Lewis Dominates Dubai!
LEWIS DOMINATES DUBAI!
ROUND UP
HOW DOES IT FEEL TO WARP wide-open across desert roads as wide as Southern California's 10-lane 1-5 freeway? Or roost through arid golf course-like sand dunes trying to milk the last ounce of life from a foam tire insert? Or navigate your way via satellite through the "Empty Quarter" of a country called United Arab Emirates?
Ah, the life of a factory rally racer. In the U.S., despite my phone-booth-filling fan base, I go largely unnoticed on the offroad scene: “You race a BMW?!” Instead, most people wonder if I competed in the recent Baja 2000, which is the biggest off-road race in the States, never mind it’s really run in Mexico. Sorry, my buddy Johnny Campbell won that one.
I was on the opposite side of the globe giving BMW’s new Boxer-based R900RR its final shakedown before the upcoming Paris-Dakar Rally.
During the two weeks prior to last November’s UAE Desert Challenge, my teammates and I spent several scorching days in the sand dunes evaluating such things as fuel consumption and suspension settings, as well as just plain trying to break the bike. Its basic foundation remains largely unchanged from last year, but a more aerodynamic fairing, reworked gas tanks and re-engineered suspension have given the unlikely racer a new lease on life. We also shot a bunch of photos (like the one here, where it’s obvious I didn’t get my fill of freestyle last month) and taped a bit of television footage that should show at BMW dealerships just in time for Dakar.
As race day approached, I was pretty confident. The bike has come a long way. For one, it feels more like a Single than a Twin, at least weight-wise. And due to the aforementioned aero tweaks, the big Beemer picked up nearly 12 mph. Now it tops out at a whopping 127 mph! Not bad for a dirtbike.
The race itself began on a peculiar note. Most of the top riders (myself included) did not want to start first.
So the short prologue that was supposed to determine starting positions looked more like a parking lot than a race course. In the end, confusion over timing forced the organizers to draw starting positions from a hat. I drew “lucky” number 13.
at a rally mapbook since riding up to the Great Pyramids last January. That, combined with a few other problems, meant I was pretty pleased to go from my superstitious start to second overall on the first day.
My new BMW teammate Juan Roma, the top rider in the KTM camp last year, captured the Day One win by 2 minutes. Dakar winner and ex-BMW pilot Richard Sainct took Roma’s ride at KTM, but decided to wait for Dakar to strut his stuff.
For the remainder of the rally, Roma and I played cat and mouse. It was give and take the entire way, and all the while we were dealing with broken Global Positioning Systems, rain storms, chocolate-cake dunes, dust and the occasional camel herd. But in the end, I was able to do some spot-on navigating while Roma suffered mechanical problems. That allowed KTM rider Carlo De Gavardo to slide into second, while BMW first-timer Cyril Despres claimed third.
Besides netting me a major rally win, the victory put me in a great position for the upcoming Paris-Dakar. For those of you who aren’t in the know, it’s bigger than Baja. At least it is for me!
Jimmy Lewis
