By this time it was 7:00am and we drove
for 700 miles, all day and all the next night
chasing the race. Peter handed the bike to
Rob at about 11am after a short stint on
the bike, and Rob then rode through the
afternoon to give the bike to Dougy at about
3:00pm.
I had started the race with the big lights
on and they were taken off for the day time
racing. We re-installed them at about 5pm
for Dougy to be able to take the bike through
to Kevin, who took off at 9:55pm and rode
through to cross the finish line at 5:00am.
Our efforts brought us home in 28 hours, 40
minutes and 50 seconds, good enough for
the 11th motorcycle overall and we took 2nd
in the Pro Moto 50+ Vets class, out of 103
starters. We were about five hours behind
the winning bike and nine hours behind the
winning Trophy Truck. Yes, that’s right the
first Trophy Truck home completed the 1134
miles in a time of just over 19 hours!
Going to a race that is longer than our little
56 KIWI RIDER
New Zealand, not seeing your team mates
for a week beforehand until you give them
the bike, riding in the chase truck down the
Baja peninsula with a driver who is wired
on Monster energy drink all makes for an
interesting time away! I could go on forever
about this race, as it is an unforgettable
experience that’s for sure.
THANKS
Big thanks have to go to Rob Creemers and
Peter Herd for putting the 2012 and 2017
efforts together, as well as Dougy Herbert
and Kevin Archer for their parts in getting the
bike to the finish. Also to Tim and Jennifer
Morton for putting all the logistics together
for us to complete the race. If you ever
wanted to tour the Baja Tim and Jen are the
ones to take you; during the 500-odd miles
I travelled with Tim in the chase truck there
wasn’t one side road he didn’t know.