tunaeater - 2-20-2008 at 10:51 AM
The CODE series started last weekend February 9th in San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora. A quick hour drive after crossing the border in Mexicali. I heard
this race was very fast, with plenty of stertches to be wide open for many minutes at a time before coming to a turn. After prerunning, it was safe to
say this was going to be a drag race. The race course was two, 83 mile loops which was pretty much as fast as you could go.
I was happy to get the first starting position (52x) out of the sportman motorcycles. I was also happy to be racing my xr 650 since this was so wide
open. I did feel a little pressure that I would have to keep on the gas and not get passed. A 1/2 dozen pro motos took off and then I was off the
starting line. I love it when that green flag drops! Evrything was going great, I was on the gas and feeling good. I passed by mile 20 where I had a
visual and the pit crew was cheering me on.I pulled in the pit at rm 42 to get a slup of gas. Everything was still going good. I took off and was
holding my position. I knew Alfredo Ascolani 59X was going to be hauling the mail to try and catch me. After the first lap at the Meta I was only a
few seconds ahead of the 59x bike. Alfredo had made great time. Faster then me by a couple minutes. I knew he was going to do a rider change and gas
up. I kept the bike pinned until RM 20 of the second lap. I handed the bike off to Ricardo De La Peņa (uncle ricky) so I could take a 25 minute break.
After Ricky took off the 59X bike was 30 seconds behind. Ricky had been sick the week prior but said he would have no problem doing the 25 mile
section. We hurried to rm 45(2nd lap) where I would get back on the bike to the finish. We heard a bike coming and I was anxious to see if it was
going to be Ricky or the KTM. Sure enough it was Ricky and he held our position. It was up to me to finish what I started.The last 40 miles were very
fast and I just had to hang on. Mile by mile the finish line was getting closer and I was getting more excited. Could this be my first win in CODE. I
have 3 second places. I was scared to think that not wanting to jinx anything but I could feel the smile getting bigger and bigger as I could see the
finish. Checker flag and It was over. I just had to keep track of the time and see when the next bike comes in. One minute goes by,2 minutes go by,3
minutes go by, someone give me a beer!
Stats are: 1'st sportsman m/c, 4th m/c overall, time was 3:08, 52.84 mph.
It was a very exciting win for me and I was happy uncle ricky was there to help me. I'm looking forward to the next CODE race Mexicali 500 April 5th.
Paul
http://www.codeoffroad.com.mx/tiemposmotos.htm
David K - 2-20-2008 at 10:59 AM
HOORAY PAUL!!!! Congratulations!!! 
elgatoloco - 2-20-2008 at 11:00 AM
Good on you! I bet your heartrate was higher standing there waiting for the other finish times then when on the moto.
An tic i pa tionnnnnnnn.
Congrats!
Gadget - 2-20-2008 at 11:05 AM
Eating all that high protein must help.... good job and skill to ya!
TMW - 2-20-2008 at 01:43 PM
Great job. We're goin to start calling you "The Tuna Flash" or "Lightning Tuna" or something like that.
tunaeater - 2-21-2008 at 08:49 PM
Thanks for all the compliments!
It was a fun event and very exciting for sure. I hope to see some of you at the SF 250 next month. I know TW and Baja Lou will be down there.
[Edited on 2-22-2008 by tunaeater]