I stood there in the freezing cold 21-degree desert, looking helplessly up the mountain and wondering if our rider had survived the cold night. He was up there somewhere at the 8000-foot mark with a dead battery and a smashed but still functional front suspension. He spent most of the night trying to find some way to get the Arctic Cat Thundercat ATV we were racing to fire. Broken messages coming across our race radio mentioned something about our rider being struck by a trophy truck or car, but there were no details. Up until this point, we had been leading our class by a fairly wide margin. What now?
This whole adventure started over a week earlier when we all made our way down to Baja Mexico for several days of pre-running (practicing our designated race sections) followed by competing in the granddaddy of all off-road races – the Baja 1000. We arrived on Friday the 13th and the race would begin on the following Friday. I kept a journal of each day starting from the time the team picked me up at my home in Arizona.
This is where my 10-day Baja 1000 adventure begins.
Thursday, November 12th
1pm - I spent all morning packing gear and going over my race notes for the sections I would be racing. Several weeks ago, Reid Rutherford asked me to race on his Arctic Cat factory supported Fines Double Racing Team. The team is based out of Montrose, Colorado. It won’t be my first race in Baja, but it will be the first time I’ll be competing on a high-performance utility ATV that weighs more than seven hundred pounds. I’m used to racing sport quads that don’t even weigh half that, so I’m just hoping I’ll have enough time to get used to this monster of a machine before race day.
2pm - A few of my buddies just got back from a week of pre-running the racecourse. They sent me an e-mail today stating that “this year’s Baja 1000 racecourse is said to be the roughest it’s ever been.” That seems to be the rumor every year though.
I’m going over the list of tools that I will be required to carry in my backpack; Torx head sockets, metric sockets, wrenches, a tire plug and air kit, wire cutters, flashlight…everything I might need if I have to entirely rebuild the ATV out in the desert. With 100 ounces of water the pack will be fairly heavy.
6pm - Reid and Jason Cook picked up Phil Heck in Flagstaff, Arizona before arriving at my house in Phoenix. Jason and Phil will both be working the race as members of our pit crew, or “chase crew” as it’s known in Baja. The word chase refers to the pit crew always having to stay ahead of the racer by using local roads and highways. You could say that chase crews have their own race to contend with. We have six chase crews supporting the race team, which is likely overkill, but you can never be over prepared in Baja.
We’ve loaded up my dirt bike, riding gear and about $150 worth of diapers that I bought for the Door of Faith Orphanage in Tijuana. The team adopted the orphanage several Baja races ago. Every member of the team is required to donate items that the orphanage needs to operate. We’re all a little worried that a trailer full of diapers pulled by a bunch of 40-something males might look suspicious when we hit Mexican Customs at the border. After all, these are Pampers, not Depends.
Very late - We’re spending the night in Yuma, Arizona. We arrived here around 10pm. It’s well after 2am now, and we’re still telling fish stories outside in the hotel parking lot. We’ll hit the grocery store for camp supplies first thing in the morning.
Friday, November 13th
Morning - We just loaded the back of the trailer with $600 worth of groceries. Watching Reid shop is fairly comical. He uses the “walk every aisle and shovel anything that looks good” method – four shopping carts full!
We made a quick stop for fuel, picked up Mexico vehicle insurance and hit the Jack in the Box for one last American fast-food cheese burger before heading south. Much of the rest of the team just joined us here, so now we can cross the border together..
In Mexico - Crossing the border was virtually uneventful, especially since we all had our paperwork in order. From the border we will drive a few hours to our first stop for pre-running – Borrego camp.
Afternoon - We’ve arrived before nightfall, setting up our camp near race-mile 190, which is one of my legs during the race. I will start pre-running the area tomorrow so I can memorize the best lines for race day, exactly one week away.
Evening - The fire has been lit and the team has settled in for an awesome barbecued shrimp dinner with drinks and tall tales of races past. It’s good to be back in Baja. It’s a moonless night but the stars are shining down on us brighter than I’ve ever seen.
Saturday, November 14th
Morning - I woke up just after sunup and began a fifty-mile pre-run of part of my first race section with Reid and our buddy Chris “Tex” Dunn. Chris would be racing a Honda sport quad in another class with a few friends, and his team camped with us. Benn Vernadakis was heading north to run his first section with Jason Cook. We always ride in groups of two or more just for safety’s sake.
Mid-morning – The three of us started at camp and rode to race-mile 238, Morelia Junction. It was a fairly fast ride at first, attacking the medium to large sized whoops (consecutive twelve-inch or taller bumps spaced closely together) through Borrego to where the track splits left past race-mile 213. Just ahead, we hit the Laguna Diablo dry lake bed. It’s flat and fast as you can go for about 15 miles. I wandered a few different lines over the salty floor and found there were holes out there large enough to swallow up a car. I think I’ll stick to the main straightaway during the race.
