1st place! It was amazing... While we waited for Fernie at Pit 1, we heard some disturbing chatter over the race radios that some pit crews were using. Esteemed pro Wayne Matlock had gone down hard, resulting in injuries that would take him out of the race. For the record, his teammate Harold Goodman finished the rest of the race solo and scored 3^rd place. Fernie started off great, coming into pit 1 so fired up that he said he felt he could ride the whole way to Reno! We topped him off with gas and sent him on his way to pit 2, where he would hand the quad over to Danny. Syd, Joe and I made our way to pit 3 where I would get geared up and ready for my first leg of the race (45.5 miles).

Danny had a flawless run and brought the quad to me in good shape. I took off like a bat-outta-hell and the course quickly turned rough. Bottomless silt beds with deep ruts, big rocks and tight, off-camber turns made for a challenging race experience! I cut the inside of a turn to avoid a large rock in the middle of the track, only to make hard contact with a hidden rock that kicked me up on two-wheels. I brought it down safely and managed to keep going, but I noticed that the quad handled differently. I would ride through dust with low visibility to pass guys on bikes and a guy on a big utility quad. Then we dove into a silt bed that made it feel like you were riding through water. I downshifted, kept my head down and followed the ruts with only a couple feet of visibility. Next thing I know, there’s a guy standing in the middle of the course waving his arms. I hit the brakes and turned, but I kept sliding towards him and his downed bike. At the last moment, I downshifted, popped the clutch and juked around him. It was a dangerous situation, to say the least. The first thing I thought about was the guy on the big utility quad that I had just passed. If he was riding blind in my dust and this guy was still stuck in the silt, I can only imagine the grim consequences! I don’t know what was up with that…

I stopped at pit 4 to fuel up and survey the damage to the quad from hitting the rock: a huge cut in the side of the front tire and a bent tie-rod. If it weren’t for the steering stabilizer, I probably would’ve crashed. My team invested in Tire Balls just before this big race, and they proved to be worth every penny. Even after cutting the sidewall early on, we ran the entire race without changing ANY tires! I was able to compensate for the “adjustment” that I had made to the tie-rod and the tire, allowing me to hit top speeds on my way to pit 5.

Danny was there to meet me and deliver the quad to Fern-dog at pit 6. He had another good run, despite the bent tie-rod and flat tire. My wife, Sydney, and my 3 yr. old son, Joe, and I waited for Fern at pit 7 (roughly the halfway pint of the race). Our mission was to top him off with fuel and send him on his way. As we waited, the first trophy trucks started mobbing through the pits. It was loud, dusty, and exciting! Awesome… but scary. We would now be sharing the racecourse with these speed demons and riding through miles of their dust. It also meant that they had already passed Fernie somewhere between pit 6 and where we were waiting at pit 7… hang in there, buddy! It occurred to me that the ruts must have been getting even deeper now, because of the big, fast machines that were going to be tearing up the course ahead of us.

When the Fern-meister came in, it was obvious he had crashed. Both his arms were bloody, his chest protector was all scratched up, and he staggered as he got off the quad. He hit a mean kicker, which sent the quad into a forward flip. He bailed out hard and let the quad ghost-ride end-over-end. I zip-tied the front brake lever back on and filled it with gas. While admiring the bent A-arm and tie-rod, I asked him if he wanted me to ride it to Danny at pit 8. He said he was ready to take it another 18.5 miles to Danny, especially since his adrenaline hadn’t worn off yet. “Go Fernie, go! We’ll meet you at pit 8,” my wife, son and I yelled. “You quad guys are crazy,” said the buggy pit crew next to us. Yes… yes, we are. In a good way…

By the time Fernando got to pit 8, his natural high had worn off and he was feeling the pain. He likely cracked a few ribs and it hurt to do a lot of things… like breathe. Fernie’s wonderful wife, Charla, had been driving the Mothership, their triple-axle trailer, the whole distance. It allowed the injured Fernie to get as comfortable as possible, since he had already raced all of the 138 miles that he committed to. We did a little more work on the front brake, sort-of banged the tie-rod straight, swapped out the air filter, put some gas in it and sent Danny on his way. We gave Fernie a beer and headed out for pit 10.

