The 2018 NORRA Mexican 1000
1,362 Mile of Off-Road Motorcycle Racing over the Length of Mexico's Baja Peninsula
OK, I get the day-3 roadbook loaded on the scroll chart box and Day-3 GPX racecourse files loaded into the GPS. Again the front desk person calls in for me to order a large Hawaiian pizza. It was delivered in no time. I chow down half while studying the Day-3 course map leaving the other half for breakfast, perfect. I guess I didn’t need to buy the can of refried beans for breakfast but I just wanted to make sure incase there was no pizza delivery in Guerrero Negro.

Game face on:
I slam a large protein power shake, a ton of water, yogurt, a muffin, three bananas and as much pizza as I can stomach. I am flipping ready for the super long Day-3 race.

Again we are staging in the dark. It’s nice having the start right at my motel. And the tail light is working: thanks again Team Flying Pig!

Colin is starting out today for Team Flying Pig Racing and he is ready to fly.

Always a pleasure chitchatting with other racers, we are all in this together, only we know what we are going through. This automatically forms a bond, a brotherhood amongst us. I feel privileged to be a part of it.


Yells ring out, the first guy is off. I’m sure it’s Steve the famous Baja 1000 racer who won last year’s race. He freaked me out how fact he took off at the start of yesterday’s stage, insanely fast.

I fire up with a yell of my own.
The first stage is super fast at times sometimes hitting 70mph, I make good times covering the 86 miles without incident.

At the start of the first transit section I spot a little store and head over for some hydration. There is a group of Harley riders from California chilling there. We have a nice chat. They keep calling me ‘Bad Ass’ for racing solo. :)

I say to them “Hey, you aren’t real bikers are you” Ha I guess they are… Always fun chatting with any two wheel adventures

The next race section is over 200 miles so I figure I should load up on some more food.

This guy is a real card, we give each other S back and forth and have several laughs together.

Perfect quick road food, toasted bean and cheese burritos with a little coffee. I am ready to attach this next 200 miles. This race section is tough, unreal fast at times other times extremely rocky and fatiguing. There is a super deep water crossing where a lot of spectators are staged. Luckily a couple guys point me to the left before the water. I go far left way into the weeds and find an area to cross that is much more do-able. I heard a report from another rider the next day that wasn’t as fortunate, he attempted the crossing head on and went under water drowning his bike. After getting out of the deep and draining his gas tank and oil and somehow getting all fresh stuff back in the bike, it was after 3:00 AM before he finished the stage. But he did finish and continued to race the next day. WOW! Now that is Bad Ass!

I took a good spill in this rocky section. The bike ended up past horizontal wedged up to a huge bolder. I landed in the rocks flat on my back. Thank God for the armor, the crash was like nothing. But I had a hell of a time getting the bike upright, it took four attempts. That’s why the photos, I needed to chill a bit to catch my breath so I figure I might as wells take a pic.
I felt really good with my speed the rest of the course passing a few riders and flying along sure and steady but I could feel my body toasting out, it was the toughest day yet.
When I got onto the rock wash I knew I was close to Loreto and the finish line. After what felt like forever I knew I only had 5 or ten miles to go then went up a trail toward a road where a couple guys with flags waved me to go back. Well back I went but then I got confused with which GPS direction to follow. Of course I start going the wrong way along the rock wash. Later I realized when I stop, the GPS flips. Evidently I confused the direction to the finish, and of course on a wash filled with nothing but rocks everything looks the same. Finally I know I was messed up (I think I was starting to BONK) I tried to go inland and just take a road but I came to a hilly dead-end (S!) Back onto the wash I had a hard time getting back onto course but eventually did. It seemed to take forever to get to the finish line but I eventually did. Whoosh! Let the party begin! I load up on tacos, a ton of refried beans and rice. And of course fantastic tequila drinks all provided by NORRA. I had a nice short chat with Betsy Anderson. How cool. Sometimes even just the shortest conversations seem to form a connection that feels will last a life time and this was one of those times…

