SFMC at 2016 Dakar in support of Team ICO Racing/Rally Pan Am
So, the SFMC has been around for 111 years this season,
and as an AMA club (and indeed well before the AMA was
formed in 1924) had been involved in promoting motorcycle racing and flat-track
racing, and more recently used to host a well-attended good luck party for
Team Rally Pan Am when they were supporting
Jonah Street starting in 2006, back when the Dakar was still held in
Africa ...
This year, San Francisco Motorcycle Club life-member
Phillip Bowman was crew chief in support of
the current owner of Team Rally Pan Am, David Peckham
and team racers and Dakar rookies:
Ian Blythe, 24 years old ...
and 45 year old Scott Bright ...
Dave Peckham, owner of ICO Racing/Rally Pan Am, and
Crew Chief Phil Bowman ...
Dave, Ian, Scott and Phil ... ICO Racing/Rally Pan Am, 2016
Phil submitted this race report form his
experience shepherding both of the team's
racers to the finish line of the notoriously difficult
two-week rally-raid race:
"A few thoughts about the rally experience:
Our Support Truck:
The 2002 F250 with 160k on the clock, held up just fine.
Plenty of power, comfortable, ac running good, and per the Dakar
rulebook was eligible for upper tier speed limits along service routes.
One of the side swing up door hinges gave way. Easily repaired in Tarija,
Bolivia after a brief search for a welder shop.
Miles driven: 5800, averaging 8 mpg....insert barf emoticon
A few changes/additions for 2017 in store:
*add a 20 gallon water tank, mainly for pressure washing bikes and showering.
*add a 12volt on-board air compressor ... ditch the small portable
*add another "house battery"... ditch the generator
*add a pit bike. The bivouacs are huge. A pit bike would save the
team a lot of time walking back and forth to the meal tent, shitters,
and other bivouac services.
*add a wheel mover for hauling wheelsets back and forth to the tire changer.
A simple t-handle shaped device, wheels are easily mounted on cross-bar,
then schlepped to the Michelin Man!
*redo the shelving inside the truck box. Nothing failed just needs to be fine tuned,
re-design to improve storage bin/shelf compatibility.
*mount a couple of under-hanging aluminum storage boxes.
*patch a few minor roof leaks.
Typical day in the bivouac:
Wake up at 3:30am. Get up, make sure riders are awake, go for breakfast.
Riders had start times as early as 4am.
*About 45 minutes to pack up camp stuff into truck.
*On the road by 6:30am ... drive an average of 400 miles.
Longest day was 650 miles, when we started at 6am in the Uyuni, Bolivia, bivouac,
and arrived in the Salta bivouac at 11pm. The next day was a "rest" day
meaning no travel for racers or support crew.
*Take turns driving and snoozing.
*Arrive next bivouac 3pm-ish. Set up camp (EZ up, tarps, work station, chairs, etc)
*Await arrival of Scott and Ian. Hit the pasta bar for lunch. The Dakar Rally is a
24-hour-a-day operation. Food/water/coffee available just about around the clock.
Pasta bar open all the time and a proper hot breakfast, bag lunch, and hot dinner.
*Racers arrive, take notes regerding the bike condition/repairs needed.
Every day oil change/tire mousse change/air filters/bleed brakes/chain tension.
Then work on one-off repairs: cracked motor mounts, leaking fuel tanks,
chafed/leaking oil line, carb re-jets, etc.
*Eat dinner, then later on check the changes/edits board for updates
pertinent to next day racing schedule.
*Riders in the sack by 9pm. Service crew crashing out anywhere from 11pm to 3am.
The Service Team averaged 4 hours of sleep a night. We would catch up on sleep
during the next day's drive.
*Repeat 12 more times
The 2016 Bivouac:
A sprawling mess of 480 racers, 1800 support crew, THE TV RESOURCES IN FIGURES:
• 3 helicopters and 5 TV cars on the tracks.
• 13 cameramen positioned along the race's sites,
11 on-board camera systems, 2 super slow-motion cameras
(1,000 images per second), 7 satellite antenna, 21 editing suites.
• 45 tonnes of equipment.
• 250 people.
The Bivouac was typically located at a racetrack, airport, or military base.
Hundreds of ASO (race promoter) workers. 24 hours a day off-road
rally racing motorsport mayhem.
As the race trucks are last to arrive at the bivouac (typically 7-8pm) the truck crews
work through the night. It's quite normal to have service work being performed at 5am.
