Archive | November 26th, 2008

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Internet Dirt on the Baja 1000


Technology is an amazing thing.  And it once again prevailed at making my Baja 1000 experience a success.  Ok, so I have never crossed the border in a truck towing a trailer with a desert ready race rig…I have never been asked for steeekers…I have only crossed the border in a plane sipping MaiTai’s headed to a resort in tourist towns that know how to keep Tequila on tap.

I am one of the thousands of Internet Baja racers.  You know what I am talking about.  I had all of my icons lined at the top of the web browser and ready for Fridays start: the official Baja site with live video feed, the IRC tracker, of course the link the to Weatherman and the different forums that were tracking teams of interest.

Friday was a busy day around our office, so I set up with the IRC Tracker and the Pirate4×4.com forum to keep track of the early racing.  On the tracker, I turned on some of the Trophy Trucks, 1404 Malcolm Smith in a Predator, some of the 1700 Jeepspeed Class, and of course I “selected all” for the 1800 UTV Class.  All the numbers showed at the starting line…and back to work I went.

The dirt bikes and quads were first off the line around 6am, and the Trophy Trucks lined out around 10am.  Slowly but surly the little numbers started moving on the screen.  They would start then stop…the information good, but feeding slow.

The first stopped Rig was TT2 Pistola Pete with a blown head gasket…less than 10 miles…dangit!  Then TT13 Clyde Stout with the same…another blown head gasket!  Come to find out later…Robbie Gordon did a nice acrobatic move for Pistola Pete…they got him back up and moving.

Soon the 1700’s dots were moving across the screen too.  And then the 1800’s Side X Side’s were moving!  Todd Romano’s Dragon Fire team took the early lead and almost caught up to the 1700’s…yea…catch those Cherokees…but not so quick…the 1700’s started up again and were on the run (ok, so 1700 was stopped for a while duct taping something).  I was disappointed to see the 1804 car not moving off the starting line – that is Jim Creagan in a Prowler 1000 who I had rode with and interviewed at the Arctic Cat event.  Their goal was to win the Baja 1000, and they hadn’t even made it off the line!  What a disappointment.  But their teammate 1805 Shane Morgan was on the gas in his Prowler 700.

Lunch time came and went.  The afternoon flew by trying to get the next issue of the magazine ready to go out.  All of a sudden it was dark out and the dots were still consistently moving across the screen.  Not too much interesting news on the forums, everyone was progressing nicely.  I decided to shut down, and reboot back at home where I could turn on the live feed and the Weatherman too.

We had a little Baja Party at my house where everyone could come over and track their racer.  I think this might be an annual event!  The first bike went across the finish line at 7:30pm – just over 12 hours later – it was cool to watch Johnny Campbell cross on the live feed.  The numbers kept going across the screen and Weatherman was talking of boobie traps, roll overs, and downed riders with the normal chaos on the radio frequency.

Then I got talked into going out to the bar for a while…so back at the computer screen around 1:30am and there was the 1807 Todd Romano Dragon Fire car being towed across the center section of the course.  Right around mile 200 he had sucked dirt in his Teryx and was out of the race giving up a 20 mile lead to 1800 Thomas Grave in his Yamaha Rhino, and now all of a sudden the Prowler 1804 Jim Creagan was moving and in the race – his tracker finally working.

I had missed the beginning of the Trophy Trucks crossing the finish line…In first was Roger Norman who team drove with one of our Battle of the Builder test drivers Larry Roeseler.  Roeseler was supposed to climb into the Dragon Fire Teryx for the third and final leg, but it looked like his Baja driving was over for the weekend.  Sliding in for a close second was BJ Baldwin.  Time to call it a night.

Seven AM came early, but I had some miles to put on the truck that day…a little baja driving of my own…well, that is what any freeway feels like in a 1-ton-longbed!  I refreshed my tracker that had also gone to sleep, and caught up on the few pages on the forums as others had taken the hours to sleep as well.  Not too much excitement to speak of… except the 1700 Pirate4×4 Jeepspeed had a broken front axle that got fixed a couple of times during the wee hours of the morning, but they were up and running strong again.  The 1800’s were in the bottom loop of the course, and some looked more permanently stopped than moving.  It was still going to be a long day for the Side X Side Class.

Nine AM, my truck was packed, and I reluctantly started to shut down the computer…I thought about running it on my wireless card, but decided that the tracker had enough problems on wireless vs a moving card!  So I was offline and out of the race.

11:45 my text message went off with a “WINNER”  The Mike Shaffer/Lance Clifford Jeepspeed had crossed the finish line for the 3-peat Baja 1000 win!  A great showing! With my response of congratulations, I tried to check on the 1800 class…I knew they still had a long day ahead!  No luck, I was still out of the race.

I had just arrived at my destination for the day, and was saying my hello’s as my phone rang.  I don’t usually answer numbers I don’t know…but I went for it…and glad that I did.  4:45pm Jim Creagan was the first Side X Side to ever cross the Baja 1000 finish line driving a Arctic Cat Prowler 1000 in just over 27 hours!  Arctic Cat Prowler and Bi-Polar racing’s main focus for the last year has been to finish the Baja 1000 and now it was an even sweeter victory to win.  But there was more news…not only did 1804 cross the line, but the second place finisher was 1805 Shane Morgan in his Arctic Cat Prowler 700.  They were boasting of the huge team effort and how the machines had performed perfectly with no breakdowns, no wrenching and no stops other than for fuel and driver changes.

