"To Finish First, You First Must Finish"

This week I will depart from our normal format, and tell you about what happened at the Baja 1000 race – the longest and most difficult dirt bike race in the world – 822 miles non-stop.  This is the short version of our story.

What started as a quest to finish the longest most grueling race in the world, turned into a 25 hour chase to win it.  We woke up at 4 am to get ready.  I started the race at 6:35 am, the sixth bike out of ten in our class, and ran the first 80 miles without any mistakes. I was happy with a very strong start.  I turned the bike over to Tanner in Santo Tomas, in third place.  He ran the next 120 miles really fast, and emerged in Santa Maria in second place.  He passed five bikes and two quads, but only one bike was in our class. The lead team in our class, #266, had 6 riders on the team, and they had won last year.

I ran my second leg, and in a tight technical wash section got passed by a guy who I had passed earlier.  I took him back in the sand whoops and never saw him again.  I turned the bike over to Tanner in El Rosario at mile 250.  Going strong, it’s hot out now.

Our GPS was not working, and we were relying on sketchy course marker signs and a worn trail, but there are many intersections of worn roads, and trails and the course takes you up rocks faces, loose rocks, goat trails, and through the tumbleweeds, brush and trees.  In places you can only make 20 mph, and other places the bike is tapped out in fifth gear at 98 mph and you are tucked in from the wind.

When Tanner energed we changed out the GPS, I got on, and ran a section I was dreading – long loose rocks.  All to plan – so far.  We changed the rear wheel, air filter, and mounted the two giant round lights in front and I watched Tanner stop at the nearby pit for fuel and disappear down a 100 mph sand road.  He had a tough 122 miles to go, with rocks, silt and cactus. He had just a jersey on – no jacket. It would get dark and cold on his run – I said a prayer.

Big problem – the chase truck was low on fuel.  The last gas station in El Rosario had a line a mile long – all chase vehicles – and we couldn’t stop or we would miss our rider change.  Now we were in the middle of nowhere in trouble. There were no more gas stations south.  Javier, our driver and mechanic got on the radio speaking Spanish talking to some guys with local knowledge. We found a stand “Gasolina” painted on a board.  We stopped – nobody there.  We found a local and Javier talked to him.  At the next trailer a lady was selling gas out of jugs.  Any price – problem solved. On to meet Tanner.  

We waited at mile 470 for him in the night.  We waited, and waited.  The locals camped along the course with about 8 campfires going.  We had our van with the headlights on illuminating the 214X sign he would look for. It was four hours.  We expected him any moment.  No Tanner.  A new competitor came by 285x.  We knew something was wrong.  If 285x was unable to pass either of us for 400 miles, how did he get by Tanner?

We waited in the inky black night, 4 1/2 hours, no Tanner.

To be continued…