The 2011 NORRA Mexican 1000...............images Pt II.

Casa Diaz,early morning and the start of Day 2.

 A little later,Sea of Cortez heading south on Mex 1.

Only(!!)2 Special Stages on day 2,but a total of 300 off-road miles.Bob Land had warned me of the Special Stages(125 miles and 175 miles respectively) the night before,asking if my intention was to run them.He said Day 1 was nothing compared to the Day 2 Stages and he strongly advised against me running it.Since I live on my bike full time as opposed to having it as a weekend warrior,I opted to take his advice and the Hwy all the way to Loreto.This was the day that did the damage to Bobs Jeep,so I think I made the right choice.I do appreciate Bob and the crew looking out for me though,thanks fellas.

So I had to go back out of Bay of LA ,head north and west to pick up Mex 1 to go south to Guerrero Negro,then to San Ignacio,down through Santa Rosalia to Mulege,and from there it was a straight run down to Loreto for the end of Day 2.

Bay of LA,line up for the start of Day 2.

Bob Lands 38 Jeep off the start line in Bay of LA,Day 2.

An '89 Honda CR.I like the extra fuel cells on the front.

Tito Tinoco  and Melissa Eickhoff Smith in the #61 Bronco.

This is........oh never mind,it's on the door.

#29 "The Lost Boys" '73 AMC Hornet.

Michele Martineau,extraordinary woman...........really.

Thank you for all your help and support through the event Michele,and thanks for a place to stay in La Paz.

BFI Racing"s '71 Chebby Suburban.

Waiting for the start of Day 2,Bay of LA.

A lot of guys got the crap kicked out of them and their vehicles,so the parking lot of the back of La Mission,the NORRA HQ and Hotel of choice for most of the racers,was a hive of activity,including but not limited to Bob Lands Jeep and crew who worked until after midnight to get the Jeep ready for Day 3.

#14,Syko,blew a power steering pump after Special Stage 1.

"The top just blew right off the damn thing" he said.They could only thread 3 bolts back in,hence the bar across two of the holes.

Day 2,just like Bob Land warned me,was taking casualties 'n dropping 'em like flies.

Day 2 was a constant battle of repairs.

The Canadians....eh?.They got me out of a bind here,thanks fellas.

All in all,Day 2 saw a lot of exhausted drivers and riders in Loreto,but a night of repairs was needed for most to continue on to Day 3.

'Till then...

Murph

The 2011 NORRA Mexican 1000..............Images.

This is a re-post of a post I originally made last Thursday,May 12th.For whatever reason the post has completely disappeared from Blogspot.This is the first time this has happened to me,but not the first time it's happened to some of my fellow bloggers.Needless to say,i'm pissed.As I previously mentioned,I have purchased the .com version of my site name,so given this issue,I will be making plans to shut down this site and move everything over in the coming months.It will take a while to do this,but after the amount of time I put into making this post only to have it "disappear" is unacceptable to me.Meanwhile,I will continue posting on Facebook for the time being.So without further ado,the case of the disappearing post.......

Day 1,Special Stage 3 was the one that nearly took me and the bike out.

So the NORRA HQ was at the Hotel Colonial in Mexicali,a few blocks away from the Bullring where,on Thursday May 5th,all the cars gathered for tech inspection,press conference and display for the drivers and locals.A good time was had by all.........

....but some had a better time than others.

"I dunno,do you know Ken?,nope,me neither".Maybe it's the blue thingy?.

Yea,sure she did.

Mike Pearlman and his daughter Pam.

This one hurt........

Ze Bullring en Mexicali.

"Big Oly", a '69 Bronco.I love this rig,it just has such a classic look to it.It's got Baja all over it.

And this is "Little Oly"...

This VW powered Cat 4 ran the '69 and '70 Mexican 1000 and got 4th in class and 10th overall.A lot of history in this car.

This was Ned and Kat's flat fendered Willys,30 years in the ongoing build process,all completely owner fabricated by Ned.Off-roaders will notice it's a rock crawler,so what's it doing in the Mexican 1000?."Just something we wanted to do",says Ned.So they drove it down from Nevada(remember,rock crawler=5.11 gears)competed in the Mexican 1000,made it to La Paz,got the trophy,and drove it back home.That really embodies the spirit of the NORRA Mexican 1000,grass roots rallying.

So,right off the bat,which has happened with the racing community that I have encountered so far on my travels,this group of desert racers proved again to be just a really great bunch of people....

...especially this man and his team,Bob Land of Bob Land Racing.
Bob was campaigning a '89 Jeep Cherokee in Category 5.I got to the Hotel Colonial in Mexicali(NORRA HQ) a few days early and Bob and I were the only ones there,he was waiting for the guys to come down with the #38 Jeep.....

....and they did the next day.

Casa Diaz,Bay of LA,Baja.

Bob and the guys adopted me,took me under their wing,so I hung out with them for most if not all the rally.After I finished Special Stage 1 and got to the highway 12 miles from Cocos Corner I rode on down to Bahia De Los Angeles.I got in a little late,but the guys had a big plate of food waiting for me,best steak I ever had.By the time I got to Bay of LA,both myself and the bike needed some attention.I repaired what I broke on the Stage and then it was lights out.

The view the next morning.As Bob said of Casa Diaz,a million dollar view..........with no windows.

Enrique Covarubias.

Day 2,the chase truck with Peter and his son Eric,who is also a co-driver,waiting at a Pemex gas station for the 38 Jeep.

Fuel for the car,fuel for the driver.Bob Land takes a much needed and a very quick pit stop.
Day 2 proved to be a difficult stage for the 38 Jeep,they broke a suspension strut in the interior cage and had no brakes for most of the day.So when the end of Day 2 rolled around it was all work for the guys.

Robert repairing the cage and new shock mount.

Enrique trying to fix the busted brake lines.

So Bob said to tell the guys to come eat in the Hotel they were staying at,so I conveyed the message to Enrique.He says "Murph,we don't have time to eat,we gotta get the car finished,otherwise we don't race tomorrow".So Bob gave me some money and went to a local Taqueria and ordered twenty tacos with all the sides.Really tasty too.

So Bob Land Racing ended up finishing in La Paz and coming in 1st in Class.Congratulations to the whole team.
And  to all the guys,Enrique,Bob,Ramon,Robert,Eric,Peter and Ruben,thank you for all your help,friendship and generosity.It really made my first Mexican 1000 rally a memorable one.

The finish line in La Paz,Baja California,1000 miles of pretty brutal on/off road later.

Sea Of Cortez,Baja California.
May 6th,2011.






Murph