Baja 500

BAJA 500

High-Speed Terrain Puts The Bikes At A Disadvantage.

JOSEPH C. PARKHURST

WAY OUT WEST, the battle for off-road racing supremacy is changing fast. Motorcycles have had the edge for some time, but with the running of the Baja 500, a shortened version of the now famous National Off-Road Racing Association’s Mexican 1000, a dune buggy took the lead. NORRA laid the event out so that cars had somewhat of an edge. Several long, straight stretches were included, quite an advantage for the high-powered, relatively stable four-wheelers. Also, the sections run at night included the straighter roads, allowing the cars to use their extremely high-powered lights to the best advantage. The single, meager, bouncing light on a bike is not nearly sufficient to cover the black distance approaching at high rates of speed.

The course was 548 miles of pavement, rough dirt roads, wide well-graded roads, some soft, sandy sections and a few miles of very rocky going. It was not all “off-road,” so the name of the game could well be changed. If this form of racing were truly off-road, as motorcycle hare and hounds, hare scrambles, etc., are run, things would change rapidly. NORRA wouldn’t even have to change its name.

Though the first motorcycle finished only 8th overall, bikes led the first half unchallenged and would have finished in the same manner were it not for a series of misfortunes which plagued the leaders. Malcolm Smith rode his Husqvarna into the halfway point almost three hours ahead of the rest, but his second half rider, Bill Ydiano, hit a cow in the night. Dusty Coppage had six flat tires. Steve Hurd, on a 500 Kawasaki Three set up for the dirt, finished 11th after numerous problems with tires. Baja winner Larry Berquist, now riding Bultaco, and his partner Gary Preston finished 12th. Mint 400 winner Mike Patrick rode a Yamaha into 2nd place halfway down the Baja wilds, turning the bike over to Dicky Dean who had two flats during the night and lost his expansion chamber. He later blew the engine because of lack of knowledge of how the engine was running. They finished 6th regardless.

Winner of the bike class was the Douglas/McClerk ridden Ducati, a well deserved victory after several years of trying. They finished 3rd overall, behind the Baja Boot driven by Bud Ekins and Mike Jones. The Boot passed McClark on the Ducati at over 130 mph on a straight stretch while he was doing 90. Second overall was the VW buggy driven by Drino Miller and Vic Wilson, sponsored by CW’s companion publication, DUNE BUGGIES Magazine. Vic and Drino had vengeance in their eyes for the bike riders. They had been beaten too often. Nighttime and straight, high speed roads made their job a bit easier. The motorcycle that can compete, machine for machine, with the best Baja four-wheelers, will have to be a multispeed, large displacement, two-, threeor four-cylinder bike, ridden by someone who can handle the bike at the over 120-mph speeds on the easier going stretches. It will also need better lighting than any seen on motorcycles to date.

John Coots and Bill Myers, riding a Triumph Metisse, finished 9th, followed by the Holladay/Martino Husqvarna, Baker/Thorwaldsen Yamaha, Preston/ Berquist Bultaco, and the Miller/Petty BSA. The balance of the field was filled with such strange equipment as Rambler sedans, Ford pickups, scads of buggies and bunches of four-wheel-drive Jeeps, Broncos, etc.

The Baja 500 will probably become an integral part of the western off-road racing championship circuit, including the Mexican 100, Mint 400, Borego Rough 100, and a few shorter events. It is becoming apparent that the best of each of the three types of machines being run in these events, bikes, buggies and four-wheel-drive cars, are on quite equal terms. Though bikes are fastest in the very rough, the large, heavy but very powerful four-wheel-drive machines are extremely fast in the medium rough and virtually unbeatable on the smooth, straight sections included in most of these kinds of events. Buggies are getting lighter, more powerful, and suspensions are being built that really work well in the rough. Like we said, the ideal bike is not being built today, but if the right money and effort is put into it, a bike could do the job every time.