Team DirtDogs, BAJA 1000, 2007
I’ve always said that my job as the de facto leader of the DirtDogs was like herding cats. Well now it seemed even harder when I am 800 miles south of
the start and have limited communication with Dave Froman, Dave Callagy and Colin MacDonald and their chase drivers. It’s 6:00 AM on Tuesday and the
40th Tecate/SCORE Baja 1000 is about to start My brother David Deveau and I are sitting around the outdoor Bar (drinking bad coffee) and trying to get
any information about what is happening in the North. We got back to Loreto an hour after dark last night and just like the prior two days we finished
after dark and have not completed the pre-run of yet another section.
THE PRE-RUN
David, Gary Rossi and myself had driven non-stop 27 hours from Santa Rosa to Loreto so we could
pre-run our sections and be staged in the South. Do to changes in the DirtDog team my brother David did not have a pre-run buddy nor a pre-run bike,
his bike was the Race bike. My long time friend John Brickeley came through by bringing his company Dodge Hemi and his XR-650 and DRZ400. (Don’t let
me forget to tell the story about how the DRZ and our race bike were “stolen” in Cabo). Our plan was to pre-run David’s Loreto to Punta Conejo section
Saturday and have Gary drive us back to the Hotel in Loreto. Sunday we would drive back to Punta Conejo and then ride my section to the finish in
Cabo. Monday we would drive up to La Purisma and finish the pre-run of my “short” night section to Loreto.
17 years ago Gary and I were part of another group of DirtDogs that rode from TJ to Cabo with no chase truck. Boy has Cabo changed! When David and I
left Loreto Sunday morning I told the rest of the South team to meet us at Squid Row, it was the only landmark I knew. We looked real out of place
trying to park our bikes on the sidewalk in front of Squid Row, but the outside bar next door had no problem as long as we were buying. Earlier in the
day we had fixed David’s flat only to find another guy with a flat, he was pre-running by himself and only had his wife and two year old child waiting
in Todos Santos. I figured we could use some Baja karma, so I said we were now a group of 3 and all of us would get to get to Todos today. I
apologize for not remembering our new friends name but much of my memory got purged over the course of the next week.
Sitting there having a cold Tecate and still flush with adrenalin I was having doubts about what we were about to attempt. My phone worked in Cabo so
I had talked with the North team. None of them had completed their sections either. If the 5 of us could not finish our section in a full day, could
we put all 5 together on Race day? Talking to the rest of the guys I kept saying things would be different on Race day, but I had doubts in the back
of my mind. But enough thinking about that now, we still had to get to Gary’s time-share in San Jose del Cabo and get some sleep.
I thought I had done a pretty good job planning this adventure, except I underestimated how long the driving would take to get from section to
section. Monday afternoon I then pulled a real rookie move, and I’m 51 and have spent half of that in Baja. Leaving the pavement after La Purisma I
saw a sign pointing straight to Comondu and “knew “ we needed to turn left and head East. I failed to note the sign for La Honda. I had not seen many
SCORE course markers in town and did not see any for the next 15 miles. This was my “short” night section so I was leading, I thought about the lack
of markers but the road was in perfect condition and I was thinking about how cool this will be in the dark. My brother then caught me and said we
were not on the course, I said “there were only two ways to go” and we were going the right way. I then pulled out my AAA map and saw the 3rd road to
La Honda. @&$^&(, we might as well go to the end and see where it goes. After hitting the dead-end and turning around it was obvious what
David was seeing, there were only our 2 tracks on the road. Back in La Purisma we had wasted 50 miles of fuel and almost 2 hours of daylight.
Now that we are back on the real race course and it “SUCKS”, I liked “my” course better. It’s rocky and dusty. David and I had wanted to check-out the
silt beads at RM 1080 but it was getting dark by the time we got over the pass and we were low on fuel so we hit the pavement and headed to Loreto.
