RIP Kurt Caselli

***UPDATE-16 Nov 13, 5:00 PM EST***  Caselli may have not hit a booby trap which resulted in his death.  Early reports are usually littered with inaccuracies but it is a well known fact that booby traps are common along the course.  The traps set by locals are one of the main reasons that so many desert racers refuse to race in Mexico.  Hopefully the new owner of Score-International (Roger Norman) will be able to work with the fans in Mexico to discourage this type of behavior from spectators.  ***UPDATE***

While watching the Score-International coverage of the Baja 1000, it was reported that 2X (a KTM motorcycle team lead by Kurt Caselli) was out of the race within 100 miles of the finish line. All they stated was that the rider had a head trauma and was on the way to the hospital in Ensenada.

I did my best to follow up on the incident and as it turns out, the rider was Kurt Caselli and his injury was fatal. The initial word from the KTM pit team is that he hit a booby trap, which is not an uncommon thing. Some of the racing fans in Mexico are thirsty for blood and they set out obstacles and hide them just so that they can see accidents. As if racing through the Mexican desert wasn’t dangerous enough, the booby traps make racing even more treacherous.

My prayers go out for the family and friends of Kurt Caselli.

image from off-road.com