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
