The Quad75.com/S&S Motorsports Class 25 6A Team is pleased with this years results and poised for an even better 2010 season. After a bit of a rocky start at the San Felipe 250 in March, they quickly made some much needed changes to the program for the Baja 500 and clicked off a win.  In fact it was the first win ever in any pro class, dirt bike or ATV for Suzuki in the SCORE Series.

Next up would be the Baja 1000!  We acquired an 05′ TRX 450R that had minimal use and went to work.  We chose the 05′ TRX because we had vast experience with the machine and felt it would be our best bet for having a successful race in what looked to be the most brutal and technical Baja race in recent years.

Leaving no stone unturned, Kenny Sanford of S&S Motorsports tore the bike down to the frame and split the cases on the engine immediately after I dropped it off at his shop in Puyallup Wa.  “The quad looked to be in great shape, however for this race we couldn’t take any chances so we decided to start from scratch”  stated Kenny.  So long story short.  Over the course of the fallowing three and a half months prior to the race, Kenny meticulously built the quad from the ground up with the help of a long list of sponsors and co contributors.

The race machine turned out great!  After running it in a small local hare scramble the week before we left for the sake of shaking it down, we were ready to head for Mexico.  When we arrived in San Felipe to do our scheduled pre-running and finale suspension tuning a week prior to the race.  All went well and the bike was set up perfectly for the task at hand.

Come race day, we got off to a good start however shortly after we ran into a streak of small blunders that ultimately put us out of the running for the win.  Not to get detoured we all got our heads back in the game and started chipping away at the lead that the majority of the field had on us.  By the half way point we had clawed our way up to the second place spot.  At this point we fought back and forth with the 4A bike for over 250 miles for the #2 position.  We had a great battle going and left a pit on the coast with in seconds of each other until bad luck would strike one last time.  We ended up getting short fueled at that pit and ran out of gas 10 miles from any where.  We lost two plus hours getting this problem resolved, and made our way in to Ensanada with a very respectable 3rd in Class and 3rd overall ATV.  This set us up solid for the runner up spot for the series in Class 25.

We were incredibly happy with the results for the year.  “This was mine and Kenny’s first full year effort putting a program together in Baja…” said one of the team cordinators Brandon Brown “And considering we pulled off a win and second in the series points for the season.  We couldn’t be happier, or more poised for next season”.

This was definitely the roughest course that SCORE has thrown at the race contestants in a long time and we were completely pleased with how the machine held up, ran, and handled.  It all came together due to a lot of sponsors/ contributors that we would like to give thanks.

Special thanks to:  Bling Star for title sponsoring the team for the 1000, their pegs & aluminum products.  Kenny @ S&S Motorsports for working tirelessly to make sure we were riding the best quad possible at each event.  Sean @ TCS for taking the time and effort on a frame skid plate that should eventually become the standard in Baja.  Hot Rod Bill for an impeccable wiring system for the lights.  Trail Tech for the lighting and last minute back up lighting.  Mike Cafro for advice any time we needed it.  SCR Graphics for going above and beyond to make sure our program looked Pro.  Fox for unbelievable suspension.  ARS-FX for the suspension components that made the bike track better than anything we have ridden yet.  And Klim for making sure all the riders looked as good as the Bike!

A big thanks to the companies and people that supplied the parts and labor that make the puzzle complete: Bike: MotoSport Hillsborro, Tires: Maxxis, Wheels: Hiper Technology, Flat Protection: Tire Balls, Bars: Fasst Co., Clutch: Rekluse, Piston: Wiseco, Cam: Crower Power, Levers: Works Connection, Filter: UNI, Breaks: Galfer, Grips: Spider, Oils & Chemicals: Maxima, Plastic: Full Bore, Pipe: CT, Case saver & Sliders: UPP, Hand gaurds: Power Madd, Goggles: Scott, Cooling: PWR, Stabilizer: Precision, Tank: IMS, Athlete Supplements: Moto X Nutrition, The Cookie Lady, Paulina Nelson, Kelly Sanford, Big Frank and his crew, Bill Nelson, Brad Aboltin, Alberto (Chino) Wong, and the Fines Double team for their track side assistance when ever we needed it.

And thanks to all the riders that contributed through out the year; Rider Of Record: Nick Nelson.  Riders: Brandon Brown, Jorie Williams, Josh Edwards, Jason Greenhaw, Mike Bender, Shilo Strunk.

Please keep an eye out for the full bike build and write up in an upcoming issue of ATV Action Magazine!

The team at the finish!

]]> http://quad75.com/main/archives/240/feed 0 http://quad75.com/main/archives/242 http://quad75.com/main/archives/242#comments Sun, 13 Dec 2009 20:05:31 +0000 quad75 http://quad75.com/main/?p=242 Here is a link to an anecdote from one of my experiences in Baja, posted in the monthly Klim news letter.   Please check it out as well as their website, gear and sign up for the newsletter, for more stories from myself and other Klim riders and more Klim News!

