The following set of pictures and story is from the 2005 BITD Series "Vegas To Reno" 500 mile race in which 2 of our members (Desracers & Treeshot) raced this year on Oct 7th of 2005. They entered this race in the "Expert" Class as participants under the name BP Tile & Sand Wizards Racing sponsored by Bay Area Yamaha of North Bend, Oregon.

The bike they raced is a highly modified 2001 Yamaha Raptor with a 686 Cray Craft engine and full long travel suspension. (With many other race mods!)

It is important to note that this is Desracers 4 attempt at this 500 mile race and up until this year he had not finished this race. They were the 8th bike of 12 in the expert class to leave the starting line that morning and some 14 hours later finished the race in 7 place, 69th overall, out of 120 race vehicles. :)


This was "Treeshot's" 1st race and he agreed to start and run the first 2 pits of the race.

The following text was provided from both riders describing their 500 mile day and exciting off-road adventure.

Treeshot: (Starting line to Pit 2)
We got to the starting line, unloaded the bike, and I got my gear on while Des got the camera ready. I wasn't nervous and I think it was because I knew I could ride through anything on the course while keeping a pace that would be well ahead what was needed to beat pit closing times. Had we been there to win and I was going to be riding flat out I probably would have had a case of the nerves. I got staged and while waiting my turn to take off I had Des check to make sure the Helmet Cam was gtg. My turn to leave came and I left the starting line with the intention of getting into a nice comfortable pace I knew I'd be safe riding. No way was I gonna push it and wad the bike up in the first 47 miles putting us out of the race.

The plan sounded good until I got about 2 miles down the course and I hit the 2nd worse part of the race. Imagine riding down flashflood creek beds with rock bottoms, 2 to 3 foot whoops and ROCKS. I'm not talking those nice little round river rocks your used to seeing. These mothers were anywhere from the size of grapefruits to large dogs and not a smooth side to them. After a couple miles of this crap I caught some guy on a dirt bike (the last of them left like 15 min before I did) and he had a look on his face like what the hell did I get myself into. I was kinda wondering the same thing but after a few more miles the course became a lot more mellow. I'm thinking that somewhere in that first section was when I bashed up the front number plate. Granted the shocks felt pretty soft and bottomed out occasionally but the fact that the front number plate was mounted high on the front bumper and still got creamed should give you an idea of how rough it was, lol. I ended up passing 3 or 4 dirt bikes and 3 quads before I got to pit 2 and one of the quads was limping into the pit on a busted spindle. Discovered I had a flat tire when I rolled into the pit.

Desracers: (Pit 2 to 3)
It was pretty much a dust free ride, only got to pass 1 bike and 1 quad. Like a sunday drive out there.... When I got to the pit stop and I yelled WooHOO!! Lee went to leave the pit the bike wouldn't start and we discovered the positive side of the battery had come loose. :(

Treeshot: (Pit 3 to Pit 4)
This was one of the funniest parts of the course for me. Very fast through the mountains and then down onto the dry lake bed. Oh yeah baby, like 3 miles of smooth wide open course. Time to test the top speed of the bike, lol. I had been gaining on a dirt bike and when we hit the lake bed it was wide open right by the guy who looked over like where the hell did you come from. There was another bike way ahead that I was gaining on but had to slow some because of all the dust. Apparently the guy I had just passed realized his suzuki had another gear and came bombing up on the right on me. Well it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out if the guy passed me the two dust clouds would merge and I wouldn't be able to see squat so we both went flat out for the other side. The first bike beat us to the end of the lake bed and me and suzuki guy were neck and neck into the corner not wanted to eat the others dust. I kept the lead through the corner and set my sights on that next bike then POOF!!! It looked like someone dropped a 1000 pound bag of brown baby powder from 500 feet onto the course. A few seconds later and I was into the cloud. From 50mph to 15 in .02 seconds and you can't see the front of the bike. Welcome to the silt beds.
 

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