Nearly 100 years after the acquisition of California North by the United States the Auto Club of Southern California surveyed Mexico’s 1000-mile long Baja Peninsula in an effort to make a legible road map. While in the process they planted small blue and white baked enamel signs along the way directing greenhorn travelers south. (An experienced driver would never even attempt the ordeal.) Left untouched by native Mexicans over the years, these road signs began to find their way into living rooms and dens when stateside adventurers trekked south during the heyday of ‘Jeeping’. Adventuresome 4-wheelers would cross the Mexican border to experience this sparsely populated desert; now picked clean of those nifty little Auto Club markers; and promptly loose their way. Partly because of these perverse pleasure seekers Baja’s economy began to grow; Ensenada had become the second busiest seaport in all of Mexico and an observatory site found on Baja Norte’s 9286 foot Sierra De San Pedro Martir mountains boast as being one of the largest gathering of telescopes in the north western continent. Not an accident, the air is so pure one can see both the Pacific coast and, looking east, view the Mexican mainland seacoast on the other side of the Sea of Cortez; about a distance of 100 miles.

It’s not often the right people get together at the right time to make history. This whole idea of riding a motorcycle the length of the Baja Peninsula against a clock belongs to motorcycle racer turned Hollywood stuntman, Bud Ekins. And it was American Honda Motor Company who supplied the vehicle to make it work. Actually, it was AHM Sales Manager Jack McCormack and Western States Sales Manager Walt Fulton whom Bud convinced a “Baja Trail Ride” with Honda’s brand new CL72 Scrambler would be a great way to kick off sales for Honda’s first dirt bike. Jack and Walt then had to convince AHM management to set the wheels in motion. To the Japanese a failure of this magnitude made the idea “difficult sell’ for the U.S. team. Remember, there was no record to break, just a record to make. And the primary job would be to get it done.

The plan was Bud and Dave Ekins would ride the new bikes and Walt Fulton would fly cover, not a bad idea. Then something happened to the basic plan. Triumph Motorcycle Distributor, Johnson Motors, would not allow their key and most famous dealer, Bud, to participate. So, younger brother Dave, (who had been racing prototype 250cc Honda Scramblers), set out to find another partner. Then McCormack suggested asking Bill Robertson and Bill Jr. owners of Honda of Hollywood, a major retail operation in the heart of movie town. Bill Robertson Senior had spent many hours flying Baja on fishing trips and seemed a fit aboard Fulton’s chase plane as guide/navigator, co-pilot. Bill Jr., an accomplished desert racer at age 24, would ride the other Honda.

Honda management decided they needed editorial proof of accomplishment so they invited Cycle World magazine publisher Joe Parkhurst. Then Joe asked WW2 aviator and friend John McLaughlin to do the flying. John said, ”Great, you pay for the gas.” The year was 1962, groundwork for the Auto Club maps had begun in 1933. The team used 30-year-old maps of mostly dirt roads that would detour anytime a vehicle got stuck or disabled. As it turned out the whole event was a lot of guesswork and luck, both good and bad. There would be two motorcycles on the ground and one airplane flying cover with a second bearing witness; and an additional free-lance photojournalist. Then to add to the adventure no private airplane is allowed to fly after dark in Mexico. And all this would be done without radios, GPS, or any other modern navigational aid for the bike riders. The actual ride started at midnight then finished a day and a night and another day later, 39 hours 56 minutes. Dave and Bill would go without sleep for nearly 60 hours.

Proof of these types of cross-country adventures began with Cannonball Baker’s famous pre WW1 ride across the U.S. following railroad tracks and using available telegraph stations to confirm progress. Baker’s ride was done with an Indian motorcycle. For the ’62 Baja attempt telegrams would be sent at the start and finish. Those 1962 telegrams do exist as does the story and photographs published by Joe Parkhurst in the June’62 issue of Cycle World magazine. This is not a fairy tale.

Logistics for this attempt were a nightmare. Going south, the last gas station is a Pemex all-nighter in Ensenada 65 miles into the ride. The next real gas station is on the outskirts of LaPaz nearly a 1,000 miles away. Range of the motorcycles, as in all internal combustion contraptions, depends upon per mile consumption and fuel tank size. These CL72s could empty their 2.4 gallon gas tanks in less than 50 miles if held wide open, but could cover 80 or 90 miles when running under half throttle. An additional one gallon plastic gas can was placed inside a cargo bag mounted on the fuel tank if needed.

In Febuary ’62 Fulton flew the team down the Baja Peninsula in order to see where they had to go. Unlike modern Baja Race pre-runs, this one was done in an airplane. Walt also needed to land on sections of the course at about 80-mile increments to facilitate fuel stops. As it turned out there always seemed to be a rancho with a suitable dirt strip and a few 55 gallon fuel drums near these important sites. Fuel would be siphoned from these drums with an old garden hose filling what seemed to be one gallon glass wine bottles. Splashing a couple of gallons into a waiting bike wasn’t a problem. But climbing the wing of a Cessna and filtering 40 gallons though a chamois, one gallon at a time, did take a while. Airplanes need gas too. Another reason for the pre-run flight was to determine which route would be better; the Gulf side with its more traveled road, or the Pacific side that seemed to be shorter and offered fewer rocks. Mistake #1; they chose the less traveled Pacific route.