Three out of eight Side x Sides crossed the line of the Baja 1000.  The third place finisher went to 1819 Mark Lindsay’s FST Polaris RZR.  After a long grueling race, they didn’t only celebrate a podium finish, but the SCORE championship for the season as they had taken the 1st place finish in the Baja 500 earlier in the year.

The 631 mile race was a true test to all drivers, racers, and internet fanatics.  Although it was the shortest course of the SCORE race, the drivers said it was some of the most challenging terrain mix they had ever seen.  The crews of people that stayed up for hours on end to chase and pit for the racers in the Baja dirt made a difference in winning and loosing.  And those of us Internet racers had our patience tested as we had to reboot, refresh and try to keep up with the ever changing dots on the screen.  I hope one year my baja experience will be in the dirt, but until then I will join all of you on the Baja Internet Racing Team!  Just another great day and night and day at the races!

~Charlene~

LINKS:?Official Baja 1000 Site: http://www.2008scorebaja1000.com/
SCORE Official Website: http://www.score-international.com/
Bi-Polar Racing Website  http://www.bipolarracing.com/
Side x Side Action Magazine Article on Bi-Polar Racing Team by Charlene Bower  https://sidexsideaction.com/digital17/ In bottom middle of page, type in PG 78
FST Website   http://www.fstmotorsports.com/
Pirate 4×4 Photo Gallery   http://www.pirate4×4.com/gallery/main.php/v/2008_baja_1000/

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CORR Crowns Season Champions

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CORR Crowns Season Champions


With the early conclusion of the 2008 Championship Off Road Racing season, CORR would like to announce the Season Champions and Rookie of the Year honors for all classes.

The Pro 4 class was tightly contested in points between drivers Carl Renezeder, Rick Huseman and Scott Douglas. At the conclusion of the last weekend of racing in Chula Vista, the championship battle ended in a dead heat between Huseman and Renezeder with Renezeder taking the Pro 4 Championship, having taken four wins to Huesman’s two. Mike Jenkins, who finished 11th, takes Pro 4 Rookie of the Year honors.

Rob MacCachren established early dominance in the Pro 2® class, taking the first event with back to back wins and never looking back.  MacCachren clenched the Championship over Carl Renezeder, who finished in second, and Todd LeDuc who rounded out the podium. MacCachren’s consistency put him on top of the podium 6 times during the season with a total of 10 top ten finishes racing in the largest and most competitive Pro 2 field ever. Mike Johnson is named Rookie of the Year with an impressive seventh place finish in a season that regularly saw more than 20 trucks take the green flag. Kevin Davis is both the season Champion and the Rookie of the Year in the Pro Spec class.

Marty Hart held off both Jeff Kincaid and Rodrigo Ampudia in taking home the Pro Lite® class Championship. Hart demonstrated a consistency that put him on the podium eight times and finishing in the top five, 10 times, complementing his two wins. The tight racing and close final tally established Pro Lite as some of the most exciting racing of the season. Kincaid and Ampudia finished in second and third place respectively.  Todd Cuffaro had an outstanding season in which he found himself in the sixth position at the end of the season, taking the Rookie of the Year in the Pro Lite class.

Rookie Greg George and Rob MacCachren battled for the Pro Buggy Championship with MacCachren taking the season title while George, with a second place season finish, took the Rookie of the Year honors in a class with over 45 drivers.

Rookie of the Year, Bryan Freeman, dominated the Single Buggy Class with an amazing nine wins in twelve starts while missing a top five finish in only one race. In the UTV class, Chad George clenched both the season Championship and the Rookie of the Year honors after grabbing five wins this season.

The popular kart classes have had great competition during the season. Trent Williams (Junior 1 Kart–Ages 8-12), Geoffrey Cooley (Junior 2 Kart–Ages 13-15), and Parker Grabowski (Modified Kart) have been awarded the Championship Honors in their classes.  All kart drivers are first-year drivers; Williams, Cooley, and Grabowski walk away with the Rookie of the Year title as well.

Championship Off Road Racing would like to thank the many drivers, crew members, sponsors, and fans who took part in the 2008 season. CORR is strongly committed to the future of short course off road racing. Currently there are plans underway to solidify the 2009 season including venues and television coverage. We appreciate the patience and understanding of our teams, sponsors and fans as we navigate these difficult times.

Championship Off Road Racing brings high action, four wheel motorsports including two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive trucks to the closed course off road arena.  The 2008 Championship Off Road Racing’s race season included events at tracks located in Los Angeles, CA, San Diego, CA and Primm, NV.

Champions:
Pro 4–Carl Renezeder, Number 1
Pro 2–Rob MacCachren, Number 21
Pro Spec–Kevin Davis, Number 85
Pro Lite–Marty Hart, Number 15
Pro Buggy–Rob MacCachren, Number 921
Single Buggy–Bryan Freeman, Number 307
UTV–Chad George, Number 624
Kart Jr. 1–Trent Williams, Number 225
Kart Jr. 2–Geoffrey Cooley, Number 409
Kart Modified–Parker Grabowski, Number 500

Rookie of the Year:
** denotes season champion
Pro 4–Mike Jenkins, Number 47
Pro 2–Mike Johnson, Number 31
Pro Spec–Kevin Davis**, Number 85
Pro Lite–Todd Cuffaro, Number 46
Pro Buggy–Greg George, Number 933
Single Buggy–Bryan Freeman**, Number 307
UTV–Chad George**, Number 624
Kart Jr. 1–Trent Williams**, Number 225
Kart Jr. 2–Geoffrey Cooley**, Number 409
Kart Modified–Parker Grabowski**, Number 500

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