Brandon Brown Reports on Baja 1000

Friday morning we went to the track to get some practice in on the Mx part of the track, with the track only having a few events a year the track was pretty simple and I got it dialed within the first practice. During practice I was having some issues with my suspension, luckily Mike Hallock with Exit suspension was on hand and he revalved my shocks and got them dialed in for the race.
Saturday was a pretty laid back day, I did a Pro Practice which gives us a chance to practice the whole track and I basically used this practice to do the last minute fine tuning to the shocks. I then used the rest of the day to Hydrate myself and eat to prepare for the 2 hour main event on Sunday.
I came into the race Sunday morning feeling pretty good, and I felt that I was going to turn my season around and start getting some top ten finishes. The Crazy Horse Campground facility has no starting gates since they only have a few races a year, so for the start of the main event we did a dead engine start. When the flag dropped for the 28 rider Pro Main Event my quad started first kick and I got a great jump out of the hole. I ran the first 2 laps in 9th place right behind a train of the top 8, on the 3rd lap I was going down the beach section and launched off this pretty big single that the WORCS crew put in for the spectators on the lake in their boats. When I landed my left side heel plate on my nerf bars broke and sucked up under my rear tire and locked the rear end up, I struggled to get that out and finally just broke it off but I dropped back into 19th. With another finish outside of the top 10 not what I was wanting I put my head down and got myself back into the 9th spot at about the hour and a half mark. At this time I was starting to feel the Arizona heat and I just settled into the 9th spot and held it to the checkered. The 9th was my best finish of the year it built my momentum up a little bit going into the next round.

Here is his Race Report.

WORCS Rnd. 5 Toutle, Wa

Round 5 of the World Off Road Championship series brought us up to my backyard in the rainy state of Washington where we could get out of the desert and get into some trees. With the track located only 20 minutes from my house it made the weekend very laid back and didn’t seem like a WORCS race at all.
Friday was practice on the motocross track and the track was in primo condition hence the rain storm that blew in Thursday night. Since the track is one of my local riding areas I already had the motocross track down and used the day to test out my thumb that I squished between the rear sprocket and the swingarm on a dirt bike on Wednesday. Come to find out that my thumb felt better when I was on the bike then off.
Saturday rolled around and it was a pretty uneventful day, I went out and rode the Pro practice and got a feel for the off road section. The track was what I expected with tight tree sections that got rough with ruts and stumps.  What I didn’t expect was for them to use the drag strip as part of the course, where in which they were clocking us at up to 77 mph.
Twelve o’clock Sunday afternoon and it was time for the main event to start, I got a gate pick on the way outside and the first turn was the tightest one we’ve had all year. The gate fell and I got an awesome jump out of the hole and rounded the first corner in about fifth, I made a small mistake on the motocross track and lost a few positions and as we headed into the woods I was in the nine spot. On the second lap I made a pass to move into eighth and I ran there until Eichner passed me which would be the beginning of a 5 lap battle going back and forth with him. I pitted for fuel on lap 7 and Doug got around me and as I was on the hunt through the woods to get him back my quad started to overheat and I had broken the bolts to my gas tank so the only thing holding it on was the two bolts to my front plastic. I made it back to the pit and we did a quick spray out of the radiator and duct taped the gas tank on and I was back on the hunt, until I made it back into the woods and my quad stalled about 4 times due to overheating. With the bike overheating I lost another position putting me in 8th and with 2 laps left I was in survival mode and I just wanted the quad to finish. I held my spot as I crossed the finish line and with an 8th place finish, not what I was wanting coming into this race.  However I`m just happy it wasn’t a DNF.
The weekend could of went better but I’m content with it, the next round is at Straddeline ORV park in Olympia, Wa and I plan on coming out swinging.

I’d like to once again thank all of my sponsors for all their support!

Quad75.Com, Moto X Nutrion, S&S Motorsports, MotoSport Hillsborro, ARS FX, Maxxis, Rekluse, Klim, PWR, LRD, Hiper Wheels, IMS, Power Madd, Wiseco, UPP, UNI, Spider Grips, FullBore, X-Factor, Crower Power, Trail Tech, Maxima Oils, Scott Gogles

Jorie Williams #10 Charging through the woods!

Quad Magazine’s Nick Nelson Wins The Baja 500

PLAYING BY THE RULES FINALLY PAYS OFF

Nick Nelson Leaving Ensanada at the start of the race!

Quad Magazine Associate Editor Nick Nelson and his team finally get the big “W” that has been eluding them for nine long years. After the biggest display of rule enforcement by Score International to date, the 5A Suzuki QuadRacer R450 went from an unofficial 3rd place finish to a solid 1st place, finishing forty minutes ahead of the 2nd place American Honda team of Wayne Matlock.

