SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1535528
THE NEW MOTO GENERATION What Young And Talented Pro Moto Unlimited Riders Like Best About Baja Racing By Mike Vieira Photos by Get Some Photo The challenge of racing motorcycles in Baja is something people of every age can understand. Although difficult, it hasn’t seemed to discourage a young generation of Pro Moto Class riders that are finding success, and fun, in competing in SCORE racing this season. SCORE Journal spoke with several of them, asking ten questions to get a bit of insight into the differences and similarities in their experiences and thoughts on racing in Baja. SJ: What lit the fire for you to ride competitively in SCORE? Arturo: As a kid, I grew up watching my dad race in SCORE in cars. Before I was born, he was a big-time dirt bike and quad racer, and won championships himself, as well. He started taking me to all these Baja races when I was a young kid, and I raced motocross in different races here in the States. Once I came of age, after growing up learning about Baja, watching Baja, watching videos on Youtube, I always wanted to do it. When I was fifteen, I entered a race and got a win in the Pro Unlimited Class. That’s where it sparked, and I wanted to get an overall win, and from there I wanted to be Rider of Record, and from there I wanted to be 1X, and the ladder kept going. SJ: Who are the riders that inspired you when you were younger (or now)? Arturo: Ivan Ramirez, Kurt Caselli, Robby Bell, Colton Udall, Kendall Norman, and I could go on with all these names that were my heroes and are my heroes. I grew up watching them on the videos, and I wanted to be like them. SJ: How do you prepare physically for racing motos in Baja? Arturo: I just try to keep a balance. I ride my road bike, I do gym workouts that are beneficial to me for racing, not for looks. I try to get as much seat time as possible, and I also stay very active. If I’m not working here and there, on my own time I play soccer, surf, and do different athletic activities. SJ: What navigation aids do you use while racing? Arturo: When I first started racing, I didn’t use any, but now that we’ve upped the game, and there’s all these VCPs, I do. We use a Trail Tech GPS on the handlebars. SJ: Other than your safety gear, is there a “Must Have” you carry or use when you race? Arturo: My cross. I wear a cross on my neck every time I race. I have a lot of faith in God. My cross, my helmet, and my knee guards are the three things I must have with me all the time. SJ: Do you follow a nutrition and hydration plan right before each race? Arturo: I try to be as healthy as possible, but it’s pretty much as normal as it gets. I try to be healthy, but sometimes, when I try too hard, I don’t do it correctly, so I’m just me. I’ll just have some tacos and a Coke. SJ: What do you wish you knew before your first time competing in Baja? Arturo: I wish maybe I had known to enjoy it more, because the time went so fast. And maybe I would have told myself to be calm, not just in practice, but on race day, and not to ride over my head. SJ: What is your favorite thing about competing in Baja? Arturo: The overall experience, from being there two weeks prior, and doing the whole route. As the weeks go by, doing pre-running out there by yourself. It’s the whole experience of being out there for two weeks with the people, and the food, and then when it comes to race day, it’s really the shortest day of them all. It’s just really a great experience in being able to pre-run, to getting in on all the excitement, seeing all the people, seeing the track getting beat up, the contingency, and then race day. And then hopefully, Sunday, celebrating. SJ: If you were going to buy a new motorcycle, what make, and model would it be? Arturo: Right now, we’re racing Hondas, so it would be a Honda 450X, or 450RX. SJ: What advice would you give new riders who want to compete in SCORE? Arturo: If you really, really want it, don’t stop putting yourself out there. Have fun, and don’t ride over your head. Have a lot of respect for Baja, you’re racing Baja out there. SJ: What lit the fire for you to ride competitively in SCORE? Tyler: I’ve always wanted to race the SCORE series growing up from when I was a little kid watching Dust to Glory. I’ve always dreamed of winning the Baja 1000, so when I started racing professionally at age 16, it became a realistic goal, and the opportunity finally came when I had an offer to ride for Mark Samuels and the SLR racing team. SJ: Who are the riders that inspired you when you were younger (or now)? Tyler: Kurt Caselli, my dad, and my older brother were my biggest inspiration. Obviously, watching Kurt Caselli win almost every type of off-road racing when I was younger inspired me to be the best I could be. And my dad and brother are the riders I got to grow up with, traveling to all the races, and always