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Race Day at the 2010 Baja 500

The rider assignments for Team Big Dog pro class 50, bike 501X:

There were 3 pit crews, 2 on the east side off of Highway 3 and 1 on the west side off of Highway 1.

Movies

Race Day through RM 196, waiting for Ed at Borrego in the desert -- 6/5/10 -- [61Mb]
Race Day from RM 403 near Ojos Negros to the finish line. -- 6/5/10 -- [87Mb]

Pictures


A bike starts every 30 seconds. Bike 501x started at 6:22:30am.

Meanwhile the early east side pit crews headed out before 6:00am and found this huge traffic jam before Ojos Negros. Later on the radio it said it was 5 miles long.
It was caused by the race crossing the highway right by a military checkpoint, causing a backup.

East side Matt's crew at RM 75 waiting for Dave.
Dave arrived at 8:52am then only a splash of fuel to get him to the RM 95 pit for Ed to start.

Meanwhile Ed drives on to meet Dave at transfer pit RM 95:

Dave said the early morning fog and dew played havoc with the massive dust, making it pretty tough to see through your goggles.
Dave hands off to Ed at RM 95:

Meanwhile Matt's crew with Gene and Ryan (a desert racer from Fresno) drives on to RM 196 at junction of Hwy 3.
This is a little patch of sultry HELL called Borrego in the 104 degree heat...
Listening to the Weatherman on the scanner, we hear of several riders suffering from heatstroke when arriving at this pit, and a couple of accidents.
So we make the most of it, waiting for Ed to arrive:

At 1:28pm Ed came in (after the 14,000 whoops, remember?).
Ed had used Baja Pits at the dry lake bed around RM160 or so, for gas and cold water.
At our pit we changed air filter, checked bike over, added mucho agua fria to Ed's gut and body.
Then sent him out at 1:31pm to find Dave at RM 223:

Ed hands bike back off to Dave at RM 223 at the junction of Mike's Sky Ranch road and Hwy 3:

Dave rides from RM 223, across Mike's road and the high speed road to Hwy1 at RM 289.
Then Marc begins the big final section leaving RM 289 around 4:55pm:

After a loop along the Pacific coast, back to Hwy 1 for a pit stop at Santo Tomas RM 360 around 7:30pm:

Meanwhile waiting at the RM 403 pit near the Ojos Negros area on Hwy 3 just before sunset:

Marc pulls into the RM 403 pit around 10:00pm:

And then....
at 12:15am... after 17 hours 52 minutes... riding in the dark being passed by trophy trucks and buggies...

....... MARC BROUGHT IT HOME FOR TEAM BIG DOG !!!!!


Misc stuff:
AdvRider.com our Cactus Dave describes his race in an interesting discussion about the dangers of the trucks and buggies passing bikes. Expand the full thread and read more.

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