Cycle News

VOLUME 57 ISSUE 23 JUNE 9, 2020 P105 basic stages, as Roberts recalls. "They ran us from Tijuana to Ensenada on the pavement, and then there was a bit of a layover, and then they kicked us straight through," Roberts says. Some 74 vehicles participated in that first event, held on Hallow- een, 1967. "It was really the first time for everybody," Roberts recalls. "We knew who the competi- tion was with the bikes, and we knew we had a good chance. Bud and Dave Ekins were on a Triumph, but they had to rebuild it in Ensenada that first night before we took off on the next leg." Smith rode the first leg before handing the bike off to Roberts at EI Arco, 400 miles after the start in Ensenada. The talented Smith had little trouble making it to the relay point, handing the bike to Roberts with more than two hours' lead on the next competitor. It was just the start of Roberts' Baja ordeal. "Malcolm got the bike to me with no problems," Roberts recalls, "but he got the bike to me when it was just getting dark, and I'd never raced at night before. I rode a couple desert races with lights on my bike just to feel how different it was, and I maybe rode one or two nights just to see what it would be like. It was about a 45- watt Lucas light that was run off a mag, and as soon as you dropped your rpm, you had no light." Laboring under the dim sallow of that 45-watt beam, Roberts zigged when he should have zagged and vice versa, and be- fore he knew it, he was lost. "Not knowing where I was go- ing, I got so darn twisted around down there, that I started going left to right [across the Baja Penin- sula] instead of straight," Roberts says. "I ended up crossing the narrow part of the peninsula down there, twice. I was just lost. I was bumming gas out of these little Mexican villages and dumping oil straight into the tank." A lot of weird stuff happened. "Like one time I was flying around this corner and all of a sudden I saw all these little lights," Roberts says. "I locked up the rear brake and killed the engine. So, I'm out there trying to kickstart it, and the light came on real dim, and I realized that I was in the middle of a doggone cow herd!" The approaching morning did little to help Roberts gain a better sense of direction, as dense Baja fog set in, forcing Roberts and Tri- umph rider John Barnes to simply stop until the fog started to lift. "It usually is foggy down there," Roberts says, "so I did stop. I was so twisted around that I didn't know whether I was going north, south, east or west, so it made sense to stop. I got in there [to the finish] the next morning. I think it was light out. I'd basically rode through the night." That small break cost Roberts the overall win, as the factory Mey- ers Manx dune buggy team forged into the lead and took the overall win by some 15 minutes. Cycle News' account of the race says that Roberts "...came in, looking like he was frozen to the bike." "Basically, I was," Roberts says. "I'd been on the thing forever. I think that it took us over 27 hours, and I'd ridden basically from dusk until dawn the next morning. I'm surprised that we did what we did." It was one of "just a couple of wins" at Baja for Roberts, whose legend would grow exponentially greater thanks to his accomplish- ments in shorter desert events, such as Barstow-to-Vegas. "I'm more known for that," Roberts says. "I won that one four times in a row." Today, Roberts, a retired stuntman turned cow rancher, is still actively racing at age 63. In fact, when we caught up with him on his Montana ranch, he was changing tires for an upcoming motocross race. "I haven't seen the movie [Dust To Glory] yet, but when it comes to the video store, I guess I'll take a look at it then," Roberts says. "They asked me to come to the premiere, but I had a race to go to that weekend." Once a racer, always a legend. CN This Archives edition is reprinted from issue #22, June 1, 2005. CN has hundreds of past Archives edi- tions in our files, too many destined to be archives themselves. So, to prevent that from happening, in the future, we will be revisiting past Archives articles while still planning to keep fresh ones coming down the road. -Editor Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives

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