At the end of Laguna Diablo, we hung left through some more deep whoops and silt sections. Silt is dirt that has a powder consistency. In some areas you can step into it and sink to your knees. Silt robs horsepower and will stop an ATV cold. It also gets into everything; the air filter, the engine, the suspension components, my lungs – it’s nasty stuff!
We arrived at Morelia Junction. I had to laugh at the dried up old dead cow carcass set up right at the corner. The racecourse hung a hard right south toward Matomi Wash. I’d be running it in a few days with racer Jason Wade. That was his section, and he would be arriving at camp tomorrow.
Lunch - We hopped off the racecourse and hit the main dirt road east toward San Felipe, a fairly good sized yet oppressed fishing town on Baja’s east coast. We met one of our chase trucks near the end of the dirt road where Phil could check up on us. No major problems to report, so Phil met us in San Felipe at the beach for lunch. We rode the ATVs into town, which was buzzing with other racers who were also pre-running. Lunch included fish, shrimp and carne asada tacos. The food is always great down here! We’re watching a rowing competition that is happening out in the Sea of Cortez.
Afternoon – We topped off the ATVs at a Pemex gas station in San Felipe, and then skipped across town to where the racecourse comes back up through San Felipe at about race-mile 345. From there the racecourse cuts through the town dump to the toughest portion of my race. It’s a 68-mile section of nothing but giant whoops and rocks. The abuse goes on forever and progressively gets worse. I was trying to pick easier lines around the whoops here and there, which is legal and the whole reason for pre-running, but I found it was quicker just to stay straight down the marked path, stand up and take the abuse.
While riding this tough section, we bumped into the guy the team considers to be our toughest competition – legendary cross country champion Mike Penland. Mike and his team ride for factory Can-Am on an Outlander 800 4x4 ATV. We struck up a conversation with him as he was waiting for the rest of his team members, who appeared to be lost. When I overheard that his heavily modified Outlander will do 102mph, I laughed…partly in disbelief, but mostly at the fact that we only have a top speed of 77mph. Our motor is pretty much stock, but highly reliable. We left Mike and continued on down the road seven miles where we met Phil in the chase truck, packed things up and headed back to camp. A little later, Mike Penland dropped into our Borrego camp to bum a little fuel, as he was running a little low and needed to get back to his camp. We happily obliged, and Reid took the opportunity to spackle the back of Mike’s Can-Am with Fines Double Arctic Cat Racing stickers.
Evening – You never know who you might bump into out in the middle of nowhere. As we were prepping the pre-runner ATVs for the next day and settling in for dinner, world famous extreme snow skier and television/ski film persona Glen Plake wandered into our camp. He had been pre-running the racecourse all day on a Honda XR650 dirt bike, but would be racing in a Baja Challenge buggy on Friday. He was parked nearby and was spending the night sleeping in his truck, but our warm campfire proved to be too tempting. The stories he had to share were highly entertaining and endless. He comes off as a really down to earth guy who loves life, as do most Baja racers.
Sunday, November 15th
Morning – We all slept great last night. Today I’ll be pre-running the beginning of my first race section from race mile 162 to 210. Race chasers Alex Waters and Merlin Ladd will drop me and Jason Cook off at the beginning. Jason will join me for the pre-run on his motorcycle. This section starts at Laguna Salada Dry Lake where we’ll enter Arroyo Grande Wash and then cross highway 3 back to camp. The terrain is supposed to combine a good mix of sand washes, rocky hard pack trails and a few steep hills.
Lunch- We’ve completed our ride and made it back to camp. The rocks were huge! I’m really impressed with how the Thundercat’s twelve inches of ground clearance and fully independent suspension made easy work of the nastiest sections. I don’t envy the sport quad racers. The rear axles of their machines clear the ground by only five inches. It was a productive day for us, though. We found some great lines through the open areas that allow you to get from point A to point B any way you can.
When we returned to camp, the fourth racer on the team, Jason Wade, arrived from Austin, Texas. He also brought Aaron Ard along with him. Aaron would drive one of the chase trucks during the race, and also brought along his dirt bike so he could pre-run with us. I handed my Thundercat pre-runner over to Jason so he could take off with Aaron and start practicing his sections.
The day wasn’t so productive for Reid and Benn while they were pre-running their own sections of the racecourse. Benn’s pre-runner suffered electrical issues all day, and Reid’s luck ran out just two miles into his ride when he blew out his rear differential.
Afternoon – Benn and I swapped out the spark plugs on his Thundercat and found a loose battery cable connection in the process, likely the culprit of his electrical problem. Meanwhile, our pro mechanics, Steve Rudd and Brent Falin, worked hard to replace the rear end of Reid’s Thundercat. Steve is quite the character. Every time his jaws slap together, something comes out that will make you double over in laughter. When there’s work to be done however, Steve and Brent are all over it and get things fixed in record time. I’ve just realized that this team operates like a fine tuned machine. Everyone here is an expert at racing Baja. If we fail to finish the race, it won’t be the fault of the chase crews.