pushing to be like them. SJ: How do you prepare physically for racing motos in Baja? Tyler: I’m constantly riding and racing in other series to help me work on my fitness on the bike and making sure I’m comfortable riding for hours at a time at race speed. Off the bike prep is mostly spent on my mountain bike pedaling around. Racing on my off weekends is my biggest help with preparation. SJ: What navigation aids do you use while racing? Tyler: I don’t really use any navigation aids while racing. I’ll use the LeadNav app while I’m pre-running to help me remember the course, and to make sure I know where all the VCPs are, but while I’m racing, I only use my memory to aid me. SJ: Other than your safety gear, is there a “Must Have” item you carry or use when you race? Tyler: My fanny pack. I make sure to always have it with me pre-running and racing, as it has tools and safety items inside to aid me if anything goes wrong with me or the bike. SJ: Do you follow a nutrition and hydration plan right before each race? Tyler: I just make sure to get plenty of electrolytes and food in my system the whole week before we go racing. Nothing too specific, but just make sure to keep up on electrolytes. SJ: What do you wish you knew before your first time competing in Baja? Tyler: It was mostly as expected for the most part, as I’ve raced desert racing my whole life. The biggest thing I wish I could have known before was to make my pre-running more quality over quantity, as in taking the time to remember your lines and little details, instead of just getting as many miles as you can. SJ: What is your favorite thing about competing in Baja? Tyler: The atmosphere of the whole race day, even when you’re not on the bike. There is nothing quite like racing through hundreds of miles and getting to experience every bit of terrain you could imagine. SJ: If you were going to buy a new motorcycle, what make and model would it be? Tyler: I would be buying a Honda 450X to race in Baja. There isn’t a better bike in Baja than the Honda 450X in my opinion. SJ: What advice would you give to new riders who want to compete in SCORE? Tyler: Have fun with it, and make your pre-running worth it! Don’t let the pressure of racing in Mexico stop you from coming down and having fun. But, also make sure you’re properly prepared to face anything that Baja throws at you! SJ: What lit the fire for you to ride competitively in SCORE? Adrian: My dad used to race quads, so literally I was born into it. I was in my mom’s stomach, and she was going down to Baja with my dad. He did it more like a hobby. He didn’t really get to the top level. Everybody wants to go and get that experience, so he did it with my uncles and my cousins, so racing has always been part of my life. It’s my brother and I, and the teammates that help us race, and my dad as team manager. We’ve always raced, but it took us a couple of years for my dad to finally know that we were ready and mature enough to go race Baja, because it can be so dangerous. We had offers from a lot of teams to go race there, but he didn’t want us to do it unless he knew it was going to be under our name, and that it was going to be safe, and we were going to put in a 100% effort. Some teams just go do it as a “bucket list”, and he didn’t want that. SJ: Who are the riders that inspired you when you were younger (or now)? Adrian: Growing up, it was Johnny Campbell. When I was at the races with my dad, and I was asleep, waiting for the first bike to pass by, it was always Johnny Campbell, Johnny Campbell! After he retired, who really got us into racing was Justin Morgan. He’s good friends with my brother and me. We became friends with him because we share the same mechanic, and we started seeing him all the time. He, and Bobby, the mechanic, have helped us out in every single possible way, giving us tips, being mentors, and telling us to make sure we’re safe. They said to remember that you’re racing against Baja, not against the teams. I’m a videographer, and before I was racing, I would go down to Baja with Bobby to film the SLR team, and I knew that one day I was going to race. I was filming, but I was taking in all the knowledge, looking at everything, and learning. Everything we know is thanks to Justin Morgan and Bobby, and being around the SLR team, and how well they treated us. Every time we’re down in Baja pre-running, my mom cooks us all dinner. We have a good relationship. We really look up to him and respect him. SJ: How do you prepare physically for racing motos in Baja? Adrian: A lot of it comes down to natural talent, but you can only rely on that so much. My brother and I, especially my brother, are super committed to the gym. We do work out a lot. He never misses a day, but I slack on that a bit more. I get injured a lot more than him, so it’s kind of hard when you’re hurting. We ride the trails near our house, and we do