ricky johnson the MX guy is a frequent baja racer, and has been for many years. In the past he has just used the name ricky johnson. So i am guessing this is a different guy, but i could be wrong. there are two Jesse James' in baja. There are multiple names in a few classes. Kinda confussing.
TEAM BETA WINS BAJA 500 ! http://www.cyclenews.com/articles/off-road/2009/06/15/baja-500-penalties-handed-out Now I'm thinking about putting a team together with Trigger Gunn.
Imagine that, an Italian with an Austrian motor wins in Baja!!! KTM finally gets their win,,and Beta Motor has new page to write into their history book.
Rick D Johnson is a different guy.He used to race pro trucks.Also I think it's Jeese Jones,Not 2 Jeese Jameses.I couldn't imagine two of that guy running around.How about poor 19x with 919 minutes of penalty time.You do your race in say 9.5 hours,then you get hit with a 15.5 hour penalty.That will probably be a record that will hold forever.
SCORE is still looking at Class 30 and 40, and depending on penalites, the overall win could change hands AGAIN!
If they wanted more media $$$ and more publicity this is the only way to get it. Legit is the ticket. great stuff!! Beta Motor Italia has the 411 on this Baja coup, it is classic. And again congrats to the Corfmans/Smith and their team!!! Very cool win for them, it took privateers on a Beta to knock the big dogs off the porch. (not that Weigand/Norman are slow or cant win without using "alternate" lines and speeds) Next they will need a spec tire sponsor for all the machines.....(Michelin??) just winding up the readers!!! R
And now on TT some of them are saying that the IRC GPS trackers were not working correctly and how can they be accountable if the technical apparatus don't work correctly... what next.....! Can anyone find OJ's legal team to help these guys? T
I was just reading all the post over the Baja section. It's fricking crazy... people making accusations at one and another... while others are saying.... look it's just giving fuel to those that said this stuff was going on all along. I even saw a comment about Honda that lead to a whole tirade about Honda buying Baja and who controls what. Still pretty funny reading... if anyone hasn't been there go there quick because Scotty's locking and deleting everyones post. Hey, I'm glad we ended up with the good mod. justSayen
Sorry Beta Boys, your 15 minutes is up, and your 5 year supply of free bikes just vanished, so much for DP Racings first ever win..... Congrats to the latest overall motorcycle winner Bill Boyer 103X! The overall winner could change again. Could be an over 30 or over 40 team. Surreal.
Yes but I do not think class 22 changed did it? The Beta still won class 22, right? You are discussing 'overall for bikes' aren't you?
I'm thinking overall will be a class 40 or 30 team. My personal opinion is either the 404x (KTM mounted) or Mike Johnson (Honda) in class 30. Here's my take. SCORE has set rules about how far you can deviate from the marked course. They have been implementing the 60 m.p.h. speed limit on highway sections for at least 3 years now. GPS trackers in one form or another since 2005. The rules, in my opinion are clear. Now granted, SCORE's enforcement of those rules have been lax, to say the least. But...rules are rules and they apparently decided to enforce the rules to the letter of the law at the 2009 Baja 500. Now a lot of folks are crying foul. Ive seen posted things like, we were not told what course deviations we absolutely could not take etc. WELL, how bout none. Uhh, thats why there is an official marked course. You pay lots of money to race on that marked course. Here's what I say; You (Racers) knew the rules, same ones for a long time now. Maybe SCORE was just being passive on them, waiting for tracker tech. to got better etc. then BAM!! Drop the hammer on all racers. I applaud SCORE for this. From reading on another site, it sounds like some bikes didn't even run a small GPS, like a garmin 201, to watch there speed on the highway. They just got on the highway and blitzed, SCORE wont do anything right? Its like this; say a certain highway speed limit is 65 m.p.h. The average speed however is about 10 m.p.h. over that. The highway patrol probably stops people going 15 over the limit. Then say one day the highway patrol decides that there going to prove a point about the speed limit and they start citing speeders for going 1 mp.h. over the speed limit. Those that were cited will go to court and whine to the judge that they were cited for going 1 m.p.h. over the speed limit. The judge will ask them, "were you?" and they will naturally say yes. The judge will say, "well, you just admitted to me that you were going over the posted speed limit." There is no grace speed over the max speed limit that is posted. Guilty, next Take SCORE now: Now they enforce the rules to the letter of the law. Just like that highway patrol that enforced the speed limit to the letter of the law. Hey folks, you got caught, deal with it, move on, get ready for the 1000 in November. Prerun more, KNOW the official course, watch your speed on the highway. Its that simple folks. Why should SCORE tell you what lines are illegal, you know the marked course, so stay on it. Oh, and come the 1000, the Honda guys will be back on top. There still the fastest out there bar none, just now they have to go over the ENTIRE marked course and not speed on the highway. My longwinded 2 cents, Mitch.
Yep, Class 22 is the same, it just looks like a Class 21 bike has finished with a better overall time than a Class 22 bike. So for now, the Class 21 winners are leading the overall bike finish. Still waiting for class 30, 40, 50. Who knows, a Sportsman team that had no penalties whatsoever might have a shot at being in top ten overall bikes. Would'nt that be something.
Update regarding future Baja races. http://www.thumpertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=8339914 I don't know a whole lot about Baja except that everyone seems 'connected', and some $$$$$ is involved. How are they going to stay objective and unbiased? My 'gut' tells me I should move this into the Cafe Diner, but let's leave it here for the moment.
I will say those baja race guys are really in their own world (knowing alot of them) as far as the importance of "their" race. It is their entire world and the reason for riding all year long, eveything else is just and event or practice for the 250/500/1000 show. Really for them, MX nat series, H&H WEC, MotoGP WSBK etc are all secondary to Baja. The whole scene is amazing now as guys are writing petitions to SCORE,,etc etc . The bottom line is that high level racing has a tight rule schedule, if you want to take your race out of the sticks, the level needs to be professional and strict. This kind of racing (Baja long distance raid/rally)is exciting and $$ can come if they maintain a real disipline. The rules are the rules,,, but SCORE should have mentioned that at the beginning of 09 they would cinch down and rope in the regs just to let everyone know. If I mentioned any of this "over there" I would get slagged!!! Now lets get ready to watch the 1000 with all the rules in place it should be really good and exciting (much better IMHO) R
