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Baja November 24, 2010

“Vini, vidi, vici: they came, they saw, they conquered”

Team Rally Raid Canada sponsored by Duncan Motorsports has completed the 2010 Baja 1000 finishing an impressive 5th in their class!!

The team did a magnificent job of bringing home the Husaberg FE570 for the manufactures first ever Baja finish. Finishing the event was the team’s top priority and although happy with their fifth place finish they have filed a time protest with the event organizers to see if the almost one hour that our rider Nick Caldwell spent assisting a downed competitor can be readjusted to the overall time for the event. Official timing has the team completing the race in 33.02 hours.

The DMS Racing built Husaberg FE570 did an excellent job of dealing with the harsh Mexican environment. Essentially stock other than upgrades available through the Husaberg Performance Parts Catalogue the bike performed flawlessly.

“We rode an absolutely stock Husaberg FE390 and FE450 bike during the pre-ride portions and we were so impressed by their handling, performance and reliability”, Don noted.

Paul Gallagher had the pleasure of riding off the starting line in Ensenada heading across Baja towards San Felipe and the dreaded woops section. “With great bottom end power, well sorted fuel injection system and excellent suspension the bike is a pleasure to ride during my 30 miles of “woops” he says. “

Marc Ebdrup rode the second leg of the race from Coco’s Corner to San Ignacio. He had to deal with the blinding sun as he rode the very fast last daylight section, and the first part of the night sections. “It was great. The bike is so fast and stable”.

Nick Caldwell rode the night section of the course. Compounding the already dusty conditions from the silt beds was the cold damp foggy weather heading into the rider change at checkpoint 8. Having to concentrate 100% to see through the night with light only being supplied by the two eight inch HID headlights on the front of the bikes. “Wow, was that wild or what” somehow summed up the stage so correctly.

As team manager Don Hatton saved the best and possibly the hardest section for himself. Taking off at 3am from checkpoint eight Don had nearly zero visibility for the first 100 miles while battling the damp fog, cold temperature, and nearly 60 miles of sand whoops, and worst of all being passed by the 100 mph Trophy Trucks. After all this he had to ride the Aztec Stairs; nearly 11 miles of two foot drops prior to coming into the end of the race at La Paz. He took 9 hours to complete the 250 mile section.

Our support team of Kevan Ibbotson, John Yeomans, Bernie Wright and Nathan Sutter logged well over 4000 miles (6500 km) chasing the riders during the pre-ride sections and then during the actual race. The pre ride was a lot of work and driving for the support team. They joked that it is comparable to leaving Duncan BC and driving for 300 KM to Campbell River then have the riders unload and ride the bikes 500 km to Port Hardy, then picking them up and driving back to Duncan. Then the next day, do it all over again. A big thank you and hat’s off to our support team.

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