We Don't Need No Stinkin Dust!

2012 Baja 500 (Geezer Style)

The Fly-Works Connection-MX43.com Baja 500 team for 2012 race consisted of Marc Prince, Doug Smith, Dave Potts, Ray Spore and Eric McKenna. They seem to be on a roll with their win at Baja 250, now the 500 and hope to continue to carry their luck/momentum into the 1000 later this year in November.

The race started and ended in Ensenada with the early Saturday morning departure of 6am for the first motorcycle.  It was overcast with no wind which is not a good thing for this type of race with the bikes starting at intervals of 30 seconds per bike. Without the wind to help clear the way the dust just hangs and becomes unbearable in some places. Since I drew the short straw, I mean volunteered to do the start, it meant the first hour and a half of my riding would be like getting a last place start in a cross country event while riding directly into the rising sun on a dusty course without much help from mother nature to clear the air.  But since everyone else was in the same boat I figured it would be some riding and a lot of luck as to how things went. When I finally handed off to Doug at about mile 80 I figured I weighed an extra 3 pounds or so with all the dust collected on my riding gear and down my throat.

We did fine during the first 225 miles while engaged in a see-saw battle with another team until our first bike problem. I happened to be on the bike when it occurred. I was riding along on a paved transition section with a 60 mph speed limit minding my own business when the bike just quit! Just like it had run out of gas. I looked at the tank and could clearly see fuel so I knew that was not the problem. I immediately start to think it must be an electrical problem and am wondering how the heck I am going to find the problem and maintain the lead we had of around 8 minutes. It must have been our lucky day because I was stopped for less than a minute when Chris Haines and his mechanic, Jimmy, pull up to me and ask what is wrong. I know Jimmy has been a Honda mechanic for quite some time and tell him it was like the bike has run out of gas. I was double lucky to have Jimmy be in the truck when they stop and to also give him the correct description of what was wrong. He immediately went through the check list of fuel supply and venting and had the bike running in probably less than 2 minutes. He discovered the overflow line on the aftermarket tank had been kinked slightly on the last gas stop and was starving the bike for fuel by not allowing air to pass through the vent line.  I actually thought it was an electrical problem.  But when he told me to hit the starter and see if it was ok the bike fired right up. I stomped it into gear and was back in the race!  I am pretty sure I said “Thank You Jimmy!” when I rode off.

I finished out my section where Doug took over and put on a new rear wheel/tire. He did an excellent ride over to the coast with Dave taking the coastal section and maintaining a good pace with only one tip over if I got all the story right. Somewhere along Dave’s route he bent the rear brake rotor pretty badly where it was working the brake pad pin out.  Dave handed the bike over to Ray to get it to the finish where on inspection it was discovered that the rear brake pads were being held in by about 1 thread on the brake pin!  Doug inspected it at the finish and thinks if we had to go another couple of miles we would have lost the rear brake. So it appears we were lucky on more than one occasion during this race. But you know the old saying, Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good.  In our case on this day that was true, because with everything totaled on corrected start times and penalties we won by about 1 minute!  That is a race when you have 2 teams with 5 or so riders on each team and it comes down to about a minute after almost 500 miles of racing.

So this 2012 year for the MX43.com team has been great so far with the win at the Baja 250 and now the 500 we are headed to the last round in November with the points lead and a chance to win the coveted 500X plate. I will keep you posted if you will keep your fingers crossed for us!

Buenos Dias my Amigos,

#33