Baja 1000

[cliffherzog]

Any word as to the location of the Honda pits in the San Felipe area?

[Moredesert]

Yes I do! ? Honda pit 4 is east of the airport. Just before the race course hits the road south "as space and soild ground permits".

N 30* 56.319

W 114* 50.256

[Mainjet2001]

Sent you an E-mail on the pit etc.

Here is a web site for current gas prices that is updated often.

http://math.ucr.edu/ftm/bajaPages/Recent.Prices.html

[RobBarnum]

Hi Rob Barnum here.

I see all of the posts about Baja. I have two teams racing Baja my start # is 3X if any one is interested in helping or just coming for the start feel free to come and see us in Ensenada or you can contact me directly here on Thumpertalk home page as well as contacting me by the phone (760)868-8097. If any one is interested in racing the Baja 1000 next year we will be providing service for pits, bike mods and purchase.We hope to see alot of ThumperTalk guys in Mexico; have a safe ride Thanks Rob Barnum, Barnums Pro Products.

[cliffherzog]

Thanks guys for the info on the pit location. Just found out I got the time off from work and we will be going down after all

Thanks again. Cliff

[Mainjet2001]

Tim.....

1X @ pit 10.......2:20 PM +/- 10 mins. Your estimate should be very close.

Moredesert....

Don't know the condition of the road from MEX 1 to La Purisma (about 34 miles), but you can check it out when pre-riding. I think I would go around on the pavement and the pavement is in good condition.

If you guys (John) hit my pit at night, just look for the neon Honda sign. We will be waiting. ?

[Moredesert]

Mainjet,

1X should be at your pit about 2:20, do I dare show up just before and say HI and take pictures of 1X. I assume our bike will be hours behind. I don't want to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I'm going to make it a point to see you Thursday if I can get away.

[Mainjet2001]

Well....if I was your race team manager I would say don't do it as it's a risk.

Having said that, if you ride the race course back to pit 11, and if you are changing riders there, the only risk is if your bike fails on the way back (assuming you don't fall off).

I would like to see you but remember, first things first.

We will be at the pit at 9:00/9:30 AM. ?

[Moredesert]

Your right. I just need to ride. Once I've ridden a couple hundred miles I'll feel better. The race comes first, besides I'll get my pictures as the leaders pass San Ignacio unless were in first place. I guess I could live with that. ?

[mjlang]

I'm leaving Saturday for San Ignacio with 10 friends. We are heading for Cabo and to watch the race on the way back. See you there!

[Mainjet2001]

For those of you that are following the Baja 1000, please note the following;

TT’rs Tim Morton (BajaboundMoto) finished the Baja 1000 on a CRF450 which was the Baja Design’s bike no. 306X.

TT’rs Mike Fowler (Moredesert), Bobby Black (MEBB), Shawn (scb), Finished On a XR650R no. 262X.

TT’r Rob Barnum’s XR650R entry no. 3X finished.

I pitted them at the half way point (496 miles) into the race.

Johnny Campbell, Steve Hengeveld & Andy Grider, (1X) on a XR650R won 1st overall and beat the first trophy truck by 90 seconds (approx.). There speed ave. was 62.43 MPH.

The driver of that trophy truck (Ford) was an old friend, ex AMA national hare & hound champion named Dan Smith

[BajaBoundMoto]

MainJet - I was bummed we were so late arriving at your pit! Things happen....

You were right, that was a girl on bike 3x (Rob Barnums bike). She was pretty stinkin fast too! She's a Rally racer chick from Sweden named Annie. You can check out her website at www.RallyPrincess.com

I caught her not too far past your pit and she had no headlights. It was the time of day where it was just past the point of being acceptable to not have a light. She ended up riding in my light to the next Honda pit. If you hadn't told me a gal was ahead of me there's no way I wouldda slowed down (I wouldn't have worried about a guy being by himself). I just figured that it would be better to keep her safe. That section had a ton of local spectators (more than likely drinkin' heavily) and I thought it might be get kinda spooky for her to be caught out there (if you know what I mean).

But really, it only cost me a couple minutes at the very most to help her in. She wasn't afraid to pin it!

About our ride...

