VOL. 53 ISSUE 35 SEPTEMBER 7, 2016 P107
I'll admit it: I felt like a phony. So
I did my best to sink a couple
of beers and chat to whoever
wanted to listen. It was during
this time I began to see another
side of desert racing. With a
bit of downtime, the camarade-
rie aspect of racing comes to
the fore. For what seemed like
eight straight hours, we were all
cracking jokes, laughing, having
a great old time. It was unlike
any other racing I'd experienced,
and another part of why the cult
of desert racing can be so ad-
dictive.
After a fractured night's sleep,
I was elected to start the second
morning. Gridding up for what
seemed like hours, I was finally
released into the wild at about
7:00 a.m., one of the last 25 or
so riders to take the start. The
wind decided it would take a
break right at the time the clutch
was released, meaning the first
30 or so miles out of the next
120 were caked in thick dust.
It was nearly impossible to see
more than 20 feet in front, but
by the 40-mile mark, and having
caught and passed three rid-
ers, the dust had settled and the
Africa Twin and I shared our own
little On Any Sunday moment as
together we blasted across the
open plains of the Nevada des-
ert, the sun beginning to find its
perch for the Saturday morning.
It was one of those moments
I'll remember for the rest of my
life.
There were a couple more
sections left to run that allowed
the Africa Twin to stretch its
very long legs, and pulling back
riders on horsepower and top
speed alone proved to be great
fun. There's a perverse satis-
faction knowing you have the
fastest bike in the race (even
if that fastest claim is only for
straight-line speed), and the
high-speed stuff is where I'm
most comfortable. That meant
miles quickly gobbled up in
surprising comfort thanks to the
long and flat race seat that was
fitted, meaning you could get all
the way back and let her rip off
into the distance.
My ride was over by 8:30
a.m. Pulling into the pits and
handing the Africa Twin over to
Imai-san with no damage and a
few places gained was a great
feeling. The rest of the day I
was with American Honda's
Senior Engineer Hide Hanawa,
again cracking jokes and laugh-
Happy days!
Campbell rides
the Africa Twin
onto the podium to
celebrate the Africa
Twin's first-ever
race finish
in America.
