Baja 500 Adventure
Friday, June 10, 2011 at 10:53AM 2011 and the mx43.com Baja Team is 2 for 2!
It seems that 2011 is turning out to be a great year for the mx43.com/Fly Gear riders. We just returned from our second race of the 3 race series and brought home the 1st place trophy in the Class 50 division for the motorcycles. San Felipe (Baja) 250, The Baja 500 with the Baja 1000 being the last event of the year to be run in November.
It was a great week of pre riding, (well when is a week of riding anywhere not GREAT?) but also a good day at the race with only a couple of things that didn’t go according to plan and those were quickly overcome.
Jim Dizney is rider of record and is recovering from a broken leg. His supporting cast of characters were Dave Potts, Ray Spore, Charlie Marshall, Doug Smith and myself (Eric McKenna). However since I had a mishap 2 days before the start and failed to make the start, everyone else stepped up and did everything needed to fill in the gaps. Awesome job you guys!
A special Thanks to Dave Potts since he was the one that had to step up and do my start section of the event. Just a little insight on the start of the Baja races that begin in Ensenada. The start takes place around 6am, just about when the sun is coming over the horizon and guess which way you head out on the bike when you do the start, yup, EAST; Directly into the rising sun. Then take the fact that since it is the start of the race everyone is still bunched up and the dust is so thick it is like riding through a construction zone that they forgot to water. So at times visibility is ZERO!
Since I was relegated to spectator status the only contribution I could make was to be a shuttle driver to check splits at crossover roads and pick up and drop people off and offer moral support. Sure gives a guy a whole new perspective on the race when you watch it go by instead of being on the bike as it goes by. I actually had a good time doing whatever I could but could have done without the hobbling around with a beat up body part, (broken ribs).
Boy did they step up! I believe the next finisher in the class was about 2 hours behind our time. We did have a tight race going for the first 2 ½ hours of the race with the O’Neal entry until one of their riders had a mishap in an extremely rocky area and was unable to continue due to injuries. That opened the door for the rest of the race and it became a equipment/rider management ride. That is to say we needed to make our equipment go the remaining 400 miles and our riders do the same without getting anyone injured.
Everyone did their job perfectly and rode to an uncontested win on the Jim Dizney prepped, Fly Gear supported, mx43.com CRF-X 450 Honda. We were blessed with no mechanical problems and very few rider induced errors. I heard a couple of small stories but I don’t think I need to make fun of anyone that did such a good job of recovering after running into a tree………..do they have trees in Baja?
I thought it was all cactus!
It turned out to be a good day of racing with the seasoned riders on our team, but with one new addition.
The new guy on the team was Ray Spore. He is a long time rider with years of experience in motocross, cross country racing, trail riding and event promoting. But Ray was our Baja Debutant! It seems Ray is a member of the famous Dirt Diggers North Motorcycle Club and has been for a number of years. If you know your history of motorcycle racing and follow professional outdoor motocross then you know that the Dirt Diggers North Motorcycle Club (DDNMC) has been putting on one of the oldest and finest professional motocross events in the U.S.A. better known as HANGTOWN in Northern California for more than 40 years!
Ray wore that DDNMC jersey like an American Flag! He was grinning ear to ear every time I saw him. His wife Jennifer and son Kelby were with him and seemed to have the Spore ear to ear grin that must be a family trademark on their faces too. Somehow every time I saw them I got the feeling they were having more fun than anyone else in Mexico! They truly were a joy to have on the team.
Thanks to everyone on our team, all of our sponsors, FLY Racing, Hinson clutch, MTA-west, BRP, XR’s Only, RBR Mx, Scott USA Moto, Dirt Tricks, Acerbis USA, Baja Designs, ASV Inventions, IMS, Motion Pro, ZLT, Precision Concepts, and all of our support crew.
I will be ready for the next one and can hopefully make up for this one.
#33
Reader Comments (1)
Hey Eric great article, sounds like you Baja Geezers are doing great in 2011. Sorry to hear you wern't able to race in it, but at least you look good in your Fly Racing gear! Take care of those ribs