End of an era, but not TEAM Locos Mocos!

The TEAM LOCOS MOCOS crew has been scattered all over the Baja peninsula offering FREE pit support since 1997. All good things must come to an end however, and the 2011 SCORE San Felipe 250 will end an era of dedicated volunteers who since 1997 have made the trek to SCORE Mexico races to support any racer in need of our services. We have become well known to racers and their chase support crews for our remote vehicle extractions, race vehicle repairs and fabrication. We have regulars that without a helmet on we’d never recognize them that we see 3 times a year. We have never left a racer stranded.  We became the “go to” crew for the Baja Pits race support program to haul equipment, race gear and fuel to the hardest pit locations each race.

1 member has made it to every event the last 10 years and has been the master coordinator for this incredible group of people. Stuart Klein aka “Baja Jones”  has been the mastermind of this organization since 2001 planning all 3 Mexico race logistics and has logged in the last 33 consecutive pits. Preparing equipment, coordinating with members, staffing each pit station, feeding a rowdy bunch of hooligans, loading the trailer, unloading the trailer, repairing the trailer……………………the list goes on in great detail but you get it……………… Jones has been the teams go to guy. He has a great group of local San Diego members who help weeks before and after every race with loading and unloading all the gear and equipment. Without all this effort from behind the scenes this program would not have existed.

The 2011 pit had a skeleton crew. Baja Jones, Bethel, Pauliana, Val, BCG1, 3 Ball, Neighbor Tim, Baja Billy & Papa John along with Patio Burrito, N-Chaos & Mikey-Mike set up the banners and pit for the last time. We fueled 25 bikes & quads. We assisted bike #102X who arrived with a hole in the left side of his case with JB Weld & gear oil. Val saved his ass since I poured the oil in and it drained out just as quick as it went in. Eddy was off and on his way to Honda pits 6. His team finished. We yanked out a buried #118 along with his chase buggy. We went back to recover #99A a quad who was stranded for 6 hours in the wash and discovered another buried truck #724. We got him going. Then we came across #149 with a busted rear hub, a mangled tire and no jack, the Excursion bottle jack was a savior…………..we got them going again. We arrived at 99A at dusk and began the trek back to the pit. On our way back we see team #861 buried and in need of assistance and bumped into the chase crew for 99A. We loaded the quad in their truck, hooked up the tow strap to #861 and we were back on our way to the pit. What started out to be a “back before dark excursion” lead to a “3 hour tour” guided by no other Pauliana & his Russian comic wingman.  Jones, next time bring the head lamp. You should know by now when a Locos Mocos recovery vehicle heads out of the pit it always turns into chaos. Truck #724 pulled into the pit to air back up along with truck #605 who had a right front flat changed. #861 was towed into the pit and aired up then was on his way. He almost got punted by Norman #8 who had hours of down time but came through at dark hauling the mail.  #1100 arrived at 8:30PM for fan belt repairs and a splash of fuel chasing the time limit at the next check point. The pit ran for 13 hours straight, 1 last time.  And as we began tear down that night reality set in. An era is ending…………….just for a short period of time I hope. Some crazy crew member has the same level of passion as deep as Stu to resurrect this program. Baja Joes is one of a kind though…………….so maybe not!

Our trips always revolve around someone’s prerun schedule to a relaxing beach destination and eventually we will end at a dedicated pit location that Jones has committed us to. It’s finally time that Baja Jones gets back behind the wheel of a prerunner to enjoy some of what Mexico has to offer and relaxes a bit. The elder of our staff refer to this stage as “retirement”. Some of the pups of the staff have not even collected their first paychecks yet! But there is no doubt in my mind that you’ll find portions of this amazing TEAM at the 2011 Baja 500 & Baja 1000 scattered in some nasty remote race location offering anyone and everyone pit support. If you have ever lent a hand at a Locos Mocos pit you know it is in your blood.

Please forward all complaints to the “complaint department” @:  www.locosmocos.net

It has been an amazing ride Stubie!  THANK YOU on behalf of this entire team for everything you have done. I’ll see you and the rest of the crew in the dirt……

N-Chaos

Photo Credits: Nicole Pitell, Steve Brosz

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