Goin' Baja. I had the opportunity to join a couple of friends for a trip down to see the Baja 1000 first hand. We left Salt Lake on Tuesday morning of last week and literally drove all day, camping just north of the US/Mexico border late that night. We woke up Wednesday morning and made our way through the Tecate border crossing, converted some US cash to pesos and boogied over to Ensenda where the race contingency was in full swing. It was a motorheads mecca. All of the race cars were on contingency row, going through the tech inspections one by one. This allows spectators to scope out all the ins and outs of each car, talk with the teams and drivers and basically enjoy what is a street fair with music, vendors, food, etc. By happenstance we bumped into my good friend John Williams from the Miller Motorsports Park whom would be driving and co-driving one of Wide Open's Baja Challenge cars. John has been out pre-running the days before and was excited to get the race underway. He had to rush off to a drivers meeting and we had plenty more to see at the contingency so we parted there. We stayed until the sun was setting and some of the last cars were squeezing through tech, including a BMW 318i that had been converted into a Baja race car by a young spunky guy named Bill Caswell.
Contingency Scene
Bill was a BMW acquaintance with several of the friends I was traveling with (all Land Cruiser owners too), and I had met him at SEMA earlier this month where he was literally building the BMW in Miller Welding booth at the SEMA show. He had a long way to go in the couple of weeks between Vegas and Baja but he made it through tech with just minutes to spare. The car had a few final tweaks needed but that didn't stop the team from partying through the night, with a 1000+ mile race just hours away. Last month I had the opportunity to guide a couple of Wide Open's Baja Challenge race cars around the West Desert and in return they hooked our group up with accommodations at their marvelous facility just outside of Ensenada that evening. The Horsepower Ranch is a legendary destination among the Baja community, its cantina and lounge are decorated with signed posters, photos of the best of the best that ever made it to the Baja, helmets and other memorabilia, its like a museum. We bumped back into Bill Caswell and his team over breakfast in the Ranch's dining hall, he was literally getting debriefed by his team about their exploits the night before, all while nursing a serious hangover. What can you say he knows how to party. That would be the last we saw of Bill, sadly we never got to see his car in action but he did make it a few hundred miles before his steering gave up the ghost. You can read more on his story at the link above. After a great breakfast at the ranch we bid farewell to our gracious hosts (thanks again Wide Open) and set out to watch the big race.
Atmosphere of Horsepower Ranch
Dave and Darren had been to the Baja 1000 several times before, so when it came time to find a good place to watch the action they had just the spot in mind and Marc and I were literally along for the ride. We found ourselves at approximately race mile 68 just outside Ojos Negro. Our spot was right in the middle of some nasty whoops in deep sand with a couple of pretty major turns at each end of the whoop section. I can't even relate how exhilarating it was to see the first chase helicopter come flying over our heads clearing the ground by no more than 100 feet and then seconds later a 800+ horsepower Trophy Truck comes blasting by. The adrenaline rush continued for the next hour as TT's, Class 1's and then smaller classes started rolling through, some accompanied by helicopters overhead others just rushing to get some ground behind them and finish this epic race. I took as many photos and videos as I could, finally I retired the camera and just sat back and watched the competitors battle the elements in what is known to most as the most difficult off-road race in the world. We were starting to see some of the other classes blow through, Class 7's, Class 3's and a couple of late bikes and quads, this marked the end of the big toys and the start of the smaller setups with would continue to start from Ensenada throughout the morning and afternoon.
My morning view of the race
As the 2010 race is an A to B peninsula race (instead of a loop) seeing the race twice is a feat in itself, the fastest teams are averaging 55-60 mph and considering we have to load up and race south to the next checkpoint, even on the highways it would be a stretch. We loaded up Dave's 80 Series Land Cruiser (passionately known as Ruby Claire), found a lull in the racing to cross back over the race course. From there and burned south, stopping only once for gas in a small town. Our destination was the Bay of LA which was not only a checkpoint for the race but was also one of the BFG pits in which many of the teams would be utilizing including some of our favorites. We knew the TT's and Class 1's were long gone but our timing gave us a chance to see some of the slower and late starters coming through including the Lexus 570 driven by Joe Bacal. If all went smooth he would have been hours ahead of us on his way to La Paz. As we rolled into the BFG Pit we noticed Bacal's recovery truck, a bone stock LX570 (200 Series Land Cruiser) driven by our Land Cruiser friend Todd K. (Todd is the editor for Toyota Trails magazine, both Dave and myself have had articles published in the magazine). Turns out Joe had not come through as of yet having lost a wheel and tire somewere north of us but he was headed our way.
