Trip report sordid details

I picked up my brother-in-law Scott after work on Thursday from his house in El Cajon and headed for Tecate. Crossed the border and headed for the Compadre trail off Mx 2 at El Hongo. We would cross over to Mx 3 and head east to Borrego to the Locos Mocos double pit we were running this year.
Aside from the obvious concerns of crossing the border alone, we soon found that having other vehicles with us would have been a nightmare on the trail. The air was very heavy and there was 0 breeze to clear the dust. The very few vehicles we encountered coming our way left dust hanging for miles behind them. Following us would have been no fun for other rigs.
We took it pretty easy once we got onto the short section of the trail that the race was running on as we started to encounter a little more traffic as spectators and crew were coming in late. Passed several nice camp set ups in the Oak groves and we prayed they would have some breeze for the race. Otherwise those nice protected camp sites were going to be really dusty for the race.
We made good time and didn't miss a single turn or fork for my fist time navigating Compadre north to south and in the dark. I had no nav notes in my GPS as we've always ran it in daylight and it's pretty easy to follow the trail. Just beyond the Ojos Negros junction we came across a crew with one of their rigs hung up off the soft side of the road on a hard left turn they missed. We stopped and tried to winch them out but they were too far over and burried in the deep sand to get them to budge. One of their crew scouted the 20 foot deep ditch below them and said it looked like he could drive the Z71 4X out at the other end. Eight of us gave a big heave and pushed him over the edge and crossed our fingers that he wouldn't roll. He made it out, we said our goodbyes and started thinking about another one of Jones' "surf and turf" feeds at the pit.
We were about 5 miles from Mx 3 and just cruising now. There was a down hill section of the track and we were doing about 50mph when I came into a hard right / left hander a little too hot. I tapped the brakes (full bias dialed to the rear discs) and rally drifted through the right hander. I tapped the brakes again and swapped around for the left turn.

You can see my track as I ended up tight on the apex of the left hander, just missed the 2 foot bank and fence post, climbed the bank beyond the corner with the left front tire, as the rear end was sliding to the right and rolled on the passenger door. Plans just changed.




We both asked each other if we were OK as we hung in the 5 points. I got on the radio on weatherman channel and made a call. Picked up "pork pit"?? in Ojos Negros and asked if they had anyone to assist. They would get on it. A few minutes latter 3 pickups came down the trail and stopped. 2 young local men in each truck asked how they could help. Our deepest thanks to Luis and crew for the 2 plus hours of their night they gave us to help. Baja at its finest.
The wheels to GSB were up against the 2 foot bank and the trail had a pretty good belly in it so rolling it back on its wheels as it sat was up hill and impossible. So we hooked up my winch to one of the trucks and drug the front end around 90 degrees. Do to the lay of the trail GSB wanted to roll on its lid as we move it, so I had to put tension on the winch cable just to the point where it wanted to go over then all 8 of us would rock it and it would move a few inches. We did this untill we got it perpendicular to the road which are these other 2 pictures, strapped the frame rail to one of the trucks and pulled it rubber side down again. Big cheer went up.
I called pork pit and they hailed weatherman who ran a relay to the Locos pit at Borrego and informed them we were back rubber side down, being strapped to the Pemex on the hiway at Ojos and were OK, but would not be joining them.
Scott and I said a grateful good by to Luis, kicked him some pesos for his efforts and went to work unlocking the engine. We removed the totalled right fender and began pulling the plugs to pump the oil out of the cylinders. Cleaned the plugs, topped off the oil and tranny fluid.
We got it running again to a huge cloud of oil smoke at 1AM, loaded up tools and gear and climbed our oil and tranny fluid soaked bodies in and headed for Ensenada.
Home at 3:30AM








You can see the above photo of the A pillar damage, that the full cage did its job and kept us from loosing the windshield. That was very appreciated for the drive home.

[Edited on 11-22-2008 by Gadget]

WILL!!! Oh dude... ouch!! Really Baja Proven NOW!

Baja Angel and I followed the race from home and when Locos Mocos/ Baja Pits was mentioned (at your pit), I said THAT's were Gadget is! I was wrong...

Really glad to see the Hellas not busted! Those HIDs are NOT the cheap ones!!!

I will wish you a big construction contract to get GSB repaired!!

5 point! Here is Baja Angel being strapped in by Mrs. Gadget before her 'demo ride' south of El Rosario in July, 2007: