KLeN sponsored Baja 500 Team 304X looking for podium
May 25, 2010 Welcome to the KLeN Klan! We are super stoked to have you riding with our gear and hope to help you turn some heads in Baja this year.
So who is all involved with the team and how long have you guys been together?
The team consists of Tim Abshire, John Zuber , Scott Clemens, and Brian Holland. John and I met years ago snowboarding and have been friends ever since. He was the person that talked me into getting a dirt bike and has pretty much taught me the ropes when it comes to desert racing. John has been born and raised in the desert and a lifetime Checkers MC member. He races in the expert class in the AMA district 37 desert/grand prix series. Scott is the newest member to the crew and has been riding dirt bikes for only a few years. He was supposed to run support for us last year at the 500 and after one of the team members had other commitments we, looked at Scott and said "your racing". Scott stepped up to the challenge and having never raced a dirt bike before he committed himself to the team and rode a solid leg last year. I met Brian at a bachelor party in Baja about 5 years ago. We were the only two guys with bikes and he drug me around northern Baja for my first time riding in Mexico. Pretty funny introduction to Baja, every time we would stop for a breather I would ask if he knew where we were going and he would pull out his broken GPS and push a couple buttons look around and say " Yep San Quintin is just right over there" and point south. I had know clue he did not know exactly where we were going or that his GPS did not work. Ever since that time John Brian and myself have logged countless hours and mile in northern Baja and Scott has been doing the same for the past 2 years. As for myself I have raced District 37 Desertt and Grand prix races, SRA Grand prix's and I run the Open pro class in the Record off road series in Baja.
What's the best/worst part about riding in Baja? I'm not going to answer for you, but I'm guessing that charging down the coast with empty perfect waves has got to be a bit frustrating that you can't just stop and paddle out!!!
The best part about riding Baja is the adventure, terrain, the local people who always wave or give you a thumbs up when cruising through there town in the middle of nowhere and most of all the camaraderie with the boys. Theres nothing like one for all and all for one. The worst part is the lack of resources when something goes wrong. No matter how strong of a back up plan you have when you do have trouble it is always magnified 10x because of how remote Baja can be. I must admit there have been many times riding down the coast and seeing perfect clean sets rolling in with no one out and the entire group has stopped and watched wishing we could paddle out.
Racing Baja has a lot of costs associated with it and little to nothing as prize money...is it the pure joy and challenge of the riding/racing or is there another reason you continue to chase this dream?
Your right Racing SCORE is ridiculously expensive. We raced the 500 last year the first time after racing a few Record races over the years and figured it was time to step up do it once and be done with it. Well a year later and all we can think about was racing the 500 again. There is so much prep time and energy put into this one race, that crossing the finish line was an amazing experience. We made a few mistakes last year that cost us over an hour during the race and learning form our mistakes we feel we can get a decent result if everything goes smooth on race day. We keep going back just for the love of competition and the love of Baja.
Switching gears on you a bit - here at KLeN it is very important to us to offer sustainable products, give back to the planet and do what we can to help keep it green...have you incorporated any green initiatives into your program and your team approach?
We are really into the belief that you should always leave your pit area cleaner than when you found. When our team leaves a pit we always make sure to take all of our trash with us and clean up around us if there is more trash in the area.
Is there anything else you'd like people to know about you or anyone else you'd like to thank?
Well we are a pretty loose group but when it comes to racing we put our heads down and try and do it right. I would also like to thank my beautiful wife Kristi for putting up with everything that goes into racing Baja and all the time I spend south of the boarder.