That night we found the “Palapa” restaurant I remembered from 17 years ago (I never forget a good restaurant) . David and I split the Seafood platter
for 2 and hope it’s all good. No need for the revenge on race day.
THE RACE
We are now back to 6:00 AM race day and I can’t sleep, is everything working? We had not had much time to test Spot and to train the crew on how it
works. The “El Dorado” hotel has internet access and after some wrenching we figure-out the user-name and password and now have 2 laptops running and
are logged into Baja.net and our own DirtDog’s Blog. Spot is working great! I still need to get some sleep! It’s been a long time since I’ve had a
good night’s sleep and David and I have tried to nap, but we got chased out of 1 of our rooms and 6 of us are now sharing the room and we can’t
sleep! Gary and I head to La Purisma early afternoon so I can get some sleep.
I should introduce SPOT to everybody. Since the beginning of the planning for the 1000 I knew I wanted some kind way to track the race bike. I was
personally concerned because I was riding the finish leg and did not want to be waiting for hours with no idea whether the bike was even still
running. There were a few options but most were expensive and seemed more suited to cars and trucks. We had considered just putting a Sat phone in
the riders back-pack. But that would only give updates if the rider called in. Then I heard about a new product coming out in November. Seve on
Baja.net had heard about this device called SPOT. Seve and his team even got one prior to the release and tested in in BAJA. I ordered one after
hearing their report and asked that it be rushed to us prior to the race. Besides sending a position update every 10 minutes it had the ability to
send an “OK” message or a “HELP” message. It also has a “911” button we were afraid to use.
We realized it would require someone with good internet access to track the bike. We put a call out to our friends asking for a team of trackers.
Scott Gordon, Steve Ginthum and Tim Kelly responded. Scott is an old sailing buddy of mine who had also been to Baja for my Birthday ride. He had
recently helped some friends who were doing a trans-pacific crossing by providing weather reports and such. Scott put together a BLOG so friends and
family could follow us during the adventure, the tracking team would also send text messages to our Sat phones with position updates during the race.
This all came together while we were heading to BAJA.
It’s early Tuesday night when Gary and I get to La Purisma and the local crowd is rocking. Because of
Spot I know I have plenty of time to get some rest before Froman gets the bike to me. I see many guys waiting with full gear on even though it will be
hours before their bike gets to them. About an hour before the bike should get to me I get my gear on, more out of nerves than a need to. I can see
something is funny with the pit stop before San Ignacio but don’t know what is wrong, it seems like they were in the pit for an hour?
About 3:15 Froman rides in and tells me we have no Rally Logger or tail-ight, I don’t ask for an explanation and charge off into the darkness. Two
trucks pass me before the end of the pavement and I play with the dual halogen light set-up to find a combination that works in the dust. The
Precision Concepts suspension on the race bike works so much better than whatever the pre-run bikes had. The dust and fog is bad all the way over the
mountain toward Mulege and I keep waiting for the trucks to run away and the dust to clear. It’s not until I pull into the Honda pit and see a Quad
fueling in front of me, it’s been his dust I’ve been in the whole time! I manage to pass him on the long straight after the pit but we pull into the
Checkpoint almost side by side. They start to give him the stubb first but I yell and they hold him because I got in first.
I am now heading toward the silt beds I had been warned about. This is one of the sections I had not pre-run, but I had some hints from SCORE radio
and other pre-run reports. A guy on 401X was staying at our hotel and had pre-run it several times and had tried to explain a way around the worst of
it. I had also heard SCORE had re-routed the course around the worst? As soon as I start riding in the deep silt the throttle starts sticking and I
assume it’s the grip binding on the housing. Pretty soon the bike is 8-stroking and the sticking throttle is getting real bad. I start to figure it’s
dirt getting in the carb and think the filter is plugged and passing silt, I also have an idea maybe it’s sucking silt in the vent hoses. As dawn
comes and I can see somewhat I pull over to change the filter. With the throttle stuck I can barely kill the bike. In the dim light I look at the old
filter and it does not look that bad? Now the bike won’t start, after what seems like 15 minutes I get it to fire by holding the throttle wide open,
not typical 4-stroke stuff but whatever works. It is still running real funky and has no bottom end but runs ok on top. I am worried about the engine
and try to pick my way out of the silt but it’s slow and I have to drop back into the silt.
