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Registered: 9-1-2003
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Bike 403 NORRA Race Report
I got this from Seve, DP Racing, today.
TW
The 2013 NORRA Mexican 1000 is in the books and what a blur of 4 days of Baja racing it has been. Very happy to report that DP Racing’s Justin Morgan
won the Overall Motorcycle and First Place in Modern Open class. This was the 4th year that NORRA has put on the stage rally, consisting of 9
“special” race stages where accumulated times are added and the best time will win. The original plan was to have Justin race a 1988 Honda XR600
provided by Tim Morton of Baja Bound Motorcycle Adventures, but an elusive electrical problem didn’t give us the confidence that the bike would make
all 4 days. During the week before the rally, Tim offered Justin the use of a 2012 Honda CRF450X, a bike that was raced by an Australian team in the
recent Baja 1000. Tim and his Baja Bound crew meticulously prepped the bike for the race, which was going to be ridden hard for 4 days. For pit and
fuel support, we felt the $1100 pit fee asked by Mag 7 was ridiculous, so we decided to “pit on our own.” Seve would chase Justin down the peninsula,
gassing him when he needed it, and got help from Tom Wimberly in a couple of remote locations. Tim would also be following and supporting in 2
truck-trailer rigs, but Tim’s emphasis was on 10 other riders/clients who hired Tim for his services.
Contingency and technical inspection was on Saturday in Mexicali, and very cool to see the vintage cars and trucks racing in their own categories. The
Mexican 1000 course was not marked (like Score courses) and prerunning not allowed, so navigation must be done by GPS or rally “roadbooks” mounted
above the handlebars. Justin elected to use 2 small Garmin Fortrex units strapped to his roll pad and has gotten good experience using them from Score
VCP prerunning. The bikes started at 6AM Sunday at the top of Laguna Salada dry lake, west of Mexicali. Bikes were started 2 at a time with intervals,
and each bike’s time was carefully recorded. Justin was in row 10, so he had 20 bikes in front of him. The dry lake was hard-packed and incredibly
fast, and Justin opened up the CRF to full throttle. His experience in Baja helped as he quickly picked off the riders ahead of him. When he completed
special stage 1, only 1 bike was ahead of him. The dry lake took a toll on the rear tire, whose knobbies had already disintegrated. Seve gassed him
then followed him down Hwy 5 towards Laguna Diablo, topping off before turning west on Hwy 3. Seve then headed south to Chapala to beat the race
traffic. The next special stage was Laguna Diablo dry lake into San Felipe via Morelia Jct. Justin has raced this in Score races and was lightning
fast, finding himself in the lead going into San Felipe. After a very long transit to Gonzaga, Justin easily lasered down to Chapala, a section he has
also raced in Score. He caught and passed Seve near Coco’s Corner, wheelie-ing by the slow moving Tundra. He reached Tom Wimberly on Hwy 1, got a
top-off, and then proceeded to Bahia Los Angeles (BOLA), the endpoint for Day 1. Meanwhile, Seve had dropped the Tundra into a pothole, bending and
cracking the lower control arm and sending the front drive shaft into the front coilover. The front end was seriously wacked, and hoped we still had a
chase truck. It was cool being the first ones to BOLA, but the howling winds in our open room “bivouac” sucked. We couldn’t wait to start Day 2.
Seve departed for Vizcaino at oh-dark-thirty on Monday while Tom had relocated to east of El Arco. Justin’s time for Day 1 was the best so he started
first. He had never ridden or raced the BOLA to Vizcaino section, but was on the gas. He showed up in Vizcaino well ahead of 2nd place, and we
proceeded south to San Ignacio to start the second special stage. Justin screamed out of San Ignacio on some sections that he knew from the Baja 1000
except he was now taking the El Datil coast route. We knew he had a long section (102 miles) before his San Juanico gas stop, so he packed an
emergency pint of fuel just in case. From the Baja 1000, we estimated he would get about 110 miles from the 4 gallon tank. But Justin was full
throttle the entire 102 miles, and ran out of gas near the village of Cadaje. The pint went in, but the usual local selling gas in Cadaje was out.
