Third in class and tenth outright, the four-rider crew from New Zealand can feel justifiably proud of their achievement at this year's 45th annual Baja 1000 cross-country endurance race in the Mexican desert.
"The Awesome Foursome'' comprised Aucklanders Robert Creemers and Peter Herd, Tokoroa's Sean Clarke and Te Awamutu's Kevin Archer. They teamed to race a Honda CRF450X in the famous dirt bike marathon from Ensenada to La Paz last week. "We finished third in the 40 years' plus class and 10th overall out of the bikes,'' said Clarke.
The event was amazing with thousands of spectators lining the course right through the night,'' added Clarke, whose seven-hour stint on the bike was one of the toughest.
"Fortunately, the Baja Design lights on the Baja Bound Honda CRF450X were just unreal.''
Creemers had first stint on the bike, starting at Ensenada and he rode the bike to the 318-mile mark, where Herd took over and rode it the next 210 miles before handing over to Clarke. ``I got on the bike at the 531-mile mark at about 9pm and rode through to the 840 mile mark where Kevin Archer took over to wrap up the race after a total 1122 miles, in La Paz, with a finishing time of 26 hours and 25 minutes.''
The Johnny Campbell Racing Honda trio of David Kamo, Colton Udall and Timmy Weigand won the race in 20 hours, nine minutes and 30 seconds. Runners-up were the factory-backed FMF/Bonanza Plumbing KTM team of Mike Brown, Kurt Caselli, Quinn Cody and Ivan Ramirez.
