Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

, • • • II II III E C(") r--. O'"l ,.....; ~ 0 C'J l-o ~ .J:J E ~ > 0 Z The Preston Petty - Dick Miller tum took the Baja 125 dass win for the sec:oncI time this year: first in the 500, now in the 1000. They did it on a Honda CR125M this time. Preston got the dlIylilltt and _s gassin' it past the Islas Encantadas. Mitch didn't like the dark; A. C. had never raced Baja before. They won. , Mature motorcyclists Preston P~tty and Dick Miller first 125 By John Huetter Photos By Marcia Ho!!ey. Tod Rafferty and Huetter BAJA CAUFORNlA PENINSULA,NOV. 6-8, 1973 The unknowledgeable look down from an airplane at the new Mexican 1000 course and say, disappointedly, "Oh, it's a road." .. • not realizing that a road in Baja is a place where vehicles have gone exposing the rocks and digging the des e r t i n t o r u t sand Mickey Quade (HIlS) coming. He had a half-hour lead over A.C. by the Punta Final checkpoint. whoop-de-doos. ''They'U never make it," says the network sports announcer who has seen >hundreds of motor races but never before looked at the brutal extent of Baja California. The reality of the Baja 1000 lies somewhere betwccu these two reactions. It is one of those unique competition events that must be experienced first-hand at some level in order to understand even a little hit what racing a motorcycle across this terrain is like. To win you must go Incredibly fast,. ignoring the smaller rocks and making those critical racing judgments about which of the larger ones will send you over the handlebars or flying sideways into a cactus. To finish you must not destroy your bike or your body, either by crashing heavily or destroying the engine and suspension. The race is not always to the swiftest; it is to the quick and' consistenL And it is almost always the experienced who win. The flnt exposure of even a good rider to Baja racing is usually so intimidating that a racing frame of mind is difficult to attain and maintain. This year it was a combination of experience and youthful enthusiasm that netted the bike win for Mitch Mayes and A.C. Bakken riding for Team Husqvama. They were not necessarily the fastest bu t they were the fastest that fin ished. Bill Silverthorne of the Silverthorne-Hansen-Germain Honda of Lemon Grove team led until an engine seal that wasn't there sealed the end of that effort. Mickey Quade, winner of this year's Baja 500, had a sizeable lead over A.C. when he handed off at the halfway poin t only to have his co-rider Howard Utsey, recovering from a . leg broken in the Baja 300, run into trouble in the dark. Not many entries finished on the new 87 5-mile long course that was, for a change, largely off-road, over some of the roughest negotiable terrain on the peninsula. One theory offered in explanation was that many of the riders, thinking themselves familiar with the course since the Baja 500 runs the opposite direction over the same most tortuous terrain, didn't bother to pre-run these sections_ It turns out that the obstacles presen ted in a North to Sou th run down the Sea of Cortez side of Baja are quite different. The rocks point a different direction, -the down hills become power-robbing, suspension·busting uphill and, since it was run in daylight for the first time, competitive speeds would have to be higher. It was a different course. If you don't already appreciate the skill of the two riders, it would be even more incredIble then that Preston Petty and Dick Miller finished first 125 on a light-equipped Honda CRI25M Elsinore the first outing for the small two-stroke in Baja. Preston was one of the few first leg riders who was really racing the whole way, eating away at the minutes all the way into the trade-off point at Bahia de Los Angeles. His fast, consistent ride was then complimented by Dick Miller who feels, and continues to prove, that he 'is as' good as anybody at riding Baja in the Mickey au.de going. Partner Howard Utsey had problems in the dark.

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