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PROFILE
Name: Anna Jo Cody
DOB: March 15, 1968
Residence: Simi Valley, California
Training/Hobbies: Weight training/cardio,
trail riding, wildlife photography
Occupation: Manager, insurance agency
Mechanic: Richard Jackson
Bike: Honda XR650R, Honda CRF450X
Meet Anna's Teammates
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RIDER STATEMENT
I would like to thank all of the people who helped me successfully finish the Baja 1000 on November 17, 2006 riding solo for 1047 miles. Through the generosity of many, we raised over $19,000 for the American Cancer Society, in memory of Lillie Sweetland with my entry in the Baja 1000.
Riding this race was the hardest thing I have done in my entire racing history. Taking only brief breaks throughout the 33 hours and 35 minutes I rode, I found that I really had to pull deep down inside myself to keep going. Through all of this I learned a lot about how powerful the mind can be—the statement about “mind over matter” couldn’t be truer. I could not have done this race without the help of my crew - Richard Jackson, Doug Williams, Chris Blais, Eric Sedor, Teddy Leyva, Connie Cody, Stacy Doerksen, Patty Blais, Martha Saxe and all of my great sponsors. Anna Cody
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RACING CAREER HIGHLIGHTS 1980 - 2006
PAST CHAMPIONSHIPS
13 time District 37 Desert class champion
7 time District 37 Enduro class champion
6 time District 37 Grand prix class champion
3 time Best in the Desert class champion
2 time AMA National Hare & Hound class champion
MAJOR WINS AND NOTABLE FINISHES
- 1989 Barstow to Vegas class winner
- 1990 Prospectors Enduro 3rd overall
- 1990 SCORE San Felipe 250 - 7th place 250 Pro class
- 1990 SCORE Baja 500 - 9th place 250 Pro class
- 1990 SCORE Baja 1000 - 7th place 250 Pro class
- 1990 Placed 2nd 250 Pro class in the SCORE Series
- 1993 Nevada Rally 2500 mile race - 1st place woman Pro
- 1997 Vegas to Reno- 4th 250 Expert
- 2001 Glen Helen 24 hour endurance race -5th 250 Expert
- 2002 Glen Helen 12 hour endurance race -6th 4 stroke Expert
- 2002 Best in the Desert Tonopah 300 - 1st Vet Expert
- 2006 Cal City grand prix - class winner
- 2006 Furnace Creek Hare Scramble - 4th Woman Expert
- 2006 Glen Helen 24 hour endurance race - 1st open Expert rode with the Dirt Bike Magazine team
- 2006 1st woman in the 39 year history of SCORE to solo the Baja 1000
- Notable Contenders for Baja 1000
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MY BIO
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I started riding motorcycles at the age of 2 years old.
I have been racing motorcycles since 1980 and have won over 300 off road races in my racing career. I raced my first desert race at age 13 after being encouraged to do so by family friend Morris Norman.
By age 18, I was racing
on a regular basis earning my first number one Desert Class Championship in 1989. In 1990 I signed a contract with Kawasaki Team Green becoming the first woman desert racer with factory backing.
That year I branched out from local district 37
racing to large racing series such as SCORE, Best in the Desert and AMA National Hare and Hound series. In 1990 my biggest accomplishment was becoming the first all woman team to finish the Baja 1000, which I did with teammate Lillie Sweetland.
That year Lillie and I raced the entire SCORE series and finished 2nd
in the 250 Pro class. I work as a manager for Fox Insurance agency in Camarillo. I have been working there for the last 8 years, and live in Channel Islands with my boyfriend Eric. I have no children. Besides racing, my other hobbies include traveling to Alaska for wildlife photography.
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1990 Santa Barbara News Press
First paragraph reads... Seventeen hours after the duo set off November 9, Cody-Merritt rode the final leg on a Kawasaki 250cc into Ensenada in northern Mexico and into history to become the first all-woman team to finish.
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Anna and Lillie at a 2am press interview immediately after finishing the Baja 1000 in 1990. |
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"...when Merritt rode the Baja 1000 last month, she and her partner, Lilli Sweetland, became the first women ever to finish the race on a motorcycle in its 23-year history" - Los Angeles Daily News.
Left, from Dirt Rider Magazine, February 1991 Anna Merritt (shown) and Lillie Sweetland shared a Roesler KDX prerunner [in the Baja 1000] which lost all but sixth gear...
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I loved racing so much
that I continued racing enduros for 2 years, improving my skills. I managed to finish in the top 20% of the Amateur Class five times which gave me a transfer to the Expert Class. In those days there were no woman Expert riders, so I actually earned the transfer against all male competitors.
In 1988 I tried Desert racing
and that’s where my real passion for off-road racing began. In 1990 I signed a contract with Team Green at Kawasaki, becoming the first woman desert racer with factory backing. I continued to race in local desert races and also branched out to the large racing series like SCORE, Best in the Desert and the AMA National Hare and Hound series.
After finishing 1998
with five separate class championships, I was on my way to another year of success, when a practice crash in mid-season took me out for 9 months, I had a partial knee replacement and spent 7 months rehabilitating my knee. Though my season was over, I was able to hook up a new sponsorship with Motowest on the Gas Gas Team. I started riding again in March 2000, and wrapped up another District 37 Class Championship, and continued to win my Class Championships annually until I stopped racing District 37 at the end of 2004.
In 2006 I am taking my racing into a different direction.
I’m heading back to the granddaddy of all races — the Baja 1000. This year it starts in Ensenada and finishes in La Paz. It has been a dream of mine to race the Baja again ever since I had to cancel my 1991 entry to that race when I suffered a horrific pre-running accident that shattered my elbow, requiring 7 hours of surgery and left me with only 90% use of my right arm.
I feel that the biggest accomplishment
I’ve had in racing was finishing the Baja 1000 in 1990 with my teammate Lillie Sweetland when we became the first women on motorcycles to ever finish this event. Sadly Lillie lost her life in 2001 after a courageous battle with Leiomyosarcoma, a rare form of cancer. I had been thinking about, and longing to go back to race the Baja 1000 but felt that no one could ever fill Lillie’s spot. When I woke in the middle of the night last November with the idea that I could and would race this race solo, and work with the American Cancer Society to raise money for them at the same time, in Lillie’s memory. In March my own fund-rasing page was born on the American Cancer Society web site, and I haven’t looked back since. In fact, I’m keeping my life on full throttle ahead from now until after the Baja 1000 in November.
Anna Jo Cody
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