While in Guerrero Negro we met Greg from Parksville and his friend Jan from Calgary. They were heading to San Ignacio a couple of hours west in the mountains. Their 12th year travelling together, Greg loves the Baja but not like everyone else. His jam is playing on his RZR side by side and being in the sandy, desert interior (off) roads of the peninsula. He and Jan had been to upper reaches of some of the volcanos and mesas that form the Baja divide spine. Generally, they would come south a few weeks later but on this particular year they were here at the same time as the Baja 1000; 1000 miles of desert track in countless sand vehicles some (Trophy Trucks) designed specifically for these races. In its 56th year, the Baja 1000 race has run with numerous formats. Ensenada to La Paz, an Ensenada – Ensenada loop and this year for the first time, south to north, La Paz to Ensenada. Al remembers watching highlights on Wide World of Sports as a kid. Greg and Jan were heading to San Ignacio to take in the race as it came through. GREAT IDEA!! We did too.
Our last stay, in Guerrero Negro, was situated on a vast flat desert, contrasting this (just two hours east), the Sierra de San Francisco Mountains mountains with their 7,500 year old cave paintings, tinajas and spring waters; San Ignacio is nestled in a lush palm oasis.
This was our first Mexican town that showed the colonial remains of the Jesuit mission church with a museum next door. We saw many signs for others along the way this was our first visit to one. The mission forms one side of the town square. Accompanying this are large Indian Laurel shade trees, restaurants, a small hotel, ice cream shop, taco shops and a stage. We arrived on a Monday and many of the Baja 1000 race teams had their pre-run vehicles and team members staged in San Ignacio as it was listed as a major stop for competitors to “pit”, refueling, fixing broken parts, and changing tires and drivers.
We arrived 4 days before race day. One day Greg generously offered Albert a little off-roading ride in his RZR and away they went.
Our campground had a small motel with “Team Johnson” from California. Their Starlink was in their constantly idling cube-van, beside their tow vehicle and double axel toy hauling trailer with a bright orange gazillion dollar 6100 series Trophy Truck on it.
Learning curve – Trophy trucks are built from the ground up specifically for desert sand races. The 6100 series also known as Spec Trophy Truck has 850-1000HP and crazy suspension (30″ of travel) that keeps them low like a spider as they move along the track and sail through the air over bumps at speeds reaching up to 130 mph (208 kph). This truck was the exact same as their official race truck but used just for pre-running legs of the course.
Their official race vehicle was in La Paz at the start line with the driver/navigator team that would shoot the first and last legs of the trip. The middle leg would be driven by the team we were talking with. Each leg was about 450 miles. This is an expensive endeavor and there really is no worthwhile prize money to be won. But lots of prestige. The main owner of the assets was a big California developer. The co-owner, that I spoke with had a road building company. His company had contracts with the US Military and the scope of his business included its own cement plant. Serious dineros! Looking at this little team of about 10 guys we found out they were actually a team of about 75 who were dispersed up and down the race course – the entire Baja Peninsula!! Along the highways we saw pit crews setting up taped off areas for the pit stops. The road builder owner had said their vehicle could run 250 miles on a tank of fuel, so they were setting up 6 pits to get to Ensenada, where others may have had more stops.
While speaking with these enthusiasts I noticed fingers missing on 3 of them including the road builder boss!!! Ha, the younger “apprentice” came over and he had all his digits, so they teased him and said it was coming!!
While in town we learned about the series 11 racers. These guys start in one of the last heats. They drive stock Volkswagen beetles. Imagine that!! The turf is destroyed by these muscle machines and along comes Herby, the Love Bug. (Google it if you are younger than 50!!) These drivers are super skilled as well and revered by all the racers.
On race day, Thursday, the town square was roped off and a police and volunteer presence directed traffic. The church stairs and grounds filled with race revelers getting a front road seat. The race began at 12:30am that morning 525 miles away in La Paz. A big screen TV was on the square live streaming “SCORE racing” the official stream and stats site.
We could follow the racers on our phones too.
The route was to come through town, “Pit 4”, and be on their way through. With maximum speeds of 37.5mph on the paved town roads, it allowed people to spectate and cheer on the super souped up noisy racers for the brief seconds that they spent through the square. The roads were an active race zone with ranchers, stray dogs and horses, tourists, cyclists(like us), etc rolling over them with the racers. Above us were helicopters playing sweep and filming the race progress while agitated vultures circled hoping to just perch on a free seguaro. In the square we noticed police were sipping beer in uniform while possibly on duty, dragging dogs off the street and videoing the racers as they came through. Chaos but awesome!!!
At 6pm the sun was down and the lights were on. The racers had huge yellow fog lamps for navigating the talcum fine sand they stirred up. One driver on another team explained “Sometimes that talc is 4 feet deep through the ruts and you just have to accelerate through it, or it will stop you dead”. It was impossible to imagine the motorcycles and Volkswagen beetles getting through.
At some point the team would have pitted and switched out the drivers, like the Johnson team, except these were the elite! Resting the lead drivers involves screaming up the highways to the pit where he would get in and bring it home. At 3:36 in the morning I woke up and checked where #7 was. This is when I learned that the finish line was actually 1330 miles from La Paz and they were at about the 1100mile marker. At 6:30 am I checked again, and he was nearly in. Way ahead of most of the teams. It was fun watching it real time. I had a great sleep, but pretty sure those racers didn’t!!
A fellow on his motorcycle was the first “Ironman” racer through. Ironman racers don’t switch out their vehicle for another driver, they go the whole way themselves. This pit stop put a whole new rear end on the bike, oil and filter change, fuel, food and a chiropractic massage before getting back on. He had been at it for 13 hours and was at mile 525… a long way still to go. No idea if he was a DNF like so many.
This team pitted, switched driver-navigators, new tires and tweaked suspension, air filters, and some other stuff, fuel, oil, etc all in 2.5 minutes and they were away again.
This team had a man bring his vehicle in and his female partner continued along. Married? Lovers? Maybe.
The team ranked #1 was the Bryce Menzies Red Bull Team-competitor #7. Their pre-run vehicle was spotted throughout the week before race day. Watching the SCORE site, we determined that he got on the course at about 8:30am after all the moto-quad (motorcycle engine vehicles – some 2 wheel and some 4 wheel) had gone through. He was the first one through San Ignacio at 5:06 pm. The crowd in the square went wild!!
We were really happy to have been able to experience a microcosm of this race. What a hoot!!
Off to quiet beaches now south of Mulegé…Stay tuned.
The Grape Escape 