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Senores, Start Yer Engines
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With much anticipation, the first bike came roaring through at 12:37 AM. Bike 1X, Honda Team A, was eerie smooth . . .
and fast! Before I knew it, it had passed, and all I got was a shot of a wake of dust. Two hours passed and nothing. Then
over the sound of rumbling music, the next bike passed, Bike 7x, Honda Team B. A few minutes later came the third bike,
then a group of bikes. For the next 1 1/2 hours, there was not much to see until the first quad came roaring through -- the
first four wheeler, Temecula Motorsports' Danny Prather. Way to go Danny!
About 20 minutes later we heard a road off in the distance, and dancing headlights about three miles to the north. It was
dark, about 5:45 AM. The sound grew louder, the ground shook and around the bend came the first trophy truck. All 800
horses! People still hugged the track, looking for a great photo. I stood back and shot a video sequence. It was really
awesome! Can you imagine being tracked down by this beast on your motorcycle???! McMillan / Gordon passed in a roar
of dust, heading for home one hour south.
Until sunrise, only three trophy trucks had passed. According to veteran watchers this was off by about 80% over previous
Ensenada to La Paz runs. Bikes, quads, class one buggies, trophy trucks dribbled by one at a time every 6-10 minutes for
the next several hours. One rider was so excited he missed the turn and started for the highway. Fans chased him back
into the course.
By noon, nearly 110 vehicles had passed, more than 28 hours since the beginning of the race. With 431 entries, this was
pretty small. Laredo to Insurgentes was claiming victims! So George and I packed it in and headed to the finish line in La
Paz to catch up with Sal Fish and the lucky finishers!