The 5A team was the only team in the Class 25 Premiere ATV class that did not receive penalties for cutting the course or speeding on the highway. Nick Nelson, Brandon Brown, and Josh Edwards rode their nearly stock-motored QuadRacer R450 to an honest finish in 10 hours and 26 minutes.

“We had a near flawless day—our Suzuki QuadRacer R450 ran solid from start to the finish,” said Quad Magazine’s Nick Nelson. “Every team member did their job; no one crashed, broke anything, or did anything outside the Score rulebook. Kenney Sanford of S&S Motorsports did an excellent job prepping our bike for this brutal race. Our Maxxis tires with TireBalls performed flawlessly with no flats allowing us to concentrate on merely gassing and inspecting the machine in every pit. Our CT exhaust powered, FOX/Walsh suspended Suzuki just kept taking the abuse like we needed it to. We are also extremely excited to deliver Suzuki its first ever Pro win at any SCORE Baja event!”

Brandon Brown on the way in from Uruapan.

“We would love to thank our sponsors and pit crew, who have stuck by us for a decade worth of trying. Special thanks to Paulina Nelson, Allen Knowles, Alberto “Chino” Wong, Ron Edwards, Bill Nelson, Big Frank, Brad Aboltin, Kenney Sanford and Jason Greenhaw. We’d also like to thank Quad Magazine, Suzuki, CT Racing, S&S Motorsports, Fox Racing Shox, Walsh Racecraft, Precision Stabilizers, Maxxis, Hyper Wheels, PWR , Blingstar Industries, FASSTCO, K&N, Galfer, Spider Grips, MotoSport Hillsborro, PCI Race Radios, UPP, Dobech, TireBalls, IMS Products, Scott Goggles, PRM-ATV, Clarke, Moto X Nutrition, Trail Tech and Klim Technical Gear.”

Action photos by fotosolweb.com

Nick Nelson, Brandon Brown, Josh Edwards & Mechanic Kenny Sanford at the finish.

I have been wanting to enter a XC Mt. Bike race for the last couple of years and recently heard that the Oregon State Series would be kicking off at a first time venue that is about 25 min. from the house.  So if that wasn’t convenient enough for me I don’t know what would be.  The reason  for wanting to do this is that I am always looking for ways to cross train, mainly to keep my program from getting stale as well as looking for and finding ways to better my program as a whole.  I have really enjoyed getting into road biking the last several years and have occasionally changed it up a bit with rides on my Mt. Bike, but all of my rides have been solo, so I never really got a feel for the sport until now.  So here is my story about how I followed up my first day on the quad in a couple of months.

When I got up on the Sunday morning of the event it was much different than a typical race day.  I had no idea what to expect nor did I have any great expectations for how I would do on this day.  After all I just stepped back about 10 years to being a first time amateur, only this time it was in a sport that I knew very little about.  Fortunately for me on this first time adventure the weather was perfect.  It was 33 degrees and raining like hell, which of course changed to a viscous hail as we were pulling out of the drive way.  My pit support crew, which consisted of my girlfriend Michelle let me know that I wasn’t required to race in this crap if I didn’t want to.  The thought of bagging the whole thing had crossed my mind, but I hadn’t been able to compete in a couple of months and at this point I really needed to dispose of some pent up energy.  Just to keep myself from having a last minute change of heart I quickly got signed up a soon as we arrived at the event.  I some how drew the number “338″ and was immediately compelled to toss a back a six pack and go pick a fight with some of the other contestants, but eventually decided I should just save my energy for the race.

The Race Bike's taking a nap together.

After sign up, I made my way back to the truck and started figuring out what I was going to wear for the race.  I got dressed and went on quick worm up ride up and down the street a few times make sure that I wasn’t over or under dressed for the event.  Even though it was cold and crappy out, I know my self well enough to know that after a few minutes of vigorous activity regardless of conditions I would be warmed up to the point of over heating.  So I ended up doing some layering.  I ended up with a long sleeve dry fit, a riding jersey and and my new Klim Inversion jacket, which ended up being the perfect combo.  The jacket has a zipper vent in the back that I had wide open and I just used the main zipper in the front through out the race to keep me at a perfect riding temperature, I can’t stress enough how much I like this piece of apparel, so I will probably write an article on it some time in the near future.  Any how once I got my self situated and the bottle holders on the bike set up with my favorite during drink that I’m not sponsored by.  I checked the air in my Maxxis tires and made sure my Spider Grips were secure, loaded up on my MXN supplements and I was ready to roll.  The rain ended up coming to a halt about a half an hour before the start of the race and it warmed up to a balmy 35 degrees.  So the conditions were near perfect right?

Glad to be off the bike at the end of the day!

