsored by Fort McDowell/Yavapai Materials
By Dave Brosius Photos by Desert Image
Grinding Stone Sports Park Fort McDowell, Arizona
2/28/09
“Off-Road Motorcycle Endurance Racing Comes to Arizona”
The big news in Arizona and now the Southwest is that the “new” Grinding Stone Off-Road racing facility may be one of the best kept secrets in the country. The “Stone” has been one of the favorite training tracks for riders such as Destry Abbott, Taylor Robert, Max Gerston and Anthony Defazio, but when it comes to off-road racing this is the “place.”  
A “Le Mans” type start had riders running towards their bike with the thud of Sidi boots and the rattle of Asterisk knee braces, as 51 teams in 8 classes headed out on the on an eight mile course for 6 hours of fun in the sun. As the riders came back into sight the battle was on as John Myers and Kyle Beshaw, both mounted on Kawasaki 450’s, were bar to bar with only 5 hours and 47 minutes left to race. Not far behind the two front runners were Luke Reynolds and Johnny Weisman, Destry Abbott’s mechanic, followed by the “kids” team of Billy Dipley and Max Gerston on their Moto House KTM. The course offered zero dust conditions with a mix of single track, deep sand and a “Rekluse” enduro cross section just to keep riders on their toes.
The Sportsman teams were taking it a bit easier than Pro/Expert riders, but the action was still intense.  The top three in all of the classes were keeping each other insight, with the running order changing during pit stops and rider exchanges. As the race progressed the young guns of Stuckert, Bierrum, and Ottersberg, in the 125-250 Sportsman class, continued to battle with the team of Don Robins and Steve Luly riding the 251-Open class. Robbins and Luly can usually be found racing in the 40+ “A” classes in the WORCS and SCORE series, but as Steve said “we know how to ride hard and save the bike, so we just wanted some competition and it is more fun to beat the young guys.” Well the Robins/Luly team did win the 251-Open class by 4 minutes, but it was the youth and enthusiasm team of Stuckert/Bierrum and Ottersberg for the overall in the Sportsman classes. 
As the hours went by the race for first would change hands numerous times.  Both Beshaw and Myers would have problems and each team would have to ride their back up bike to the finish. “The clutch was going and we had to switch” was Beshaw’s comments as Meyers took the lead. But Meyers luck almost ran out. “I was sent to the “penalty box”, because I screwed up in the pits and just as I started leave I saw I had a flat tire. I switched bikes and kept the lead to the end.”  
The winning team completed 24 laps with an average lap time of 14.4 minutes. The Beshaw and Weisman teams would total 23 laps each with only two minutes separating them at the end of 6 hours of racing for second and third overall.        
Grinding Stone Sports Park
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