My Road to the 2017 NORRA Mexican 1000
The Biggest Adventure of them All
1,300 + Mile Off-Road Race through Baja Mexico
This is a wild husband and wife team preparing for 12-months to race a motorcycle through some of the toughest terrain on this planet, Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. We have never raced a motorcycle before so this for sure will add to the adventure. Hang on here we go…
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------Of course, skip all the dribble if you like and just check out some photos
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------
Start of the next Race Section:

The British Thumper guys are having tank issues. i admire how these guys are so intense in the job at hand and finding a solution.

Later that day in a transit section I meet up with Hipster and other bikers. We load up on a couple burritos.

Now the sand and whoops are deep and tall stretching for miles and miles with seemly no end. At one point in the middle of a race zone I just had to stop and dress down to one layer under my jacket. In the photo I believe I am trying to show how toast I feel.

Soon it’s deep into seaside racing and different navigation issues.
I run into someone riding the wrong way. He yells out “I can’t navigate, the Stella odometer is way off” it showed twenty some miles when it should have shown forty some. I told him to follow me. When I got to a turnoff I stopped and compared our odometers. I said “This is exactly xx.x miles on the roadbook, your odometer says exactly yy.y miles. All you have to do is add 24.7 to what your stella box says, Then You Can Navigate!” The racer wrk2Surf is down with that and soon leaves me in his dust. Oh Yeah…

Again toast at the finish line.
It seemed to take forever to reach the finish line in Guerrero Negro. The closer I get the more weird navigation is. I did reach the finish, and the banquet party right at the motel. This is the only place where we booked a room and I was glad of that, this was a long and hard day. I had to manhandle the bike numerous times throughout the day to avoid crashing, and every time that maneuver hurt my shoulder. A welcomed shot of tequila greeted me at the finish line.
We get a report from another team, they found their rider lost out on the highway riding the wrong way. The report was that he was dazed. This was a long day.
At the motel lobby a woman is asking everyone to turn off their wifi devices, she is trying to get a connection so she can find out about her husband, who reportedly broke his arm today.
Eating and drinking is rough, I had a hard time lifting my hand or arm. Again, there is no Mag-7 tote truck with my stuff so nothing we can do to the bike except remove the air filter skin, which needed removing. My body is completely toast and I am in pain. I’m in bed by 4:30PM. The more time I lay the worse the pain in my shoulder gets. It’s to the point where I cannot lift my hand off the bed at all. To move my arm I have to pick it up with my other hand.
I’m starting to cry the blues, thinking and talking about alternatives, trailer the bike to the start and push it across, etc. At this point the thought of pushing the bike anywhere gave me pain. But the thought of giving up is even more painful. FirePig’s team paramedic Brian stops by to give me a look. I tell him about the heavy anti-inflammatory drugs I have and my plans to use them. He agrees and suggests hydration, ice on the shoulder all night followed by a hot shower in the AM. Perfect, Hipster gets water and a large bag of ice and makes sure I am good. He is the best. Drugs are in. We will just have to wait and see ‘what up’ in the morning, because right now my shoulder is telling me I’m Done____
Day-3 :)
At the staging area I had time to take a few pics.


Sidecar: These guys are great, fired up about what they are doing. It looks like an old Yamaha 650 twin for the powerplant, I love those engines. The pilot says he always asks the mag-7 dudes for a bananna for the monkey. Ha! what fun.

Fantastic! This was my ideal motorcycle when I was in high school.

Unreal this Triumph Team

I was honored to meet Jen Morton, the winner of the moto Light class last year. She was huge influencing my motorcycle selection decision, Jen won on an 02’ XR400 I believe. How cool, last year she gave racers gas who ran out and helped others who were lost to find their way to Cabo, and she still won, my inspiration.

There is a long transit right away so I stop for breakfast along the highway, I ask the cook “?es possible desayuno muy rapido?” I get a solid “Si, huevos y jamon” “Si, por favor” I hammer down eggs, ham, refried beans with tortillas with plenty of water, perfect for getting me through a long tough day.

I’m up and moving my shoulder. It hurts but I can move it. Roadbook Day-2 gets ripped out of the scroll box and Day-3 goes in. This is a difficult task, my fingers are not working the way they should, like stiff sticks with no strength. Mag-7 did finally show up with my duffle bag last night so I rip out some food and a few things and give the rest to JD’s support team. Super nice of JD’s team. I suit up, pack the backpack and proceed to eat a protein bar, cliff bar, a box of raisins, slam some prune juice, a protein shake and a ton of water. I am ready to GO…
After a long transit zone the racing starts out with deep sand trails leading up to rocky hill climbs and rocky washes, The rock wash leading into Loreto was tough, I know I should have been riding faster but I didn’t, I wimped out, it was tough. But again it was another day of fantastic riding in constantly varying landscape.

