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Kane Fraser Pilots UTV 1802 into SCORE
Baja 1000 History
::Continued::
The number one goal was to raise money for the
Man in Motion, Rick Hansen Foundation. “I
decided that in honor of his 25th anniversary
and the fact that we are from the same hometown
that we should support him. Our target fundraising
effort for the Rick Hansen Foundation is $25,000,
a thousand dollars for each year. This is a far
cry from what he is doing and has done, but we
want to do it.” More information and donations
can be sent at www.Baja1000Fundraiser.com.
The team held multiple fundraiser events local
to them in Canada, but the off-road community
as a whole was unaware of this team and its goals
until almost the end of race day. In the age of
Internet race tracking, the team had been seen
making the wrong turn, and been heard calling
into Weatherman for help rerouting back to the
main course. After an almost 100 mile detour,
and lots of help from locals, they made it back
to the racecourse. “There are obstacles
in everyone’s life,” said Fraser.
“Like we were just talking, how could you
miss the turn, there were like 15 flags! We kinda
knew there was something wrong when we were mixing
it up with the Trophy Trucks and Class 1 cars.
Then the challenge was how do we get back in the
race. We couldn’t let our team down, we
had been prepping for 11 months and just to let
a little 100 miles get in the way of the finish
wasn’t an option.”
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| #1802
UTV turns on the lights as night falls in
Mexico |
As night fell for the second time for racers
of the 2011 Baja 1000, ‘1802’ was
still on course. They still had many miles to
go, and would not make it to the finish line before
it closed. As the Internet followers found out
more about the 1802’s pilot and his story,
the encouragement to finish got louder and louder.
Bob ‘Weatherman’ Steinberger took
up the cause with SCORE Ops “Once you close
the course, you can’t stop them from continuing,
so let it ride, there are people on the internet
that would hate you for not letting them finish,”
said Weatherman who followed it with, “as
a Ceremonial closure, 1802 should be allowed to
finish the race. He is a paraplegic here to do
his bucket list and he is amazing, absolutely
amazing, you don’t want to stop this guy.”
SCORE Ops understood the message, “Ok, Thank
you.”
As part of the final efforts to get to the finish
line, the #7 Jim Riley Azunia Tequila General
Tire Trophy Truck who had fought its own demons
for the last 32 hours was also still on course
and wanting to say they finished. Neither team
knew the impact they were making on each other,
all they knew is they individually wanted to get
to the finish line, even though it was officially
closed. What the Internet world knew is that the
#7 Trophy Truck was behind the #1802 UTV and would
be their support if anything were to happen in
the final late night stretch. The final hours
from 10pm to 2am Sunday morning when they finished
were some of the most watched Internet hours as
they were cheered on along the way.
The ceremonial finish line was set up at the
edge of town where pit crews, family and friends
were there to applaud the two sets of lights coming
down the street. Jim Riley said, “At the
end of the day we met up with 1802 at the beginning
of the wash in Ensenada and drove to the newly
established finish line by friends and family.
There was no Tecate or finishing pin but the smiles
on our friends faces will never be replaced by
a formal finish line. We shook hands with the
support team from 1802 and took some pictures
together - all knowing that we just beat Baja
on our own terms and timelines...I would not trade
my race for all the wins in the world!”
The level of support for these two teams would
make any pro racer envious.
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