The silt finally ends and the bike is running better, still funky at part throttle. I have heard about a nasty hill climb after the dump and keep
looking for the dump. Two Class 1’s pass me and they sure sound cool running down the wash. Could not believe they were nose to tail this far into the
race. Again I knew who they were at the time but it was not something my brain needed to remember. I see a Los Mocos pit and beg some fuel, with the
bike running so bad I don’t know if it’s sucking fuel. Figure better safe than sorry. The hill climb was technical but I clean it and can finally see
Loreto. I am glad this was my “short” night section, only took 3-1/2 hours.
As I pull into our pit in Loreto I yell that we are not doing the planned wheel change, but try to explain to David what’s wrong with the bike. I did
not understand why the tires were so fresh as communication was not great between the North and South teams. We should have spent some Sat Phone time
and had better info, we were all getting tired at this point and not thinking as clear as we could. I was supposed to put SPOT on David’s back-pack
while the other guys changed to wheels. He takes off without SPOT or the flashing LED tail-light for his back-pack.
It’s now my turn to jump in a Chase Truck and head to Punta Conejo. Without SPOT I feel lost, I do have Sat Phone contact with Gary and Froman who are
waiting at the next road crossing in case there is a problem, at least I will know when David passes through there. But it’s still a long way and he
has to deal with the whoops. I am also worried that he missed Punta Conejo during our pre-run and we need to figure out how to flag him down.
We set-up on the up-wind side of the course and send two of the Johns up-course with a radio so we have a little warning of David’s approach. About
12:05 David pulls in. He is real excited about “being nerfed by a Buggy”. He said up on the fast section before the San Carlos road crossing he tapped
the brakes for a drop-off and felt a “real big tap” and rocks and dust were whizzing past him, he got launched off the drop-off but did not crash. He
pulled over and a guy in an open wheel car slows and mouths “I’m sorry” and is gone.
He then explains about the problems with the sticking throttle and how bad the bike is running, said it’s OK on top. I figure we only have about 140
miles left and if it made it this far we should be OK.
The next section is my favorite, it’s fast and relatively smooth. Other than one silt bead it should be a piece of cake. The spectators are awesome,
they are everywhere and waving and cheering like crazy. I think a few may have been drinking! I have heard all the stories about “booby traps” but
never had any problems. The crowd was a lot of help in the villages where course markers are missing.
At the last road crossing near Todos Santos the guys from up North are waiting with a headlight. It’s only about 1:30 and I yell I’ll make it to Cabo
way before dark and don’t stop. The bike is still running funky but I figure it’s made it 400 miles and 10 hours and should make the last 70 miles. I
should have stopped where I had the rest of the team to support me!
I pull into the last Honda pit 50 miles from the finish and am stoked that we are about to finish this epic event! Then while getting the last sip of
fuel the bike coughs and dies. We can’t get it to start!! Now is the first time I have really looked at the bike since I got on at 3:15 in the
morning. The Honda guys, Tim and Mike find a hole in the airbox where the inner fender got ripped off when Colin had the flat. The poor bike had been
sucking raw silt for 700 miles. The carb was completely plugged and the slide was worn so bad it would barely move.
I pulled out SPOT and first pressed the “OK” button and the kept pressing the “HELP” button. I did not know if we had programmed everything correctly
or if the team would understand my plea for help? The Honda guys had no radio access so I was trying to get the bike running again but it looked bad,
all the various orifices were plugged and we had no way to clear all of them. Just as we were putting it back together to at least try to start it my
brother rides up on the DRZ! He had figured where I was from talking to Scott and had grabbed a Sat phone and told the 3 Johns to drive toward Cabo
until they had cell coverage and to then wait for our call. They had an XR pre-runner in the truck!