The 450 was pretty fun to race. In a race with as much high speed stuff as this course had it gets a little boring keeping it pinned for so long. Really, there were MANY times I had that bike pinned to the stop, never backing off, for literally many minutes at a time in the dirt (and even longer when on the pavement).

Getting that bike up to speed was really fun, way more so than on a good running 650. It roosted. It's also a lot easier to slow down than a 650. But it is a big disadvantage on the super long fast sections.

It did great on oil. We'd check it after each really fast section and barely added each time. They rigged up a sweet little "quick-fill" oil line to be able to add oil without having to unscrew the plug.

In my section I had a rear master cyclinder failure (haven't investigated it yet to determine the actual problem). I rode about 100 miles with zero rear brake before we were able to get another complete system off a spare bike. It's pretty entertaining racing a bike at those speeds (and at night) with only a front brake. Like the roads coming into your (MainJet) pit, I just had to keep backing off because it's so smooth and fast but with a few sharp turns, and no room for error because of all the cactus on the sides of the road. It was a little schetchy.

Our race wasn't trouble free by any means...

Tex started and while running 3rd or 4th OA on time, he threw it away (about the 60 mile mark) and broke his left collar bone. He then proceeded to ride another 225 miles before handing the bike to me. His times were fair, especially considering he was busted up. Not many guys would have continued, and fewer at the pace he raced.

I had the rear brake issue and also had to stop and rig the chain slider. It had lost its top bolt and the bolt hole was now messed up. I did a zip ty fix.

I'm not sure what happened with the last two riders, Alan and Chad, as they are still down south. But there must've been some big problems because it looks like we dropped a couple hours sometime in the early morning.

I've been going over the check times and the Blacks/Hodel/MoreDesert team were in a pretty good battle for top non-Pro with 260x (Japan team), eventual winner 258x (Shawn Price, Steve Sylvestrie, Sam Boffa - former isde Junior Team), and 275x (team from Mexico). Looks like they all probably had a great time!

Tim Morton

[Moredesert]

That was one tough race for us. When I got the bike in San Ignacio we were in first place by about 2 min's. We had to do a wheel change so we got passed in the pits. John had crashed before I got the bike and took out one head light and the other was pointing to the left. I was able to hold my own but the dust was killer when the trucks passed me. I had to stop for 5 min in the silt beds after two cars passed me, I couldn't see a my hand in front of my face. I cought the leader @ Honda Pit 13. We left at the same time and rode side by side until we started turning and I had to back off because I couldn't see to the right still. My GPS clocked me at 99.1 mph down the last part of that leg but I had to slow down let him pass.

I gave the bike to Shawn at La Purisima after we did a light change. Shawn was doing very well until he got a flat tire and fried the clutch. Honda did the wheel change but he had to change his own clutch. He got it done in 12 min's flat

I picked the bike back up across from the power plant off the high way around Colonia Purisima area. By this time the fog was thick as pee soap. I was able to repair the good head lights but found them still pionting left. I had to wait until I got to Honda pit 16 and they fixed it for me. The fog was so wet it felt like rain I was soaked thru and cold and couldn't see. No one passed me not even a car or truck. I got to Honda pit 17 and gassed up and thats when eveything fell apart for me. 1 mile up from the pit I want down and took out one light. The other was pointing to the right real bad so I turn around and went back to the pits for adjustment. From then on I got passed by everyone. 275 came along side me and we exchanded eye contact and he went down. He said he was OK so I left. It was about 20 min later and I went down again. After I got going 275 passed me for the last time. By this time I was spent and was riding in 2-3 gear. I was wet, cold, and was covered in wet sand. I went down one more time which makes it 3 times in the sand whoops. That leg took me 4 1/2 hours to complete. By this time we were in 4th place.

I gave the bike back to Shawn at Santa Rita where we did another head light change. Shawn was able to pass everyone that passed me putting us in second place until Shawn went over the bars. By the sounds of it, it was pretty bad. He said he was out cold for a min or too and distroyed the lights, broke off the pipe and broke his helmet. He was able to get back up and finish the race in 3rd place in sportsman class.

