This is one black and white...
This is one black and white you could probably outrun.
The Los Angeles Sheriff's Deputies Motorsports Team got an invite to this year's Dirt Rider 24 Hour Torture Test, and they showed up with a Montclair Yamaha WR250F decked out in the black and white of a cop bike. The team consisted of Eric Parra, Jeff Tesdahl, Daryl Peacock, Dan Peacock, Chris Cadman, Lyle Raymond, and Mike Duval, with Deputy Matt Brady handling team manager duties. Matt's a road racer, so we don't blame him for not riding a loop. He did get to goof off all day and night in the custom golf cart that was - you guessed it - decked out like a cop car.
The Sheriff's team was probably the best-organized group at the event. They flew in Assistant Sheriff Doyle Campbell in a helicopter to start the first bikes just after the Sheriff's massive Air 5 Sky King rescue helicopter did a fly-by over the pits. The Sky King stuck around - and good thing. It came in handy when a rider injured himself that day.
Assistant Sheriff Doyle Campbell...
Assistant Sheriff Doyle Campbell prepares to start the 24 Hour
The Sheriff's team was the first bike out onto the course, with Deputy Eric Parra at the controls. Each pit stop/bike exchange went smoothly and the little WR required almost no maintenance and won plenty of cop fans along the way. Several riders were considering buying a 250F after having such a good time on the team bike.
I decided to ride a loop with the Sheriff's team shortly after it started raining, and a few hours after the sun had set. I wanted to do a loop in the rain and in the dark, and also wanted to ride with the cops. I rode sweep for Eric Parra as we headed out onto the loop at 22:10 - that's 10:10 pm for slackers like you and me.
I knew from the very start that the rain had made the trail way slicker than anything I'd every ridden on before, and that Eric Parra was going to be a lot faster than me throughout the loop. I went into survival mode even before the pits were out of sight. Eric had to stop and wait for me several times as I skated and slid my way around the trail. I knew Eric was riding for a team, and I started to feel guilty for slowing him down. At about the third time he had to stop for me I told him to go ahead with out me, that I knew the course and would be fine.
Eric told me that we were partners on this loop, and that I was partnered with a cop. "And cops don't leave their partners." It may not sound too dramatic here reading about it in a web article, but at the time it was sure nice to hear. If only for this one loop, I had a partner that wasn't going to let me feed the mountain lions.
Some people say a lot of bad things about cops, but these guys have something special that most of us don't understand. I got a glimpse of it that night. These guys are on a team. Not a race team that changes riders and managers every couple of seasons, these guys are in a lifelong team that means something to all of them.