2012 San Felipe 250 Team Race Reports
THR, MonsterEnergy, PrecisionConcepts, Kawasaki Race Team 2012 SCORE San Felipe 250
Hello Everyone,
It was a tough start to the SCORE Baja series for us. After being seen as the team to beat at this years San Felipe 250, we were put in the position of coming from behind all day. I have attached Robby’s race report, but here is a brief recap.
We were third bike off the start, but at mile seven, an embedded rock in a shadow put Robby on the ground hard. Unable to continue, back up rider Mikey Childress made sure Robby was getting medical attention, then jumped on the bike and took off. After another rock put Mikey on the ground, he got the bike to Steve Hengeveld. He brought the bike to pit one at 30 miles.
After a lengthly repair and bike straightening, Destry was off. The problem now was there was no wind and most off the bike teams as well as several atv teams were in front of us. It was all Destry could do in some sections to just stay on the course. At the end of his section, he had made many passes, but the dust was still real heavy.
David took off across Diablo lake bed, but was so buried in dust, he was going only 50 mph, instead of the normal 100+ mph. By the time he got by the atvs and slower bikes, and where there were more line choices, we were way back. David brought the bike to mile 169 where Steve Hengeveld would get on for the injured Robby. He took it to mile 215 and Destry would get back on for the run to the finish.
In the end we took 8th overall and 6th Open Pro. A really tough finish to accept. The bike was ran great, The organization was second to none, the pits were perfect, we had everything covered including many visual points, backup riders, etc. It all basically went up in smoke on one badly placed rock.
This was a race of luck in some ways. All four top teams had a rider go down hard. Three went to the hospital, one landed in a bush, basically uninjured, got up and won. Congratulations to Kurt Casselli and Ivan Rameriz and KTM for surviving and winning the 2012 SCORE San Felipe 250. This will go down as one of the most grueling and tough races in SCORE history. Life flights were flying to San Diego all day. Our thoughts and Prayers go out to all the injured riders. Hopefully they will all recover completely.
A special thanks to Scott and Rob at THR for making this race possible for all of us. Phil Valdez for building another awesome, flawless bike. Ty Renshaw for being the most organized and hard working person that I have ever worked with, and doing an amazing job getting all the pit equipment organized, and helping all week. The THR Race Car guys, Beto Verber, Steve Greene for helping pit. And everyone who helped make our effort happen. We will regroup and be back stronger than ever. We have a 15 year history in Baja, and in that time we have never finished worse than second. That makes this result all the more painful. But it will make us tougher, and more determined to get back to our winning ways.
Bob Bell, Precision Concepts
From JCR Honda
| The SCORE San Felipe 250 was the beginning of what looks to be one of the greatest years of Baja racing ever. |
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The much hyped and anticipated start of the 2012 SCORE Baja race season did not disappoint. With a shuffling of the rider deck and the stiffest competition in recent memory, the game of racing Baja has changed for 2012. The San Felipe 250 was in a word “crazy” with the 4 top teams crashing during the race. 3 riders from 2 teams cartwheeled within the first 30 miles and the 3rd rider crashing around mile 65. Everyone knows that San Felipe is a tough race on rider and machine but no one could have predicted this. JCR seemed to escape the major hazards from the first 30 miles and through the infamous Matomi wash unscathed and were running in first place. San Felipe would hold no prisoners this time however as Timmy Weigand experienced a high speed crash and found himself on the ground surrounded by plumes of dust. Timmy was flown to San Diego for evaluation purposes. He is home now, doing fine with no broken bones or serious injuries, ready to race after a few days of rest thanks in large to his Fly Racing protective gear, experience and fitness. The race win slipped away but thanks to the strength of the JCR program and pit personnel the team still held 2nd place. The plan was to play the 3 aces with Colton taking the start to race mile 30 handing the bike to David Kamo who rode to race mile 106 handing the bike to Timmy Weigand with Colton Udall getting back on the bike back at race mile 168 and taking it to the finish. “It was a big weekend. The first Baja race for the 2012 Honda CRF450X and the first race for Colton Udall as 1X rider of record. He proved to everyone he is the guy to beat. David Kamo got on thru some of the toughest sections and rode a perfect race. Timmy was riding great and had moved the team into the lead before crashing. Timmy is as tough as they come and I am thankful for his safety and the quick work of the team safety protocols in action. It’s a bummer to not get the win but it was an exciting race and I cant wait for the 500.” — Johnny Campbell Congratulations to all the JCR pit teams. Out of the 23 teams we pitted, 6- teams won their respective classes at the SCORE SF 250 and are now leading the division. This year’s 248.64-mile race course utilized two washes that have never before been used for racing – Cuevitas and Amarillas. The Cuevitas Wash replaced the Three Poles to Borrego section of previous courses. The course ran in a counter-clockwise direction starting and finishing at the landmark San Felipe arches. For the first time, the second half of the race course will also include five infamous washes – Matomi, Azufre, Huatamote and Chanate, along with Amarillas – before heading to the finish line. The course included four physical checkpoints as well as 51 virtual checkpoints to help insure the safety and the integrity of the challenging race course.
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