The machines...




The men...


The madness...

The meeting...

My transportation...

First off – for those of you that think your bike stable is relatively complete, start saving up… :)



You might want to set aside something for a new tool roll too…


These guys had meetings discussing … well, going really really fast I suppose.

Probably no better way to run a new bike than with top mechanics & the bike’s designer there.


The team needed some welding & a couple small parts fabbed up – called a friend of mine in town & he came over with an employee who knew some local guys that could to TIG work – that’s Hans Trunkenpolz talking with Eddie & one of his employees about what needs to be done.

That name should be very familiar to most… here’s a hint just in case:
Kronreif, Trunkenpolz, Mattighofen
Eddie is a huge racing fan. For any long-time Baja people out there – his dad had a team way back that raced Edsels in the Baja 1000!
Don’t think this is him, but a cool photo of an Edsel in Baja nonetheless…

So … parts welded/made, the bike was ready to race.

Meanwhile, just across town …
Another team was prepping their gear. Flyingo!!! Setting up the comm. System in his helmet.

A few blocks away, Cyril Depres was doing the same.

I was out with these guys:

The Austrians were relaxing:

And 304x was getting bedded down:

Tomorrow was going to be an early start.
Actually, earlier than anyone expected…
Everyone probably got to bed a little later than would be considered wise – moot point. About 3 AM there was a huge crash just outside our window.
The noise of course woke us up … after a few moments of processing, Dave’s first words … “that’s not good!” summed up the situation. Based on the closeness of the sound there was a good chance someone had blown a corner & plowed through the parking lot, taking out vehicles & motos along the way…
Turns out is was a wrong turn, right in front of the hotel, just not into the parking lot.

Police were on scene really quick – EMT’s a bit later, fortunately it seemed all the occupants were relatively ok as far as we could tell. Between the crash, sirens, & general commotion that followed, there wasn’t much more sleep to be had.
Next morning Dave & chase crew headed out to their spot & I went to the start with Jake. This guy was already in place waiting:

Then 304x got set up.

Surfphoto wasn’t there just yet…


I went back to the start as the bikes got lined up.





After 304x took off, walking back the line & found Antonio with 421x:

And then they were off … I spent the rest of the day meeting with a few other teams around town, so no pics of the course … in fact next time the camera came out was for the relatively brutal border wait…


Just got back & already looking forwarded to going down again (leaving Friday… :)
