2002 BAJA 1000 RACE - MEXICO
KAYAKING IN FRONT OF THE BAJA HOUSE
Every November the toughest, most grueling, one day Off Road race in the world takes place in Baja Mexico, the "Baja 1000", or as the Mexican locals refer to as the"Baja Mil". This year the 1,018 mile race course ran through our little town in Baja, where we have a house on the Sea of Cortez, about 400 miles south of the Border. This 1000 was especially sweet being that the race ran the original course of the old days to the tip of Baja to the town of La Paz. Every four years the organizing body of the race "SCORE" allows the course to run the entire length of the Baja peninsula. Being that the race to La Paz is a logistical nightmare, SCORE has decided to do it only every four years (kind of like the Off Road Olympics), and the other 3 years are a loop format, starting and ending in Ensenada. It's not uncommon for some of the factory teams with very big budgets, to have over 100 people, multiple tractor trailers and helicopters, scattered up and down the Baja peninsula to support a single race truck. This race is truly a big deal in Motorsports, with top speeds around 140 miles an hour, and race cars that have close to 3 feet of suspension travel. More than half of the entrants will never make it to La Paz, the Baja desert is notorious for showing no mercy to either a $5,000 4x4 or a $500,000 factory race truck...........both will break!
It's important to point out that the Baja 1000 race course utilizes existing dirt roads, trails, and washes to put together the 1,018 mile ribbon down the peninsula. SCORE is well aware that doing environmental damage to Baja, will result in losing the right to run the race in the future. They do a good job of marking the course, and cleaning it up after the 250 cars and motos pass through. They do such a good job of cleanup, most people will never know where the race course was. Only a few stickers of Race Teams on signs, give a clue to all of the excitement that goes down every November. This year we came down to support friends who were racing in the unlimited Trophy Truck class, the class that gets the overall win almost every year. They are a very talented group of drivers, and a nice bunch of guys. I was hoping to race this year, but it never materialized....... hopefully next year. I guess we did it backwards, we bought a house in Baja first, rather than a Race truck. Oh well........we'll race the 1000 very soon!
RACE TRUCK IN ENSENADA, 1018 MILES TO LA PAZ!
We flew from Portland to Orange County via Salt Lake (go figure..), where my dad met us. He drove out from Park City, and surprised us with a new 2003 Chevy Silverado 4x4, sporting the new big block Vortec engine. My dad's new truck is equipped with Satellite XM radio, and it was wild to get clean radio in the middle of the Baja peninsula. There were only a couple of times that we lost the "Uplink" and "No Signal" flashed in the radio display, but overall it provided hours of clean digital quality music. Satellite technology is fantastic, many of our neighbors in Baja run satellite for both their TV and Internet access. It's funny because they buy it in the States, telling the company that they are going to run it here, and then bring it down to Baja and dial it in. The bandwidth of Satellite is relatively narrow for big amounts of data. It will be great when Craig McCaw (from Seattle ) finally gets his new satellite's in orbit, and we will have a whole new offering of high speed- wide bandwidth satellite access. I can picture it now, doing my web work from home in Mexico, and it being completely transparent because of the high speed satellite access.
It was a pleasure to drive the big "Bow Tie" the nine hours south of the Border to our casa on the beach. After getting up at 3 AM in Portland to catch planes, it was great to be back in Mexico. I enjoy the people, their humor, and the kindness and warmth they are always happy to share with you. It was good to be back at our house, and the sunrise was even more beautiful than I remembered. Pelicans bobbed on the water in front of the house, and a big pod of Dolphin swam by as we drank our coffee.............Baja is so amazing! My dad and I put in a new shower fixture, which works really well providing good water flow. We coated the tile of the Breeze Way, and it looks nice and shiny like the hotels in Mexico. Always chores to do at our house, but we did find time in addition to the race, to have a beach party in front of the house (we need to build a Palapa someday for shade and a place to make margaritas). I snorkeled with Sierra which I always enjoy, had a good paddle in the kayak, and was able to fly fish a little. I wish we could spend more time down at the Baja house!
CHEERING FOR CHEVY DRIVER'S RYAN ARCIERO & MARK MILLER ON RACE DAY!
Racing and Baja, are in our blood. My dad rode the Baja peninsula in the 60's with his friends to La Paz. I should mention that this was in July, and the whole thing was dirt being that Hwy 1 was paved in 1972. He raced in many famous Off Road races, with the likes of Malcom Smith, and the late Steve McQueen. It's always cool to be with him at the races, and I'm thankful that we could share this year's Baja 1000 together. Ultimately he is the one that dragged me down to Baja as a little kid, bought me my first 2 Motorcycles, and showed me how to ride fast. I guess that's where I got the Off Road racing bug from. Now our daughter is a huge race fan, and did her best to explain to her class why her Thanksgiving vacation was just a little longer than everyone else's: because she had to go to this huge off road race in Mexico that runs by her house. The kid's looked at her kind of bewildered ............ pretty funny.
