Red Bull Last Man Standing - dirtbike endurance race (insane) [pics]

[falcongsr]

Yesterday I drove up to the TX-OK border to take pictures and help work a checkpoint for the race. It was 80 miles long, 40 miles during the day and 40 miles at NIGHT riding the same course in reverse! 130 riders started. 2 finished. That's why it's called Last Man Standing. David Knight won last year. He has not lost any race he's entered this year. He has full KTM factory support. Knight's bike, prepped for the night run. Privateer bike with street fighter aftermarket lights. This guy was from the UK. He was the only other person to finish, a few minutes behind Knight. I will have more info on him soon. UK guy's bike. Thats his whole crew. No factory support. No team. No heat. Just a mechanic and a rented mini trailer. And he was the only other person to finish. Unreal. One of the 11 riders to start the 2nd half of the race. Custom lighting. Another of the lucky 11, from Canada. Scratches on his nose are from tree branches. Out of the 130 riders that started, 30 didn't make it the first 3 miles to our section in a creek bed. Bikes broke, people broke, or collapsed from exhaustion. If you can't get a bike up a steep section, you launch it up the hill and it flies out from underneath you, then you go climb up the hill, pick it up and keep going. If you can't launch it. You drag it up the hill. It got so bad in the creek that racers were using rope and working in teams of 3 to 5 to pull each others' bikes up. I didn't get any pics of this unfortunately. Lined up for the photo-op. KTM factory team. I am supposed to be in the spectator crowd behind the riders 150 yards away. Oops. The start was chaos. I couldn't even get set up a for a shot and they were GONE. David Knight already had a lead 5 seconds in. A few hours later back in the creek bed, 3 miles from the finish. Knight hops into the gulley and comes up to us and he's gone. He makes everything look easy. 70 degree climb? No problem. UK guy tries to get out of the creek. He almost makes it but loses traction but tumbes back into the creek bed. He's sliding back towards us. He crashes down and the bike lands on him, we pull it off him. Kent has been riding Enduros for years and encourages UK guy to make it. Success. He was the only other rider to get that far. Modified by falcongsr at 5:46 PM 12/3/2006 Modified by falcongsr at 7:39 PM 12/4/2006

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[ForcedAccord]

Sweet pics falcon. Looks like it was a good time. Looked nippy too.

[Starscream]

Excellent pics, thanks for sharing falcon. Makes me want to grab a dirtbike and go hit the woods

[ASteele2]

Whoa - that's freaking cool. It reminds me of the enduro at Erzberg for the few finishers... but more backwaters, grassroots cool.

Nice finish, btw

[mookie]

never even heard of the event before. looks crazy

[falcongsr]

I forgot to point out the 2 wheel drive bike. I guess this company called Christini modifies Honda CR450's with an elaborate 2nd chain system to the triple clamp that drives shafts that go down to the front wheel. Apparently its a 30/70 front/rear power split and they can engage/disengage the front drive system. 5 of the 130 bikes had this system. It was an advantage in some of the climb sections, and apparently only adds 15lbs of weight to the bike.

Here is the official site for the event. http://www.redbulllastmanstanding.com/ But it is not updated yet.

[JMU R1]

Originally Posted by falcongsr

That is sweet! The dude on the Christini was at the American Supercamp I did a few weeks ago. They had two of the bikes there and they had Chris Carr let loose on 'em for a few laps.

[ceas]

Looks like a fun time - unless you are riding in it. Good to see a fair bit of 2-strokes out there!

[falcongsr]

2-strokes are still dominating enduros yes.

One of the race workers read this thread and told me it was two 40 mile loops. So 80 miles total.

[marmaladedad]

Originally Posted by falcon

That's not you...

[falcongsr]

correct, thats just one of the kids out there. i was taking pics.

[marmaladedad]

Originally Posted by falcongsr

correct, thats just one of the kids out there. i was taking pics.

And you didn't take a picture of the girl holding the bottle?

I'd be scared to attempt this race. But it looks like fun!

[falcongsr]

Originally Posted by marmaladeboy

And you didn't take a picture of the girl holding the bottle?

I'd be scared to attempt this race. But it looks like fun!

We needed the liquor for warmth, see the snow behind her?

This is about the most difficult endurance race in the world, definitely in the country. Most of the local enduro riders didn't even sign up for it. Most were there volunteering working the checkpoints and working the technical sections.

This race is just some crazy idea the Red Bull marketing dept dreamed up because they are just hemmoraging money apparently.

[ngng]

i just watched the dust to glory video, somewhat offtopic, but i thought oyu ss ould know

[JMU R1]

Originally Posted by ngng

i just watched the dust to glory video, somewhat offtopic, but i thought oyu ss ould know

D2G = incredibly awesome

[rainmanEK]

Sweet Pics!!

Any reason it seems they all use two strokes?

Eric

[backlash]

Wow, only two finished eh? Amazing

[mos]

Originally Posted by falcongsr

This race is just some crazy idea the Red Bull marketing dept dreamed up because they are just hemmoraging money apparently.

Write off!

Thanks for sharing the pics and story.

[Z Darkside]

awesome, thanks for sharing

[falcongsr]

Here are some more pics of the impossible terrain that 2 riders managed to get through.


Yikes.






The rider that made it up already is actually using a grappling hook with a rope to snag the bike in mid-air and pull it onto the top of the bowl before it falls back down on the rider!



Didn't quite make it.

Offical press release http://www.redbulllastmanstand...g.pdf

[Z Darkside]

thats nuts!!

[Hehehe I just]

the guy who owns and developed the christini 2wd bike system came and talked to us mech e's at villanova. he worked on it as his senior project as a mech e at nova. it was really neat to see a senior project years ago become something like it is today.

[ASteele2]

David Knight won this year's Erzberg, btw

[TallGuyTurbo]

thats looks awesome..must have been fun to be apart of something like that.

[ngng]

is it cool if i repost your pics?