The decision was made to start this attempt at midnight, (mistake #2 because both riders had worked a full day before driving 3 hours to San Diego.) the 3

rd Saturday of March, 1962. Getting lost in the dark shouldn’t be a problem riding that twisting highway from Tijuana to Ensenada. From there to the A.M. meeting in San Quintin is also well traveled. Both bikes had been refueled a second time at the end of the pavement in Santo Thomas. A raised corrugated dirt road from there to Futon’s waiting plane was very straight and fast. The CLs were just skimming high spots as daylight broke to the left of the riders. Gas, a bite to eat, and they were on their way. The road becomes two deep ruts as it turns inland towards a tiny village called El Rosario. A sharp left turn directly into the sun blinded both riders at the same instant a wire stretched across a driveway snatched Bill and Dave off their bikes. Luckily it was a slow speed crash and only the bikes suffered damage, (Lucky incident #1. There could have been broken bones.) with Bill’s CL72 getting the worst of it.

Then the two rode another 40 miles towards the Santa Ines airstrip. The team was on target for the predetermined 32 hour schedule as they slid up next to the Cessna. At this juncture Bill Sr. noticed Bill Jr’s. rear fender support had broken. Both bikes had lost their taillight lenses. The decision was made to remove the entire rear fender and run without, (Even though they had enough spare parts in the plane to put a new fender on.) Bill Jr. then had to look forward to riding over 700 miles without a fender and the protection it offered. (Mistake #3).

They had an unscheduled meeting of bikes and plane at Chapala Dry Lake when John McLaughlin and his Cessna 195 met up with the Honda team. The press was aboard and it became ‘picture taking’ time. Needless to say, the schedule was out the window, from now on it was ‘please the photographer’. A couple of hours later Dave and Bill were chasing chickens around a small adobe house in the five casa village of Rosarito. Everybody had fun except the chickens; as precious daylight began slipping away. (Mistake #4)

The next stop was El Arco near the 28

th parallel, it also marks the separation between Pacific Time and Mountain Time. El Arco is absolutely the worst place to spend any time in Baja. Even the water well is planted downstream from the villages only outhouse. Walt and Bill Sr. waited as long as they could with no sign of the two Hondas. They were scheduled to meet the bikes in the middle of night at La Purisima, another two stops down the road; and they had to be there. Meanwhile Bill and Dave broke the crest of a hill on the road leading into El Arco just in time to see the Cessna 180 lift off the runway as the sun hurried towards the evening horizon. Incredibly, a Federal Soldier was there to check the rider’s papers, then led them to a five gallon gas container and cheese sandwiches left by Fulton and Robertson.

El Arco to San Ignacio is about the most miserable 70 miles there is to wrestle a bike. Long ago volcano’s spewed a bunch of nasty square rocks down there, then the rocks got covered with sand blown in from the coast. The message here is rocks aren’t too bad as long as you can see them, invisible rocks are a different story. It took Bill and Dave the better part of four hours and many get-offs before they made it to the San Ignacio airport, where another care package was waiting.

From there the road is just two tracks on the Pacific side mostly of sand with a few rounded stones. They headed southwest then picked up the coast and turned due south. After dark the warm desert air pulls a blanket of fog in from the ocean and obliterates the moon and stars. Celestial navigation? Forget it. A little later Dave noticed tire tracks in his headlight beam. He stopped, took a look and decided the tracks were their own. (Not even a good guess, who else would be down there on a motorcycle?) Lucky incident #2. The two adventurers had been riding in a circle. So without a compass or any other guidance the wiser move was to stop and wait for the sun to appear. The other choice would be to run out of gas. They were lost.

Meanwhile Walt and Bill Sr. had spent the night tending a campfire and waiting for the two boys to make a showing. It didn’t happen; the two lost and exhausted riders had built a campfire then waited for daylight to appear. Then it would just be a matter of riding with one’s left shoulder being warmed by that welcome ball o’ fire, the morning sun.

When daylight broke Bill Sr. encouraged Walt to take the plane and fly north to find Bill Jr. and Dave. Fog was still hanging around so visibility was questionable, they over flew the two Honda riders in the morning mist. About a half-hour into the search and without any positive sighting, Walt decided to set the Cessna down and have a look at the road for motorcycle tracks. The chosen landing spot was far too soft for the Cessna and Fulton immediately reacted to mud trying to pull his plane into a quagmire. (Lucky incident #3, the plane should have crashed.) The 180 broke loose and, relishing their good fortune, the two flew directly back to the La Purisima meeting pace.

Meanwhile the pair of CL riders found San Juanico, a three casa fishing village complete with barking dogs and curious children. They purchased two gallon bottles of green/grey gas and two warm Cokes. Then, after a few minutes, were on their way south running on stale fuel that didn’t agree with the high performance OHC twins.

