Dan's 1972 Baja 1000 Collection

In the Fall of 1972 I was flunking out of college so when my friend Leon DuHamel asked if I wanted to go down to Baja, I said "no problemo." What follows here are some historic photos of that trip...

That's Mike Sullivan on my Ossa and Leon in the Desert MC colors. We're at Camalu B.C., and we were a primary pit for Team Monark motorcycles and secondary for the Volvo team. At that time, this was where the pavement ended on Highway 1.

This is one of the Swede's leaving Camalu on a 50cc Monark--yes he made it to La Paz and rumor had it that he carried a spare engine in the pack.

Phil Bowers rode an almost-stock Yamaha R5. The guys are straightening out the pipe..it made a most-impressive noise.

Rolf Tibblin (at left) and Mickey Quade were the first two bikes   (Husqvarna) into Camalu. They started an hour ahead of the cars but were only about a minute ahead of the first Bronco at this point. That's Leon DuHamel on the left in the hat.

Steve Hurd stopped in for some fuel (wearing his six-days helmet).

And Tom Brooks on the same brand of scooter as Hurd was serviced by the same pit crew..and Don Kesler advises me that the guy in the upper left is Hercules Distributing employee Tom Ruddy who tuned for the Brooks brothers.