2013 Tecate Baja 250 Class 50 Winners

Tecate Baja 250

The 2013 season in the SCORE Baja series is off to a great start for the Class 50 team of Marc Prince, Dave Potts , Steve Williams and #33 (Eric). We all headed down to start our pre running a bit later than normal due to various reasons. Some had work commitments, some prior race commitments and some just plain life commitments. But our team manager Doug Smith, better known as “Little Chief” was unable to make it down due to health commitments. It seems Little Chief ran into a health problem a week prior to his scheduled departure and was forced to stay in the USA at the doctor’s orders for monitoring a sudden bout of dizziness and passing out. Serious stuff and we are hoping he has no long term issues and will be at our next Baja event in June. We certainly missed him and everything he does for the team. I can only imagine how much harder it was for him than us. He couldn’t stand not being there and was sending texts and phone calls leading up to and during the race while sitting on the edge of his seat!

The race went according to plan after adjusting our mileage to cover Little Chief’s absence. I rode the Precision Concepts/FLY Racing/McQueen supported Honda CRF 450-X from the start to the first pit and handed off to Potts.  Riding the race bike compared to my pre running bike is like going from a production bike to a Factory bike. What a pleasure to ride a Precision Concepts prepped bike!

 The suspension makes things disappear beneath you that you are sure will send you flying over the bars. I had one particular mishap that should have put me on the ground when I center punched a huge rock and the suspension absorbed it like it was a jump! I got sent in the air perfectly straight and landed without a hiccup. I first said a quick prayer/Thank You to the man upstairs and then added a quick cc copy thanking Bob Bell at Precision Concepts for providing me with equipment that was better than I was.  The motor is exceptional and has power everywhere. It can be lugged or wound tight and pulls either way, simply awesome! I was wondering if I could switch my personal bike for this one without anyone noticing, it is that good. I completed my first section and rolled in to hand the bike to Potts during our first gas stop. Dave took off and I started to get out of my riding gear when I noticed my jersey sleeves were soaked with blood. It seems while I was in such a hurry during my ride I do remember brushing past a few Ocotillo trees lining the course. You know how it is when you are searching for that better line that may be a little faster and smoother. It seems that better line is faster and smoother because no one usually gets that close to those trees at 40 to 60 mph.  I do remember the sting being like having someone use a horse whip on my arms every time I came too close. But since I am a slow learner it took repeated “whippings” before I started riding a little wider line around those things.

Dave, Marc and Steve all rode their respective sections without any mechanical problems and no crashes anyone would admit to and brought the bike all the way to race mile 223 where I got to ride the last 30 miles of the race course. I got back on and was pleasantly surprised to find everything was working just as well as it did in the beginning. Since the bike had now been run hard for about 5 hours, through 4 riders and 223 miles it was obvious everyone had a good ride since nothing was broken or bent. Thanks guys!  That made my last section a bit more relaxed since I knew if these guys had no problems, they are all fast riders and no one in our class would catch them, so we were more than likely to have a comfortable lead. The last 30 miles was actually quite fun because it had such a variety of terrain with lots of sand washes and high speed roads. We finished first in Class 50 and a respectable 12^th overall. Not bad for a bunch of Geezers! This race also requires a lot of assistance and help with logistics from our support people and drivers.  So a big Thank you to Cheryl, Debbie, Dave and Bob for all their help making everything work.

When we were all together at the finish, Debbie (Marc’s wife), who I like to call “Tiny Chief” since she is about 5 ft nothing, took a picture of the team with the bike. The bike looked great and you would never guess it had been run for almost 6 hours at that kind of pace! So now when someone advertises their bike on craigslist for sale with low hours I am going to have to look very close!

Adios amigos!

#33