I stay at the NORRA party chilling out right on the Loreto malecon listening to music and enjoy some fantastic tequila cocktails as long as I can, which wasn’t long. Next, I go over to the NORRA T-shirt tent and purchase the same NORRA T-shirt I lost in the San Felipe whoops on Day-2. Now I’m almost complete again, just no sneakers.
On the way back to the motel I first fill up on gas and groceries for tonight and for tomorrow’s breakfast. I hammered down so many carbs and so much taco meat at the party and it was already late I decide I do not need a pizza but will make due with some bean and cheese burritos from the grocery store for tonight. I buy another can of refried beans for my main carb load in the AM along with three bananas, milk for protein shakes tonight and tomorrow, muffins and of course tons of H2O. I’m also packing granola bars, Cliff bars, protein bars and boxes of raisins that I plan to deploy tonight and tomorrow morning. All systems are GO.
Back at the motel I find the Biltwell Sportster team is also staying there and have a tent pitched in the parking lot with the Sportster under. This is a super cool looking scene. These guys are great and come up to me right away offering me beer and conversation. They tell me that Loren, Team Flying Pig is having bike trouble today and are on the road right now heading to La Paz in search of parts so they can continue racing. How cool is that and this is the epitome of NORRA, getting all the way to Los Cabo no matter what obstacles fall in your way. Anyhow, Team Flying Pig knew I was counting on getting some stuff from my duffle bag each night so they hand off my duffle bag to the Biltwell team to hand off to me. When I find this out I kind of said “S!, I don’t need the whole bag, I just need a small baggie of road food from it” But then I quickly realize I do need my small laptop so I can get the last days GPX racecourse files onto my GPS. I quickly thank them profusely and ask if I can give them my duffle bag back once I get the stuff out that I need. I say “I won’t need anything else from it for the rest of the race. I can get it back from you in Cabo or anytime!” Way cool, they agree to haul it in their chase truck for the rest of the race. Un F’ing real. I am so dam lucky. I quickly get all the remaining two days of racing GPX files loaded onto my GPS, pull out the last two days of protein powder baggies and food bars I want for the rest of the race and hand the duffel over to Mike to haul for me. It’s like I just fell out of the sky and landed onto some unknown planet filled with nice friendly helpful people who are wanting to do almost anything for me to help me complete this race. WTF!!!! I’m not the greatest writer but I hope I’m coming close to conveying what this means to me at this point in time. It like means a lot and these guys are coming through without even asking. Thank you so much Mike, Chris, Erik, Rob and Bill. I would have been so challenged if you hadn’t stepped up for me out of the blue like you did.
The alarm is set to 5:15 AM Day-4. Let the hydration and carbo loading begin. Three bananas, a muffin, yogurt, two protein shakes, a small can of re fried beans and tons of water. I study the day’s course map and my notes I took yesterday when I loaded the roadbook scroll into the box. The notes say ‘SILT BEDS mile 53’ and ‘SILT BEDS mile 114’ My only notes, that’s all I care about, not speeding into the silt beds and crashing at high speeds like I did on day-2. This way if I’m behind with the roadbook for any reason I will remember this ‘Mile 53’ and ‘Mile 114’ I’m going to pick a line and go around those suckers today, the rest I will just handle as it comes.

Loreto is in Baja Sur so the time zone changed. And we are more East so there is more daylight at the staging. Staging starts at 6:30 today.


The temperatures feel warmer today so I dress down to just a T-shirt and jersey under my jacket. It looks like a good day to race.

Last minute tweaks on the Yamaha 2-stroke. I borrow a pliers from the RacingTrax guys so I can take off the stub left over from my second rear view mirror that fell off yesterday.


Bikes are ready.

