With American style off-road racing in Mexico
largely consumed by the SCORE Desert Racing Series, it's almost
strange to think of another promoter hosting events south of the
border. But every year the diverse little village of Puerto Penasco
quietly plays host to the Whiplash Motorsports "Rocky Point". Oddly
enough, between the growing success of the Whiplash organization
and the increasing popularity of the Rocky Point event, "quiet"
isn't likely a word we'll be using for long.
Puerto Penasco Travel Log As a hosting venue, Penasco has a lot to offer the race fan, racer, and general tourist alike. An easy border crossing begins the journey to a picturesque village whose growing economy is built largely around the fishing industry, tourist attractions, and a booming real estate market. While many will draw comparisons between Puerto Penasco and San Felipe, Penasco has a more developed "feel", with many shops and services dedicated to visitor and ex-patriot services. A quick tour of the town reveals a significant number of restaurants, shops featuring local arts and crafts, markets, hotels and more. Town fathers and residents alike display a unique pride in their town as evidenced by clean streets, up-kept buildings, and a laid back, friendly atmosphere. Far from an adversarial relationship, the village of Puerto Penasco has embraced the yearly Whiplash race, virtually guaranteeing the success of the venue on a long term basis. The OHV-friendly town features tons of recreational off-roading in the surrounding areas, top quality ATV rentals and hundreds of miles of explorable dirt roads to keep the action level high for just about everyone.
One of the main attractions of the Mexico races has always been a chance to "let your hair down", and enjoy a wild, carefree weekend of excess - after the racing is over of course! Here's yet another area where Penasco will not disappoint. Whereas Felipe and Ensanada have recently developed a reputation for the "Gang types" virtually taking over the bars on race weekends, the town fathers and local police have worked together to keep the criminal element "outa' Dodge." By and large they have seen great success. While we'd be pretty uncomfortable walking the Malecon of San Felipe after the bars close, we had no such reservations here. The Mexican authorities are working hard to keep the bad boys in line, and that commitment to community is just another part of the pride one can sense from the people here. Better yet, when trouble strikes, the Police aren't sitting idly by. As you'll see later, they are quite active, and generally quite efficient in their duties. Pour me another Tequila, Sheila
You've got several options available for a night out in Penasco beginning with the Cholla Bay Cantina. A regular stop for the gringos, the Cholla Bay Cantina caters to a broad age group, and is very accommodating to the racers. Highly recommended. (ORC's Bar Critic gives it "5 Beers" ;-) Next, you've got "Margaritaville" Oddly enough, this "college crowd" hang out closes pretty early (1 AM) but even the older fossils in our group didn't feel out of place. Of the more popular drinking establishments in Penasco, you might think twice about the "Pink Cadillac". Catering to a younger crowd, the uniform of the day tends toward "gang style" and, believe it or not, eco-nazi. We witnessed, and were propositioned by several Birkenstock/hippie types, and open drug sales were a common occurrence. Definitely not on our list of "must see" places..
As we said earlier, the Police in Penasco take their job seriously. We learned just how seriously when racer Scooby Maloney told us about his off-course adventure… "There I was.... Saturday night after JJ's, after Manny's, after the Pink Cadillac, about 2-ish in the morning, two of my crew and I head back to the truck to go home. Where I had parked was quite busy when I parked, but by the time we got ready to leave, the truck was all alone in the dark. As we neared the truck we noticed a Mexican teenager meandering about just up the street, we didn't think anything of it. Got to the truck and my large (6 drawer) toolbox full of tools, ice chest, and two water jugs were missing. My first thought was, damn!, stupid of me to park here, my stuff is gone.
As we get into the truck to leave I remembered the kid up the street and said to the other guys, "you know that kid was kinda' suspicious", so I started to turn the truck around quickly, when I did, the kid started running, the co-driver was spotting him while I hauled ass up the street after him. We catch him and start asking questions about where my stuff is. By the look on his face he has got full adrenaline going. He tried to play the "don't understand English" game first until my buddies started talking to him in broken Spanish. He was still denying everything, when I told the other guys loud enough for him to hear that "we should kick his ass until he tells us where the stuff went", to which he replied "why?", and of course looked a little more scared,
They take him to the back room where the cells are and talk to him for a while, make him sit a while. They bring him back up front in hand cuffs after we help with the police report, hand written in a green log book. They take him in the front of their police pick-up and we jump in the back to return to the scene of the crime. I point out where the truck was parked and where he was standing. I'm trying to distinguish foot prints in the sand and the policeman says "let's go, he's done". So on the way back to the station we see the two policemen giving him words from both directions (he was in the middle). When we arrive at the station the policeman says, "wait here, he just gave up his amigos", they take him back to the cell area again, then talk to the Commandant, who in turn assured me that they want to do everything they can to help. We were very patient and thankful.
At first they said we would have to come back at 10:00am to give them time to "investigate", then they said wait here for a moment. About an hour later a Policia P/U shows up with my toolbox and my water jugs. Apparently the house that the kid took them to was full of stolen goods. Pretty freaking amazing, I don't think US cops would have been that efficient, all this took about 2 hours. The Policia were extremely helpful. I have a completely new perspective now. I always believed that if you weren't an asshole the Policia wouldn't bother you, but I didn't expect this. Scott "Scooby" Maloney " Quotable Quotes and Notes to Note Behind the wheel of "Arnold", his multi-Baja 1000 winning Chevy Trophy Truck, Larry Ragland set up his corners in a textbook manner on Lap 1. Taking over for Lap 2, Chad Ragland set up one particular corner at a railroad crossing good enough to nail a fence post made of a railroad tie. It wasn't pretty.
