2009 Baja 1000... More Than Just a Race

I can't tell you how amazingly timed this years Baja 1000 was. If there was ever a time when I needed to get out of town and just enjoy life without all the hassles and drama and disappointments, this was it. Mexico does wonderful things for me, and when you couple it with a great group of people, then life doesn't get much better than this.

Start off with another victory for Dragonfire Racing. Car #1803 driven by Reid Nordin, Hans Waage, Todd Romano and Larry Roessler wins by a landslide! Larry let us take his pre-runner out to follow him down the coastline of the course. So, I jumped in with Reid and we ran the course behind Larry for about 50 miles. It was AWESOME! The coastline was beautiful and the ride was unbelievable. Thanks to Reid for letting me tag along and thanks to Larry for letting us take his ride out on the course!

There was a bit of drama though... but its the type of drama that goes with the territory. On Wednesday, the boys were headed out for a nice ride down to Ojos Negros, through Valle de Trinidad and would eventually end up at Mike's Sky Ranch, where we were going to stay the night. But, everything went terribly wrong just as they left Ojos Negros. Jack was in the lead and evidentially, kicked up a ton of dirt behind him... as Rasp came flying through at 70+ mph, he didn't see the barbed wire fence ahead of him. He slammed on his breaks, but it wasn't in time, his bike went down and he flew off, breaking his collarbone. Right behind him was Erik, who ended up going straight into a 4" x 4" fence post with his back. Kyle was also unable to stop, ran over Erik and ended up breaking both of his wrists. Gus was last to come in and ended up also running over Erik. Considering they had all ran into a barbed wire fence, we are so lucky that they only ended up with a couple broken bones.

Here's the deal - Rasp was supposed to race on Friday with Team 349x, but with the broken collar bone, it wasn't going to happen. Jeff decided to take over his leg. I'm beginning to think that Jeff is bad luck because 349x didn't make it past mile 40 before something blew on the bike. So, we decided it was time to get beers (at 9 am). The funny thing is, at 1 pm, word came over the radio that it was back in the race... oops. But, the scary thing is, at this point the trophy trucks are now on the course along with the Class I cars. There is now way Jeff, who has now had a half a dozen beers, should be riding over the summit with huge trucks barreling down on him. So, he opted out of the race. In the end, it was a great decision. 349x went through check at RM 101 but was never seen again. By the time we left the Baja Saturday night (24 hours later) they still hadn't found him.

So, we hung out at Borrego for most of the afternoon and caught all the action as the Trophy Trucks, Class I Cars, Motorcycles and Quads came flying through. There were helicopters buzzing over our heads that came so close to each other that I thought for sure they were going to crash. And they were so close to the ground, that you could feel the air from their blades.



After most the trucks came through, it was time to just chill and wait for the Dragonfire car to come through the check. As expected, it was blowing the rest of the cars in its class out of the water. Reid arrived around 7 pm at Borrego and turned the car over the Hans. Jack and I took of for the West Coast to meet the car at San Vincente. It was a 5 hour drive to get there and by the time we arrived it was freezing cold and we were exhausted. We grabbed our blankets and attempted to get a couple hours of sleep while we waited. Let me just tell you, that 2 people sleeping in the cab of a pick up truck is not the most comfortable thing in the world. But, we managed to get through and wake up just in time to make a coffee run before Reid came in. He turned the car over to Larry who brought it home...

So, that's my Baja story. You really do have to be there to understand how frickin awesome it is.