Baja 1000 starts tomorrow!

[Colo moto]

Edit: Race starts tonight.

Cafe Husky member JimO and his brother Nick are racing the 26x this year in the pro class against the big boys. It's kinda a weird year with no Honda factory or KTM factory team. I'm sure it's hard for KTM to field a team after last year. I can't believe it's already been a year since the legendary Kurt Caselli passed. Good luck to all and go 26x!

I only see one husky entered and it's in the ironman class of course. Go Husky!

 

[Colo moto]

link to live tracking. If it's correct, it shows JimO still sitting in his camper by the marina. Should be around RM 120 or so by now. Not sure if tracker isn't working, or if they didn't make the start for some reason.

Lone Husky rider 701X is at RM 105. I just looked into 701x a little more and turns out it is Malcolm Smiths son.

http://tracking.volocore.com/#

 

[Tinken]

 

[Colo moto]

Just got an update from JimO. Nick just got on the bike at RM200. They had some carb trouble, but are up and running. Their tracker must be busted as it shows them at the start line still.

 

[robertaccio]

Yea Alexander Smith on a Wht Husky.

 

[robertaccio]

My green is on Green for the OA.....but as usual big red is out ahead.

 

[Tinken]

Yea Alexander Smith on a Wht Husky.

That was custom made for him by Husky.

 

[Tinken]

Ty was supposed to Ironman this race, but there isn't enough time in the day.

 

[Colo moto]

My green is on Green for the OA.....but as usual big red is out ahead.

Yeah me too. Seems Kawi should have it in the bag this year. Although it just doesn't feel right with the big honda team not there and KTM not there trying to beat them. I don't pay a whole lot of attention to the SoCal Baja scene, but even from here it just feels like something is missing about this years race.

 

[JimO]

Hi Cafe, It's me Jim and we are just home from the never ending Baja peninsula. Thanks Colo Moto for recognizing our race in Baja this year, I was going to chat about it before I left but you know how that goes with 5001 things to do before the race.

This year was different for me and my race plan...We (Tony Gera and I) went down to prerun 3 weeks earlier. Tony is the ironman #702 from Santa Cruz who has won his class in all of the Score races this year, so technically he just needed to start the 1000 race and he would be crowned the champ. But he wanted to beat A. Smith and the other ironmen. We were able to prerun about 400 miles of the course in late October. I preran my Husky TXC 450 and had some issues with it blowing oil out of every nook and cranny on the bike. It may need rings, it seems to have pressure building up in the crankcase. anyway, it needs to be rebuilt. Tony offered me his trusty xr 650 for the race and I took him up on his offer.
I must say riding the course was a kick in the ass, it was so much fun getting down there early and having the time to prerun and not having to get it all done 2 to 3 days before the race. Because on this race day, nothing could have prepared me for what was about to take place...

Race Day 5:30am: Tony and I and team are staying about 6-7 miles from the starting line. As we are speeding down the blvd to make the starting line by 5:40 we are pulled over by Sergeant Carter of Ensenada Police Dept.
He yells at us shaking his finger between our eyes saying there is to be no racing on my streets...Tony and I both noding our heads saying yes sir, yes sir. He lets us go and now it is 5:55am race starts at 6. We get to the starting line Tony blends in with ironman class 30 bikes up the line. My class goes off first and they are already leaving the line, I gas it past all the waiting bikes to the front as the Score officials dive in front of me stopping my progress to turn on my satellite tracker on my rear fender. I get behind a 30 pro rider who is just being green flagged onto the course. I get up to the starter flagman and it's Malcolm Smith. Right then the bikes goes into a uncontrollable rev, I gas the throttle to try and get it to come down slightly, then it revs back up?
What the hell is going on? Malcolm leans over and says you better get that fixed...He throws the flag and I take off, the bike is dangerously reving to the moon. I stop at the first turn and shut it down. After an hour of troubleshooting I find that 2 screws that hold the throttle cable to the slide fell out and lucky were sittting in the slide and not in the motor.

More on our race coming up...

 

[JimO]

More on the race.... I fix the bike and roar off into the bowels of Ensenada, and that is a literal statement because going into the wash there was the biggest stink hole ever...A big puddle I wheelied through trying to keep my boots dry from toilet sludge on mile 1 of 1277 miles to go. Anyway those next 15 to 20 miles are prob the most dangerous, in and around Ensenada where spectators are driving on the course and acting like they are Robbie Gordon in their smoking '74 Ford Pinto's. Once around Ojos things get fun. The fans thin and the speeds pick up. I always ride within my limits, especially here, this race is not for some but as long as youre not over your head and use your head, injury is reduced.

So we are on #26x we start off the line almost 1.5 hours late because of carb troubles and I'm at mile 125 or so and I'm already seeing several quads and a bike or 2 with mechanical probs so im thinking with some luck and preserverance we can get back into this thing. Even though it's just my brother and I sharing this race I know its a long race but we can do it. The XR650 is running great, it's straight line attitude is perfect for baja, and I'm trying to get used to the Honda "chopper" in turns and how to do it. Compared with my fine turning Husky this feels like I'm guiding the Queen Mary into port. But to the Honda's credit, I never had any head shake which is a plus in Baja or anywhere else.

Fast forward to race mile 360: There is nasty silt here and the XR650 gulped in copious amounts into the airbox. The thing didn't have enough air to whistle dixie so top speed was about 20 for a while. I stopped to shake out the air cleaner, it reminded me of my foam filter in my vacuum cleaner, every time I slapped it on a rock more dust.

The next rider change and filter change came in Catavina, thats when we perked up listening to the Weather Man saying something about a crash on the Hwy. Wow, it's our friends who we are down there with. It's #702x Ironman Tony Gera's parents and 6yo brother in a crash and we hear from Weather Man say that the Police says they are in the hospital in Guerro Negro. Well thats it, our race is done. We are loading up the bike and going to Guerro Negro Hospital to find out if family is okay. We get there, mom is in the hospital with a broken collar bone dad and little guy are at a Hotel. Wow, what a relief to find out that all 3 are okay. And, to find out that all 3 were ejected out of the van was even more unbelievable. The van had a front blow out at speed sending them off the road into soft sand and sending the van end over end and back onto its wheels. Tony found out from a Baja Pits that his family crashed and made a bee line off the course to the Hwy to Guerro Negro to see his family.
A very bad circumstance with a good outcome... Somebody was looking after this family on this day....

J.O.