814X - "Choke it off, choke it off!" said the rider. "Yea, just don't choke it off in the desert. Why are are there so many twigs stuck in the bike?" asked the pit crew? "I like to ride the bush" Replied the rider. 1003 - We were close all day and didn't miss a beat. They just outran us. We just got by at Uncle Bucks. There were four stuck vehicles out there. "Scooby" of Shepard Pro Truck fame - "We pulled off the perfect pit. If we would have stopped off at the last pit, we would have caught the train. We nearly got stuck on the wrong side of the tracks!" 837 - Got a bad case of "Sonoran Silt." How did they get out? "Dig baby, dig! It's not really fair for the fast guys to come in here, GP finish it, and leave us with one lap", he said sarcastically. "Let's bring the fastest guys in the world in here (Referring to Larry Ragland and "Arnold"), make Jay some money, and screw all of us slow guys".
Mark Otisburg/Class 8 - "It's the third race on the new truck. It's an old CORR truck that's been rebuilt by Jeff Ferguson out of Phoenix. We redid everything front to back.. Currently we're working with Jones Motorsports. Camera-copter had to "cut the course" to catch the speedy Larry Ragland. Remembered old high school lesson about the shortest distance being a straight line. He flew radically and was fun to watch! Course Description Starting and finishing a few miles outside of Puerto Penasco at the Oasis RV Park, the Rocky Point course featured more than it's fair share of sand and silt. With the "Grand Prix" style rules in place (where the first finisher ends the race for all)the Pro 4-wheel vehicles were scheduled for two 100 mile laps, while the motorcycles were constrained to a single lap on the course.
We Have A Winner! Unlimited Truck - The father and son team of Larry and Chad Ragland teamed up for yet another event in the Whiplash series, and this time they took "Arnold" across the finish line a winner. In a time of 3:24:00, the pair put down 2nd place finisher Bob Shepard Jr, whose 3:38:05 time proved somewhat off the pace.
After taking some time off from his career in a Porsche-powered Class 1, Ragland the younger has made his return to the world of desert racing at the helm of the big iron. While some may look on this as a "changing of the guard", and others as a passing of the torch from father to son, it's more likely that "old" Lightning Larry will be around for some time to come, and that Chad will blaze his own trails to victory. Pro 1-2 - Cesar Fuentes ruled the school in the 8-car field, finishing the 2 100-mile loops in a time of 3:29:29. Further back, Ruben Wood in the Wood Bros. Class 1 took 2nd with a time of 3:40:56, followed by 3rd place finisher Jeff Darland, who rounded off the class with a 3:01:49 performance.
The 7-car Pro 10 field saw Steve Melton take the ride to the winners circle, turning two "very" consistent laps. With only 2 seconds separating his lap 1/lap 2 performances, Melton combined for a total time of 3:53:26. Close behind, Ron Dalke turned in a 3:54:41 performance, far surpassing the 3rd place 6:45:25 of Jarret Lemley. Pro 8 - With 11 trucks in the class, competition was fierce, but not fierce enough to keep the OT Racing Team out of the top spot. Turning in a flat 4:05 time, the OT boys put a solid 10 minutes on 2nd place Dave Raimonde, whose 4:16:05 was in turn, good enough to the 4:53:51 of Bucky Strunk. Larry Vanderway and Tom Swanson nailed down 4th and 5th respectively to finish 5 of the 11 trucks in class. Pro 1/2-1600 - The 1604 car of Hector Garcia led the VW-powered pack to victory in a time of 4:33:35, significantly ahead of 2nd place Erik Jones. 3rd place went to the Brewer/B&K racing Team with a time of 4:44:17. Pro 5/1600 - Don Johnson had his fill of "Baja Vice", winning the 5/1600 class in 5:45:27. Lady racer Samantha Sanders captured a distant 2nd with a time of 6:45:37 and proved to be the final finisher in class.
Pro Challenger - Class 9 Class 9 cowboy Joe Sheeble worked his winning ways, spurring his Challenger to the win with a time of 5:32:19. Competition from the Hayosh/Dyer entry was close, but not close enough with a 5:36:03. We Have Even More Winners! Sportsman - Unlimited - Mark Brownell Sportsman - Sport Truck - John Moreno ATV 0 - Chad Prull 2:02:48 ATV S - Kirk Schreier - 2:08:14 ATV 1 - Tony Pedotto - 2:14:25 ATV 2 - William Esquerra - 2:28:09 ATV 3 - Rick Demming - 2:30:46 ATV 9 - Davis Rodriguez - 2:23:45 MC S - Eric Brown - 1:54:39 MC 0 - Todd Johnson - 1:45:12 MC M - Gwinn Vaughn - 1:59:01 MC 1 - Jason Keys - 2:03:58 MC 2 - Chronerberry - 2:03:15 MC 3 - Jeff Sims - 2:11:57 MC 6 - John Stokes - 2:07:58 MC 7 - John Middleton - 2:17:01 MC 8 - Olen Webb - 2:29:25 MC 4 - Scott Young - 2:19:36 MC 5 - Butch Garza - 2:29:39 MC 9 - Fred Smack - 2:32:26
Overall, we were very impressed with the Whiplash/Rocky Point race, the village of Puerto Penasco, and, well, just about everything we experienced over the weekend. Race by race Whiplash Motorsports continues to grow, it's reputation spreads, and more fans and racers come out to do it in the dirt. Currently, plans are underway between the Whiplash Motorsports group and the Nevada based SNORE to hold a combined event at some point in the near future. While we are unable to verify the where's and the when's at this time, it'll surely be an event to mark on the calendar. Bit by bit, piece by piece, desert racing is entering a second round of "glory years". It didn't start with a bang, but it's progressively getting there. Looking back years from now, who knows? We might just say "We were there all along!" |
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