Mile Marker 196 San Felipe post race report

real time race updates for race-dezert.com

San Felipe, B.C. Mex. hosts one of the shortest and most relaxing off road races we get to participate in. You can order fresh beach side pina colada’s, walk the shore, eat sea side fish tacos or take an ultra light ride and do free falls with a local guy piloting you. All the bars in town are lit until the wee hours with wild off road racers and their stunt men antics. And then there is the annual Tony Tellier clam bake where the who’s who gathers to bench race the night before the race. Locos Mocos boiled up 70 Doz. clams and 8 kilos of jumbo shrimp to serve with a table of fresh tamales, tortilla’s, beans and salsa! It was a feast fit for racing and pit support kings.

The San Felipe 250 is the most brutal whooped out race course on the SCORE International race circuit. Endless rolling whoops lead to sand washes that have been tortured by recent storms and have exposed VW sized rocks & boulders that littered the 245 mile race course. TEAM LOCOS MOCOS was assigned the remote pit location in the Baja Pits chain at mile marker 196. They knew it would take an experienced crew with a purpose built equipment trailer to haul the gear out there. Scouting out the pit on Thursday proved to be as dangerous as the race when BCG 1 found a gotcha prerunning to the pit spot that sent him into a nose wheelie and resulted in 2 compressed lumbar discs. You can never let your guard down in Baja……you will get gobbled when you least expect it. BCG 1 has navigated the trails in that area for over a decade and this one snuck up on him! Was it a local booby trap?

When race morning arrived it was like we had done this before. We set up the radio station, set up the food station, constructed the tool and fuel work stations and waited for the first lead bike. At 9:45 AM there was rumble in the hills and the lead HONDA RED RIDER! We were there for business. We were scheduled to fuel 71 bikes & Quads and provide service for 34 4 wheel vehicles. We also offered full service repairs to anyone in the area needing our assistance. We fixed a hand full of broken racers, some to continue racing and some good enough to limp out the 55 off-road miles to the nearest paved road. Pauliana & Texan Robert even drove 10 gallons of fuel 5 miles out to a stranded racer after dark in the Arctic Cat.

We had a new guy in camp this race. A 13 year old off road race rookie who contacted Baja Pits through a forum and touted how he wanted to, “experience a real Baja race pit that works on race cars” before racing himself at age 16. Lil Paul hooked up with our crew in San Felipe with his father. Planning to graduate from junior high in a few short months, P2 had traveled to Baja with his family but never attended a Baja off road race.

Do you remember what you were doing at 13? A bright young man, ready to jump in where ever he is needed came equipped with well thought out solutions to problems as they arose. This kid is an inspiration that the youth of today does have a chance. P2 was hands on. . He was thrown on the radio early in the day and talked on the mike like a pro. He was safety first and knew the do’s and do not’s of where to sit on the corner of the course. He almost got run over by RG, despite his efforts, but we know how Robby drives and he was hauling the mail. He witnessed and participated in the first Race-Dezert.com attempt to provide live updates to their forum via satellite phone texting from the race course at mile marker 106 & 196. He recovered broken race cars and fueled golf carts. The kid passed out by 8pm, when we old farts just got started! You know he had a blast and has told the Robby Gordon story over 20 times at school.

Every trip back from Baja produces more crazy camp fire adventure stories for future races. Old Compadre trail was littered with water crossings going south but I kept the rubber side down this year. Curtis doesn’t carry a winch in the T100 and Mike didn’t even pack himself clean clothes to fly back to Sacramento in after 3 days in Baja! RDC pushed the envelope on keeping state side enthusiasts up to speed on where the leaders were at, while we all enjoyed the front row dust at the race. And a 13 year old young man lived a dream of participating in and fixing race cars during the San Felipe 250 race!! I cant wait till the Baja 500………….see ya in the DIRT!!

N-Chaos

The SF 250 crew: Baja Jones, Pauliana, BCG 1, BCG 7, Patio, Cortez, P2, John & Billy, Neighbor Tim, 3 Ball, Baja Bros., Remo, Val, Texas Trey & Robert, John Paul, dog Ruby & friends, & Good Year tires.