A Day In Baja

[Caliraptor]

Last sunday, feb 22 i raced over in baja. it was on a 13 mile loop, 90 minutes + 1 lap. the way it works is you race for 90 minutes, and then you do another lap. so i wasnt sure if i wanted to race in the novice class because i had only raced once in novice prior to that which was in jan 08 or to jump into expert. so i stuck with novice. but before going into the race i want to cover another thing that goes on before the race, usually 1 week before. but because we didnt have time we preran the day before hahaha. so here are the pics from the prerun

the entrance to the laguna salada over in baja

once inside you need to follow the arrows until you reach the course

once there, we unloaded the rappy 

heres a pic of a section of the course

here i am with two buddies on their raptor 700s :grin_nod:




so after doing 3 laps in the prerunning we left and rechecked the bike for any problems

the next day all my family woke up at 6am and started to get everything together to leave, my mom made the food, my dad and i loaded everything we could need (tools, chair, oil, funnel, spare tires, ect)
we ended up leaving like at 7:30am, we got to the race like at 830-9 just in time to see the dirt bike race  after like 2 hours, the race was over and it was time to put on my gear and start to stretch n stuff
so here are the pics of me at the starting line


that kid on the 450r is a friend of mine, had the honor of racing against him for 1st time

thats me talking to another friend who races score international, hes just reminding me of things on the course and giving some last minute pointers

so the race starts, the pros make first dust, then go the experts mixed with the vets because they werent alot, and then my class, novice, started followed by the beginners and then  the side x sides

they beat me the holeshot 
for the first lap i was in 4th place





after starting my 2nd lap i was starting to see the dust from the other 3 guys, i was catching up! so that pumped me up some more

and i pinned it to win it 

on that lap i was in 3rd place but 1st place was like a red cape to a bull.
so second lap is finished, on with the 3rd RM 39



at about RM 43 which is actually RM 4 i saw 2nd place going backwards on the track, i was like  2nd place for me! then at that same lap i caught up to 1st place at around RM 10-11 i passed by him pinned 5th gear, thats the thing of prerunning, you need to see what line is faster so i had the faster lane and wasnt a tired as he was so i made the pass
onto the 4th lap



by that time i had already passed 3rd place expert and was focused on 2nd place expert, at a wash aprrox rm 2 of the lap i passed him
everything went flawlessly and onto my 5th and last lap


and the thing we all want to see

the checkered flag

thats me talkin with 2nd place expert

he was askin me why i passed by him so slow hahaha (he also races a raptor 660 )
as you can see from the pics, there were alot of photographers out there as well as newspaper reporters

if you look in the yellow column, i appear under NOVATOS from Calexico :grin_nod:
after the award thingy we went home and rested the next day i checked the bike and found some pretty interesting things, the drain bolt from the oil tank was loose, i could take out with my fingers!  and also the temp sensor from the radiator was unplugged! before the start of the race i had my bike running and i dad came running and pointed out that the bike was throwing antifreeze from the overflow meaning it was HOT!  good thing was nothing happened to my bike  enjoy!

for those at work i dont think u'll be able to see the pics 

[Caliraptor]

heres the map

[Colorado700R]

Badass Bro, great Job, and Congrats!!!  sounds like you need to bump up a few levels

[Krandall]

Freaking Awesome!!!


Congrats on the HUGE win for the raptors!

[Peelz]

Hellz yeah Cali! Very nice. I enjoyed reading. Great pics!

[fire raptor]

Good riding kid. We are lucky to be able to ride Baja. Your rebuilt bike looks good. I need to get my butt to one of the races and see whats going on. The Raptors are such great desert quads and if the 700 only had a desert tank it would be badass. When is your next race? we are going to San felipe for Semana Santa. There is a fun Poker run in the South Campos on Easter weekend. Later, ride safe or dont crash.

[Caliraptor]

Good riding kid. We are lucky to be able to ride Baja. Your rebuilt bike looks good. I need to get my butt to one of the races and see whats going on. The Raptors are such great desert quads and if the 700 only had a desert tank it would be badass. When is your next race? we are going to San felipe for Semana Santa. There is a fun Poker run in the South Campos on Easter weekend. Later, ride safe or dont crash.

april 19, zr team race is the next one, around 150 miles between 2 or 3 im not sure how many we r gonna be this time. same place, different course 

[Out Back Welding]

awesome job dude!

[FoundArealQuad]

That's awesome, great thread

[Danny T]

good job man thats sweet