SPARKS (Jan. 29) — Curt Chapman, a Virginia Highlands resident, took a very special trip in January where he rode a motorcycle and chased the 2015 Dakar Rally across South America.
Now back home Curt Chapman stands by a bike similar to his in the show room of Reno KTM, which is in Sparks.
Dan McGee Photo
And like many riders, he got his start on two-wheels at a young age.
“I’ve been riding for 45 years and began racing 42 years ago in Enduros and off-road events in the early 1970’s,” he said. “I got my first bike when I was around 10-years-old but never found interest in motocross or other track racing.”
The events he rode in were in the forest areas surrounding his native Fresno, California and in the Southern California desert.
“Eventually I drifted away from competing after I was married and life got busy, but I still did some on and off-road riding along the way”, he said.
While he’s originally from California, his wife is a native Nevadan and when they moved here in 1994, they briefly lived in Sparks while building a house in the Highlands.
“Through Shawn Marie’s family, our kids are 7th generation Northern Nevadans,” he said.
Once back in Nevada, Chapman returned to competition with the MRANN desert racing series and later got involved with the Virginia City Motorcycle Club.
“I raced the Virginia City Grand Prix a few times in the mid-2000s then in 2007 began to volunteer with the club,” he said. “And in 2009, I made the documentary movie, ‘Dust on the Comstock’, profiling this classic race.”
Over the past years, two of his three children were Rotary Youth Exchange students, with his youngest spending this past school year in Chile.
“In January 2014, our family visited Colette in Chile, so my son Quinn and I took the opportunity to pop over to Rosario, Argentina to catch the start of the Dakar Rally”, he said.
The event began in 1978 as the Paris-Dakar Rally, each year running between those cities, from France to Senegal (North Africa). During one year the course ran across Northern Africa and down through Egypt.
In 2008 threats from terrorists, as well as planting a land mine on the course, resulted in cancellation of the event.
The following year it was moved to South America for safety reasons and is still run as the Dakar Rally. And each year the route is changed so this year it had sections in Argentina, Chile and Bolivia.
2015 Dakar Rally logo
As Chapman described the event, it’s still the most demanding off-road race in the world, occurring over a 15 day period and covering 9,000 km this year.
He added this year it began in Buenos Aires, Argentina, crossed the Andes into Chile, traveled north along the Pacific Ocean, had a two-day out and back leg in Bolivia, then back over the Andes and down through Argentina to the finish in Rosario.
“With my interest piqued from the limited 2014 experience, I investigated options to return in 2015 and found the RawHyde Adventures company in Southern California, owned by Jim Hyde,” Chapman said. “They train road riders for off-road riding skills and also offer adventure riding tours around the U.S. West. “.
Chapman found they’ve also begun to offer tours in South America for riders to shadow the 37th Dakar Rally.
“I contacted them in the summer and lined up participation in the 2015 tour,” he said. “Our group had eight riders: four Americans, two from Dubai, one from Ireland and one from Germany.
Chapman watches as a rally car roars past him.
Curt Chapman Photo
RawHyde’s partner, Pampa Adventures provided a chase truck with a two-man support crew to haul the gear, tools, repair parts and food.
“We rode for 12 days starting from Cordoba, Argentina,” he said.
The tour intercepted the rally on Day 2, so they could avoid the starting ceremony congestion in Buenos Aires and instead focus on riding along with the rally as it moved across South America.
The Andes are a formidable mountain range and Chapman’s tour entered Chile after crossing a 15,400-foot high pass. Once close to the Pacific Ocean, the Rally headed north for two days into city of Iquique, located on the Atacama Desert, described as the driest desert on earth.
Chapman taking a breather while crossing the Atacama Desert.
Then the tour rested for a day while the Rally had its quick out-and-back stages in Bolivia. From there it was back over the Andes through a high 16,200-foot pass, then down through agricultural areas and the wine country of Argentina.
Chapman and another rider pause at the top of one of the high passes they used to cross the Andes mountain range.
Curt Chapman photo
All during his tour Capman wore Reno KTM shirts and even had his fellow BMW riders wearing them.
“We returned to Cordoba after riding 12 days and covering 2,900 miles,” he said. “To prepare for this I certainly worked on physical conditioning, knowing the days would be long and grueling.”
January is summer there so he expected the days to be hot. And they were long, ranging from a minimum 10-hours to the longest, a 16-hour day.