[Moredesert]

On the way home my Camper broke a leaf spring so I had to ditch it in San Quintin. My dad and I got home here in Milpitas about 10 am today. If I can find parts I'll drive back to Baja next week end and bring my camper home. This has been a long ride for us. We drove 3500 miles and rode 1000 in a week. I'm not looking forward to going back next week end. It took us 14 hours to get home after we ditched the camper at an RV park.

Mainjet, Sorry we didn't hook up I really wanted to meet you. I must say the Honda pit crews that worked with me were great people. I was real nice knowing you guys were there for us. Thanks for everything.

Mike

[BajaBoundMoto]

Holy smokes Mike, you guys did some real damage! But hey, it looks like it was a really close race. The Price team that won really pulled out some time at night it looks and it looks like you guys, the Mexican team, and the Fred Brown team (I think one of their riders posts on TT) were really going at it. It looks like all three of you were within a minute of each other at the last check. That's tight! That's a great race!

Contrary to your teams beat up bike, the Temecula 4X bike looks new. Only the tires ever touched the ground and it didn't even get filthy. It faired really well.

[Mainjet2001]

BajaBoundMoto.....

Hey Tim, I'm sure proud of you guys and you get the Honda pit 10 award for most friendly but the girl, Annie (3X), gets the best looking award. sorry. LOL

I know what you mean about Tex. He is one tough dude and I seen him do this before.

4X (Pinnard) and 302X (Mouse McCoy) were having a war at my pit. 4X was in front and wanted a fast gas because he said he couldn't get this guy behind him (I think it was Mouse) off his fanny. Talked to Mouse on the way home and he said they were having a killer time.

BTW, when I seen you in El Rosario at the parade, we had to wait 2.5 hours for it to finish. The held up traffic was way up the hill coming into town. Another adventure.

Anyway, you guys did a killer job. ?

[Mainjet2001]

Moredesert....

Hey Mike, sure would have liked to hooked up with you before the race but I realize it's first things first.

Your team was awsome and I was impressed.

You guys were 1st in your class to my pit. The silt beds must have been ugly.

After what you went through and didn't give up tells me a lot about you. That is what the Baja 1000 is all about.

You will find that most people remember the ones that didn't give up, but forget the ones that did give up.

Sorry about your truck. I stayed at San Quintin at the La Pinta. We went clear down the La Pinta road to the beach and got some killer breakfast burritos on our way home.

If you stay at the La Pinta, don't drink the margaritas as they make your head hurt the next day. LOL

Anyway, congratulations to you and your team for an outstanding job. ?

[Moredesert]

My last section took me a little over 2 ours to prerun but because of the fog I had to run it real slow. After I crashed it took me 2 hours just to run the last 35 miles or so. I told the Blacks I wouldn't brake the bike and I would get it to Shawn no matter what. I had to play it safe so I grandma'ed the bike in. I felt I let them down by being so slow on that last leg but I was spent and I didn't want to take any chances. Our main goal was no one gets hurt, and we finish the race. If we do well it would be icing on the cake.

One more note, we were one man down from the start. Bobby Black crashed during his prerunning and broke his collar bone. He was rider of record so he had to start but switched off with Jose just after the starting line.

Mainjet: I parked my Camper at the RV park down the street from the La Pinta in San Quintin. I was able to get a set of leaf springs today so I'm off for Baja Friday night. ?

[Ron_wilson]

Hey Tim, Thanks for the nice words about the bike I was lucky enough to ride in the baja 1000.. The Temecula Motorsports XR650 #4x, worked perfectly the entire race..Those fellows on the 302x bike made me work pretty hard, congrats to them for winning class 30..

[Ron_wilson]

Hey mainjet, I was riding the 4x bike...which pit were you working??? Thanks for all the help!!!!! Every Honda pit did a superb job! That was some ride by the fellow on the 302x bike to stay with me for 150 miles..Luckily I think they had issues at the honda pit before san ignacio, and I was able to get out of there still ahead of them! I assume they had light issues, because when I handed off the bike at La Purisma I had about 10 minutes on them...But Johnny had 40 minutes on us. Hopefully future 1000's will be a little more technical, My 348 mile section took 5 hours, thats averaging 70 mph!! Ron, Thanks again for the quality pits..