 |
Quad75Dezert
Team have been pre-running each section
to insure a great Baja 500 finish |
Ensenada, BC, Mexico (6/1/2011)
- Brandon Brown's Quad75Dezert teams commenced
pre-running in Mexico at the start of this
week. The Baja 500 takes place Saturday, June
4th and after several course changes, it appears
this race will challenge competitors more
than usual. Anything can happen in Baja, and
it already is. Brandon has coordinated two
teams for the 500. Riding for Team 1, Class
24, #100A are Brandon Brown, Kenny Sanford
and Jorie Williams. New for this race is Chris
Kristensen & GNCC pro-am rider Richie
Brown. Heading up Team 2, Class 23, #101A
is Jamie Kirkpatrick, with returning rider
Brian Watkins. New for this race, also riding
for Team 2, are Sean McHugh, Dave Jenkins,
and Dale Mininger, all three locals to the
Northwest.
Brandon has been meticulously planning
since the 250 ended. "It takes a
lot of planning and thought to coordinate
a team for Baja, then when you
add in an additional team of riders, it
complicates things ten-fold. The
course doesn't come out until the week before
we leave, so I usually
loosely base some planning off of previous
years' courses," Brandon
explained, "this year, my riders pre-ran
a few sections and then there
were some last minute changes which present
a whole new challenge for
the riders. Overall, pre-running has gone
really well up to this point."
4 riders were pre-running out of San Felipe
for 3 days, and another 6
pre-ran from the Quad75Dezert Baja 500 headquarters
in Ensenada. Jorie
Williams' section was changed twice. The
second time was not changed
until after he had returned from San Felipe.
"I was definitely
disappointed because I had spent 3 days
working on my section. We got
all the way back to the house and find out
we have to turn around and go
pre-run a course change. It makes things
interesting. I wish we could
have had a day off, but then they went and
changed it on us!" The rest
of the team will be getting organized for
race day.
Head mechanic and rider Kenny Sanford from
S&S Motorsports will spend the rest
of the week going over the race bikes. Jamie
and Brandon will be doing a shake-down on
Wednesday prior to the race to make sure
both race bikes are adjusted and functioning
properly. Friday is contingency, where bikes
and certain equipment are inspected. Saturday
is the race. The quads leave the line at
approximately 6:30am. Teams 1 and 2 were
lucky in the drawing and get to leave second
and first off the line (at a 30 second interval),
respectively. This will give both teams
an advantage in pursuing the overall because
it puts both teams near Class 25 at the
beginning of the race as opposed to having
to wade through riders in both classes when
starting at the back of the pack, as they
did at the San Felipe 250.
For updates, information, photos and videos,
visit Quad75.com
or Facebook.com/Quad75Dezert
