December 15, 2005
Team Rally Pan America
Big Changes
With about a month to go before the start of the Dakar Rally, team member Pedro de Uriarte fell hard while testing in Mexico. He'll be OK, but knee injuries will prevent him from competing in the Dakar this year. We all wish Pedro the fastest recovery and hope to have him with us in a future Dakar.
With Pedro out, we had to scramble to find another teammate. Very few riders are prepared to drop everything and get ready for the Dakar in one month. We found one of those riders in Jonah Street. Jonah is one of the most successful desert racers in the world, with 3 Baja 500 wins, a 24-hour off-road endurance world championship, SCORE and BITD class championships, and more, including 3 seconds in the Baja 1000. Best of all, Jonah is a Dakar fanatic. We're happy to welcome him aboard.
The Dakar starts in Lisbon, Portugal on December 31. In this final month, the team still has much work to do. The vehicles have been shipped, but other logistic tasks remain, such as visas, medical clearances, insurance, and other headaches. We also continue to seek a brand name sponsor for this team. All this while training and working our day jobs.
Media coverage of our team has heated up, with a nice picture in this month's Dirt Rider and a feature in the Robb Report Motorcycling, as well as strong interest from OLN TV for their upcoming coverage. Mike and Charlie were interviewed by Big Rick of KFOG radio recently, and you can hear the audio here: http://www.kfog.com/RadioWeb/PodCast/KFOG-36-191.xml. During the rally, we'll send back daily updates and pictures, hosted by www.onewheeldrive.net in their Dakar Central.
We'd like to thank our incredible sponsors: PAi, Top Oil, Scuderia West, Baja Designs, Hapag Lloyd, Motion Pro, RRUK, Renazco Seats, Transfer Flow, Captive Spark, Big Rick, SPS, Joe Racer, Ready Racing, Nasmoto, Team Two, DualSportNews, Linkfinity, ICW, and Pinky Punches.
Call us if you would like to join this crew.
For more information, contact Charlie Rauseo, team manager, at
415-710-9386 or charlie@charliedakar.com. Also, please visit the team's site at www.rallypanam.com.
We'll miss you in Africa, Pedro.
Other good reading:
www.charliedakar.com
Posted to Motorcycle Racing - Rally by Motorsports Journal « Go Back