We instructed then to be careful but to follow the course in about 8 miles to the Honda pit. We swapped carbs and David pushed me to get it started.
We then figured he better ride with me in case it died again. We also put the headlight off the pre-runner on the race bike because it was close to
dark now.
As we approached Cabo and could see the lights we stopped and discussed the fact that David was not on an official race bike and should not ride
across the finish. He was banded and a legal entry unlike an un-named @#$%^**(^%. I told him that when we get in the wash he should jump up on the
highway and ride around to the finish area. We were un-prepared for the zoo that was the finish. At the Finish most of the DirtDogs were waiting and
it was a great feeling to shake Sal’s hand! After a few team pictures I keep telling my wife Cyndi that ”I need to find my brother”. I remember from
the 500 how hard it is to find someone and the 1000’s crowd is way bigger. After doing a loop of the parking lot we return to the bike and find David
waiting? He could not get out of the wash so had to ride across the finish, got to shake Sal’s hand and all the hoopla! We all have a few celebratory
Tecates and then figure we better get to the condo before the beer and lack of sleep really set in.
THE POST RACE STUFF
David and I give Joyce and Cyndi a ride back. It’s a good thing because I would not have found the condo by myself. We stash the bikes inside the
fenced area of the condo complex and head to the pool Bar. As we are sipping our first c-cktail a guard comes and tells us we can’t park the bikes
inside the fence. We complain that they will not be safe outside. Then a guy comes up says he has a secure lot right down the street. It has other
race vehicles in it and seems OK, we are real tired and figure it’s OK. They were to go in John’s truck but he could not get to the finish and instead
went straight to his hotel in San Jose de Cabo.
There is nothing I love better than sitting around the bar in my riding gear after a good ride. Well the pool bar at the Condo was awesome, everybody
had a story to tell and this was the first time we were all together to tell them. At some point Colin makes a comment about what we do after a
regatta so David and I dive into the pool with all our gear on, the guards are there before we break the surface and they are peeed. Then the
homeowner’s association president is reprimanding us. I still don’t know if he is more peeed about the dirty riding gear or the fact that it’s after
11:00 PM? We are not at Mike’s any more!
After a well deserved nights sleep we awake to find the bikes OK but my only truck keys are no where to be found. I decide it’s best to return to the
pool bar and think about it, the guards are much happier with us wearing swim suits. I could learn to like swim-up bar! Terri Froman had arranged for
the team to go on a “Booze Cruise” that evening and as soon as the Johns arrived we headed to the boat. We should have loaded the bikes first.
Out on the boat we soon started having an empty feeling about “just finishing”. Our goal was to finish but we all had really wanted to finish well. So
the talked turned to “next year”. What are we talking about, we have not even gotten home yet? I’m not sure when Colin brought up the idea of getting
an Aprilla 550 for next year. After we got off the boat we hit downtown ending at Squid Row. I don’t remember much till waking the next morning with a
hangover, very similar to Mike’s after my birthday except I did not have to ride today. Then we find the bikes missing, I hope that John had loaded
them when we got back. We are back in the condo when my phone rings and its John asking where his bike is. After raising hell with the hotel guards a
“homeless guy” has us follow him around the corner and we find the DRZ under some brush. We offer a $100 reward for the XR but have no hope. One half
an hour later the XR appears, Mario who ran the parking lot had “found” it at a massage parlor? We had been put together but it was our own damn
fault. Chalk the $100 to experience.
Since the 1000 I keep going back and forth regarding doing it again, it was the best single race experience I have ever had. It was two weeks of
craziness, and really a full year of thinking about nothing but BAJA. And I think that’s the problem, I have no problems with how SCORE operates and
the problems with BAJA. If BAJA had a real government and police they would not let this race happen in their country, it’s insane and that is why we
love it. I guess I have not said why I don’t want to do it next year. I’ll get back to you on that!