Walt Fulton landed his mud splattered Cessna 180 just a half hour ahead of the Hondas at Purisima’s dirt air strip, the easy part lay ahead. It would be another 80 miles of solid road to Constitucion; gas, food, then the last 130 miles of Mexican pavement. Which offers no guarantee because that thin Baja Sur tarmac has a reputation for nasty hard to see pot-holes.

Bill and Dave spotted the airfield and Cessna as the dirt road abruptly ended. Relieved that the worst part was over, and with the plane in sight, they opened the Hondas up for the first time. As they reached about 70 mph one exhaust pipe started spewing black smoke when Bill’s CL lost a cylinder. Dave, without hesitation, planted a boot over the dead pipe and pushed Bill into the airstrip. Dave wanted to push Bill the last 130 miles; after all, they had ridden together for nearly two days solid. Bill Sr. was for it but Walt nixed the idea. His reasoning was he didn’t want to destroy the other CL and blow the whole attempt. Walt was right because no one there knew at that time the removal of the rear fender led to a perforated paper air filter which caused the holed piston 700 miles later.

Running out of gas in Baja is not an option, and getting lost is easy. The last 130 mile leg is a little beyond the range of those CLs even when cruising at half-throttle. Dave did switch to reserve near the outskirts of La Paz then saved the day by using that last gallon stored inside the tank bag. There was additional panic when Dave lost a few more minutes finding the telegraph office. Still, he made it to the LaPaz telegraph office in 4 minutes less than 40 hours. Bill Junior finished on one cylinder an hour and a half later closely followed by his Dad giving chase in a LaPaz based taxi.

Did the ride pay off for American Honda Motor Company? You bet. From ’62 thru ’68 AHM sold more than 89,000 CL type motorcycles. Two major races have been held in Baja each year since 1967, thanks to an ex-marine named Eddie Pearlman and automotive journalist Don Francisco. These two put the first half-dozen races on under the guise of National Off Road Racing Association. Then the Mexican Government disallowed NORRA future race sanctions and tried pulling the race off them selves. That did not work. Mickey Thompson and Sal Fish came in with SCORE and two well organized races have been run in Baja each year thereafter.. Subsequently Baja’s economy and development has been growing by leaps and bounds; much of it because of the Mexican 1000 race which began in 1967, 44 years ago.

-Dave Ekins, 2011

Check out Bud and Dave Ekins web site here

The TEAM LOCOS MOCOS crew has been scattered all over the Baja peninsula offering FREE pit support since 1997. All good things must come to an end however, and the 2011 SCORE San Felipe 250 will end an era of dedicated volunteers who since 1997 have made the trek to SCORE Mexico races to support any racer in need of our services. We have become well known to racers and their chase support crews for our remote vehicle extractions, race vehicle repairs and fabrication. We have regulars that without a helmet on we’d never recognize them that we see 3 times a year. We have never left a racer stranded.  We became the “go to” crew for the Baja Pits race support program to haul equipment, race gear and fuel to the hardest pit locations each race.

1 member has made it to every event the last 10 years and has been the master coordinator for this incredible group of people. Stuart Klein aka “Baja Jones”  has been the mastermind of this organization since 2001 planning all 3 Mexico race logistics and has logged in the last 33 consecutive pits. Preparing equipment, coordinating with members, staffing each pit station, feeding a rowdy bunch of hooligans, loading the trailer, unloading the trailer, repairing the trailer……………………the list goes on in great detail but you get it……………… Jones has been the teams go to guy. He has a great group of local San Diego members who help weeks before and after every race with loading and unloading all the gear and equipment. Without all this effort from behind the scenes this program would not have existed.

The 2011 pit had a skeleton crew. Baja Jones, Bethel, Pauliana, Val, BCG1, 3 Ball, Neighbor Tim, Baja Billy & Papa John along with Patio Burrito, N-Chaos & Mikey-Mike set up the banners and pit for the last time. We fueled 25 bikes & quads. We assisted bike #102X who arrived with a hole in the left side of his case with JB Weld & gear oil. Val saved his ass since I poured the oil in and it drained out just as quick as it went in. Eddy was off and on his way to Honda pits 6. His team finished. We yanked out a buried #118 along with his chase buggy. We went back to recover #99A a quad who was stranded for 6 hours in the wash and discovered another buried truck #724. We got him going. Then we came across #149 with a busted rear hub, a mangled tire and no jack, the Excursion bottle jack was a savior…………..we got them going again. We arrived at 99A at dusk and began the trek back to the pit. On our way back we see team #861 buried and in need of assistance and bumped into the chase crew for 99A. We loaded the quad in their truck, hooked up the tow strap to #861 and we were back on our way to the pit. What started out to be a “back before dark excursion” lead to a “3 hour tour” guided by no other Pauliana & his Russian comic wingman.  Jones, next time bring the head lamp. You should know by now when a Locos Mocos recovery vehicle heads out of the pit it always turns into chaos. Truck #724 pulled into the pit to air back up along with truck #605 who had a right front flat changed. #861 was towed into the pit and aired up then was on his way. He almost got punted by Norman #8 who had hours of down time but came through at dark hauling the mail.  #1100 arrived at 8:30PM for fan belt repairs and a splash of fuel chasing the time limit at the next check point. The pit ran for 13 hours straight, 1 last time.  And as we began tear down that night reality set in. An era is ending…………….just for a short period of time I hope. Some crazy crew member has the same level of passion as deep as Stu to resurrect this program. Baja Joes is one of a kind though…………….so maybe not!