I’m just about the last bike to start today, shoot. If I haden’t got so fricking lost yesterday in the rock wash I would be much further up. When I get to the start line Perlman puts his arm around me and says “You have so much energy but if only you were faster!” I say “But I’m trying, I’m really trying!”
The first race section starts out with 8 miles along that darn rock wash. This time I’m fresh and handled it fine. Then it is all out for 20 miles or so on tarmac followed by 40 miles of fast dirt.
The start of the second race section is the fastest dirt section yet, I was consistently hitting 75MPH plus. This is a blast, I pass two or three bikes going like a bat out of hell. Forty miles later it starts to get trickier. I hit a rocky section and went sailing landing hard on my right arm in jagged rocks. It hurt but everything still works, I just feel a wetness on my foreman where the hurt is, no biggie, I fly on. Now all I’m thinking about is mile 53, mile 53, mile 53. I see the silt and find a line way off into the dingle weeds and cactus around it. I’m good at this type of stuff and slowly pick my way through the dense S. Just before the silt the quad catches up to me. I try and offer to let him go but he wants to see what path I'm taking around the silt and attempts to follow me. I think he got hung up a bit because the stuff is thick in here. He passes me again but soon is pulled over I believe to fix a flat. He signaled he is OK so I blast past. For a while it is super-fast again with sections of deep sand. I do another crash but nothing major and quickly get rolling again.

I notice something funny with my fender bag. One of the two bolts holding it on came off and the other bolt was almost off. The bag spun around and the little top bag where I keep all my road food bad come unzipped and emptied all my food out.

Luckily one of the random bolts I carry fits perfect.

Everything is tight again. I take a pic, hydrate (it is getting real hot now) pack up and take off.

Later it gets real tricky with more deep sand and tight turns. I take another spill, #43 stops to see if I’m OK. We remember each other from last year and he wants to shoot a goPro of me ahead of him.

After just crashing I want him to go ahead but he wants to do the vid. OK, so a short while later I crash again right after I pass two other bikers. Now I insisted he go ahead, it is getting super technical and I don’t need to be thinking about being on camera and trying to race. A while later I see him again on the side. The bike is upright but he is sitting down. He said he is OK but crashed. He said “it’s so technical!” and it is, rock ledges and rock stairs and drops galore.

Finish line La Paz --> Another end to a long and hard day.

Again, it’s fun rallying with other racers.

Team Flying Pig is there as well to great me in. How great

Showing off the blood from my rock pile crash. I exclaim “It’s only a flesh wound” Loren shows off his scratch. Mine dominates. Oh Yeah!

I’ve never had so many race fans come over to congratulate me and kids asking for stickers. I completely run out of stickers. What fun…
It’s already late and I am toast, I don’t even want a beer, just water and food. La Paz is the only finish where there is no racers banquet or party, but there is certainly no shortage of places to eat here. The Flying Pig team invite me to eat with them but all I want to do is find my hotel, check in, clean up and rest.
The hotel I’m staying at is great with the rooms surrounding an indoor pool. While waiting to check in I chat with several racers. They again are all calling me ‘Bad Ass’ for racing solo on a motorcycle. The team in front of me has done every NORRA sense the relaunch. It’s obviously addicting. After checking in the front desk person turns to her partner and whispers something like "Habla español :)” She obviously enjoys me speaking nothing but Spanish after being barked at in English all day. This is Mexico ya know. Anyway, after cleaning up I head out to gas up and find groceries. I know what’s been working so I stick with it, three bananas, muffins, a couple burritos and chocolate milk I pound down at the store, milk for protein shakes tonight and tomorrow, yogurt and tons of H2o. By the time I get back to my room it’s already getting dark and I am so toast I don’t want to go anywhere to eat. So, I walk down to the front desk and ask, in Spanish if they can order me a pizza to be delivered to my room, a large Hawaiian. The woman beams at me and immediately says “Si” and calls for the pizza. It’s another perfect evening studying the roadbook as I load it into the scroll box, eating, hydrating and chatting with other racers around the pool area. One race team asks if I’m from Canada. I get that a lot. I say “No, but I live sixty miles from the Canadian border” I guess we all say “Yaa’ and “Shurr” a lot. I then get introduced to his team who are from Canada. We are all like brothers, Canadian or not. Great and great, I wish the evening could last forever and I also wish cavegirl could be here with me, she also loves chatting with high energy friendly people like this, and I know she would love this hotel also.
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