Quinn Cody suffered a high-speed crash shortly after the third waypoint check in Stage 3 of the DAKAR Rally 2012. He escaped grave injuries but head, shoulder and collarbone injuries made it impossible for him to continue the rally. A few hours after the horrendous accident a heartbroken Quinn said in a televised bivouac interview, "So many people put so much into our American effort DAKAR entry—months and months of work and to have this happen—to be leaving now, after Stage 3….it’s just a bummer."

As the first racers were crossing the finish line of Stage 3 at San Juan, officials published an announcement on the DAKAR race website. "American Quinn Cody, [was] assisted after a fall by Juan Pedrero. [He] soon met up with one of the medical helicopters, whose team diagnosed a suspected fracture of the collar bone and head injury. His condition is not alarming, but nevertheless he has had to withdraw from the race"

A short time later JCR Honda made the following announcement: "We are very proud of Quinn and this news is horrible to hear but the most important thing is that he is OK and being treated for his injuries. Quinn is as tough as they come and while this is a temporary setback it will only serve to strengthen his resolve to win the mighty DAKAR."

Quinn raced last year’s DAKAR for the first time, riding with Team Honda Europe. He captured a Rookie of the Year award for his exceptional finish of 9th overall, an unusual accomplishment for a first time DAKAR racer. The DAKAR has long been regarded by those in racing as "the toughest off-road race in the world". >

The only American on Bel-Ray Super B Honda Team (formerly Team Honda Europe) Quinn is considered the star of their team and they had high hopes he would finish in the first five for 2012.

Team owner Henk Hellegers said, "It’s been a very unfortunate end to what was looking like a good possibility for strong finishes in this year’s DAKAR race. With Quinn, he was riding really well and had regained his top ten position, so we were looking to make some progress with him. He had a huge crash and medical examinations have shown he has possibly broken a piece off the collarbone, and he has also lanced his eyebrow quite badly, which has been stitched. "He also seems to be suffering from concussion, so he was unable to continue and is now flying home to receive medical attention. I’d like to thank everyone for their hard work – we have a really good team this year, although we’ve never had so much bad luck, but this is the DAKAR and anything can happen."

On January 4 the day after the accident Quinn tried to board a plane and airport officials refused him, sending him away to obtain a written medical release from a doctor. After doing this he caught a flight to Santiago, then Lima where he spent the night. The morning of January 5 he caught the Lima flight to Los Angeles and he’s on his way home. "

10 stitches in my face and a broken collar bone but I walked away, my lucky day.." he said on Facebook.

“Today just wasn’t my day, I need to consider my self lucky that I’m still in the race. On the liaison this morning my tire blew off the bead, who ever mounted it broke the bead and kept mounting it. When it blew it also put a hole in the rear tank and jacked up the brake line, I was BUMMED and thought my rally was over, I didn’t have a support truck with in two hours of me and no cell service.

I pulled the wheel off and stood by the road (lucky I was still on the service route) and ended up flagging down the big KTM service truck and they gave me a tire and moose and even mounted it for me, those guys saved my ass! I almost missed the start of the special but managed to get there.

The special started out wide open at high elevation for the first 140k I almost never took it off the stop. Then it dropped into some rocky sandwashes and into the desert, I was riding good then the bike started cutting out, I messed with it for a while then just rode with it cutting out finally it got so bad I stopped and took a pice of fuel line and bypassed the fuel pump and it corrected the problem but still lost a bunch of time.”

Here are Quinns times at each Way Point during Stage 2, A 295 Km stage, yesterdays was much shorter.
WayPoint 1 Quinn Cody 4th place – 1 min 33 seconds behind first place leader
Way Point 2 Quinn Cody 4th place – 1 min 34 seconds behind first place leader
Way Point 3Quinn Cody 4th place – 1 min 15 seconds behind first place leader
Way Point 4  -  20th place – 11 min 29 seconds behind first place leader
Finish of Stage one – 24th place 19 min 55 seconds behind first place leader

Photographs from BreauxmanLIVE

Photo by http://www.facebook.com/BreauxmanLIVE

Quinn was 00:20 up on Cyril for 3rd OA at one point this AM before a fuel issue set him back 20 min. Photof rom: http://www.facebook.com/BreauxmanLIVE

Quinn Cody did the best for the Americans today in Argentina with a 4th in today’s stage 1 “special” after starting 9th. Jonah Street also moved up to 10th on the short opener.