Our trips always revolve around someone’s prerun schedule to a relaxing beach destination and eventually we will end at a dedicated pit location that Jones has committed us to. It’s finally time that Baja Jones gets back behind the wheel of a prerunner to enjoy some of what Mexico has to offer and relaxes a bit. The elder of our staff refer to this stage as “retirement”. Some of the pups of the staff have not even collected their first paychecks yet! But there is no doubt in my mind that you’ll find portions of this amazing TEAM at the 2011 Baja 500 & Baja 1000 scattered in some nasty remote race location offering anyone and everyone pit support. If you have ever lent a hand at a Locos Mocos pit you know it is in your blood.

Please forward all complaints to the “complaint department” @:  www.locosmocos.net

It has been an amazing ride Stubie!  THANK YOU on behalf of this entire team for everything you have done. I’ll see you and the rest of the crew in the dirt……

N-Chaos

Photo Credits: Nicole Pitell, Steve Brosz

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When the 2010 Baja 1000 map was released and plotted, TEAM LOCOS MOCOS was contacted by Baja Pits and dispatched to the most remote location on the course for a full service pit, El Cuarenta at race mile 615 on the pacific side. South of San Ignacio and near the small fishing town of El Datil, the course zig zagged between the mountains in the rough. During the weeks prior to the race, those that preran this section saw the hard packed soil trail transform into patches of deep silt beds. Entering the pit for race day it was clear to this crew that we were going to need dedicated recovery vehicles strapped and ready to pull drivers from the pools of waist deep silt before and after our pit location. Lamont & Fodor raised the bar this year with what a 96-02 4Runner is capable of towing.  Just ask Damen & Casey Jefferies & BJ Baldwin!

We split into 4 groups this year due to departure schedules for the crew and Patio opted to fly into Loreto so he could hold down the TOTAL CHAOS fort. Boofay & Short bus rounded a few heads to assist SCORE-International officialal at the finish line.  Baja Jones managed to squeeze in a Baja peninsula prerun with Bethel, Pauliana, Val, Mikey-Mike & BVZ, The Texicans, Neighbor Tim, Papa John, Raptor Billy and the new guys Baton Rouge, Photom the Mexicalli boys Weto and Alex and Flat Matt. All the tires and fuel were to be delivered to a fish packing plant in Constitution for pick up. The tire truck was 20 hours late (no surprise) so the whole crew bivouacked at the fish house instead of a beach as planned. I am glad I missed that camp site location.  Bummer you dropped your pillow on the ground BVZ! The group only managed 850 miles of race course as multiple trailer & tow vehicle repairs were required. The Pre-Runners ran almost trouble free with the exception of a few unscheduled trail departures off the race course at high speed. We’ll blame those on the dust! One incident was a blown turn just south of El Crucero that sent the Bronco guillotining through a 10″ diameter Cardon Cactus. The roof was popped back out and 2 smashed driving lights had to be disconnected, and off they went. The tow vehicle, LMC trailer, Paulie’s Walker Evans Ram-charger and the Big Strokey Bronco all completed the entire trip without replacing any of the 16 GoodYear tires on the ground. The last leg into the pit had sections in worse condition than race course and the way overloaded pit trailer had to stop in San Juanico and have the front axle straightened and a truss welded to it. A severed brake line and blown air bag line on the tow vehicle slowed the final slog to Rancho Cuarenta. The crew arrived tired and hungry at the pit, tents popped up and all were snoring by midnight. ———– Carnage report: steering ram issues, torn out radius arm mount

BCG 1 rallied Radar, Cortez, Presidente, Baja Bro, Sniper, Shemp  & picked up a straggling Wally and the Beaver to take on a 9 day prerun trip. With a theme of beaches, food and fun on their agenda, they burned the Baja wick and traveled to San Quinten for the night. Day two started with Lobster omelets at Mamma Espinoza’s and then hit the northern section of the Seven Sisters. They ran the Pacific coast Dust to Glory beach run to Santa Inez. As dusk settled they continued south and then east to Bahia de Los Angeles for dinner and rest. Day 3 ran southbound to Bone Beach for more shell and soul searching, then off to Visciano junction! Sunday was a break from the dirt with an extended stay at Coyote Beach on Bahia Conception with newlyweds Steve and Cindy Ransom of the Chase Racing crew. As the shadows grew longer they were again southbound to Loreto where they joined the Baja Jones crew at Feli’s shop where they were fixing the rear trailing arm on the pit trailer. The lure of Loreto squashed any dirt day 4 and the crew spent Tuesday exploring the shops and restaurants of the charming seaside town. Wednesday it was time to head to the pit so the group saddled up for the run over the mountains.  A night run north from to San Juanico put the group into Rancho El Cuarenta. More pit trailer repairs were necessary. They made a night run into the pit trying to dodge all the silt beds. ———– Carnage report: 3 flat tires, 11 busted bead lock bolts, 1 rear tail light assembly

