NEWS

January 10th, 2007

Godspeed Elmer Symons

I'm sure you all know, but friend of the team Elmer Symons passed away yesterday chasing his dream.  Elmer rode with us in our truck last year wrenching for James Embro, and was racing this year for the first time.  He was an excellent rider, with wins in a variety of races including The Roof of Africa.  He will be missed.

As for our team, we've had our own string of bad luck, but it pales in comparison.  Jonah is out of the race with mechanical problems.  We don't know what happened, but it seems his motor had catastrophic failure while he was running in 5th place in stage 4.  He was flown to Ourzazate, where we were last night, but we have not heard from him since his engine died.  He talked to Charlie and his wife April several times before his satellite phone battery went dead.  He is healthy but sad.  We are very bummed out, but the rally moves on, and all our energy will now be thrown behind Casey.

Casey continues to finish strong, and is currently 34th overall.  He loves the terrain, and looks forward to 11 more days of this!

We have also picked up some other riders in need of help.  James Embro had prepped a truck to support him, Elmer, Steve LaRoza and Chris Jones.  The truck was having problems in Europe and was forced to pull out.  James pulled out at the same time, leaving Steve and Chris without support.  We have offered our support, and are helping as much as possible.  I have renamed our bivouac area the Home for Wayward American Motorcyclists.  In our pits (including Patsy Quick's team) we now have 8 bikes..

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