“This stage was fun and super short along the beach and through some dunes”, Cody explained, ”It was crazy and there was a 35mph cross wind that was blowing us all over the place…..My Iritrack came loose and started bouncing around so I had to try to hold it in place while I was riding the last few miles. The liaison was hell like 760k forever!!!! Crazy hot down here!” – Source: http://www.race-dezert.com

THE DAKAR CHANGES WHO YOU ARE

Three-time Baja 1000 winner, Quinn Cody made his Dakar debut in 2011, which was a rude but promising experience for the American rider who finished 9th overall. After this life-size learning experience, Quinn Cody is now aiming higher. Contrary to last year, he has been able to train on his Honda CFR 450X all season long and will set off form Mad Del Plata clearly better prepared. Well aware that he still has plenty more to learn, the California native feels he is capable of finishing in the top five.

“My first Dakar was an incredible experience. I had no idea what I was in for. The Dakar changes you. There are so many emotions. I knew the competition level was high, I was ready for that but I was surprised by the scope of the event. Once I finished one stage and looked at the map and the remaining stages I understood how difficult the Dakar is. Throughout out the rally, I was already thinking about the following editions. For this year, I prepared the bike in the United States and I did the development work myself, in contrast to last year when I saw the bike for the first time in Buenos Aires. I had never even sat on a rally bike before. The goal will be to finish each stage with the hope of finishing in the top five. I don’t consider myself a favourite. I have the speed but I still don’t have the experience. For sure I will still make some mistakes.”

Source: www.Dakar.com

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Johnny Campbell (JCR Honda owner) says: “It was a long day. It was really rough and I was happy to be in the air with the helicopter and not on the ground riding the bike because it was really rough. All the guys did a really good job and it was a tough race. It was very, very rough.”

Kendall Norman (JCR Honda CRF450X) says: “It was a rough morning for me. I crashed the bike about 20 miles in but everything was alright and I started finding my rhythm, got down the road and I was really excited to get through Borrego and the road crossing. My first stint was almost over and I hit the biggest mound ever and just sent it at 70 miles per hour and took the biggest digger.

“I don’t know how I popped up so quickly but everything seemed okay though I was pretty banged up. I kept the bike going, got it to the pit and had to do a few repairs on it. Quinn (Cody) pinned it hard and did a really good job and so did Logan (Holladay.) I got back on in the meadow in Valle de Trinidad and took her home at night. It was a really tough day. Baja had its moments with me today.

“It didn’t make it easy. We had a challenger on the Kawasaki with my former teammate Robby Bell. They were there all day. They fought hard and kept us honest. It’s going to be tough in the years to come in Baja. It sounds like there’s going to be a lot more competition and it’s going to elevate the sport and what we have to do to come down here and be successful. It’s good for the sport, good for Baja and exciting for all the fans too.”

Johnny Campbell Racing gave American Honda the top two overall motorcycle finishing positions and their 15th straight Baja 500 title as Kendall Norman and Quinn Cody take the win and Honda’s 16th overall motorcycle victory in the very demanding 452.84 mile SCORE Baja 500 with a winning time of 8:47:07 at 51.76 mph on a Honda CRF450X. Their times were the fastest of all vehicles on the course. This race marks the second straight overall SCORE Baja 500 race win for Norman and Cody. Norman now has five career race wins in this event in the last six years. It was the second triumph for Cody. Udall was teamed with Kamo for the first time as Johnny Campbell Racing dedicated the race to the memory of Udall’s former teammate Jeff “OX” Kargola, who passed away recently following a motorcycle riding accident in Baja. During Saturday’s race, the two JCR/Honda vehicles actually crossed the finish line together in what was one of the closest races in the history of the Baja 500. Early reports had the win going to the 0x bike ridden by Colton Udall and JCR/Honda newcomer David Kamo however after final data review the win was awarded to Norman/Cody. Both teams were racing identical Eric Siraton prepped Honda CRF450X’s.

JCR/Honda congratulates the following teams, winning their respective motorcycle and ATV classes, all relying on the popular JCR/Honda race support pit service: Wayne Matlock, El Cajon, Calif., (Class 25, Honda TRX700XX), Brandon Brown, Umatilla Ore. (Class 24, Honda TRX450R), Francisco Septien, Ensenada, Mexico (Class 30, Honda CRF450X), Jeff Kaplan, Thousand Oaks, Calif. (Class 40, Honda CRF450X), Trevor Insley, San Clemente, Calif. (Class 21, Honda CRF450X), Jim Dizney, Alpine, Calif. (Class 50, Honda CRF450X), Donald Lewis, Marlborough, Conn. (Class 60, Honda CRF450X).