BCG 7’s 9pm flight into San Diego airport left him, Wes, Chaos & Frosted Flake to run from San Felipe to Chivado in 26 hours with a 2 hour power nap at Gonzaga Bay, a code red at Coco’s Corner & 3 Pemex fuel stops. We proceeded down the race course through the car wash and into the Bay of LA. We met up with the Alabama crew and Posey needed some distributor repairs in town. We motored on into the Baja night for a Punta Chivado destination. The Fodor family met our crew on Tuesday where we took a few days to hang out at the beach house and catch some yellow tail and snorkel at casa de Fodor. We saddled up Thursday AM and headed over the mountains to the pit location with Patio on board. We sent Poncho a Mulege local to pick him up from the airport. He was really pissed at first, but we had to extend our Baja adventure to him somehow. No goats or chickens were in the taxi and he met a local band’s drummer. He really was glad to be in Mexico. On behalf of the entire Locos Mocos team, “THANK YOU” Fodor family for extending your casa throughout the entire week to this crazy crew as a destination spot to regroup, relax and shower up. ———– Carnage report: 1 busted motor mount, 1 lost V8 cylinder

The Lamont & K-Train crew saw the sun rise and set 5 days in a row making it to La Paz then north back to the pit with Mamma’s Boy, Bobby Hill & Hula Hoop. They never require any sleep on these trips so they added a bonus prerun from Lapaz to Cabo on dirt just for the hell of it! Quoted from Lamont, “We rallied the course this year harder than ever.  My Chaos  4Runner rolled almost 300k miles and a 10 year old TC suspension system owned the Baja and it’s silt beds!  A  4000 mile adventure, with nearly 700 of it in the dirt. We had NO issues,  we surfed Scorpion Bay, viewed several missions, ate at 23 taco stands pulled 19 race vehicles from the silt including BJ Baldwin and Armon Schwortz.  Huge thanks to ORW, TOTAL CHAOS, our families, plus Team LOCOS MOCOS for making these adventures possible.  We can’t wait till the next one!!!”  ——- Carnage report:  2 busted head lamps, 1 tire plugged & a lost AC

Two lone soldier Locos-Mocos/TOTAL CHAOS trucks with Boofay & Short Bus,  and “Oddball” (no matter who is in the truck it will always be an oddball, unless it’s 3-ball) had Cliffy, Stingray and Mr Clean signed up to play SCORE officials. They logged over 3000 miles with 600+ of race course. Only 1 flat (a BFG) and a broken coil spring on the QE2 (“Oddball’s-Queen Mary Sequoia) but that was on I5FWY on the way home. We met up with all LMC crew except BCG7, TC and Fodor. We spent some time at Casa de Fodor (thanks, that place is awesome), spent the night at Case de Baja Bros, the Yurts in San Iggy and the “dive” motel in Loreto. They sawbeach time almost every day but since we had a tight schedule we kept the “code reds” to a minimum. The group delivered 7 boxes of canned food and a large bag of toys to several ranches down the peninsula. They stayed our final night in a fellow racers motel in the wine country just 10 minutes from Ensenada, set a waypoint for this place, it’s new, clean but the heaters are $5 per night.

After having all our fun race day was finally here! The first race bikes blazed through at dusk and we all knew the pit would rock all night and into the early evening the next day. As the first trophy truck blazed through the silt bed and we watched the hard pack transform in front of our eyes into deep powder pools, we could only imagine what the race course into the pit was beginning to look like for these bikes & cars. Each vehicle passing through the silt bed went deeper and deeper into the abyss……….then we had our first casualty of silt bed war….…BJ Baldwin. Lamont immediately wheeled his 4Runner into position and proceeded to tug him out, along with 18 other silt bed victims that drowned in front of our eyes. Meanwhile, the Fodor 4Runner remounted truck #700 onto all 4 wheels after parking the truck on its driver side door while trying to avoid a silt pool before our pit and then he proceeded with Mamma’s Boy & Chaos up course to recover TT#22 that had a blown motor 4 miles from the pit. This recovery took from 2am till 5am plus 15 locals & their stock Ford Ranger to get the trophy truck up a silt hill before the pit. These local ranchers came fully prepared to assist any racer up that hill and through the cattle crossing!