The noise is omni-present. Noise is everywhere, no escaping the generators.
It's my firm belief that standard staffing for Kamaz truck service crew requires
at least one guy whose job it is to make noise using big industrial 5 ft long pry bar.
This guy just walks around and bangs on metal shit all night long. :laughing
Sleeping is an art requiring ear plugs and the occasional 1/2 tab of ambien.
Bivouac services:
ELF fluids and chemicals. ELF is a sponsor of the rally. Slap their stickers on the
bikes and receive free motor/air-filter/fork oil, contact/carb/brake cleaner, etc.
Another benefit is free espresso when you stop by their truck.
Michelin tire changers. Drop off wheelsets and new tires and mousse.
It would usually take about 20-30 minutes to get the rubber swapped.
We brought 50 tires and mousse to the rally. The guys burned through about 80%
of what we brought. Towards the end of the rally we sold new and used tires and
mousse to local moto peeps.
KTM parts truck. Paying a $2000 fee (access fee) gained us access to buy
spares and parts for the rally bikes.
Hanging out at the factory-race-team KTM pits was uber-cool. :cool
Super-sano anti-ghetto set-up. 40 crew to take care of 5 riders.
An occasional cold beer was had (only on rest day).
The Austrians are bad-ass, no one else comes close.
Yah Gunter is over there working on the motors, WP suspension over here,
and in the background yah some lousy eighties heavy metal ...
yah at night we listen to Beethoven and in the morning
Wagner Also Sprach Zarathustra ... and so yah we vill win ze rally ... :ride
Karcher power wash. Available at 3 of the bivouacs.
M*A*S*H style medical tent.
Trash/waste oil pick up.
The moment when I thought we were fucked: :mad
Uyuni, Bolivia, elevation 12,000 and change, 5pm, 6 days into the rally.
The bivouac was silty and the wind made it necessary to wear goggles to keep the
dust out of the eyeballs. Silt is the enemy of all things good in life.
Where there is silt, there is misery! Silt sucks. Silt=powdery fuck-all
which makes the ever dwindling comfort zone non-existant.
I had taken one of the bikes to the power wash station, which happened to be
relatively close (200 yards) to our camp. Finished that chore turned around,
looked back towards camp and noticed something did not look right.
Yep that's right ... the 12’X24’ ez up is gone. A monster gust of wind had picked
up the ez-up and blew it away. Fuckin’ bleedin’ hell mate, not good, like really bad actually.
So I’m thinking lots of bad thoughts, trying to keep from panicking,
if the first 6 days were hard then the next 6 days would be hell
without the ez-up ... then the other part of my brain kicks in that knows how to do things,
well ok go find the ez up and bring it back and then the darkside kicks in again:
the ez up is in the next county mangled and useless ...
all that mental noise took about 2 seconds.
After securing various bits of equipment and quickly retrieving 2 awol tents I set
out to find the ez-up. As I’m searching I’ve switched on data roaming so I could
text Dave and the riders to alert them to hustle back and help find the beast.
Meanwhile back home AT&T is having a field day, sucker this one's going to cost you,
the internet roaring as it forces all the shit that's been denied into my iphone in that
brief window of time while we had them turned to airplane mode to save
the cell-phone batteries ...
The wind is howling, visibility obscured by the dust storm.
As I’m looking one of the guys from a Dutch moto team points,
I look through the Bolivian silt haze and about 100 yards away their stands the ezup,
upright, looking just semi-fucked, tattered, and not so great. Luckily Dave shows with
Ian and Scott and we are able to haul the ez up back to the truck.
The next morning we were able to modify the bent legs which left us with a
functional shelter! Thank the 8#6oz baby lord Jesus once again.
A big thank you to team manager/head mechanic/master of mcgyvering/good
friend Dave Peckham!!! I’m super grateful to be a part of the team!
The racers 24yr old Ian Blythe and 45 yr old Scott Bright: 2 hard core enduro ISDE guys.
They never whined and helped a bit with some of the chores. Oh yeah they also kicked ass.
Both these guys are Dakar rookies. Ian took 3rd place in the Dakar rookie category.
Ian 23rd overall. He also finished 9th place on day 11.
A top ten finish for a stage is an awesome accomplishment.
Scott was 53rd overall. Scott is a big time trooper.
He broke both wrists back in September 2015.
Just barely healed up to make the start line.
rally on, :thumbup:ride
arty
'Bicycle' Phil"