Racing Vegas to Reno in 2012 with the help of a Rooster

In January of 2008 I made a decision to race the Baja 1000 in the coming November. Without knowing anything about it, I subsequently figured it all out and with the help of some great teammates we successfully entered and finished the 41st running of the Baja 1000.

Am I a great racer? No, not by a long shot. But I am great at accomplishing things that I really want to do and I really wanted to race the Baja 1000. Since that time I have continued to ride and train as much as I can. I race in the WeBe harescramble series and ride with my son and my buddies as much as possible. But now, I really want to race the BITD Vegas to Reno. Since BITD schedules this race in the absolute hottest month in the Nevada desert, why not? 600 miles of burning sand and 115 degree weather. Isn't this what everyone goes to Nevada for? Just kidding, kinda, I'm not kidding about the heat but I really am looking forward to doing this race.

When I started planning for the Baja 1000 I honestly had no idea what I was doing, I was so thankful for the advice and direction of the helpful staff at SCORE and all those other racers who had gone before me. Since that race I have learned a lot. I no longer have nightmares about sand woops and filling out race entry forms has become second nature. Putting together a great team isn't easy. I was very fortunate to have a couple of riding buddies that jumped at the chance. That's not really true, one of them jumped at the chance, we then had to invest in quite a few adult beverages to convince the other one that this was something he needed to do. The cost of a case of Bud Light is irrelevant when you consider the fact that we ended up getting a great teammate out of the deal.

This time I'm going it alone. Well kinda, you never really do a race like this alone, it does take a concerted effort between you and your crew. My crew at this point consists of entirely one person named Rooster. Rooster is a great guy and I'm sure he will do a great job at pitting for me as soon as I teach him how to put gas in a bike and change a tire. I honestly don't know if Rooster has ever ridden a bike in his life and I know for a fact he hasn't worked on one but I didn't pick Rooster because of his experience, I picked Rooster because he is fun, and he is the only one who agreed to go with me and I am sure it is because he has no idea how hot it is in Nevada in August. I did tell him that there would be racer parties and pretty girls, I guess I can teach him how to change a tire later.

Rob Swan
Qualifying Broker
Swan Realty, Red River, NM
SwanRealtyRedRiver.com