The chequered flag has been lowered on the second Baja International Tourist Cup after two days of action around the 9.95 miles road course, 20 miles south of Tecate in Baja, Mexico.
Competitors from all over the USA, were joined by two UK racers, boasting accomplished Mountain Course racing CV’s.
Dave Hewson took to North America’s newest road race for the first time, racing the Dave Thomas Racing S1000RR BMW, alongside regular Obsession Engineering team-mate, returning overall winner Eric Wilson, who was aboard his own S1000RR BMW steed.
After three lap practice, qualifying sessions on Thursday morning, the riders returned to competition on Friday morning for race-day, sampling two five lap Senior races, two four lap Junior races for smaller capacity machines
Riders set off via the time trial format as used in 2021, with 15 second intervals between competitors.
Finishing times from each race were combined to give the overall placings.
Senior Race Result:
1st – Eric Wilson
2nd – Dave Thomas
3rd – Dave Hewson
All of the aforementioned riders beat the existing lap record 5 minutes one second, with overall victor Wilson, setting a new outright lap record of 4 mins 43 seconds, which equates to an average speed of over 126 mph.
In terms of the other competitors, respective Supersport, Middleweight, Lightweight, Ultra Lightweight class Champions were Richard Cole, Indiana’s Jack Chamberlain, Andrew Gawer and Matt Young.
The riders then hit the pool to relax & chill. The Baja event promoter Pedro Vargas Valdez and his team have again put on a superb event and gained a considerable increase in support from the local authorities in Baja to host the event and attract riders and teams to the region.
Demonstration laps for cars were also added in the schedule, with runs being made in Dodge Viper, Subaru WRX & Mazda MX-5 machines to encourage participation from leading 4-wheel competitors who already take part in other events in Baja throughout the year.
With the success of the 2022 event, event promoter Vargas Valdez hopes to build on & raise the profile of the motor sport loving region.
Photo courtesy of Eric Wilson
Words by Eric Wilson