Back from Baja 500 w Avid Racing

Desert Toyz Cory S

DeSeRt ToYz RhInO - UTVUnderground Approved
Aug 23, 2009
125
9
18
58
Oh la! Just got back from Baja 500. Baja Billy, his son Nate Dog and I went to chase the bay side for Mike Lanskey and his Avid racing, H Town, Turn Key, Canam Commander. I was schedualed to drive the race Commander from mile 100 to 240. We arrived thursday night at the Bahia Hotel in down town Ensenada. The Avid team of 5 guys had everthing just about ready, they even had the Commander tech inspected and tagged. Baja Billy, Nate and I, can't go to Baja without rolling the race car through contingcey. We had brought lots of "Steekers" MM candy and T-shirts to give away. Baja Billy and I woke up at 5am, it is a big thrill for us to be in the front of the line. We got there and there were 6 other racers already waiting. About 30 seconds later the Viladosa Red Bull TT pulls up behind us, that was sweet. Contingcey went great lot of people and press, all the locals were very nice and polite. Saturday Baja Billy and I headed out at 9am for Ojos Negros rm mile 40. We got to watch the whole field go by, when I started to see class 11 cars comming through I new something was wrong. A 12 car stopped to pit by us and I ran over to ask If they had seen 1803 Commander, he said yes, it was 6 miles back broken. We jusp in the Chase truck and headed out on the course to find them. This section was public roads so we were able to go backwards on the course. We finally got radio contact with the Commander and they said they were moving very slow with a broken front spindle. We were useing Baja pits for pit service, I contacted them to let them know we needed a welder. It took about 2 hours to remove and weld the spindle. I was made of cast iron, I was using a arc welder and the part that broke had a very small attachment area. I added a few gussets to try to make it stronger and even welded the top of the ball joint to the spindle. Mike and corider Dale left out of Ojos about 3pm and we headed to rm mile 80 which was right on the highway. The race Commander was about rm mile 60 when they hit something in the silt and the repair broke ending our race. It was my first DNF in 40 years of racing Baja and kind of tough to admit defeat, but there was no fixxing that spindle. We finally got the Commander back to the hotel about 11pm. Thanks to Mike Lanskey and team Avid racing for the good times. Here are a few pics we took.





 

Darryl89

Killer Kitty - UTVUnderground Approved
Oct 8, 2009
846
15
18
63
Farmington, NM
Were you guys expecting an attack from the banditos.... what's up with the slingshots on the window frames...

 

Cityrat

New Member
May 20, 2011
22
0
0
50
Mt Wash
Better luck next time!...Seen many a vehicle just like your over the yrs...Baja is a beast!... What happen? Did you hit something r just fatigue?... Never kn.ow what 2 expect. Here is a pic uf us taking the steering wheel back 2 our trk so it could start the race! lol..
 

BOBONTHIS

#64 PRO UTVUNDERGROUND RACER - UTVUnderground Appr
Jan 27, 2009
364
17
18
Mesa, AZ
Should have been in A Kawasaki Teryx & you would have keeped your non DNF streek going!:D
 

Ignore Amos

Active Member
Jan 14, 2011
422
32
28
Tucson, AZ
Here's the 2 minute version of what happened...I'll do a whole write up when I get more pictures back...

short story is we were 22 min up on the next utv at RM 26...passed all the 11 cars and class 8's trucks except one...we were in the midst of passing him and went through a dammed up creek that was clogged full of stuck cars..followed the Class 8 up a alternate line up a 65-70 deg hill on the other side...he made it up...and then we followed, as we crested the top...the class 8 backed up hitting the front end of my commander (I'm sure he had no idea we were there)..flipping me completely backwards and then we rolled down about another 10-15 feet into the creek landing on the driver side with 2-3 ft of water in it..the Mexican's righted us...picked us up and spun us the direction of the hill we just came down...we went back up and made to the top..but heard a terrible sound from the front suspension..we got out and the left side spindle was completely broken... more to follow.. I'm told the hole thing was caught on film...
 

Desert Toyz Cory S

DeSeRt ToYz RhInO - UTVUnderground Approved
Aug 23, 2009
125
9
18
58
So Bob, why are there no Teryx owners stepping up, to put their machines thru the chalenges of racing Baja ? Are you up to the challenge? :D
 

jaggedx

Jagged X - Official UTVUnderground Sponsor
Jan 14, 2010
551
123
43
www.jaggedx.com
Here's the 2 minute version of what happened...I'll do a whole write up when I get more pictures back...

short story is we were 22 min up on the next utv at RM 26...passed all the 11 cars and class 8's trucks except one...we were in the midst of passing him and went through a dammed up creek that was clogged full of stuck cars..followed the Class 8 up a alternate line up a 65-70 deg hill on the other side...he made it up...and then we followed, as we crested the top...the class 8 backed up hitting the front end of my commander (I'm sure he had no idea we were there)..flipping me completely backwards and then we rolled down about another 10-15 feet into the creek landing on the driver side with 2-3 ft of water in it..the Mexican's righted us...picked us up and spun us the direction of the hill we just came down...we went back up and made to the top..but heard a terrible sound from the front suspension..we got out and the left side spindle was completely broken... more to follow.. I'm told the hole thing was caught on film...
Tough break, sounds like a bad way to end a race for sure. Congrats on running so well until that point though!

Mike
 

Ignore Amos

Active Member
Jan 14, 2011
422
32
28
Tucson, AZ
Thanks Mike.... we were all pretty disappointed especially after all the hours and hours everybody put in to get us to the point were we could participate...but that's racing... I'll be putting together a write up with loads of pics... but here's a teaser of the incident...



much more to come...a pro photog happened to catch the entire event...
 

dezertrebelz

New Member
Feb 14, 2010
34
1
0
Tucson AZ
Wow, that is a tuff break , especially with all the work YOU put in, a car like that must just be hours and hours of work, ATLEAST you took the car to Baja. lots of guys don't get to do that. Better line next time
 

Ignore Amos

Active Member
Jan 14, 2011
422
32
28
Tucson, AZ
Were you guys expecting an attack from the banditos.... what's up with the slingshots on the window frames...

Hey Darryl!

no banditos..but CHUPACABRA!...they do prey on unsuspecting Gringos! figured the Slingshots would be bring us good luck...boy was I ever wrong!

Thanks Nicholas...more guys need to venture on down..I know most everybody budgets are tight but with careful planning and sharing expenses...I think more UTV's could be racing in Baja...its adventure unlike any other!

We are definitively the red headed step children of SCORE (doesn't help that not one UTV finished) I wish we had more of a race..we passed a lot of cars that we weren't expected to. I think this new class of UTV's will change the way UTV's are looked upon in SCORE racing...at least I hope so..
 

Bajaxp

SXS Racer Extraordinaire - UTVUnderground Approved
Jan 21, 2010
1,597
253
83
OC
Part of the problem is that SCORE doesn't have a Pro class for UTV's. I have called and emailed Sal many times regarding this and he says we are too slow and too low of % of finishers. I asked him to look at how far we have come in BITD but so far no movement as he still thinks of this as the 'Rhino Class'...no offense to Yamaha drivers. But we know that the bulk of WORCS and BITD field is made up of non-Rhinos.' I have raced a UTV successfully down there before in my old full sized Ranger XP (thus my screen name) and plan to return...when SCORE changes the class. So other people need to pester Sal about this if you have any interest in racing in Baja.
 

az_amsoil

Amsoil Arizona - UTVUnderground Approved
Jan 22, 2009
593
18
18
It was good seeing you guys down down there, tough luck on the DNF. The course was hard on all classes.

Looking forward to the race report :D
 

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