Every night the competitors would be at a bivouac site, while those on the tour stayed in nearby hotels.
Each day begin with his group chasing along in a “liaison section” where competitors and support teams would move through towns and along roadways. Then the day’s “special section,” which was timed, started and covered from 150- to 250-miles over very challenging terrain.
Chapman’s tour would locate routes across the desert to intercept the special section so they could watch the high-speed racing of the motorcycles, quads, cars and truck classes.
Chapman wearing one of his Reno KTM shirts stands by one of the trucks that raced in the Dakar Rally.
Curt Chapman photo
“In Cachi, Argentina we waited in town to see the fastest finishers start arriving around 3 p.m. but the flow continued until after midnight when those that had struggled during the day were still straggling in,” he said. “And that day was a ‘marathon section’, where the motorcycle and quad riders had no support from their crews, instead having to repair and prep their machine by themselves.”
Chapman at the “Hand in the Desert,” located on the Atacama Desert.
Curt Chapman photo
The next morning both the tour and the racers left early, in total darkness, as they headed into the next grueling day.
“The event would ultimately see an attrition race of about 50 percent of the competitors,” he said.
One highlight was watching Robbie Gordon, who has raced off-road, Indy Cars and, NASCAR.
“Robby really knows how to work the crowd and his navigator this year was Johnny Campbell, the legendary motorcycle racer who has a recorded eleven victories in the Baja 1000,” he said. “The locals love Gordon, and he would entertain everyone by spinning donuts in his car and even jumping it off the race podium set up in some towns along way. I was able to meet them at the check point into Chile when Robby darts out of the line of racers supposed to be crossing the border, instead pulling into a crowd of spectators, jumping out of the car and being mobbed by his fans.”
Chapman added the adventure started and ended with 25-hours of flying time each way between Reno and Cordoba. Now back home for a couple of weeks, he’s finally readjusted to our time zone.
“I called it a trip of a life time but if the opportunity comes I would love to see it again one day. The magnitude and the extreme challenges of this event are absolutely amazing,” he said.
Now that things have settled down his attention is on the 2015 Virginia City Grand Prix (April 25&26) and the changes in store for the event’s 44th annual running.
“I’m one of the central club members, with a major focus on setting up the course each year and interfacing with the BLM to get approval and comply with permits,” he said.
This year’s start will be different from previous years.
While still beginning on C Street, rather than facing south and making a left for the initial downhill section on Union Street, riders will be on the other side of the intersection, facing north, so the first turn will be a right hander.
But the biggest change this year is the new location of the pits, at the south end of town.
Map showing changes to this year’s VCGP.
Poster courtesy – VCMC
“The new area is much larger and will allow far more room for the pits, venders, spectators and RV parking. This is a very exciting change for the race”, he said.
And there is a serious effort to get more “vintage bikes” to race on Sunday.
“The idea for vintage comes from the fact the race began in 1971 so we have extra focus on the era of bikes that competed back then,” he said. “But people don’t want to destroy their classic old bikes, so we’ll have a shorter vintage-friendly loop this year that avoids the most punishing rocky sections that VC is notorious for.”
However they start and finish at the same place the other bikes will.
“The plan is to have special numbers for the vintage racers and consolidate them at the back of the starting grid. This makes it easier for course workers to identify them and ensure they take the proper alternate route segments for the vintage loop,” he said.
To increase interest and fun, on Saturday there’ll be a special fenced off area where vintage bikes of all kinds will be on display, including those to be raced in Sunday as well as any other on or off-road classic bikes that proud owners would like to bring to VC.
Asked about the response, he said, “We’re already getting strong interest in the vintage focus, with inquiries from locals and many folks in California.”
Preparations are well under way for the Comstock Classic, including the March 28th “drawing party”, hosted at the Red Dog Saloon starting at 5 pm. This event is where the riders and fans get into the VCGP spirit, with race numbers being assigned to define starting positions.
That night Chapman is going to share photos, videos and stories from his adventure at the Dakar Rally.Those wishing more information on this year’s Virginia City Grand Prix need to check their website at, www.vcgp.com.
2015 VCGP Poster
OTHER RACING NEWS
- Last week Aaron Siminoe finally made it into the Supercross night show at Oakland. Unfortunately, during the 250 West main event his motor blew up and he dropped out.
He had hoped to try and make the show at Anaheim III on Saturday but he broke his jaw in Thursday so sat the event out as he will do for the one in San Diego this Saturday.
