2013 Mexican 1000
Race Day 4 - Wednesday May 1, 2013
Final day of racing. Since the debacle of Day
1, the race has gone really well. Lost some time on Day 2 due to helping one
rider in the first special, then having to wait for gas in the second special;
but I've been riding well, and Day 3 had gone just about perfect.
Another 7:00am start let's us sleep in a little bit; but were up by 6 and
getting ready. The start for the day is just in front of the Grand Plaza hotel
but the first section is a 28 mile liaison to San Pedro where the racing will
start. Out at San Pedro, we line up again for starting two at a time. The first
section is a long straight dirt road - just haul a$$. I pass about three riders
before reaching the end of the straight. Then its a bunch of twisty dirt roads
and trails heading west out to the coast. We pass through a few small farmer
villages. The navigation gets a little tricky, and I lose about 5 minutes at one
point trying to find the right trail.
Out at the coast, we have some deep sand washes, and a little bit of silt - but
nothing too bad. Then it's some coastal roads heading south towards Todos
Santos. Just north of Todos Santos, we take dirt roads east and out to Hwy 19
north of Todos Santos. Kevin is waiting for me there to top me off with gas
before heading out on the 2nd half of this 106 mile racing special.
After getting gas, we cross the highway and head east into the mountains. The
first part of this section is not very difficult - pretty fast but need to take
care to make the correct turns. Then we end up on some mountains road/trails
that gets pretty technical due to all of the washouts and obviously very little
road maintenance. This section was much rougher than I was expecting, but it
might be because its at the end of 4 days of racing. It was some great scenery,
up in the mountains - curvy roads and trails, but you had to really pay
attention to the turns and the washouts. A lot of the trail had washout gullies
everywhere - I'd try to stay out of them but every once in a while you drop in
and then just have to ride the gully to the end.
Then as you are coming out of the mountains on the eastern side of the range,
the road opens up to a pretty wide and flat dirt road that you would expect to
be easy to ride - but it isn't! There's a really fine layer of slippery granite
or something on the surface, and it's almost like riding on an ice rink. You
just couldn't go fast on this stuff, and it's really curvy.
Finally, it's a long straight dirt road to the end of the special - just as fast
as you could go, with plenty of cattle guard crossings to get some air...
At the end of the special, Cory and Joel were
waiting to get me gas.
I also now put on a jacket that my older brother Keith had wore when he raced the 1976 Baja 500 and 1000. Part of the reason for me wanting to race the Mexican 1000 was in tribute to my brother who passed away last October. I wanted to wear his jacket across the finish line.
Then I was off on a short 4 mile liaison and then a final 20 mile racing section into San Jose del Cabo.
The last racing section was supposed to be
road book only, but being without a road book on my backup bike I had converted
the route to GPS tracks. It involved a lot of sandy wash, some dirt roads, and
then a final 3 or 4 blocks of pavement into the finish line in downtown San Jose
del Cabo. For a lot of this part of the special, the course was lined with
locals cheering on all the racers. Of course, I got a great big cheer when I
fell on a loose sandy right hand turn in one of the sand washes - my only real
fall of the entire race.
Making the final right hand turn onto the finish straight, I pulled a nice
wheelie while shifting through the gears and then it was up onto the finish
podium. Since my family (wife, 2 daughters, boyfriends) and two family friends
had flown into Cabo the day before, I got the largest cheer on the finish
podium.
I beat Kevin and Cory/Joel to the finish, but they showed up shortly after I
finished.
My support crew (Joel, Cory, Kevin) and I at the finish...
Celebrating with the wife...
With my Mom and her friends from Las Vegas...
With my wife, daughter Erika and her boyfriend
Greg...
Being interviewed at the finish...
This one is for my brother Keith!
It appears that the last short racing
special was not scored for the race, but for the main racing special for the
day, I finished 17th overall and 3rd in class.
What a great feeling - I had done it - finished the
Mexican 1000!!!
Later, at the Awards Banquet
Time to eat - the wife and I...
My daughters - Shana (left) with fiance Gary; and Erika (right) with boyfriend Greg
1/3 of my support crew - Joel
The other 2/3's of my support crew - Kevin and Cory
Could never have finished without this terrific support crew!!!
Pre-Race Race Day 1 Race Day 2 Race Day 3 Race Day 4