TMW - 6-13-2009 at 09:41 AM
On race day many were wondering what happened to Childress. This is his report on RDC.
Mikey's Baja bike and truck race report!
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Well wow what a awesome 11 days I had in Baja wish I could have stayed for longer. I had a wonderful week of pre running no crashes no problems just
rode and sleeped all week.
Race morning
Woke up around 4:45 to get prepared to ride the start to rm100 on the bike. Got to the start line around 5:35 or so and hung out with some of the fans
that wake up early enough to see the bikes start. I was the first bike off the line huge advantage but that didn't last long as I blasted off the line
I made it about 2 miles before loosing the front end on some slippery mud in a corner and going down. No big deal pick the bike up but the darn thing
wouldn't start so Kendall Norman got around me just as I got it started. So now Im in the dust super peeed that I made such a dumb mistake. Around
race mile 30 things took a turn for the worst when I came around a corner and to my surprise here is a car going backwards on the course he was on the
outside of the corner so I had to try and tuck inside of him but he turned into me sending me over the bars and into the bushes.. I get up in full
shock mode not realizing how bad I was hurt I was trying to get my bike started again and the driver of the car was mad at me because I broke the head
light and grill and dented the hood..I just ignored him and continued to kick the bike trying to get it to start then he trys to grab me off the bike
and was yelling at me in spanish couldnt understand anything but then he really started to tug on me so I gave a back spin punch to his mouth and that
ended that and I was on my way. So I continue down the road when the pipe falls off due to the head on crash. So I get to rm 36 and hand the bike off
to Steve Hengeveld..
I jump in the box van and head to the next pit where I was to get back on the bike but the pain was just to bad so I had to take some pain
killers..Ryan Penhall brings the bike in and we do a tire and filter and im on my way again riding the whoops around race mile 210 I was able to make
a pass on 3rd place and hand the bike back to Hengeveld in 3rd place. Steve rode a great race and made up a lot of time going to the finish but only
more bad luck would strike us when the kill switch decided to take a crap and shut the bike down after a 15 minutes repairing that we dropped back to
4th place where we would finish the race.
So I head back to rm200 to jump in the RFS motorsports class 6 truck. Robert brought the truck to me about 3 mins behind the dirtsports driver of the
year Heidi Steele. I was pumped to get in the truck I got the truck up to speed and the mighty 4.5 v6 hauled the mail and I was able to catch Heidi at
rm 220 and gave her a little love tap to know that I was back there checking out here backside lol.. We head up mikes rd and the tranny temp is
getting a little high for my nerves so I backed it down a notch and got the temps back down to around 240. We get to pit at race mile 300 and put fuel
in and get a time split on Heidi that we had opened to 10 mins now so now I had a little breathing room..We roll into Santo tomas and get some more
fuel and head into the mountains got another time split on Heidi and we had more breathing room so I backed it down even more and picked my way thru
the rocks and silt. We get to ojos cross the pavement and bam we got a pile up on the silty hill.. I kicked my co dog out (Ramsey) to go check out
what the hold up was. There was a 10 car stuck on the hill that caused the 700 truck to get stuck and a 1600 behind him Ramsey hooks a strap to the
700 truck and I give him a tug back down the hill and we get the pile up cleaned up and head on our way to the finish were we would finish around
10:20. The truck was awesome and I never had to get out of it just drove it along and stayed on the road. I would really like to thank the whole RFS
motorsports team they all did such a amazing job. Got to thank Robert for asking me to drive with him and Ramsey for riding with me! Also gotta thank
Travis,Dana and Tony from General tire the provide me with such a great tire no flats all day!