The fueler’s were pinned all night long filling dump cans & dry breaks. Baja Bro, Shemp & Sniper were on top of it. Pauliana & BCG 1 manned the communications radios & logged vehicle #’s & times. Patio, Val & the Texicans manned the hot pit dumping fuel and performing adjustments with assistance from several other sets of hands. Bethel & Neighbor Tim hunkered down in the kitchen and got the “hot pepper stew” simmering to keep the team energized throughout the night. Fodor manned the coffee pot & Mikey-Mike nestled up in a chair on the burning hillside with a handheld to call entering bikes, cars & trucks race numbers. Locos Mocos was fully staffed and ready to support the 63 bikes 85 vehicles who were signed up for Baja Pits services.  Lamont & Fodor ran recovery straps off their 4Runners with help from several of the crew members rendering service to racers stuck in the silt or that rolled over before and after the pit location.

Baja Pits #12 continued into the late afternoon assisting race bikes, cars & trucks arriving at a steady pace. The crew assisted racers who required welding,  tire changes , scheduled fuel stops, extractions and all other necessary repairs. Baja Jones, Mikey-Mike and the Texans as well as neighbor Tim, Baton Rouge, Photom, Weto, Alex  and Flat Matt manned the pit till the very last Baja Pit’s supported racer made it through. They even unpacked the welder off the trailer in order to keep a 12 car going despite the sleep deprivation. It was no surprise the LOCOS MOCOS Team was dispatched to this remote pit location. No other major support team with this amount of equipment could get their tools, fuel or vehicle to this spot. Another Baja 1000 peninsula run has concluded and we all survived the Baja and have crazy stories to tell about the adventure. You know its worth it if the Texican’s are willing to log 5000 miles.

Our crew extends their prayers to Justin Imhoff and hopes for a speedy recovery from the Honda B rider that went down.

Photo credits: Tom Kimmell, TOTAL CHAOS, Locos Mocos crew

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Baja Jones smiles for the camera

LOCOS MOCOS member and co-founder Curtis Guise just released the 8th video in his off road series appropriately titled “Dezert People 8”. The video is filmed in HD quality, features intense race action, in car & heli footage plus the standard LOCOS MOCOS Baja Pit’s support and dynamite pit antics! Curtis contacted head Moco, “Baja Jones” to staff and set up the LOCOS MOCOS Taco stand for both the 2nd and 3rd round of the DP video premiers. The crew raised nearly $5,000 from their raffle and in taco stands tips that will be donated to www.fast-aid.org. It is great to share the Taco experience with people who are not fortunate enough to stumble into the pit on race day and see the set up that this crew transports to remote areas in Baja. I’ve attended these pits for nearly a decade and must admit………they serve 5 star meals in the middle of nowhere.

LOCOS MOCOS pit members Val, Billy & Papa John received much needed help from Baja Pits Carlos as well as Paco, Randy, Israel. The K1 event drew over 1,000 industry and non industry attendees. Several manufacturers were on hand to support the event. To purchase Dezert People 8 or any other video in the series check out www.dezertpeople.com!

Roger Norman & K1 Event Facts:
LOCOS MOCOS & Baja Pits cooked over 200lbs. of carne and pollo asada
All proceeds went to Fast Aid
K1 tip jar raised $1024.00
Off Road Warehouse donated $350
Almost $5000 total was raised at the Roger Norman / K1 premiers

Did your mama teach you to NEVER GIVE UP?

What breeds a desert racer? I guess we all know that who ever spawned them provided a gene that mandates a never give up attitude. They must posses the ability to dig deep when the going gets rough and they have to be part Mac Gyver. I would argue they are borderline insane! Very few things are more brutal on an individual than entering a SCORE-INTERNATIONAL Baja 500 to battle against good old Mother Nature for 438 miles while trying to maintain your equipment and keep your wheels on your rig. Add in the radiating afternoon heat you may be stranded in anywhere along the course while in seek of a black and white flag. I am reassured the people who help out the racers are just as insane as the guys in search of that checkered flag. So many racers only see the green one. What happens to the rest of them?

The Locos Mocos/Baja Pits #3 support crew was dispatched to race mile 128 for this year’s event. We are very familiar with the route and location at the base of the infamous summit. With heat in the triple digits (138 degrees at 1pm on the ground) and the dust a major factor at this event, the crew packed extra water and shade to man a 60 bike fuel station. The pit was also scheduled to assist 40 cars/trucks and was also capable of performing full service race repairs.

The LOCOS MOCOS trailer was packed complete with a tent city and was in tow behind Baja Jones. Pauliana & Bethel manned a fuel transport rig. Taco Dave helped run pit support in Yerington the week before and somehow was in Baja….. On Wednesday a Wanderer we named Shilaly driving a TOTAL CHAOS equipped FJ stopped into southern California and somehow joined this band wagon with his lax schedule at hand. Grasshopper celebrated his high school graduation and had to bail from his graduation party at 9:00 pm. The Baja OJ Bronco headed south with Val, Grasshopper and Remo fueled on Monsters. Patio somehow twisted my arm and hog tied me to travel to meet the remaining crew off the highway. There was Tiny with first time co dog Slick, Raptor Billy & Papa John. In a weird twist of HWY 5 fate, we bumped in Farmboy & Pro Pit Pat and told them about our pit location. On race day they kindly volunteered to tow a quad racer to his chase crew after a blown motor then continued on out to our remote pit to offer some welcomed assistance. When we arrived at saldaña, there was the crazy Mexicali crew of Alex, Cooler Handle, Capt. Mazda and his brother Julio waiting in the desert. Fully staffed, we rocked the pit from sun up till nearly sun up! Jones fixed a feast and opted to use the smoker for some of the best pork & tri tip sandwiches a desert racer can eat.