Some big names in racing showed up for this Baja 1000 to La Paz. The mighty Larry Ragland and son Chad, Ryan Arciero and Mark Miller.........all incredibly talented racers for Chevy. Jimmy Vasser from CART fame, raced a Class 1 car. I heard a few Euro rally stars also entered, but I never saw them or their car. Robby Gordon also raced his Trophy Truck this year. For those of you that don't know, Robby started his racing career in the Baja 1000, racing with his dad Bob. We heard a funny story at the race about Robby, from a SCORE check point official. When Robby was down pre-running the race course before the race, he stopped by a restaurant in our town and had their tacos. I guess he loved them so much, that during the race at the SCORE check point, they handed Robby a couple of tacos for the road, to eat in the 700 horsepower Trophy Truck. Not exactly sure how he ate them going over 100 MPH in typical Robby Gordon fashion.........but never the less a nice gesture of Mexican hospitality.
FIVE TIME OVERALL BAJA 1000 WINNER "LARRY RAGLAND" IN THE PIT
Race day was incredible! We had to wait until late afternoon for the first moto to come in, being that we were mile 400 of the 1,018 mile race course. Around 3 PM we heard a helicopter in the distance, and the roar of a 700 horsepower engine, the Herbst Trophy Truck rocketed past us covered in Baja silt, missing some body panels. Then Dave Ashley flew by a few minutes later in his Trophy Truck. Our friend Larry Ragland (5 time overall winner of the 1000) came into the pit with a throttle problem. Unfortunately it plagued them all day, as I mentioned before Baja is brutal and unforgiving. Larry and his son Chad are good guys, and the Ragland family is pretty much royalty in Baja with how many times they have won this race. I was talking with a local in Ensenada about the Baja 1000 after the race, and he said that during "Tech Inspection", a swarm of Mexican race fans approached Larry & the 700 horsepower Chevy truck. He said that Larry was kind and took time out to talk to them, and signed autographs. What a great ambassador for the sport! Chad & Larry have put together a great website for their race team, check it out RaglandRacing.com
We brought along an Apple G4 Titanium Power Book and a DV vid camera. We were able to edit Video of the Race with Apple's Final Cut Pro software as it was happening. I love good technology, it was great to go back to the house after the race, plug the camera into the TV and watch all the footage. Our entire house is wired with Solar power and way off the power grid, but here we were with all the comforts of home in Oregon, but just a stones throw from the Baja 1000 race course. It was a long day and night for everyone involved, but a great time for all of us. I feel fortunate to have been there and experienced the sounds, sight, and color of it first hand. An incredible motorsport experience!
SCORE CHECK POINT, MILE 400.............STILL A LONG WAY TO LA PAZ!
The winning time was a little over 16 hours to cover the 1,018 miles of off road challenge and reach La Paz. A record time with average speeds of over 60 MPH, and some sections over 130 MPH. Some racers were strapped in the race car for close to 30 hours, making their way to La Paz. Johnny Campbell of Team Honda took the moto win, and Dave Ashley/ Dan Smith took the overall Trophy Truck win. We were at the finish line at the 1998 Baja 1000 in La Paz, the last time the race finished there, and met Johnny and Dave Ashley. They are both nice guys, approachable and like to talk about off road racing. We've been fortunate for the opportunity throughout the years, to have met many of the top race car drivers in the world, both on and off road. I'm still amazed at how genuinely nice and approachable they are, very little ego and appear to be thankful to have the great job that they do. Racing is also a chance for the manufacturers to test the quality of their designs, before they put it into final production. Ivan Stewart won the 1998 Baja 1000 overall in the V8 Toyota Tundra (we sat next to Ivan at dinner after his big win, his ears still plugged up from the Tundra screaming at Red Line for 18 hours straight). It was cool to see the new Tundra before the world did.......they released the truck the following year (minus the 600 horsepower Lexus engine).
I always enjoy spending time at our house in Baja. A little time to slow down and be with the family, and enjoy the beauty of this magical place. After all the years we have been traveling down here, I'm still amazed at how naturally beautiful it is and how the Sea of Cortez is so full of life. The border town of Tijuana, disguises the treasure of the real Baja peninsula. It takes a long time to get to our house, but when we are there and settle in, I'm never ready to leave. I look forward to the day when we can stay for multiple months at a time (better keep adding to the 401 K plan). For those of us that like to spend time in the outdoors, Baja is a buffet of outdoor adventure. You can fish, sea kayak, wind surf, snorkel, surf, mtn bike, off road............the list goes on, a good healthy lifestyle. But it's also a lot of fun to sit on the beach, drink a cold XX or Pacifico, and share the view with a loved one. As my lovely wife says "Muy Romantico"!
SUNRISE IN FRONT OF THE HOUSE........A BEAUTIFUL BAJA MORNING!
We have some Video Clips of our trip to the Baja 1000 race, I think they came out pretty good. Heads up......you will need the latest version of QuickTime (version 6) to be able to view the clips, I have a link on the Video page to download the free software for either your Mac or PC. The clips are saved in QuickTime MP4 format. Hope you enjoy them! Thank You for your support, happy computing........and Happy Holidays! Chris
2003 BAJA 1000 RACE (NEW)