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The DP Racing warriors just completed an awesome Baja 1000, where they placed 4th in Class 22 Open Pro motorcycle, the premier bike class, and 5th Overall motorcycle, besting some very well known names in desert racing. CONGRATULATIONS to A.J. Stewart, Jesse Sharpe, Justin Morgan, Donald Stanley, Corey Freeman, and Kevin Johnson for riding smart and sensible, yet smokin the field on the MotoWorld Racing Honda CRF 450 X. These young stalwarts took the checkered flag Friday night in Ensenada, Baja California in exactly 17 hours, averaging just over 41 MPH on the 14x bike.

The guys had pre-run their sections extensively, familiarizing themselves with the course and selecting the best possible lines. A heavy rainfall the Saturday before the race would result in epic race day conditions, with great traction and minimal dust. Everyone was confident, race day couldn't come soon enough.
A.J. started the race, but immediately turned the bike over to Jesse due to a shoulder injury from a recent Dist 38 race. Jesse is a calm and calculating racer, who I knew would keep the rubber down for the first critical 90 miles. The racers were stacked and jockeying for position at Nuevo Junction, where Justin would hop in the saddle and take the CRF over the Summit, where a simple careless mistake can result in race-end. The CRF was purring. Justin began picking off riders and witnessed early carnage, but kept the hammer down and lasered down the Laguna Salada lakebed towards Borrego. When he arrived at Borrego, 14x was 7th bike overall, and we conducted a planned air filter and rear wheel change.
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402: Class 4 Predator X-18S with Ecotec 2.2L Engine Buggy

Sugar Racing completed its rookie year by winning the 44th running of the legendary Baja 1000 in Class 4. It was a tough race for the record books. Heavy winter rains changed the course from pre-run to race in ways no one expected. Racers were challenged with an intensely difficult course filled with bone-crushing rocks, spongy sand, and epic silt. Unlimited Trophy Trucks and Class 1 buggies that normally finish the Baja 1000 at races speeds of 55 miles per hour won their Class at only 47 and 43 mph, respectively. There were 278 entrants and 155 finishers in this Baja 1000 for a surprisingly strong finish rate of 56% for this uniquely rugged off road race.

The rugged 693-mile course traveled from Ensenada east through Ojos Negros, over the infamous Summit and on Laguna Salada, through the Borrego double pit area, down Laguna Diablo to San Felipe through the three legendary Baja canyon washes of Matomi, Huatamote, and Chanate, back to Borrego then joining familiar routes up to Mike’s Sky Rancho past Valle de Trinidad, heading over to the Pacific Coast, crossing Highway 1 near San Vicente and to Erendira, then through Santo Tomas, Uruapan and back to Ojos Negros, and on to the finish in Ensenada. The course covered much of the northern half of the majestic Baja California peninsula. Except for the San Felipe loop, the course traveled in a clockwise direction. The San Felipe loop ran counter clockwise. The race course featured six physical checkpoints along with 64 virtual checkpoints. On race day, 6 miles were added to the start-finish run due to rain-damage and other local reasons for an actual total of 705 race miles.
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Our Team Beat The punishMINT 400 and Won!


Desert Racing is a sport of skill, experience, lots of hard work, some money, some luck but most of all it’s about The Team. Without this team, no car or truck ever makes it to the starting line and most definitely, no vehicle ever makes it makes it to the finish line.



Now for the whole story.. It’s a good one!
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Ride smart. The right amount of throttle. Keep the rubber down. Deliver the bike to your teammate as fast as you ...

"That's So Rad!" "You're So Rad!" It just wasn't these two trademark expressions that set Des McDonald apart. Almost everything that flowed from his mouth was original, cantankerous, witty, bizarre, and usually hilarious. One of the few people who by just being around him, you became sucked into his positive vacuum. Feel like shit? Go hang out with Des. Your attitude changed immediately.

I first "met" Des in a nightly series of satellite phone calls when he, Mark A and Joe D were supporting an ill-fated Dakar Rally endeavor in January 2007. Things got pretty emotional and hairy on these nightly phone calls - I was wondering who this crackpot was on the phone who refused to get rattled. I sure was. We eventually met, and discovered he was a huge fan of Baja and Baja off road riding and racing.

I can only speak for myself and DP Racing. He went on countless Baja rides with us - organized group rides, Racers and Ranchers events, or simply slid on a backpack and did an unsupported ride with Tickets; or Fish or Joe Hauler. If he had the time off, he would be there. Mike's Sky Ranch, Rancho El Coyote, Horsepower Ranch, Rancho Rodeo del Rey night ride - always there. And the unique Des perspective. What an awesome riding companion.

He thoroughly enjoyed the dynamics of our little privateer race team. Young, deserving and highly motivated racers wanting to professionally race - he dug deep when the team had financial issues and he never said No - an incredible sponsor and supporter. He pitted and chased for us in Vegas to Reno, Baja 500, Baja 1000 and Norra. He was in charge in Baja Sur in 2007 when DP raced 2 bikes to Cabo in Class 22. Everyone asked at the Baja 1000 last month, "Where's Des?"

