Race Report RM 0-321

My last post was a bit of a bummer to read, I am still very disappointed to not be in southern Baja, but alas I am not.

Dave and I drove out of the San Nicolas hotel in 302 Tuesday around noon. We worked our way through congested surface streets to race start. After 20 minutes or so of staging, we began to roll toward start. They checked our wrists for race bands and helmets for tech stickers. We did final prep and rolled onto the starting platform. Sal Fish, race organizer, told us to have fun, and be safe. We rolled down to SCORE start and within 20 seconds had a 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and go countdown. We took off! We were officially racing the Baja 1000. After a few city blocks we dropped into the wash where they had built a big dirt jump and the streets and wash were lined with people. I did NOT do a 50 yard jump off the dirt ramp as the trophy trucks did, in fact I don't think we were air born at all. Driving up out of Ensenada was a trip. I had never seen this part of the course and it was 35 miles of winding dirt roads, surface streets, people, dogs, kids, chaos. Locals would try and point you down alternate routes that had more "fun" potential for them, more likely a crash for us. I was suckered into a few, but was driving slow in the unknowns, so we did fine. We passed several cars in this 35 miles from other classes, and generally just tried to settle in. I became very unnerved when car 300, the class 3 winner at Baja the last 6 years, and is currently in the lead again, came right up on my tail, I looked in the mirror and all I saw was his grill, oh man, I have never raced in a car before, and that shook me up. We moved over as the road allowed and he went around. One other time I didn't hear a car that was wanting around, so he bumped us to get our attention, that was an odd feeling! Once out of this 35 miles, we moved into roads I was more familiar with. Also the GPS track didn't start until RM35, so Dave and I were using dust, locals and score route markers only, it was a bit zanny. Our section was an unrelenting, rock strewn, boulder climb/decent, whooped out, torture chamber. 321 miles of punishment to man and machine. We knew we had to get the car through in one piece, and I am proud to say, we delivered it to RM 321 without even a flat! Dave and I, I humbly say, are a great driving team. I wouldn't have wanted to share that time with anyone else, and I am not sure anyone else could have driving it better. We were reserved, cautious, he would speak a thought moments before I was going to say the same thing, we just stayed on the same page for speed, control and navigation the whole time, well until RM 280 anyway. We came across a rolled over vehicle on fire at one point, I anchored the breaks and Dave was away with our halon co-driver fire extinguisher as our car stopped, he was away to put out the fire, confirmed occupants OK, and we took off again. We came across a buggy on a verge of rolling down a steep side bank, so we quickly attached a tow strap onto it and pulled it back to safety, then we were off again. We got a radio call that Chase 1 with Tony, Nikki, Tom and Matt (I think) were stopped just before check point 1, that was really cool to drive past them, blow the horn as they waved us on. The night wore into early morning, and we had the 280 incident. Another entry further down. And I have to take my hat off and give, what few of you really could understand, credit where credit is due. Dave drove from rm 280 to 321 solo. Through the most brutal section of the Baja 1000. He had never seen it before, as a solo driver, he had to watch the route on the GPS and in front at the same time. He had no second voice to confirm route, or line choice, he on-sighted the last 41 miles with no prior knowledge of where to go or how to get there. That is an amazing feat. I pre-ran that section last week, and I can only imagine the level of focus Dave must have had, and that was after being in the race vehicle for 12 hours already, and it would have taken place between 2:30am and 4:30am in the morning. The only explanation I can offer is that God was right there with him, answering our prayers from earlier. I don't know of any other stories from the race or chase, yet, but I am anxious to hear the details from the rest of the driver teams. I will sign off, staying tuned....just like you....

Rod