The organizers behind the Baja Rally are opening a school that teaches international rally racing skills.
If you want to learn your way around a roadracing track, there are plenty of places to do that in North America. You can even do flat track training, motocross training, and supermoto training. But until now, we hadn’t heard of any place offering serious rally training.
That’s partly because, except for the SCORE series in the Baja peninsula, and the Baja Rally, there wasn’t much off-road rally racing in North America for some time, and not many Americans or Canadians are prominent on the international rally scene. However, there’s growing interest in rally events, partly because the Internet has made it easier to follow events like the Dakar or the Africa Eco Race. As a result, we’re seeing more rally events pop up on our continent, and more people interested in attending them.
That’s where the Baja Rally School comes in. It’s based in Mexico, founded by the same people who have been scouting and running the Baja Rally for the past four years, and there will be classes for motorcycle riders as well as UTV riders.
The course will give you three days and two nights combining hands-on riding experience and classroom instruction, as well as meals and shared accommodations (one night shared hotel room, two nights camping). Road books, and the use of a rally computer are also included.
Over the course, you’ll learn rally strategies, how to use rally road books, and other useful skills. After graduation, students will qualify for the Baja Rally and the Coast to Coast Rally, and should be prepared for other rally-type races. There’s a full breakdown of the course on the Baja Rally site.
Cost for the course is $1,400 US, and that doesn’t include your flight. You’ll need to do some prep work to your bike before you go, which will also set you back some coin. Also, organizers expect students to be competent off-road riders, in good health. More details of the Baja Rally School pre-requisites are here. Find the Baja Rally’s website here.
I was very excited about this until it said you need to be a competent off-road rider.
Do you think riding an R1100RT down a logging road would qualify me?
That would depend how fast you rode it down the logging road while managing to stay upright.