When you are set up early in a race you see the main guys having a flawless first 128 miles. But in reality, they are only 1/3 of the way. As the afternoon approached the radio chatter from Weatherman Bob and the limping vehicles were proof of how rough the race course this year proved to be. Blown transmissions plagued several top placing teams and flat tires did not discriminate by brands. The course was triple digit hot; the racers were tackling Baja after a season of severe rain. After the summit and the smoldering desert they had to conquer Mike’s Sky Ranch and its nasty rock sections and single track lanes. The opportunity to participate in this event either as a racer, chaser or spectator keeps these races alive and packed with entries. I know our two pit rookies will be back for the Baja 1000 if schedules permit. If you cut them now, they bleed Baja! It runs through your veins.

The TEAM LOCOS MOCOS list of race day repairs and rescues was impressive! The Baja Pits #3 location performed the following: we reinstalled a lower front shock bolt on quad #54A, #278X took a break and we fixed a flat and replaced a front tube on the bike, #449X pulled in and consumed his road kit, multiple spare tire swaps on racer cars #’s 107, 1202, 604, 1600,  mandatory fuel stops on 40+ bikes & quads, a fuel pump swap on # 500, a complete suspension refab was performed on #67 at 20:15 hours, temporary food and housing for racers   # 251X & 51A, recovery & transport back to states of bike # 304X (the rider was air lifted at mm 110 and sustained compound fractures in his crash), we manned a micro pit at mile marker 129.5 @ 18:00 and transported a generator & disc cutter to replace 4 wheel studs on car #106, meanwhile a thrown VW pulley belt was fixed on #574 at the same time. Spare wheel studs are very small to pack. I suggest everyone have a few spares in the pit box, especially in Mexico! More people than you think have had their tires pass them from loose lug nuts. They could save a race or prerun adventure for sure.

The first bike finished in 8 hours and 47 minutes….they hauled the mail! While the trophy trucks took 9 hours and 15 minutes to pluck every mile off the 438 mile course. Unless you have experienced the remote side of a Baja race you’ll never clearly understand the spooky side of racing down south of the border. You can sit on the side of the course for hours without any communication with team members. You can damage a part somewhere so remote you have to wait 10 hours until its clear to send in recovery vehicles on the course. Or you can be lucky enough to get stranded with TEAM LOCOS MOCOS in the middle of nowhere. Where you have a complete tent city equipped with a full service cooking station serving 5 star food and the ability to communicate via race radio or by satellite phone to any member of your chase crew if needed. For those not so lucky to spend an afternoon in our pit, I hope you saw the checkered flag! And if you didn’t, I hope you got the Baja bug and decide to race the Baja 1000. We’ll see you ¾ of the way down the peninsula at another remote location pit.

Pics by: Remo Sagastume, N-Chaos, Scott Massangil & Paul Nauleau

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Test towed today
Ready to rock

The map is out and we will head back to the foot of the Sierra Juarez to a little known and less visited spot called Cohobuzo Jct. The LMC crew will be running pit number three in the chain of ten world famous Baja Pits service areas at RM 128. Locos Mocos is prepared for the often scorching desert heat Cohobuzo Jct is famous for. Equiped with our patented fresh water wash down system the crew is ready to lower an overheated riders body temperature to normal in seconds. We have been told the soaking keeps them cool for eighty miles, well past Borego drying out just in time to begin their assent back into the mountains. For those joining us at the pit we will be serving the usual gourmet grub and as always BYO everything else. It is easy to say and hard to accomplish but once again Baja Pits will be pitting one third of the entire Baja 500 field. Expect seventy Bikes and Quads and thirty to fourty 4 wheel vehicles. Count on us for information as well. The Locos Mocos pit will once again be operating a state of the art scoring system and will have status on every vehicle through our location.  The LMC purpose built trailer will insure your spare junk will be at the most remote pit location on the race course at every event. The rolling tire shop/gas station/fab shop has been a welcome sight to racers in a bad way now for thirteen years. Many a disabled race vehicle has limped or been towed in and left under it’s own steam, many to go on to finish. Since this is not our first rodeo at the Cohobuzo Coral, we can highly recommend all UTVs and ATVs send in spare tires. The  rocky  approach to the summit and the bolder strewn stair step down the escarpment have sent many a racer limping from our pit on a flat tire for another thirty five miles of miserable wooped up race course. For questions on how to sign up for pit service call Carlos Orozco at 619-596-8033. See you all in Baja

Baja Jones

real time race updates for race-dezert.com

San Felipe, B.C. Mex. hosts one of the shortest and most relaxing off road races we get to participate in. You can order fresh beach side pina colada’s, walk the shore, eat sea side fish tacos or take an ultra light ride and do free falls with a local guy piloting you. All the bars in town are lit until the wee hours with wild off road racers and their stunt men antics. And then there is the annual Tony Tellier clam bake where the who’s who gathers to bench race the night before the race. Locos Mocos boiled up 70 Doz. clams and 8 kilos of jumbo shrimp to serve with a table of fresh tamales, tortilla’s, beans and salsa! It was a feast fit for racing and pit support kings.

