From a press release:

24 Hores de Motociclisme
Circuit de Catalunya
Montmelo, Cataluynya

Final results 24 Hours of Catalunya

Folch Yamaha Wins 24 Hours of Catalunya, Noyes-Lozano-Delgado Third

Any one of four teams could have won but at the end of 24 Hours and 722 laps the winner, for the fifth time in the ten year history of the resurrected event (originally held in Montjuic Park).

Leaders for most of the long way was the Catala 1 team (Fores-Cabana-Monge), but they were stuck in the pits for two long stops, once to chase down an electrical problem with the lighting and another time with clutch adjustments.

The winning Folch team (Tomas-Hervas-Ribalta) nearly threw it all away with a nighttime crash by Ribalta, but they lost only four laps of what was then a five-lap lead.

The Catala 2 team of Lazano, Noyes and Delgado was running on the same lap with Folch 1 and pulling back the gap when the clutch began to slip, requiring a six-lap stop that dropped them to fourth. The Pons Yamaha team of Casas, Tizon and Perez, moved into a strong second place with two hours to go, but both Catalá teams piled on the pressure with Tomas for Catalá 1 and Noyes for Catalá 2 the only riders to consistently lap in the 1:52s in their push to catch the only catchable target…Pons Yamaha.

Catalá 1 got by with an hour to go, but Catalá 2 still had a lap to make up with an hour to go. The team decided to skip Delgado’s stint because of his off-pace lap times and make a desperate attempt by running Noyes and Lozano exclusively over the last two-and-a-half hours.

With 40 minutes to go Noyes was going out with half a tank and only a new rear in an attempt to pull what would have been a miracle…taking five seconds a lap. But then, just as Lozano saw his sign to pit, Casas appeared, late, down pit lane with a broken screen and brake lever…he had succumbed to the pressure of losing time steadily to both Catala bikes, and went down.

Noyes went out unsure as to whether he was down 20 seconds or up 20 seconds due to an inopportune timing glitch, but was relieved to see a big P-3 +59 seconds on the Catalá board.

The last hour of the race was televised live on TV3 to a huge audience, in part die to the fact the the French Formula 1 GP followed immediately.

For American Kenny Noyes it was his first major National/International Podium (though he did win the National Superseries Championship in 2003 on a Honda…equivalent to Superstock), but this was, as Kenny said, “The first big result in road racing. We had some bad luck with the clutch, but we made our own good luck by pushing right to the end. It was my first ride on a Suzuki, too. I’ll be back on my Honda next weekend at Albacete for the Spanish National Formula Extreme Series. That will be only 35 minutes…this was like a 24-hour sprint!”

Results for the 2004 24 Hours of Catalunya

1. Folch Yamaha 2 (Tomas-Hervas-Revalta) 722 laps

2. Catala Suzuki 1 (Fores-Cabana-Monje) –5 laps

3. Catalá Suzuki 2 (Diego Lozano-Kenny Noyes-Jose Ramon Delgado) -6 laps

4. Pons Yamaha (Casas-Tizon-Perez) –7 laps

5. Procurve Honda (Stey-Lagrille-Roda) –21 laps

6. Folch Yamaha 1 (Sanchez- Arque-Martinez) -26 laps

7. Tumoto Yamaha (Mir-Huguet-Simon) -45 laps

8. Procurve Honda (Rojas-Carrau-Guiteres)

9. Prolimit Suzuki (Gomez-Olmos-Delgado)

10. Chalon Yamaha, (Boquet-Baker-Giles)

(45 of 57 teams finished)