The way this particular race started was a bit of a mass start.  They had what they call a neutral roll out and once we got to a certain point, it was on.  Basically they had us all gather for a riders meeting in the middle of this small town of Echo Oregon.  After the riders meeting we started behind a pace car that lead us out of town to a marked gravel road at which point the actual race started.  There was about two miles of gravel road prior to getting into the single track.  This worked out well, as every one was fairly spread out by the time we got to the single track and it didn’t create much of a bottle neck.  I quickly settled into a pace that had me some where in the top five…..Of the last seven.  OK, perhaps it wasn’t quite that bad but out of the 177 entries I’d say I was somewhere in the back 1/3 of the pack.  The terrain was mostly rolling hills with some fun and fast rocky and technical descents, with a couple of creek beds thrown in for good measure.  With so much traffic ahead of me it actualy worked out to be prime conditions by the time I hit the course do to every one in front of me drying it up.  I only went through 2 or 3 sections all day that were a bit slimy.  So between that and being properly dressed I was pretty happy with the conditions.

The race took me right at 3hrs to complete.  I went back and forth the whole time with several other guys, so it made for an impression of competition, when in reality is was just trying to survive.  It was fairly grueling and I had to stop a couple of times to stretch a cramp out of my left thigh, but the thought of quitting never crossed my mind.  At the end of the ride I was more than happy get off the bike, but immediately realized how much I enjoyed it and that it was nice to get out side and off of the trainer.  After talking to several of the more experienced riders, I gathered that this was a particularly brutal course especially for a first time out.  So I wasn’t to bummed with how I did or how I felt for that matter.  The guy that took the overall came in shortly after an hour and 15 min.  Considering that and the fact that the Pro’s and the Category 1 competitors had an additional 6 miles than the rest of us, I’d say that guy was quite the machine.  The next was somewhere near the 2 hour mark, then it was a fairly steady flow of incoming riders until about the 3.5 hour mark.

The Big Finnish!

So other than an obviosly intense workout why would I consider this a close second to seat time on the quad?  Well you see I didn’t get much more than a half an hour in the sand woops on my quad the day before and woke up Sunday morning feeling like I got in a workout but did not over do it by any means.  This was the plan for my first ride so I could ease my way back into it, as well as be able to ride in this Mt. Bike race the next day.  The thing that surprised me the most is how much I felt it in my upper body and core for the next several days and I was confident that it was from the Mt. Bike and not the quad.

I’m excited about my new found training tool that I have had in my arsanal for about five years now and didn’t even know it.  I’m even more excited to realize that I have a killer trail network within a half an hour from the house.  I have done this exact same ride twice now.  I knocked 10 minutes off of my race time the first time I tried it and an additional 14 minutes off the next time out.  This is partly from my training that I’m doing during the week as well as getting more comfortable with my new found training tool.  I still believe there is nothing as good as good ol’ seat time to keep you in shape to ride, but it’s nice to be able to change it up a bit too!

As always I’d like to thank all of my sponsors for sticking it out with me while I’m rebuilding myself.

And a special thanks to the one’s that helped me feel more at home with there products that cross over in to this thing they call  XC Mt. Bike racing……Hmm, maybe I need to hit up Fox Racing Shox too help me smooth out the ride a bit!

I had the opportunity to head out to Indy this weekend and here are several things that caught my eye.Check link for story on Off-Road.Com

Check back soon for more info on the excitement that surrounds the Dealer Expo!

Check this link for 1st installment! Pro Tips.

Jorie Williams WORCS Pro #10

Saturday morning rolled around and I opted to sit out the unclassified class which lets you go out and run the whole track so you can see the off road before you race it. The reasoning for this was because WORCS changed the racing schedule for the pros this year. Instead of having Open pro and Pro production on Saturday they changed it to a 60 minute pro practice. So at 1:20 I went out to run the course and make a couple last minute adjustments on the suspension and steering stabilizer to make sure I was ready for the main event.

It was Sunday afternoon and it was time to line up for the 2 hour main event, the pro class was stacked with 30 riders ready to go to battle. After everyone got lined up and took the parade lap the national anthem was played and it was race time. The flag flew and the 30 rider pack charged to the first corner, through the motocross track and off into the off road section. I managed to get a 5th place start and was charging threw the very fast and rough Arizona desert, by the end of the first lap I lost two spots to Beau Baron and Mike Machado.  On the 6th lap I pitted for fuel and was running in 8th, later that lap my hands gave out on me and I got some gnarly blisters on both of my hands and it was all I could do to keep my hands on the bars. I crossed the finish line in 15th loosing 7 positions because of not being able to run the pace I needed to run with the pack. At the end of the day I was disappointed with my finish but I know what I need to do to be ready for the next round.

Check back after every round to see how Jorie’s year is progressing.