On his way to pit 10, Danny would be stopping at pit 9 to fuel up. Our grassroots pit crew couldn’t leapfrog our way to pit 9 because it was so remote. We retained the services of MARS Racing for pit support at that location. They provided race gas and removed an A-arm skid plate that was binding up with the bent A-arm. We waited for a long time at pit 10, but that was to be expected. After all, Danny was racing almost 90 miles from pit 8 to pit 10! Danny’s wife Laura pretended to not worry, while their boys, Tommy and D-ster played with lizards. If he brought the quad in to me, I knew that I could get it to the finish line 75.5 miles away. Finally, he makes it in to pit 10; the first quad in our class that we’ve seen. Danny was exhausted after about 3 hours of racing, which included a decent crash that bent the tie-rod again. He was lucky to have crashed over a sand dune, considerably reducing the potential for injury. We decided to remove the bent tie-rod, straighten it with a hammer, and re-install it before sending me off into the sunset. Fernie did most of the mechanical work, despite his injuries. I was geared up and focused on the fact that I would be leaving pit 10 looking directly into the glare of the setting sun, with trophy trucks and buggies in front of me and behind me. The biggest rooster tails I have ever seen of dust and silt lingered for miles over the racecourse.

My wife, son and our best buddy, Frank, had to get a head start for pit 11, where I would meet them for one last fuel stop. They actually left pit 10 before Danny came in. If they had waited to leave for pit 11 at the same time that I left on the quad, I would have beaten them there. After leaving pit 10, I experienced racing on a different level. It’s intimidating to be on a racecourse with the big trucks and cars. Going as fast as you can because you know they are somewhere unseen behind you, looking over your shoulder more than you ever would, kicking up as much dust as possible to slow them down, riding at the limit of visibility with the sunlight fading away and no moon in sight; racing at night has an eerie, exciting appeal and provides an exhilarating rush.

By the time I pulled into pit 11, I was feeling good. Danny had told me back at pit 10, that our position in our class was pretty much secured. Nobody was even close to us. All we had to do was finish, and we knew 1^st place was a definite possibility. I had to keep the quad together. I couldn’t make any mistakes. At this point, riding smart was way more important than just riding fast. I knew that it was going to be a challenge to race through the desert and the mountains at night, especially since I had nothing but stock headlights with bright bulbs. I had to be careful. “See you at the finish line,” I said to my family and Frank. “See you at the finish line!” they shouted, as I got back on course.

There were hundreds of opportunities to lose the race over the 45.5 miles that separated pit 11 from the finish line: low visibility because of dust, silt and darkness, fast sections and technical sections, rock gardens and cliffs, and big, fast trucks and buggies presented numerous obstacles and challenges. I kept trying to remind myself that in some cases, slower is faster. I figured that I should ease my way around an obstacle, rather than hit it straight on, if possible. If I broke the quad now, we would have come all this way for nothing. I had to keep a good attitude and remain very patient, especially when the course became rocky and technical. I always liked riding at night, especially in the dunes. At this point, I had to think of this as a fast trail ride at night. As I passed a pro utility quad that was broken down on the side of the rocky mountain trail, I wondered if he had tried to go too fast over the big, nasty rocks that littered the dark course.

Over 14 hours later... I met Casey Folks, director of Best in the Desert, my family and friends at the finish line. Then it was up onto the podium to have a little talk with George. He let us know that we were the first Quad Am that he saw come across the line. Danny Guzman, Fernando Vieira & I raced our '08 Yamaha YFZ450 to a 1st place finish in the Quad Am class of the BITD Vegas to Reno event. We couldn't have done it without the support of our families, friends and sponsors! Thanks, everybody... we had a great time!

A couple of last notes: If you are thinking about endurance desert racing, you’ve got consider these essentials: everyone on my team wears protective gear, including some combination of helmet, goggles, gloves, boots, jersey and riding pants, knee braces, neck braces, chest protectors, and kidney belts. We all race with hydration packs, which we re-fill periodically. Safety first… you must protect your ASSets!

Also, my team got first place (in the Amateur Class), despite the fact that every person on the team stopped during the race to help other racers. We easily got to the finish line 30 – 45 min. later because of our good sportsmanship. Fernie stopped to grab a stuck-stub from someone who was off the course and out of the race, Danny picked up a spare sprocket for a quad at a checkpoint. Then he continued on the course until he found the stranded rider, who was walking to the checkpoint to pick up the part. He gave him the part and then he gave him a ride back to his busted quad so he wouldn’t have to walk back. I stopped to help get a VW racecar back on course after it had slid off the track and got stuck in a ditch. I’m very proud of the guys on my team for being good sports. I hope that the people we helped would do the same for us or anyone else they meet on the course during a long-distance desert event. I must say that I was disappointed to see a lot of people who did not stop, despite the fact that racers-in-need were waving at them for help. Talk about bad Karma… please don’t be like that if you are going to race in the Best in the Desert series (or District 37, 38, WORCS, SCORE, etc…)