Whether in the Coronado Motel parking lot, Mike's bar, Coyote dining room, or popping the first Pacifico at Jim and Nancy's... you gravitated towards Des.

We will miss you greatly, Des. Thank you for taking care of us - your generous and kind heart is felt and so appreciated by our race team. Hopefully we will meet again at the Final Checkpoint. Vaya con Dios, hermano.
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Wow, what an experience. I have done the last 33 Score Baja races and this was definitely a keeper! Ha Ha! CONGRATULATIONS to A.J. Stewart, Bryce Stavron, Craig Smith, Kevin Johnson, and Jesse Sharpe for their impressive SECOND Place finish in Class 22, Open Pro moto, besting a factory Honda and factory KTM team in a field of 11 Open Pro and 91 total motorcycles.

These guys rode smart, with heart and maturity, and each did their jobs. AWESOME!! I am proud that we used 5 solid, past and present DP riders, and did not go out and get “ringers.” We also finished 5th bike OA in some very prestigious company.

Jesse, Bryce, and Craig would each do a northern section. Kevin and A.J. would split the southern half into 2 sections each. Our race plan was carefully constructed, erring on the side of conservatism and taking no chances. Mag 7 would do our refueling every 55-60 miles. Our own chase crews would conduct wheel changes, air filter changes, light installs, and other planned maintenance – all at BF Goodrich pits. We begged, borrowed, and stole spare CRF 450’s, HID lights, and wheels to make this happen. And it worked!!
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The right to have children should be a marketable commodity, bought and traded by individuals but absolutely limited by the state.

—Kenneth Boulding, originator of the “Spaceship Earth”
concept (as quoted by William Tucker in Progress and Privilege, 1982)

We have wished, we ecofreaks, for a disaster or for a social change to come and bomb us into Stone Age, where we might live like Indians in our valley, with our localism, our appropriate technology, our gardens, our homemade religion—guilt-free at last!

—Stewart Brand (writing in the Whole Earth Catalogue).

Free Enterprise really means rich people get richer. They have the freedom to exploit and psychologically rape their fellow human beings in the process…. Capitalism is destroying the earth.

—Helen Caldicott, Union of Concerned Scientists

We must make this an insecure and inhospitable place for capitalists and their projects…. We must reclaim the roads and plowed land, halt dam construction, tear down existing dams, free shackled rivers and return to wilderness millions of tens of millions of acres of presently settled land.

—David Foreman, Earth First!

Everything we have developed over the last 100 years should be destroyed.

—Pentti Linkola ...

These days, explicit arguments in favor of fascism and the ideology of unlimited state power are, how shall I put this, ineffective at convincing the masses. Though people still adore the fascist ideology of the boundless power of the state and its fusion of public and private business, this is only so long as it is not given its proper name. These days, people prefer their fascism to be cloaked in disingenuous and deceptive language that disguises its true nature. All those old slogans about the supreme state and the suppression of the individual to the collective are so early 20th century! Far better to have your leaders pay lip service to "freedom" and "human rights" as they coercively mold you into a docile little manikin fit for their desired bureaucratic utopia.

Modern authoritarian movements tend to adopt the strategy of avoiding talking about or even hinting at the coercion they will adopt to deal with those opposed to the supreme rule of the all-powerful state apparatus. They deny that they are fascist movements and instead adopt a slew of fanciful euphemisms for the coercive policies they propose to inflict on their brutalized subjects. You silly fool! They are not robbing people — they are just "asking them to pay their fair share." They are not micromanaging people's lives — they are just "looking after their health and welfare." They are not silencing dissent — they are just "ensuring tolerance" and fighting "hate." They are not trespassing against private property — they are just "managing the economy." They are not enslaving people — they are just "encouraging volunteerism." Didn't you realize?

Of course, every so often, a modern fascist movement develops such a degree of hubris that it decides to dispense with all the euphemisms and denials and openly display the coercive means underlying its ambitions. After all, surely the poor rubes in the population must have figured it out anyway! Why not just level with them for a moment and have a little chuckle?
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"Global Warming: The Cold, Hard Facts?
By Timothy Ball
Monday, February 5, 2007

Global Warming, as we think we know it, doesn't exist. And I am not the only one trying to make people open up their eyes and see the truth. But few listen, despite the fact that I was one of the first Canadian Ph.Ds. in Climatology and I have an extensive background in climatology, especially the reconstruction of past climates and the impact of climate change on human history and the human condition. Few listen, even though I have a Ph.D, (Doctor of Science) from the University of London, England and was a climatology professor at the University of Winnipeg. For some reason (actually for many), the World is not listening. Here is why.

What would happen if tomorrow we were told that, after all, the Earth is flat? It would probably be the most important piece of news in the media and would generate a lot of debate. So why is it that when scientists who have studied the Global Warming phenomenon for years say that humans are not the cause nobody listens? Why does no one acknowledge that the Emperor has no clothes on?

Believe it or not, Global Warming is not due to human contribution of Carbon Dioxide (CO2). This in fact is the greatest deception in the history of science. We are wasting time, energy and trillions of dollars while creating unnecessary fear and consternation over an issue with no scientific justification. ...