Bacal's LX570 makes it to BFG Pit #3
Contingency Scene
Bill was a BMW acquaintance with several of the friends I was traveling with (all Land Cruiser owners too), and I had met him at SEMA earlier this month where he was literally building the BMW in Miller Welding booth at the SEMA show. He had a long way to go in the couple of weeks between Vegas and Baja but he made it through tech with just minutes to spare. The car had a few final tweaks needed but that didn't stop the team from partying through the night, with a 1000+ mile race just hours away. Last month I had the opportunity to guide a couple of Wide Open's Baja Challenge race cars around the West Desert and in return they hooked our group up with accommodations at their marvelous facility just outside of Ensenada that evening. The Horsepower Ranch is a legendary destination among the Baja community, its cantina and lounge are decorated with signed posters, photos of the best of the best that ever made it to the Baja, helmets and other memorabilia, its like a museum. We bumped back into Bill Caswell and his team over breakfast in the Ranch's dining hall, he was literally getting debriefed by his team about their exploits the night before, all while nursing a serious hangover. What can you say he knows how to party. That would be the last we saw of Bill, sadly we never got to see his car in action but he did make it a few hundred miles before his steering gave up the ghost. You can read more on his story at the link above. After a great breakfast at the ranch we bid farewell to our gracious hosts (thanks again Wide Open) and set out to watch the big race.
Atmosphere of Horsepower Ranch
Dave and Darren had been to the Baja 1000 several times before, so when it came time to find a good place to watch the action they had just the spot in mind and Marc and I were literally along for the ride. We found ourselves at approximately race mile 68 just outside Ojos Negro. Our spot was right in the middle of some nasty whoops in deep sand with a couple of pretty major turns at each end of the whoop section. I can't even relate how exhilarating it was to see the first chase helicopter come flying over our heads clearing the ground by no more than 100 feet and then seconds later a 800+ horsepower Trophy Truck comes blasting by. The adrenaline rush continued for the next hour as TT's, Class 1's and then smaller classes started rolling through, some accompanied by helicopters overhead others just rushing to get some ground behind them and finish this epic race. I took as many photos and videos as I could, finally I retired the camera and just sat back and watched the competitors battle the elements in what is known to most as the most difficult off-road race in the world. We were starting to see some of the other classes blow through, Class 7's, Class 3's and a couple of late bikes and quads, this marked the end of the big toys and the start of the smaller setups with would continue to start from Ensenada throughout the morning and afternoon.
My morning view of the race
As the 2010 race is an A to B peninsula race (instead of a loop) seeing the race twice is a feat in itself, the fastest teams are averaging 55-60 mph and considering we have to load up and race south to the next checkpoint, even on the highways it would be a stretch. We loaded up Dave's 80 Series Land Cruiser (passionately known as Ruby Claire), found a lull in the racing to cross back over the race course. From there and burned south, stopping only once for gas in a small town. Our destination was the Bay of LA which was not only a checkpoint for the race but was also one of the BFG pits in which many of the teams would be utilizing including some of our favorites. We knew the TT's and Class 1's were long gone but our timing gave us a chance to see some of the slower and late starters coming through including the Lexus 570 driven by Joe Bacal. If all went smooth he would have been hours ahead of us on his way to La Paz. As we rolled into the BFG Pit we noticed Bacal's recovery truck, a bone stock LX570 (200 Series Land Cruiser) driven by our Land Cruiser friend Todd K. (Todd is the editor for Toyota Trails magazine, both Dave and myself have had articles published in the magazine). Turns out Joe had not come through as of yet having lost a wheel and tire somewere north of us but he was headed our way.
Bacal's LX570 makes it to BFG Pit #3