The Loreto finish line is right at the racer party right on the malecon, how great is that.

The food, the company, the music and the margaritas are all good.
The FirePig team had a big table we all sat at. The accounts are exploding. Loren has a cast and broke his wrist. Ouch and Wow... Mike Perlman sat with us at our table and talked about the race course. It really felt like I was dreaming. Next to us is the Riverra team, and the pool, and the band. Everyone is pumped and electric.
I almost had my iPhone odometer and compass stolen because I left it on the bike in the middle of a crowd. A staffer alerted me in real broken English but I did finally get it. Another staffer was out watching the bike when we got there. I carry a bunch of 5's for situations like this, where a local helps ya out.
Tom gets us another good and inexpensive room just up the street, perfect. I am down early.
Tom gets more ice for my shoulder while I continue to hydrate, medicate and relax. Hipster is a great crew member, a huge help and a huge friend.
Day-4:
The bike is leaking gas from the carb again. Back and forth down a side street going up and down the curb. It finally stopped.

Heidi and I walked this malecone many times. This is so cool.

Loreto

"Point 22, right 258, Point 22, right 258, Point 22, right 258" All good...

Day-4 has long steep rocky hill climbs like I have never done before. All way cool and welcomed stuff but extreme all the same.
I Crash on a steep and rocky 180 switchback. I need to drag the bike off the side of the mountain by its tail to get it upright again. I busted the Stella box radio antenna. I get out the electrical tape and secure it on. I’m thinking I had bad throttle control on these loose rocks, and maybe I should have loosened the steering damper on this section with the steep 180s.
I remember two silt beds marked in today’s roadbook. I see them approaching, I prepare for them, I crash twice in silt beds, both times it hurt my shoulder. I employ a steady throttle control to get out of them, not the ‘give it everything you got” others were suggesting.
This is a long hard day and the best riding I have ever done, technical, fast and varied. It’s like the course was designed by an artist and genius.

I see this during a transit section. Burrito, perfect.
Another crew team for another rider gave me a Mexican Gatorade, three waters and two peanut butter sandwiches. I ate and drank everything.

I met FirePig and his crew Brian and Dave. Chilly is out racing the FirePig bike due to Loren’s broken wrist.

All of a sudden they all rush over to the radio. Chilly ran out of gas. The team is on-it. I blast off.

At times I had trouble navigating but I did not get lost. I will not let that happen again, ever. I must keep my roadbook and odometer tight. It’s a constant mental challenge all day long, an inner voice that talks to me constantly “48.3, right at 250. Look at od….. 48.3, right at 250. Look at od. 48.3, right at 250. Look at od. 48.3, right at 250. Look at od.” until 48.3 and then its “49.8, left at 196. Look at od..….49.8, left at 196. Look at od.. …. 49.8, left at 196…. And that goes on all day long. Maybe because of the need to spend the majority of time riding hard and avoiding crashing that I developed this loud inner voice for navigation. I welcome long transit sections on pavement for the mental break. ”

Time to strip off layers, this riding is intense and its getting hot. I found a little shade bush to do my strip down and hydrate.
Someone mentioned some drop off ledges in this section. Even though I knew about them they were still the biggest surprise. I never envisioned a bike surviving this type of riding let alone survive race it. Riding up, over and down these sections is for sure the most fun I have ever had on a motorcycle, ever, nothing even comes close. Not for the 'S! and Wow!' factor anyway.

I arrive at the finish line in twilight. The La Paz malecon is electric. Hi-fives, beer and tons of people, La Paz rocks!


There is no racer banquet tonight in La Paz for some reason, and the racer meeting is almost 5 miles up the road. Tom scores another inexpensive room right on the malecon so we are set. We skip the meeting and concentrate on getting food in us. We score a great open air restaurant down a side street, great Mexican pasta and a Pizza to go for breakfast, perfect.
I feel spent but I feel strong. After four days of hard riding I anticipated by body would start kicking-in and rise to the occasion. Now I just need rest, hydrate and prepare for the last day of racing to San Jose del Cabo. Hipster and I go over the mission: "I will not crash. I will not wreck the bike. I will ride into Los Cabos tomorrow" Ahhhh!
Stay tuned for more fun in Baja Mexico…
Continued: ---> Page 7 <----