The Hidden Perils Are Many for Riders in Baja : There Is Quite a Bit More to Off-Road Motorcycle Racing Than Meets the Eye

As if grueling terrain and varying temperatures that swell past 100 degrees are not enough to challenge a motorcyclist, the Baja SCORE International off-road races have another obstacle to make riders think twice before starting: radical Mexican spectators.

Some enjoy watching motorcycle crashes more than motorcycle races, so they rig elaborate hidden traps to create spills for the unsuspecting rider.

Dan Ashcraft of Huntington Beach, one of the maestros of Baja racing, was once clipped by a group of race-course saboteurs.

He was aware something was up by the way people were watching him as he approached a stream in the bottom of a gully, he said. He was driving slowly and carefully, zigzagging around man-made rock obstacles strewn across the road.

“When you see them standing all over the place you’ve got to slow down because you know they they’ve built something for you,” Ashcraft said.

Going down into the gully he then tried to cross the stream, an attempt that proved ill-advised.

“I was going to wheelie through it,” he said.

Instead, a hole hidden under water swallowed the cycle, sending the 23-year-old rider over the handlebars and into the water face first. He laughed, however, when recalled the aftermath of the accident.

“My bike was sitting upside down running wide open and then they come running over to help me,” he said. “After they get a big kick out of me, they come over to help . . . they dare to do that.”

Ashcraft becomes earnest, though, when discussing the real dangers to riders posed by the artificial obstacles.

“They (the saboteurs) are so ignorant, they don’t realize it’s serious, that they could kill someone doing it,” Ashcraft said. “But they think it’s funny to watch us crash.”

He said a friend severely dislocated a shoulder when he ran into a hidden jump during another race.

” . . . it was just hanging,” Ashcraft said, “His shoulder still isn’t the same. They operated on it twice, but it pops out.”

During another race, Ashcraft broke his ribs when he hit a fallen tree that was laid across the course and camouflaged with dirt.

“It blends in going 80 or 100 miles per hour,” he said. “We still won. I got the bike to my partner . . . The bike was all bent up; the seat was half off, the forks were bent. Luckily, we were only about 60 miles from the finish.”

Pain and discomfort are major parts of desert racing, and it is more evident in Baja, where temperatures at the June SCORE Baja International reached 117 degrees, according to Ashcraft.

“It’s like a blow dryer in your face,” he said.

The weather conditions vary immensely during the 447-mile race. Riders start in the cool, foggy dawn in Ensenada and travel south toward San Felipe as the day grows warmer. The temperature change, besides being wearing on the rider, is taxing on the motorcycle itself.

“Equipment problems are part of Baja,” said Jim McIlvain of Husqvarna motorcycles.

And therein lies the problem for Ashcraft and his partner, Dan Smith, two of the best off-road racers.

They have dominated the off-roads the last 3 1/2 years, winning nine straight races and finishing first or second in 12 of 15 events. Each failure was caused by a mechanical problem.

The latest of these frustrations came during one of those Baja heat spells when a leaky seal in the water pump caused their 500cc engine to self-destruct about 330 miles into the Score Baja International Off-road race earlier this month.

Ashcraft had a 15-minute lead before the engine troubles.

“It was such a bummer . . .” Ashcraft said. “If I’m going to lose, I’d rather get beat. Then I could accept it a lot easier.”