Evening – Hamburgers and hot dogs were the selections of the night on the FDR camp menu. I’m really glad Jason Cook packed some pain pills. Everything feels good now. I’m looking up at the stars, which are like three feet in front of my face, but I can’t seem to grab them.
Monday, November 16th
Today was so busy that I didn’t have time to get to my journal until after dinner.
This morning I rolled out of the trailer and suited up for my first ride on the Thundercat we will be racing on Friday. The ride is superior to all of the Thundercat’s we’ve been pre-running on. It made me realize that the steering stabilizer on my pre-runner doesn’t work at all.
We broke up camp today and Alex, Jason, Aaron and I headed south to our “beach shack” just below San Felipe. The rest of the team headed up to Ensenada to pre-run the northern parts of the racecourse that they would be racing on Friday. On the way, we dropped Aaron and Jason off at race-mile 240 (Morelia Junction) so they could pre-run Matomi Wash to the bottom of the racecourse. Alex and I then took the truck down to race-mile 305 where the racecourse meets the highway to wait for them – but they never made it. They got word to us that the exhaust broke at race-mile 255, which somehow caused oil from the engine to overflow into the air intake box. Alex and I headed back up to Morelia Junction and picked them up. It was getting late so we called it a day and headed for the beach shack.
It’s been a crazy week already, or what seems like a week. I haven’t had cell phone or internet service since I crossed the border. We only have occasional race radio contact between our team members and that’s usually because we lost someone or broke something. I fired up my cell phone today just to see what day it is. They’re all starting to run together now. I’d like to be able to talk to my wife, but other than that it is nice to be cut off from the rest of the world.
Right now I’m kicking back in my 10x12 beach shack, which has nothing more than a bed and a hot shower. It’s awesome! I left my window open so I can hear the small waves of the Sea of Cortez crash against the beach. I’ve noticed countless trails leading to the desert from our beach hideaway, and I wish I had time to explore them all. I think I could really get used to life down here. It’s a nice change from reality.
Tuesday, November 17th
Morning – I woke up just as the light of day began to brighten the sky behind the sea. I grabbed my camera and took several photos as the sun made its appearance – what a magnificent view!
Alex was also up and prepared breakfast for all of us. We all agreed he makes the best biscuits and gravy we’ve ever had, and the fresh squeezed orange juice really hit the spot.
9am - After breakfast, we replaced the exhaust on the pre-runner with a spare muffler out of the chase truck. We also discovered that our oil overflow problem was nothing more than too much oil being added to the motor to begin with. I also replaced a rear tire that was flat. Everything was then reloaded on the trailer, and we headed back up to Morelia Junction for a second shot at Matomi Wash. I decided to ride along with Jason and Aaron this time on my KTM dirt bike. Alex would once again attempt to meet us eighty miles down the trail at the highway crossing.
Noon - The first fifteen miles was flat gravel road as fast as we could go. Beyond that, the racecourse had us dipping in and out of silt beds and sandy terrain before we hit a long and whooped out barbed wire fence lined road. The road dropped us down a steep wall into Matomi Wash. The wash is as magnificent as it is treacherous. In places it seems it could be a quarter mile wide with its steep walls and colorful vegetation. The most scenic part of the wash winds through a few solid rock canyons with giant Saguaros lining the tops. It was just beyond the last canyon at race-mile 390 that I switched my fuel tank over to reserve. I was beginning to wonder if I had enough gas to make it to the end.
The entire wash is flooded with boulders the size of a human head, buried halfway in the ground. They sneak up on you at 70mph, often times camouflaged with the sandy floor. The wheels of my dirt bike bounced off of them, left and right, leaving my nerves completely rattled. The wash went on for what seemed like one hundred miles. I was expecting to come around each corner and see Alex waiting for us with the truck, but the wash stretched on. Eventually, Jason and I both ran out of gas just two miles from the highway. I laid my bike down in its left side so that any fuel remaining on the right side would trickle over. It gave me just enough fuel to get to the trailer where the motor quit again, my fuel tank completely dry. While all this was going on, Aaron was at the highway and sent a buggy racer in to give Jason a tow. When Jason reached us he said that being towed was the toughest part of his day. Jason laughingly estimated he was being towed at 40mph through the sand whoops. “The tow rope would get a lot of slack and then snap me so hard I could barely hang on to the bars. I honestly considered just jumping off and walking a few times,” exclaimed Jason, just happy to still be alive.
Afternoon/Evening - I fueled my bike and rode the highway twenty miles to the beach shack where a warm shower awaited. The four of us converged soon after for a New York strip steak dinner with potatoes and veggies. Who knew these chase crew guys were mean chefs too? With our bellies full, we were all in bed by nine o’clock. Tomorrow was going to be a long day as we would make our way back up to base camp in Ensenada to regroup with the entire team and prepare for race day.
To read about the Race, check out
The Baja Experience - Part 2