motos and local desert racing, and it gets you really prepared for rough terrain like San Felipe. It’s individual racing, so we get a lot of miles in, and test our fitness. SJ: What navigation aids do you use while racing? Adrian: Zero. We don’t have any navigation on the bike. It’s all our homework that we do for a week while pre-running. We don’t like using navigation because you must look down and it takes time away and confuses you. We do use it for pre-running because we want to make sure we hit all our markers. SJ: Other than your safety gear, is there a “Must Have” item you carry or use when you race? Adrian: We always have a sat phone on us, and we have our personal Garmin tracker, because sometimes the Stella loses service, or they’re not accurate. When it’s a truck and you don’t see it moving, you know something’s happened, but when you don’t see a bike moving, it’s a little bit more concerning. The Garmin on our body is so accurate that if that’s not moving, you know the bike is stopped, and something happened. SJ: Do you follow a nutrition and hydration plan right before each race? Adrian: Before a race, we don’t do anything special. Obviously, we hydrate throughout the race and try to eat healthy, but our number one thing is that we do not eat local food. Our mom cooks for us every single day while pre-running. She and my girlfriend go out there and they cook healthy food for us and keep our normal diet that we’re used to at home. There’s nothing better than mom’s dinner after a pre-run. In the morning, she packs us breakfast, and we try to stay away from local foods. We just don’t want to end up with food poisoning or something. SJ: What do you wish you knew before your first time competing in Baja? Adrian: One thing that comes to mind is the fans. I knew people obviously had fans, but I never knew that with us coming from nowhere and just starting that we would gain so many fans right away. Everything else was not new to us because I had been around it so much, but for me to personally start racing, and seeing people become fans and start supporting us, and really cheering us on, really took us by surprise. We made good friends with so many local people down there, and we see them every time we’re there. The people are so nice to us. The fan experience with the local people and how helpful they are, was something that we did not expect. SJ: What is your favorite thing about competing in Baja? Adrian: I like everything about it, but the best thing would be when you’re finally at the finish line, and know that myself, my brother, our teammates, and our family made it back safely after that whole week of pre-running and racing. SJ: If you were going to buy a new motorcycle, what make, and model would it be? Adrian: A CRF 450X Gen 2 built by SD Powerhouse. You can’t go wrong with that. SJ: What advice would you give to new riders who want to compete in SCORE? Adrian: Try to gain as much experience as you can and just take it easy. It’s a long season. Always think about your safety because it’s so dangerous. Smooth is fast. Don’t try to go fast because you’re going to crash. You want to finish the race, not try to win it in a couple of miles. If you’re finishing, that in itself is a win. SJ: What lit the fire for you to ride competitively in SCORE? Carter: It’s something I always wanted to do, but my parents didn’t want me to go down to Baja. Just seeing everybody head South and watching YouTube when I was younger, it just made we want to go down there. SJ: Who are the riders that inspired you when you were younger (or now)? Carter: Kurt Caselli is the main one, and Colton Udall and Mark Samuels, also made me want to go racing. SJ: How do you prepare physically for racing motos in Baja? Carter: Obviously, I ride a lot. I own a road bike, and I ride a mountain bike, and I go to the gym just to keep the strength up. I do a lot more endurance training, you really need that. SJ: What navigation aids do you use while racing? Carter: Nothing. We race with no GPS. After the pre-running, we remember where we’re going. SJ: Other than your safety gear, is there a “Must Have” item you carry or use when you race? Carter: Nothing special. SJ: Do you follow a nutrition and hydration plan right before each race? Carter: I use some supplements that help with hydration and always keep a healthy diet. SJ: What do you wish you knew before your first time competing in Baja? Carter: There were pretty much no surprises. You hear what people say about Baja, and most of it is true. SJ: What is your favorite thing about competing in Baja? Carter: Everything about it is fun. I enjoy hanging out with everyone after each day of pre-running, and just being down in Mexico is so sick. The views are epic! SJ: If you were going to buy a new motorcycle, what make, and model would it be? Carter: The Honda 450X. It’s super good everywhere. SJ: What advice would