Justin started making his way to San Juanico but ran completely out of fuel. He was caught by the 2nd place rider, Mexican Score racer “Nino” Rojas.
Rojas laughed when he heard Justin’s predicament, and made a “that’s racing” comment and took off, now in first. A local rancher tried to syphon gas
from his truck but that didn’t work. The next bike after Rojas was a last minute addition to the Gomez-Nardi XR650 team, a BITD racer named Chris
Brown. Chris happily gave Justin the 1 gallon of fuel he had in his backpack, and Justin was on the move again, estimating about a 20 minute loss –
which could have been a lot worse and disastrous had it not been for Chris. How fortuitous was that? Justin topped off in San Juanico from a privateer
selling gas, then continued east in pursuit of Rojas and Chris. He caught and passed Chris, but Rojas beat him to the end of the special on Hwy 1
north of Loreto. Seve was waiting when Rojas showed up, and again laughed that Justin ran out of gas. To make matters worse, Justin ran out of gas
AGAIN only 100 yards short of the special stage end, and was pushing the bike as he saw Chris’ dust approaching. We gave him a splash and he
officially had his time recorded. Whew, what a drama-filled day. Despite the gas gaffe, Justin still maintained the lead over Rojas! A great meal in
Loreto, followed by the usual daily oil and filter changes, plus rear wheel change, and we were down for the night. Thanks to Ivan Estrada, we got the
Tundra control arm welded so we could safely continue chasing Justin. The alignment was so bad the front tire was wearing horribly on one side.
Day 3 had Justin and Rojas starting side-by-side on the road up to San Javier and down to Constitucion. Justin was now determined to put even more
time on Rojas, and promptly left him in his dust. Seve met Justin at the end of special 1, and like every pit stop so far, Justin was so lightning
quick there was barely enough time to get ready for the pit stop. The next special stage was to end in La Paz, and consisted of high speed rolling
roads and coastline. Justin was on fire today and ended the day with a 37 minute lead over Rojas. The real contest was taking place between Rojas and
Chris’ team, which were battling for 2nd.
Another early start for Day 4, as the racers went to San Jose del Cabo. Justin got gas at the Todos Santos Hwy crossing after a run through the cactus
and Pacific coast, and then started a fun but technical mountain section. Chris was the next racer thru, but trying to catch Justin. Tim and his crew
had joined Seve and we all beelined to the finish line in downtown San Jose. Justin finished the official race with a lead of 1 hr 37 min over Rojas.
A non-timed “road book” section then followed, ending 20 miles later. In a sign of true sportsmanship and respect, Justin always waited for Chris at
the end of each special stage, and the 2 would ride together to the next race stage. It was pretty cool to see Justin and Chris cross the finish line
together, even though they both knew Justin had won easily. 2 class acts, Congratulations to Justin and Chris for their finishes.
This was an incredibly fun race. Lots of time to talk with other racers, and taste the “rally” spirit. Chasing was more nerve-racking than Vegas to
Reno, and one slip-up could have cost Justin more time. Very happy for him and his performance, he truly killed this race. A very classy awards and
party were held on the Cabo beach that night.
We are incredibly indebted to Tim Morton and his Baja Bound crew, who made this possible. Also to One Industries, Tom Wimberly, Eric Fetherston, Ivan
Estrada, and Eric Peil.
As for Justin, he flew out the next day to compete in Las Vegas Endurocross, and was invited by Chris to race with him in the BITD Silver State 300 on
Saturday. Seve is caravanning back to San Diego with Tim’s trucks, nursing the Tundra back to a serious repair job. Now time to focus on Baja 500,
which is June 2nd.
Congratulations to Justin for an awesome win!
[Edited on 5-5-2013 by TW]
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