Crawlin 6
Richard Walker
First off, I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday season. Now that all the turkey and holiday treats are done for a while, we are busy trying to pre-plan our 2012 season. It certainly seems we will be in for another full year of travelling and wheeling all over North America. I am already excited!
We have already talked about the WERock schedule for 2012, but I think this will be a very important year for them. This will be the first time in quite a few years that their entire season will be on natural terrain. Both the East and West series, as well as the Grand Nationals will run without the use of even one man-made course. For me, this is quite exciting as I am not a huge fan of the man made courses, especially in repetitive use. They can be fun, but there is something to be said about natural terrain competitions. With the addition of a BC Dirt Riot event, and an event in the Pacific North West, this should be a great year for WERock and all of its competitors. Team Crawlin’BC is certainly going to do its best to be at an event or two!
The other thing I wanted to talk about in this column was one of the more spectacular stories from the recent running of the Baja 1000. Canadian, Kane Fraser was down there running in the UTV class (UTV#1802) and it was his very first time even racing, let alone racing the Baja 1000. You see, Kane is a paraplegic, and after watching Dust to Glory, he decided to run the Baja 1000 to raise $25,000 for the Man in Motion, Rick Hansen Foundation to celebrate their 25th year. Aside from raising the money, Kane also had the goal of creating awareness of the abilities of people with disabilities. He was quoted saying, “I wanted to inspire just one disabled person to really move ahead with their goals and strive to achieve their goals, because as long as you try and try you will succeed, you just have to keep moving forward”.
Even more inspiring than that, is what happened during the race. Well into the race, team 1802 made a major wrong turn. As they came into San Felipe, they missed a left turn and were heading towards the Pacific coast. As night fell, they had gone an extra 100 miles, but miraculously were back on course. This is where the story gets extraordinary! With the little detour, 1802, would not be able to finish in time. This is where Trophy Truck #7 (Jim Riley, Rick L. Johnson and Scott Steinberger) came into the picture. With their race in jeopardy due to a broken truck and the inability to get parts, they heard the entire story about 1802 and decided to stay on course to make sure they finished should they encounter any problems. Riley said after the race, “I think that sometimes on a dark Baja race course you can be inspired to keep going by just knowing someone is behind you to pick you up if you fall. That’s what I call the "Spirit of Baja". We wanted to be that for 1802. We limped or truck through some of the toughest terrain I have seen in Mexico and were equally inspired that 1802 was out there checking off his bucket list”.
With the official finish line shut down, a new finish line of friends and family watched as UTV#1802 and TT#7 crossed ending one of the most inspiring stories to ever come out of a race. Kane was on course for 36 hours (4 hours longer than the race allows) and over 800 miles, but crossed the finish line with a smile on his face and TT#7 at his side!
To read more about this story or to support the fundraiser, check out www.baja1000fundraiser.com
As always, stay safe and see you on the trails!