Cycle News

VOL. 51 ISSUE 2 JANUARY 14, 2014 off, we now had no lights. With no beam and no time to waste, Colin was off. Into the blackness he went with only his Clearwater headlight atop his helmet to guide him to the finish. The only issue with that was the headlight battery had 16 hours on it now and was starting to fade. "The last stint I had 40 miles to go," Edwards said. "When the bike came in, it was having a couple of problems with water in the electronics. I left there with more or less no lights, only the helmet light. It was a bit scary, but it was either go or sit there." It was time to load up and put the pedal to the metal towards town to see the man bring it home. The entire ride back, we couldn't help but to think of Colin. How was he doing without the headlights? Damn. The sun was coming up by the time we arrived in Ensenada. Thankfully he had a bit of daylight to work with coming into the city. The entire team was there to watch the World Champion ride the #145x Yamaha through the finish line. "We did it: Baja - we conquered it, we finished," Edwards said. "I have no immediate plans on going back there anytime soon [laughs]. It was one hell of an experience, the whole thing. I'm just glad everyone made it safe." It hasn't been but a few weeks since we were there racing. The experience seems so surreal. I can speak for others on the team when I say it's like this for them as well. Did we really just complete the Baja 1000? At the time, my tired mind was doing its best to comprehend the scenario. "Yea, we really fu*kin' did it," I told myself. I looked up towards the blue morning sky and gave thanks to the man upstairs for looking after me. " THOSE BOYS PUT IT INTO PERSPECTIVE, SPEED WISE. WE'RE DEFINITELY NOT DESERT RACERS, AND I DON'T INTEND TO BE A DESERT RACER. WE DID IT FOR THE FUN. " – COLIN EDWARDS The goose bumps set-in once we all made our way towards the podium. The feeling I had when wearing that finisher's medallion around my neck is hard to describe. It's a special thing. Not many folks get to say they raced the 1000, let alone finished. I was proud; proud of the guys… my teammates, my brothers and our brilliant chase crew. P63 The bike made it. We made it. Damn… we did it. Team TTBC completed the 2013 SCORE Baja 1000 in 30 hours and 38 minutes. The team finished fourth overall in the Pro Class 21 - just 10 minutes behind third place and a podium finish. 270 motorcycle teams entered and less than half finished. It was around 8:30 a.m. by the time everyone made it back to the house. With everyone on a high, it was time to celebrate - drink beer and bullshit about which stories we're going to tell around the campfire next. We owned the night, and the 2013 Baja 1000. Cheers. Excerpt: Mom, Dad… "Me and the amigos are headed south to Mexico to race the Baja 1000… No worries. I promise it's safe, the people are cool, there are no drug cartels, no one gets kidnapped and what they say about the drunken locals setting booby traps on the course isn't true. Don't worry about the trophy trucks, they won't catch us, and when I'm storming through the trail on our WR450 that I've hardly ridden… if I get hurt, the ambulance and helicopters are right there waiting on me with a big ole bag of "feel good." Mom… Dad, it's cool. We got this... promise." Your loving son, Shea

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