OK.....here is the story from Paul's mouth......
"Yes this is true. I preran a couple of weeks prior to the race and spent the weekend before the race organizing all of my chase vehicles and race support stuff. I think I had borrowed and set up 5 identical KX 500s so that each chase truck would have one (All the spare parts I would ever need). I was set to leave Sunday and prerun a few more days before the race. Unfortunately I got really sick - 103 plus degree fever and all of the other great side effects and could not get out of bed until Wednesday. What really sucked, besides pulling out of the race, was that it rained before the race and the entire course was ego dirt."