“The last month has been a real challenge for my team. With the tragic loss of OX, it was really tough to pull this one together. I am so proud of my Racers, Chase and Pit Crews for persevering through this tough time. OX would have wanted nothing less than for the Team to continue on in its dominate fashion and tradition. Until we meet again my friend-Ride in Peace!” Love to all –Johnny Campbell

“The thing is, it is always going to be a really aggressive race between us (and Colton Udall) because we have the same support, we’ve got the best bikes and the best pits so it’s always going to be a dogfight. I can’t complain. My ride went really well but it was really slow getting started. We had no mechanical issues on the bike and our pits were great and I just want to thank everyone that supports what we are doing down there and special thanks Red Bull and most of all to the Baja.” — Kendall Norman

Check out this video to see all the action from one of the greatest races in Baja 500 history – Click to view right here on Quinns’ Site.

The 2-day Rovers race in Lucerne Valley went down this past weekend, featuring a Desert Scramble on day 1 and Hare and Hound on day 2. JCR/Honda’s Quinn Cody was on hand to duke it out with some of the best desert racers in the nation. Quinn struck early with a holeshot and convincingly took the win on day one finishing with 5 minutes over 2nd place.
On Sunday Quinn pulled another holeshot and once again was leading from the start. He battled back and forth for the lead thru the race and ended up with a solid 2nd place.

“It felt good to be out racing. My Honda CRF450X is an amazing bike and the Rovers put on a great race.” — Quinn Cody

“Quinn is on fire right now! His confidence is high and he is riding at the top of his game.” — Johnny Campbell

We got Eric Siraton, JCR/Honda Head Technician to give up some insight on Quinn Cody’s desert bike set up.

“Quinn’s Honda CRF450X desert bike is set up similar to our Baja 1000 bike with subtle changes. The Pro Circuit suspension is set firmer. He prefers the Renthal 996 bend with AME grips and a 14/50 gear ratio. He usually runs the Dunlop 739 rear and Dunlop MX71 front. I alwayse run Lucas Oil 10/40 high performance synthetic in the motor and Lucas Oil 80/85 synthetic in the transmission. I use Lucas Oil’s Red ‘N’ Tacky grease on the steering bearings, swing arm and linkage and for the axles I use the Lucas Oil G3 race grease. The Motor is built to our race spec and we run the Pro Circuit RC-4 Resonance Chamber Stainless Steel head pipe with a Pro Circuit T4-R Silencer.”

“Of all the racing I’ve done, I still believe the District 37 Enduro series is the most enjoyable yet challenging form of racing. I’m really looking forward to the next round”. — Quinn Cody

“Quinn continues to impress everyone with his speed, versatility and toughness. Whether it’s Baja, Dakar, Nevada, Desert, Enduro-mud, snow or searing heat- Quinn is Gnarly and I would not want to be his competition”. — Johnny Campbell

Quinn Cody finished the short and final stage of the Dakar meeting his first two way stations in 6th place, but by the third and final stations he was in 14th, due to problems. Still the ‘Leading Rookie” finished the final stage of the Dakar in 9th overall.

Quinn’s first time in the Dakar captured him the leading rookie in his category. He has really gotten into his stride and is showing he truly is a world-class desert racer.

The following Question and Answer interview was published on the Dakar site about the
leading rookie:

Q: Are you surprised by what you have experienced on your first Dakar?

A: QC The Dakar is a lot more difficult than I expected. It’s the whole deal: the bivouac, the roadbook, getting up early and of course the difficult terrain. You have to be focused on everything and that’s probably even more difficult than the riding.

Q: How have you adapted to riding on the Dakar?

A: QC: I’m starting to get a good feeling and starting to grasp the navigational part. It’s fun to learn to read the tracks and the roadbook. In the beginning, I was a bit intimidated, I wanted to go like a bat out of hell. Afterwards, I started to find a good pace. I don’t need to stop as often to read the road book and I can remember some of the notes.

Q: What does status of best rookie mean to you?

A: QC: Obviously, I’m really pleased to be the best rookie. I’m really quite satisfied with my position. For a first attempt, it’s awesome. I’m delighted about it, but I hadn’t realized just how tough learning the race would be.

Q: What is stopping you from competing for the leading places?

A: Q.C.: I’ll have to work on my navigation and try other rallies. We need to improve the bike as well, do more tests and be more organized with a good team around me. You know, the first time I saw my bike was at scrutineering in Buenos Aires. To win the Dakar, just being a good rider isn’t enough.

A: Will you return to the Dakar?

Q: Q.C.: Of course. I want to get more involved, do other rallies and come back here next year. I want to come back and battle it out with the best.