BajaNomad

My Second Baja 1000 Race

TMW - 10-28-2006 at 11:13 AM

Last year I told the story about racing in my first Baja 1000 in 1987. I'm following it up with my second Baja1000 race in 1988. That first race showed us we were not prepared for what we did. I had the bug to race but at age 43 I was probably a little old to be a top competitor in the motorcycles. But I really loved it. I loved riding alone in the middle of nowhere trying to catch someone. The cars and trucks catching me never bothered me. I never had a bad encounter with one. I had always calculated where they most likely would catch me and stayed alert.

In 1988 I started racing in various venues to improve my skills and ability racing motorcycles and to learn more about Baja. I did Old Timers motocross, District 38 with FUD, Lou Peralta's Baja Promotions races in Baja and the SCORE series.

The 1988 Baja 1000 was the same basic course as the 1987 race except for the motorcycles it started in Ojos Negros. I think the cars and trucks did a ceremonial start in Ensenada with the actual race start in Ojos Negros. Frankly I don't remember where the timed finish was, Ojos or Ensenada.

The team consisted of myself, my son Andy, big Dave Thornton a 6'8" giant, and Jerry Kaplan a photographer working at KCST-TV (now KNSD-TV). We did a lot of prerunning with the exception of Mike's Sky Ranch. That was my son's section and he blew the engine on his YZ250 two stroke prerunning and refused to ride my XR500 because he said it was too heavy. This would come back to haunt us, mostly him, during the race. Andy would start and ride over the summit to Tres pozos, on the south end of Laguna Salada. I would take it south thru Borrego and across Diablo dry lake to Morelia jct. Jerry would go from Morelia jct down thru Matomi and back up to San Felipe. I would take it from there north thru Three Poles and west to Mike's Sky Ranch turnoff on hwy 3. Andy thru Mike's to Camilu and Dave up the coast and back to the finish line.

Part of the excitement of this years race was that I sponsored Andy Bowman who raced with me last year and his friend Jim. We had a good size bet on who could beat who. They started behind us. We both were riding 1986 Yamaha YZ250 two stroke motocross bikes modified with lights. Jim was a MC mechanic at a dealer in Escondido.

The night before the race Andy Bowman and I head to Tres Pozos for the night. The next morning there is some but little radio traffic. Later the open bikes started coming thru. Kawasaki was in the lead. This was Kawasaki's second year racing Baja as a factory team. Last year they had problems and this year they had all the bugs worked out and went on to win overall on their big KX500 bike. Soon the first of the 250s come thru and in short time son Andy shows up. We gas it and I'm on my way. I'm on the gas hard. I keep the throttle WFO most of the time and just shift up and down as needed. All I could think of was Andy Bowman catching me and I was doing everything I could to keep it from happening. I had a good fast ride. Didn't drop the bike once. I don't remember passing anyone nor being passed. I get to Morelia jct and a few hundred yards from the pit and I run out of gas. I was carrying gas so I quickly dump it in and get the bike started and off to the pit. We fill it up and everything looks good. Jerry gets on and as he starts to leave he keeps dumping the clutch too quick and kills the engine. This went on for 3 or 4 times so we push him down the road and he finally takes off. We head over to San Felipe and wait for Jerry to come around.

Jerry shows up but the poor bike is missing the rear fender. Everything behind the seat is gone, except the wheel of course. He said he dropped the bike pretty hard several times and doesn't remember where the fender came off. But he's OK and after gas I'm off again. We haven't seen any thing of Andy Bowman and Jim or their crew. I cross hwy 5 at Three Poles WFO on the way to San Matias Pass, I'm a little worried about moving too far to the rear without the fender. I'm in the wash just before San Matias Pass and I thought I heard a truck. I turn to look and I hit a rock in the wash and over the handlebars I go. Well, I think this truck was going to run over me, so I'm up in a second and grab the bike to move it out of the way and here comes Steve Kelley in his big class 8 chevy. He passes with no problem and I look up above the wash and there are these two guys laughning their butts off. I ask what so funny and they say they never saw anyone move so fast to get a bike out of the way. They said they figure I must not be hurt to move that fast. I told them only my pride was hurt for crashing and off I go.

At Mike's turn off I give the bike over to Andy and he's gone. Andy Bowman and Jim are there also. They had blown an engine gasket going up the summit that put them out. It's getting dark now. As Andy goes thru Mike's he gets lost (from not prerunning), crashes into cactus and gets stuck on a hill. Finally he gets to Camilu and hands off to Dave. Somewhere along the coast Dave gets tangled in fish net. He finally makes it to the finish line. Another 1000 completed.

For son Andy, his mom is pulling the cactus from his butt in the cabover as they drive back to Ensenada. Serves him right for not prerunning on my XR500.

bajalou - 10-28-2006 at 12:53 PM

Great story Tom, thanks

bufeo - 10-28-2006 at 02:22 PM

Thanks for posting that TW. Good reading! As a spectator of off-road racing I've had only the vicarious thrills, but thanks to friends and neighbors at Bufeo and, of course, son-in-law still in the thick of things, who have been competitors, I have a good notion of what it's all about.

Corky1 - 10-28-2006 at 05:45 PM

I have posted these two pre-run stories before.

Its race time again, maybe some new forum members
have not read them!!

http://www.baja.net/articles/71prerun.html

http://www.baja.net/articles/72prerun.html

Have fun,

Corky

TMW - 10-29-2006 at 10:14 AM

Great stories Corky.

tunaeater - 10-30-2006 at 10:15 AM

Good stuff guys

Neal Johns - 10-30-2006 at 01:28 PM

Keep them stories coming!

kyousif - 3-11-2014 at 03:12 PM

I sure miss Dave Thornton. I used to pit for him at District 38. I preran the Tecate 250 with him once. I did a lot of odd jobs with him and just hang out at the beach on the Boardwalk drinking Coors Light. May he rest in peace. Im glad I stumbled across this old post. Thanks for the memories.

David K - 3-11-2014 at 05:36 PM

Welcome to Nomad and a nice thread to bump up (from almost 8 years ago!).

TMW - 3-12-2014 at 10:42 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by kyousif
I sure miss Dave Thornton. I used to pit for him at District 38. I preran the Tecate 250 with him once. I did a lot of odd jobs with him and just hang out at the beach on the Boardwalk drinking Coors Light. May he rest in peace. Im glad I stumbled across this old post. Thanks for the memories.


I miss him too. He was like a son to me. Many, many times we would go to Baja and ride, explore and fish. One time at Laguna Manuella Dave hauls in three fish on his line, all good size. After the 1991 Baja 1000 race I'm looking at race pictures and there is one of two girls holding our race bike up and Dave walking from behind a trailer. When asked about it he said with a big grin he had them hold it while he releaved himself. We kidded him about it.

He was a two fisted beer drinker for sure, one in each hand. He always said he drank for the affect not the taste. He was a gentle giant for sure.