The San Felipe 250 is the most brutal whooped out race course on the SCORE International race circuit. Endless rolling whoops lead to sand washes that have been tortured by recent storms and have exposed VW sized rocks & boulders that littered the 245 mile race course. TEAM LOCOS MOCOS was assigned the remote pit location in the Baja Pits chain at mile marker 196. They knew it would take an experienced crew with a purpose built equipment trailer to haul the gear out there. Scouting out the pit on Thursday proved to be as dangerous as the race when BCG 1 found a gotcha prerunning to the pit spot that sent him into a nose wheelie and resulted in 2 compressed lumbar discs. You can never let your guard down in Baja……you will get gobbled when you least expect it. BCG 1 has navigated the trails in that area for over a decade and this one snuck up on him! Was it a local booby trap?

When race morning arrived it was like we had done this before. We set up the radio station, set up the food station, constructed the tool and fuel work stations and waited for the first lead bike. At 9:45 AM there was rumble in the hills and the lead HONDA RED RIDER! We were there for business. We were scheduled to fuel 71 bikes & Quads and provide service for 34 4 wheel vehicles. We also offered full service repairs to anyone in the area needing our assistance. We fixed a hand full of broken racers, some to continue racing and some good enough to limp out the 55 off-road miles to the nearest paved road. Pauliana & Texan Robert even drove 10 gallons of fuel 5 miles out to a stranded racer after dark in the Arctic Cat.

We had a new guy in camp this race. A 13 year old off road race rookie who contacted Baja Pits through a forum and touted how he wanted to, “experience a real Baja race pit that works on race cars” before racing himself at age 16. Lil Paul hooked up with our crew in San Felipe with his father. Planning to graduate from junior high in a few short months, P2 had traveled to Baja with his family but never attended a Baja off road race.

Do you remember what you were doing at 13? A bright young man, ready to jump in where ever he is needed came equipped with well thought out solutions to problems as they arose. This kid is an inspiration that the youth of today does have a chance. P2 was hands on. . He was thrown on the radio early in the day and talked on the mike like a pro. He was safety first and knew the do’s and do not’s of where to sit on the corner of the course. He almost got run over by RG, despite his efforts, but we know how Robby drives and he was hauling the mail. He witnessed and participated in the first Race-Dezert.com attempt to provide live updates to their forum via satellite phone texting from the race course at mile marker 106 & 196. He recovered broken race cars and fueled golf carts. The kid passed out by 8pm, when we old farts just got started! You know he had a blast and has told the Robby Gordon story over 20 times at school.

Every trip back from Baja produces more crazy camp fire adventure stories for future races. Old Compadre trail was littered with water crossings going south but I kept the rubber side down this year. Curtis doesn’t carry a winch in the T100 and Mike didn’t even pack himself clean clothes to fly back to Sacramento in after 3 days in Baja! RDC pushed the envelope on keeping state side enthusiasts up to speed on where the leaders were at, while we all enjoyed the front row dust at the race. And a 13 year old young man lived a dream of participating in and fixing race cars during the San Felipe 250 race!! I cant wait till the Baja 500………….see ya in the DIRT!!

N-Chaos

The SF 250 crew: Baja Jones, Pauliana, BCG 1, BCG 7, Patio, Cortez, P2, John & Billy, Neighbor Tim, 3 Ball, Baja Bros., Remo, Val, Texas Trey & Robert, John Paul, dog Ruby & friends, & Good Year tires.

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Locos Mocos will be running a single location pit RM198 at this year’s San Felipe 250.
We will operate pit number 5, one link in the award winning Baja Pits chain 5 of pits.
Baja Pits President Carlos Orozco has strategically selected this pit for the crew of Locos Mocos. Positioned at the Top of Huatamote wash, the assent has been scrubbed clean of sand in some parts. The rocky wash is sure to cause some carnage to race vehicles. Repairing that carnage in the middle of nowhere is the specialty of the Locos Mocos crew.
San Felipe 250 race map, Baja Pits – Locos Mocos
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November 2009

EL POLLO LOCOS MOCOS
This year at the SCORE Baja 1000 we are running a taco stand to
generate donations for the Castro-Limon children’s cancer clinic.
This is a cancer treatment center serving orphans and poor kids in
Baja California that have no health coverage or cannot afford
treatment. We’ll set up shop at Borrego Junction right next to the
popular Baja Pit’s two-way pit. We are looking to collect enough
money to pay the entire food cost so that all the proceeds from race
day can go to benefit the kids. Any amount will help. For a $100
minimum donation we’ll include your logo on the big taco stand sign.
Thanks and see you at the race!

www.fundacioncastrolimon.org – Download our Flyer

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