Each year we organize a group of racing enthusiasts and spend a week in Baja California exploring, riding, just messing around and of course, operating a pit for Kawasaki's off road racing team (Team Green). The race is run during the week of the Veterans Day holiday each November. Generally we spend a few days near San Felipe and then setup our pit for the race.
Our itinerary for the race week in 1994 was --
Saturday - Arrive in San Felipe and setup our camp at Mar Del Sol RV Park. This park is about two miles south of town and right on the beach. It's an easy walk to town for shopping and eating. There are many good eating places in town.
Sunday - Explore more of the local area and prerun about 100 miles of the course with Jamie Davenport. Jamie drives a class 5 race car but chooses to prerun his portion of the race course by motorcycle. The section we rode on Sunday started at El Chinero and finished in Mexicali. This section includes some of the roughest rocky sections as well as some long high speed dry lake bed sections and some very fast road sections.
Monday - A leisurely cross country ride to Mike's Sky Ranch for lunch. The ride began heading west out of San Felipe. It's hard to get lost here, just head west until you run into Laguna Diablo dry lake and then head north. If you go north long enough you run right into Highway 3, the main paved highway between Ensenada and Highway 5 at "Three Poles". The trick is to turn northwest right after leaving Laguna Diablo and hit the main sand wash going in that direction. The sand wash hits the highway right at the base of the Sierra San Pedro Martir mountains. A 10 (or so) mile ride west on Highway 3 takes you over San Matias Pass and past the town of Ejido San Matias. Just a few miles past town is the turnoff to Mike's Sky ranch. This begins 20 miles of dirt road. This road is really fun to ride but is also used by local ranchers so watch out for traffic. It's not unusual to find the entire road blocked by a heard of cattle being driven down it as well. At the ranch we always enjoy a great meal, sit around the pool for awhile before returning back to camp. After returning to San Felipe and having dinner, it was time to prerun the course again. This time Jamie wanted to ride his section of the course in the dark. So, about dusk we loaded up the bikes and headed back to El Chinero. It's amazing how fast we could ride the course at night. Our lights hit the reflective course markers at least a quarter mile ahead of us all the time and the rocks and other obstacles threw such great shadows that they were easy to see and avoid. Our nighttime speed average was about the same as we had done in the daylight the day before. After returning to camp at about "oh-dark-thirty" in the morning, it was easy to fall asleep.
Tuesday - Ride to Gonzaga Bay (Bahia San Luis Gonzaga). This beautiful bay is located on the Sea of Cortez about 100 miles south of San Felipe. There is a paved road about half the way that ends in Puertecitos. There is also the old Puertecitos Road (dirt) that begins at the new Pemex station in San Felipe and takes you to Puertecitos. From Puertecitos, the road get a little rougher in some sections and there are several washouts to watch out for, but otherwise it is a fun road to travel with some spectacular scenery along the way. There are endless, totally deserted beaches, of beautiful white sand and emerald green water. At Gonzaga Bay, you can relax at Alfonsina's, where you can stay the night if you want or just get another great meal before returning home. Besides the lady that cooked us lunch, we only saw two other people the entire trip after leaving Puertecitos. That was while we were eating lunch. Two guys came walking up the beach and wanted to get some food also. Turns out they were traveling the length of Baja by Hobie Cat. They had left San Felipe four and a half days earlier and just arrived at Gonzaga Bay. (Not much wind). In any case they had a couple months before they had to be in La Paz, so they weren't worried. The return trip to Puertecitos was uneventful and now it was time for a dip in the hot springs. The hot springs at Puertecitos are in the rocks right on the Sea. The temperature of any individual pool varies with the tide so you must proceed with caution. The hottest pool at low tide would easily prepare a lobster dinner! Anyway this is a great way to rid ourselves of the days dust and dirt before the short ride back to San Felipe.
Wednesday - A leisurely day around San Felipe just laying on the beach and shopping. The exact location of our pit was yet to be determined so we also did a little scouting to help choose the best location. We decided to pit on the side of highway 5 between the "Arches" and the turnoff onto the dump road. The race participants would come through town, go past the arches and then bear off onto the dump road.
Thursday - Tech inspection for all the vehicles in the race up at Mexicali. This is one of the best days of the week. It gives us a close up look at all the race cars, trucks, bikes and drivers. Some of these machines are truly amazing works of engineering art. After all the festivities, we pick up our last minute pit supplies and instructions from the Team Green Camp and head back to San Felipe.
Friday - Race Day! We get up early and set up our pit starting with "Team Green" signs a quarter mile ahead of the actual pit. We set up our work table, tools, gas drums, quick fills, and all the other miscellaneous "stuff" that every good pit needs. Since our pit is after the half way point in the race, we won't see any action until late afternoon and we will be busy well into the night. We set up 500 watt halogen light stands and gas up the generator. When nightfall comes, our pit area will still be as bright as daytime. The action seems to go on forever. Between servicing a rider in our pit, and watching the trucks and cars go by on the course, there is never a dull moment.
Saturday - Time to relax, pack up all the "stuff" and head home. Another successful Baja 1000 race week.