Report from Sandblast Rally

You could see it in their eyes: fatigue, determination and not a little bit of sand. With a name like the Sandblast Rally, one would suppose this is to be expected after a few stages of all-out racing. But Saturday was a different kind of Sandblast to the ones we've known. Inches of rain the day and night before had saturated the sand to the point where one stage had to be removed from the rally completely. On the roads themselves, the top layer of sand had eroded to reveal a substrate of wet clay with the appearance, consistency and appeal of a dirty diaper. And to make the event even more challenging, a foggy drizzle moved in just after the start to further impede comfort and visibility. Strangely, nobody was complaining. This was rally after all, and competitors and spectators knew that nothing should be expected and that anything could happen. The weather had simply added another dimension to the event.



No complaints! Max, Ben and TJ wait for the Rally to begin.

For TEAM MAX BMW, the drama began early. Pete Canning passed the spectator area in full squint on Stage 2 with his brand new goggles slapping against the back of his helmet, rendered ineffective by rain and flying sand. As the G450 X carrying Ben Stratton appeared over the rise, it was missing the front fender and Ben's eye protection was also entirely gone. A fuel bottle that had released itself from the tailbag of a rider in front of TJ Jarrett's 450, imposed catastrophic plastic surgery to the bike's beak. If there was anything good that had come out of the first two stages, it was that all 14 TEAM MAX BMW riders were still upright and twisting the throttle hard as they passed.



Pete, sans goggles, SS2



Ben, no fender or eye protection, SS3



TJ's 450 looks like a shark took a bite out of it, SS5

But the day soon got better. Sandblast offered up some good battles on each stage. With some stages being nearly 15 miles long, the riders who were truly on their game could gain a lot of ground on their competitors. Jimi Heyder, riding a G450X in his first rally, aggressively climbed through the field on the early stages while Joe Warner locked horns with a Husaberg rider throughout the day. To the delight of spectators and news photographers on Stage 3, Dakar veteran Jonah Street laid a perfect pass on another rider through the rutted corner known as Sexton's Big Curve. Many moments later, Jimmy Doustou was also successful in executing a pass at Sexton's. Jimmy deftly maneuvered his 1150 GS around a rider whose Kodak courage had earned him the distinction of being the only competitor to become separated from his machine on that corner.



Jimi Heyder looking for speed on SS3.



Jimmy's 1150: King of the commuter class, SS2.



Joe tames the buffalo, SS3.

For most of the rally, the riders and drivers don't have an audience and when things go wrong out on a stage, it's often the next rider or driver who is first on scene. For these instances, each competitor carries a laminated card with "OK" on one side and first-aid type red cross on the other. Typically, the OK sign only comes out when a competitor has experienced a mechanical failure and needs to wait for the sweep vehicle to haul the machine out of the stage. The emergency sign, however, is usually deployed by an arriving rider or driver and the next competitor notes the mileage and conveys a message to the nearest stage marshall to initiate medical response. On-stage medical response has been required a few times in the rallies we've been to and the system seems to work.



"I'm OK." Ben endured a peppering from his own front wheel.

A different kind of assistance is offered to competitors in the Service areas. Bikes are refueled, repairs made, power bars consumed and stories swapped. It doesn't take long for the juiciest of the stories to make their way from team to team during service. Sometimes the stories ignite tempers and other times they stimulate sportsmanship. To the delight of Ben Stratton, who had been riding the early stages fenderless, taking load after load of sand and mud in the face, a gift appeared under the MAX BMW tent during Service. A new front fender and headlight assembly had been delivered by one of the crew of the BMW Motorcycles of Atlanta entry, Bobby Wooldridge. It seems that Bobby, riding an HP2 in the event, had heard about Ben's situation and called ahead to have the front section of his own G450 X (that was in his truck) removed and delivered to the MAX BMW service area. It was a complete and welcome surprise and Bobby's gesture of sportsmanship kept Ben in the rally. Thanks Bobby.



New beak: Our good friend Dick Breen gets called into service.



From PB+J to Pepcid. Racer's Service Buffet.



Fire extinguishers are required during all refueling activities.

Steve, Greg, Pete, Sandy and Katie made sure that everything else was ready for each rider's arrival at Service, then helped put them back together and ushered them out to the next stage on time. Peter Canning worked out his goggle problem before Stage 5 and set out to chase down Doug Morrison. The two swapped sand and banged bars mile after mile, staging a repeat of their performance on this stage from the year before.



Pete chasing Doug like a cat around a room on SS5

Witnessing the motorcycles go through the deep ruts on Stage 5 was like watching small boats navigate an angry sea. Andrew Phillips and Rob Nye were each comfortably at the helm of a 450 and Jim Camp surfed his F650 Dakar through the berms of the stage. Steve Mauk's HP2 carried him steadily through the rough stuff. The grit and determination of the riders on Stage 5 was impressive.



Andrew, axle deep on SS5



Steve picks his line through the maze of ruts on SS5



Rob on his first return to Sandblast since 2007, SS5.



Jim, gittin' er done on SS5.

Whereas a clear day may have offered enough light for the competitors to see beyond their headlights on the final stage, on this cloudy and raw day, twilight didn't last long. The spectators, however, appeared ready to stay all night, even though there really wasn't much to see. The two crowd favorites belonged to TEAM MAX BMW as the distinctive dual headlights and honking horn of Jason Adams' R100GSPD drew applause and the stealth bike carrying Pete Canning that came through the stage with no operating headlight at all earned the loudest cheer of the day.



Jason's Airhead is always a crowd favorite, SS3.

As the bikes were loaded into vans and onto trailers, the consensus among riders was that Sandblast 2010 had proven to be the toughest rally yet. The team and the bikes had been up to the challenge, with a high number of finishers and podiums by Max Stratton and Doug Morrison.



Max powers out of a turn for 2nd in the Heavy class, SS3



Why the battle was close: Doug on SS3, 3rd in the Heavy class

Little did everyone know that the next challenge was less than 12 hours away, as the remnants of the mid-Atlantic Snowmageddon reduced the homeward pace to a crawl.

The next event in the Atlantic RallyMoto Cup series is Rally Tennessee on Memorial Day Weekend. Mark your calendars!