Dust to Glory Page #6

For the first time in years,

Johnny's lead was tenuous.

He'd tape his hand

and be ready for the next leg.

Unfortunately there are accidents

that require more than gauze and tape.

That's when it's time for the Weatherman.

From a repeater station

atop Mount Diablo.

Bob Steinberger is the eyes

and ears of the race.

Score Ops, copy Weatherman.

I have an emergency.

Advise the hospital

that we need immediate...

For over three decades.

Steinberger's been head of communications

for the 1000, a job he does for free.

In the early '70s

he was doing relays,

and he was putting up

an antenna with weather balloons

and someone called him

the Weatherman, and it stuck.

You know, my dad's 65 years old.

He climbs to the top of this 50-foot tower

on top of an 11,000-foot peak

and puts this antenna up,

and right over it's like

a 5,000-foot drop down a sheer mountain.

It's crazy. I mean, he's a great guy

and he loves this sport.

We have an injured driver

at race mile 55.

Weatherman, Score helicopter.

Okay, we have

two injuries, two back injuries.

We are transporting

the first one right now to Ensenada.

Weatherman. Could you contact

operations, advise the hospital?

We have a spectator hit

by motorcycle, no pulse.

So we need immediate transfer.

I heard somebody saying they

had a spectator with no pulse.

I have no comeback on that yet.

Weatherman, that's affirmative.

26.9, spectator hit

by motorcycle, no pulse.

Okay, this is an emergency.

Stand by, everybody.

Spectator hit by a motorcycle

at 26.9, no pulse.

Rescue One, Rescue One.

do you copy?

Helicopter 0-830.

ETA approximately

17 minutes, 1-7 minutes.

Score helicopter, copy Weatherman.

We copy, Weatherman

We'll be on our way there.

It's gonna be...

Boy. It's gonna be an ETA

of probably about 20 minutes or so.

Weatherman.

I don't know what to do at this time.

The spectator that died

wasn't hit by anyone in the race

or any vehicle in the race,

but by another spectator

on a motorcycle going

the wrong way on the course.

My biggest fear

is not me tearing up the truck,

me getting hurt,

it's me killing some kid,

me swapping out

and going into the group of people

or some guy pulling a truck out

and I bounce off of him

and kill these people

that weren't doing anything.

But why quit what you love

for a situation?

You don't quit driving on the road because

somebody gets in a car accident and dies.

I mean, I'm not gonna stop flying

because of 9/11.

Do I feel anguish for it? Yeah.

I don't ever want that,

or want that for anybody.

But I can't stop my life because of it.

They don't understand.

I don't understand.

I just do it. I just do it.

The Weatherman knows death

is neither fair nor just,

and there's nothing to do

but to go back to work.

I was concerned

that he had checked out,

to make sure he's all right

or are there other problems.

Everything will be fine.

Great. Brian passes along

a thank-you to you.

Fortunately there would be

no more fatalities.

Jetboat, Greg Tracy, Mace,

and his son Chad were on a mission.

They wanted to get

to Race Mile 205 and set up pits

in plenty of time for Mouse,

who was now in third place.

- Do I hear a bike?

- I hear a bike.

No, I hear a tractor.

Ricky Johnson, slated to race

that night in a protruck,

stopped on by

to see if he could help.

- He's a mile and a half out.

- Coming up on five...

Coming up on five minutes.

So we got two more minutes to sweat.

Senior McCoy seemed nervous,

Although he denied it at every turn.

That's a good look, Greg.

He's trying to go for that whole retro,

"I'm chillin', I'm not nervous" look.

And the E.M.

Erin's man.

But they know nothing other than

a married man would ever wear that.

Could mean every chick's man.

Don't put that in the film.

- That's him.

- That's it, that's it.

Ricky Johnson decided to pitch in

and give Jetboat a hand.

As I'm doing the tire change,

he's in my ear going,

"Slower's faster, slower's faster."

And that just gave me chills.

A seven-time national champion,

a hero, a god to a lot of people,

is helping me do a tire change.

- They didn't?

- No, you're 13 miles up to the Honda pit.

I feel good, bro.

I'm having fun.

"Relax. You got

a thousand miles to go ride.

You need to just relax and chill."

"No, I'm good, I'm good."

"Don't try to win this."

"I'm not. I'm not."

See you guys at 319.

You know, he's giving me

the answer that I wanna hear.

I watched him take off.

You know, I say a prayer.

You know, we go down to Mexico

as a band of brothers.

The Baja is a family affair passed down

from one generation to another.

My dad always talked about

Baja 1000, Baja this, Baja that.

"Wow, that'd be neat, you know?"

You know, I had a real tight family

and we rode motorcycles, we surfed.

My father suddenly passed

when I was 16,

at a point in time where a boy

kind of needs

some direction and stuff.

And my mom was there

and she saw that

we wanted to race,

and so she supported us.

Before, it was Honda, factory.

And so we used to

run it up and down,

do all the pits ourselves.

So it was fun.

In Mexico,

Johnny Campbell is the hero.

Even more than

the charismatic Robby Gordon,

it's Campbell's posters that can be found

from Tijuana to Cabo San Lucas.

He takes this responsibility

seriously as he's very aware

of the impact his heroes had

on him as a kid.

You are his idol.

Yeah?

You know, sometimes you just gotta

step out of the element for a little bit,

think about what's really going on.

So, you know, I thought the best thing

I could do is just give the kid a jersey.

It's not a replica or something

that can be bought in a store.

It's the real thing,

a Johnny Campbell race jersey.

Johnny Campbell's a good man.

His father would be proud.

His mother is.

Women in general have

had a big impact in Baja,

including this year, with the BC-10,

an all-woman team

comprised of the wives

and daughters of other racers.

We were kind of

on the sidelines last year,

and all the guys

were out there racing.

And we kind of all looked

at each other and we're like,

"Why are we standing here?

Why aren't we out there racing?"

My sister raced,

my mother raced.

They had enough girls at that time

where they raced a class

that was called powder puff.

And they would race

after the guys raced

in whatever cars were left over,

and go out and race each other.

By the time I came along,

they just didn't have that anymore,

and I was determined

I was gonna race.

And here I am, still racing.

All of us know that we have to get

the car to the next one.

And, you know, to finish first,

you have to first finish.

I think also women have this image

of not being good drivers.

But we always

tell people on the tours

that the women tend to do

better than the men

because we don't have

quite that ego behind us,

- like something to prove.

- Exactly.

Women will ask for directions.

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