Helping Riders Up

I often visit the Fallen Rider’s forum on the popular site Thumpertalk.com; can’t explain why, it brings tears to my eyes every time, but I still go. Part natural human curiosity, I guess. Thankfully, I don’t know anyone on there personally. I always wish there was something that I could do to help. I just don’t know how my comments would make a real difference.

RiderDown.Org

When I came across the RiderDown Foundation, I made the decision to do what I could to assist riders who need a leg-up. The foundation, formed in 2005 to assist riders injured doing what they love, has helped 95 riders and their families financially, and a great number more emotionally, since its inception. Volunteers dedicated to supporting fallen riders keep the organization running (and growing).

Mission Statement: “The RiderDown Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping responsible off road motorcyclists and ATV racers who have been injured while riding. Proceeds are used to provide assistance to the riders and their families when faced with medical expenses and related issues.”

Volunteer Angela Koch told me about one instance of the foundation’s help that I could relate with. When racing the SCORE Baja 1000 in 2006, my greatest fear was getting hurt in Mexico. Health insurance often times doesn’t matter down there; you pay out of pocket if you want out of the hospital. This fear became a reality, for racer Hoyt Penland, in the 2007 race when he suffered a nasty crash and needed surgery in multiple Mexican hospitals to stabilize his badly injured leg.

The foundation assisted Hoyt by providing logistical assistance and covered the cost of his flight back to the states as well. In thanking the Foundation, Hoyt writes:

I went from lying in the dessert losing blood, trying to keep from going into shock and no one on my team being able to answer my calls from the sat. phone we had to the bike. To being put in the back of a jeep with a cooler lid strapped to my leg then taken to the highway where I am picked up by an ambulance and taken to a private hospital and wondering how I am going to pay for all that needs done. In a hospital where it wouldn’t matter if I had insurance or not, all the documentation was done on a type writer, try sliding your blue cross card in that. That’s a scary feeling, especially when they tell you that a flight to San Diego will cost $20,000 dollars not pesos. My father and the team show up the next day and we drive down to La Paz where I have another surgery. After which my father and I are trying to figure out how I’m going to get home, when the phone rings and it’s RiderDown… they want to fly me home. That is such a good feeling. Knowing that people care so much about a guy who just wiped out in the desert and hadn’t even heard of them. Your organization is a God sent. Thank ya’ll so much for everything, and everyone for your support. If anyone has any questions I doubt I’ll be out riding so feel free to ask. God bless all of you, and I will do all I can to help get the word out about RiderDown. If there is anything I can do to help just ask.

Thanks again,
Hoyt Michael Penland

The more volunteers and donations the foundation receives, the more riders like Hoyt they can help. We all fall, and that is the risk we accept when we strap on a helmet. Sometimes we jump up and dust ourselves off with only our pride the worse for wear. The volunteers of the RiderDown Foundation are working to help riders who need a little extra help up.

Please visit the RiderDown Foundation site and help by donating money, shopping at the store or volunteer to help fallen riders. Check the Racer-Space.com Blog for more info about the RiderDown Foundation, their race team and stories of riders that the foundation has helped.

Speed and Nudity in The Baja Desert

I saw a naked woman dancing on top of a cliff in Mexico as I was racing the SCORE Baja 1000.

Seriously.  No Joke.

It wasn’t a hallucination, flash-back, mirage or optical illusion.  I know this because I am sane, drug-free, well-hydrated and rational.  It was something straight out of the movie “The Doors” and it was real.

Baja 1000 Race

Ever try to ride a motorcycle east when your head is turned west?  I almost threw away my race looking back to see her.  Not because she was beautiful, but because I couldn’t rationalize seeing a naked woman in the middle of the desert.  At first I was stunned: total double-take.  Then I was concerned, “am I that wrung-out?”  Next I was scared.  She would make a great distraction for a booby-trap.  Traps are common on the course of the Baja 1000.  Shady characters will set traps in order to steal the rider’s machines. Environmentalists dislike the use of the land, and others are just wantonly cruel and will create a trap for their own entertainment.

When I made it away from the scene safely, I was perplexed.  I almost turned around!  Honestly, I considered turning my Honda Motorcycle around in the middle of the grand daddy of all off-road races.  It was driving me crazy!  There was no town, no sign of civilization anywhere.  I saw no vehicles and nobody else around.  What the heck was this girl with long blond hair doing dancing in a somewhat psychedelic manner on the top of that cliff, hundreds on miles into the Baja Desert?  I expected to see Jim Morrison around the next corner.

My chase team didn’t believe me.  My wife asked me how many times I crashed out there, and if I wanted to see a doctor.  People still tease me about it.  Now I know how those people who have seen Bigfoot or the Lock Ness monster must feel. 

If anyone else who raced the first section of the 2006 Baja 1000 happen to read this article, will you PLEASE back me up on this?  I will send you my picture of the abominable snow-man for your troubles…

Jay Sherman is a Racer Space Team Rider and regular blog contributor to the Racer Space Social Network Blog.

The Brotherhood Of Racers

Racer’s Brotherhood

Like interests always have a way of bringing people together. When your interests are somewhat extreme, like racing the SCORE Baja 1000, that bond seems to grow even stronger. I have seen many unselfish acts while racing, and it is not uncommon to hear about brothers in (swing) arms putting themselves in harms way to help a racer in need. Whether to save someone’s life or just to salvage their race, there seems to be no limit to the altruistic nature of the brotherhood of racers.

My personal favorite story of unselfishness comes from the 2006 SCORE Baja 1000. After breaking my clutch lever in some particularly nasty whoops outside of San Felipe, I found myself riding a little outside of my comfort zone in order to make up some time. I just got into one of those zones, where it felt like I could do no wrong and I wound up passing quite a few competitors. Feeling quite ambitious, I pulled into the pits around race mile 250 where I was supposed to get lights installed on my Honda Motorcycle for the beginning of the night section. Only one problem…my lights were not there.

My mood went south really quick. I was stuck out there, and couldn’t journey off into the desert night with no lights. The quad team that was pitted next to me was working on a broken swing-arm, and their prognosis looked even worse than mine. They were diligently working on a fix, but they must have overheard my dilemma as I was talking (somewhat heatedly) to my chase team on the satellite phone. Minutes later they stopped what they were doing and inquired about my troubles. I explained to them that the chase team with my lights was out of contact and I wasn’t sure about their status.

Without a word they scrapped their race and began to remove the lights from their quad. Now these are not cheap halogens off your Gremlin we are talking about, but a full set of HID race lights that would run you upwards of $1,500. They didn’t know me from Adam, but both the quad racer and his father were in motion like a NASCAR pit crew trying to get me back into the race without giving it a second thought. To this day I don’t know who those guys were, in the chaos we never even introduced ourselves. I didn’t end up having to take their lights, as mine showed up midway through the installation and I was off, but what a great gesture of sportsmanship and brotherhood in the Baja desert.

This is not an uncommon story, and unfortunately there are a great many more relating to more dire circumstances. Racers always seem to rise to the occasion for whatever reason. Thank you to those selfless quad racers, and to the many racers and organizations that support our sport and motorcycle and quad riders everywhere.

Racer Space is a social network for Powersports racers and enthusiasts. Racers and fans of motocross, dirt track, TT, desert racing and all other racing disciplines gather on Racer Space.