Baja 500 Sur final results

The 500 Sur was a new race for SCORE this year, unfortunately my son and his team decided to race it.

Logistics (my job since I got slow) was a lot tougher than the typical Baja race, you wouldn't think that starting from the bottom and going north would make much of a difference but it did. The team members usually drive themselves down to Ensenada with their bikes to pre-run, ride our race bike in the race and drive home. For this race we had to provide pre-run bikes, chase vehicles, accommodations, rides to and from the airport for the riders etc.

My son drove the race van down from New Mexico a couple of weeks before the race. He planned to run his section a couple of times, fly home to work and fly back the next week. He brought the race bike and a tricked out 2015 500 EXC pre-runner that was to be my new bike when pre-running was over. My current bike was also going to be used for pre-running and I planned to sell it to a friend who was helping us after the race.

The course was very fast and unfortunately Chad blew the engine in the EXC at 95 mph or so....not pretty. This left us with only one pre-runner so plan "B" was devised, Chad loaded the broken bike in Cd. Constitution, drove to All American KTM in Ramona, Ca., dropped off the broken bike, picked up their last new 500 XCW, took it to our suspension sponsor in Corona who did the suspension while Chad had lunch and drove it back to our house in San Diego and flew home to NM the next morning.
I had to fly up to SD to pick up the race van and new bike and bring them back to BCS.

Pre-running didn't go without incident. One of the riders got a flat just before San Everisto, he tried to fix it without much success and ended up riding it until there was only a destroyed wheel and half a dozen spokes left.



Keep in mind that this was my new bike with 10 hours on it...3 with a flat tire.

Fortunately another team came upon him and got word to us to go and get him. The rest of the pre-running went OK and everyone was confident come race morning.

The guys were flat hauling a$$ the whole day and had no issues, it was all I could do to keep up with them on the highway. We ended up in Loreto first place in our class (over 40 pro) and 3rd overall motorcycle. Everyone was pumped and happy with the outcome but interestingly enough when the results were posted SCORE had us in second place in class, fifth overall bike. We knew it was a mistake and were confident that it would get sorted out eventually. We talked to the scoring people at SCORE and after review they changed the results on the web site to reflect the correct finish.

All in all it was a hectic couple of weeks babysitting 5 grown men and spending a bucket or two of money to win a plastic trophy and suffer the ridicule and scorn of our peers for kicking their buts. I did get a new bike out of the deal so I shouldn't be too disappointed, looks like I'm going to get the repaired EXC to boot as a spare bike. Maybe if I get out and ride more often I can pick up enough speed to get back on the team as a rider........but probably not...







[Edited on 4-26-2015 by dtbushpilot]

[Edited on 4-26-2015 by dtbushpilot]

[Edited on 4-26-2015 by dtbushpilot]

David,
BIG congratulations for you and the team

Now that your new bike is "broken in".....no excuses for less riding.

In a year or so when I close up shop here in the frozen wastelands, can I be a waterboy ....or something like that? Huh? Can I....please?

Pretty please.....at least because you guys need a "that guy" on the team.

Quote: Originally posted by StuckSucks

Good to meet you at the hotel! Enjoyed the write-up - a fun read. And congratulations to your team! What you said about the tough logistics - I'm sure that was a contributing factor of the low turnout. All three of the COPS Racing cars made it to Loreto - one of the Class 10s got third in class. See you at the 500.

Quote: Originally posted by dtbushpilot

Do you race in the Best in the Desert races?