you give new riders who want to compete in Baja? Carter: Take it slow. Don’t push, especially down there. It’ll bite you. There’s no better training than just doing it. SJ: What lit the fire for you to ride competitively in SCORE? Ciaran: Christopher Gil invited me down to do the SCORE Baja 500 in 2021, and at the time I was kind of taking a break from motocross and supercross. With my father being involved in Baja racing for quite some time with drivers like Ryan Arciero and Robby Gordon, I always had an interest in racing down in Baja. So, when I had the opportunity, I wanted to jump at it. SJ: Who are the riders that inspired you when you were younger (or now)? Ciaran: I think you’ll probably get the same answer from everyone. We all look up to Kurt Caselli as one of the greats. As I’ve grown older, I’ve gotten to admire Colton Udall as well. As I’ve spent more time with him, and gotten to know him, and learn more about his career, and the battles that he had. Also, back to the Dust to Glory days, watching Andy Grider. Those guys are people I admire and aspire to be like, and I’ve been very fortunate to work alongside both Colton and Andy Grider themselves, so it’s great to be looking up to these guys and now to be working with them as well. SJ: How do you prepare physically for racing motos in Baja? Ciaran: I want to say it comes naturally, but a lot of training is done on the bike, spending time, putting in the miles in between races, and just getting seat time is, I think, the most crucial training. Just staying active and as healthy as I can, outside of just riding alone, going to the gym, and staying as fit as possible. SJ: What navigation aids do you use while racing? Ciaran: In the past couple of years, I’ve been using the Trail Tech system, and it’s been great for pre-running and for racing. Sometimes things happen, and you must get on the bike and ride unknown sections, and the Trail Tech has saved us a few times in those scenarios. I rely on the Trail Tech on the bike, and then on me as a rider, I use LeadNav and my cell phone, and I try to study that each night in bed while we’re down there pre-running and try to connect everything I can the following day. SJ: Other than your safety gear, is there a “Must Have” item that you carry or use while racing? Ciaran: In SCORE, you’ve got to be prepared for all the unknowns. You’re in remote areas, there’s lots of spectators and cattle, there’s everything, so you must be prepared for anything. My first SCORE Baja 1000 ever, while pre-running, I had to spend the night out in the desert. Luckily, I had an emergency blanket and a lighter, so I was able to make a fire. I try to carry some parts like fuses, chain, safety wire, tape, and anything that will help me make a quick fix. JB Weld has been a lifesaver too. I also won’t race down in Mexico without wearing the Alpinestars air bag vest. I’ve been wearing that now for almost two seasons, and it is a game-changing system that Alpinestars has come out with. It’s crazy what it does for confidence as a rider, just knowing that you have a little bit of extra safety and padding. I kind of feel like we should make it mandatory in SCORE. SJ: Do you follow a nutrition and hydration plan right before each race? Ciaran: I try to watch my electrolyte intake and make sure I’m properly hydrated, and make sure my body is properly fueled come race day. SJ: What do you wish you knew before your first time competing in Baja? Ciaran: Every race I learn something new, and I think that’s kind of a beauty of SCORE racing. No matter how prepared for the unknowns you are, there’s always going to be something new. I can’t say there’s something I wish I knew the first time, because there’s something different that I take away from each race. SJ: What is your favorite thing about competing in Baja? Ciaran: I think the beauty of racing down in Baja is the unknown. Every race is something different, every race is something new, every race you learn something different, and every race you create more memories. The team racing aspect is really fun, and it brings a lot of camaraderie amongst the team. SJ: If you were going to buy a new motorcycle, what make and model would it be? Ciaran: I would probably go with the Honda 450X. That’s what we’re riding now. I made the switch from the Husqvarna two years ago. It’s hard to say that the Honda is a better bike, I think each has its pros and cons, but we’ve been having great success on the Honda, so I’ve got to say the Honda. SJ: What advice would you give new riders who want to compete in SCORE? Ciaran: When you think you’re ready, you’re never ready. I’ve been down there for four years, and I’m still figuring things out. Find someone that you trust, that will take you under their wing and guide you and groom you, and listen. Appreciate Baja in its beauty, but it’s a beast of its own, and it’ll bite you real quick.