BOYER OFF ROAD RACING

38th SCORE Tecate Baja 1000

November 18-19, 2005

Ensenada, Baja CA, Mexico

Truggy Terrifies Baja Terrain

The 38th annual Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 set a record with 342 car, ATV, and bike entries from thirty-one states and twelve countries. The brutal 709-mile race, one of the most grueling in the event’s history, was run over a difficult desert course with a thirty-hour time limit. Only 163 Pro entries finished the race. Larry Roeseler and Troy Herbst were the overall auto winners, crossing the finish line in 15:06.22 (46.92 mph) in the Class 1 Truggy. The fastest circuit was by the factory Honda XR650R of Steve Hengeveld, Johnny Campbell, and little Mikey Childress in 14:20:30 (49.42 mph). The final car was the 5-1600 VW Armando Garcia, Marco Garcia, and Marco Garcia, Jr., in 29:51:12 (23.7 mph).

Troy and Larry showed, again, that the awesome Truggy is not getting that long in the tooth as they beat the second place finisher, now-Trophy-Truck champion Bob Shepard, by a whopping 42 minutes.

Shepard wrote: “We had a good run and most everything went according to plan. First and foremost we wanted to win the championship and if anything more than that happened that would be a bonus. I'm very happy to have pulled this off in my first full season of racing Trophy-Trucks!! And to finish it out with a first place in the most grueling of Baja 1000s, driving the whole way myself, makes me feel fantastic. No one can take this away or give credit to another driver. I drove every mile this season!

This would not have been even remotely possible without the best team and car builders in the business. Rick and Jeff at Geiser Bros. Racing built me a brand new car that never let us down. Its first race was last year’s 1000 to La Paz and what do you know, it ran perfectly the whole way down with almost no testing on it! Then we had to make it even better for the 2005 season, with little room for mistakes. Credit goes to Josh Fluery who has expertly performed all the prep since the beginning and even had to ride with me for most of this race. (Between him, Scott "Scooby" Maloney, and Rick Geiser cracking the whip on me as co-riders this season, I was never allowed to slow down.)

By San Matias I was really exhausted and hoping to get out and maybe talk Larry Ragland into getting in for me. But wouldn't you know it, like father like son, Chad was showing us all the fast way around San Felipe. So with blood being thicker then water, and visions of a Ragland/Ragland father-and-son winning the big one, Larry naturally gets in for Chad and it's his old (but not slow) horse, 'Arnold', to get him home. In the pits in San Matias, there's Chad leaning into my cab with an ear-to- ear smile and shouting "Can you believe this is happening?... You get to race with my dad all the way home!" Needless to say, at that moment the race had, all of a sudden, taken on a whole new meaning. This was really a defining moment for me, I was pretty spent, but I knew I had no choice in the matter; I had to cowboy up and get my head back in the game. All I could manage back to Chad was ‘No, I can’t’ and then we both laughed at each other, and right before driving away into the 'now' very bleak darkness of the Baja night I said to myself and maybe out loud ‘That horse knows how to get to the barn with it's eyes shut’, and off we went about two minutes behind Larry with the mixed feelings of excitement, trepidation, apprehension, tired to the bones, and, oh shit. The race was on!

Like having to beat Tim and Ed Herbst wasn’t going to be hard enough! Well, the rest is history and, lucky for me, we had fewer problems getting to the finish than they did and here we are in the privileged position of defending the #1 plate next year against what will surely be the largest and best field of Trophy-Trucks in the history of this wonderful sport that I love so much. Is that cool or what?”

Close to the race date, while testing, they discovered babbit particles in the dry sump reservoir’s “last-chance’ filter: the engine had spun a rod bearing. An emergency call to Kevin at Kroyer Racing Engines in Las Vegas sent the wheels in motion; they dropped everything and delivered a new LS1-based power plant just in time for a parking lot test and the trip to Ensenada. Josh said that the engine had just been, barely, warmed up and broken in before the start of the “1000”.

Two-hundred and-twenty-five “Pro” cars left Ensenada; one hundred cars returned within the thirty-hour elapsed time limit. That is a very low 44% finishing percentage. There were no finishers in 7S, &SX, 11, 11X, or 17 (JeepSpeed). Only a third of the twenty-six Class 1 buggies finished!

Class winners:

SCORE Trophy-Truck (Unlimited trucks) — Bob Shepard, Geiser Chevy, 15:48:49, (44.82 mph).(30 Starters, 17 Finishers)

Class 1 (Unlimited single or two-seaters) — Larry Roeseler/Troy Herbst, Smithbuilt Ford, 15:06:19 (46.92 mph) (26 Starters, 9 Finishers)

Class 1-2/1600 (VW-powered single- or two-seaters to 1600 cc) — Caleb Gaddis/Vic Bruckmann, Curry, 19:28:37 (36.39 mph) (28 Starters, 12 Finishers)

Class 3 (Short wheelbase 4X4) — Donald Moss/Kenneth Moss, Bronco, 24:55:12 (28.44 mph) (6 Starters, 3 Finishers)

Class 5 (Unlimited VW Baja Bugs) — Chris Bowman/Jerry Longo, VW, 23:49:07 (29.76 mph) (5 Starters, 2 Finishers)

Class 5/1600 (1600cc VW Baja Bugs) — Marcos Nunez/Norberto Rivera/Florentino Hernandez, VW, 22:14:48 (31.86 mph) (20 Starters, 10 Finishers)

Class 7 (Open mini trucks) — Doug Siewert/John Kilroy, S-10, 24:47:23 (28.59 mph) (8 Starters, 4 Finishers)

Class 7S (Stock mini trucks) — No Finishers (5 Starters, 0 Finishers)

Class 7SX (Modified open mini trucks) — No Finishers (5 Starters, 0 Finishers)

Class 8 (Full-sized two-wheel drive trucks) — Keith Fontana/Ron Lammer, Chevy, 24:48:53 (28.56 mph) (6 Starters, 3 Finishers)

Class 9 (VW-powered short wheelbase, single or two-seaters) — Eric Fisher/Hector Sarabia, Garibay, 24:08:55 (29.35 mph) (5 Starters, 2 Finishers)

Class 10 (Single- or two-seaters to 1650 cc) — Lobsam Yee/Eli Yee/Angel Barajas, Jimco-Honda, 17:15:05 (41.09 mph) (16 Starters, 7 Finishers)

SCORE Lite (VW-powered limited single-seaters to 1776 cc, or two-seaters to 1835 cc) — Stan Potter/Dan Worley, Jimco, 18:48:00 (37.70 mph) (19 Starters, 9 Finishers)

Class 11 (Stock VW Sedans) — No Finishers (6 Starters, 0 Finishers)

Class 11 Experimental (Experimental Stock VW Sedans, i.e., dual-port “11”) — No Finishers (1 Starter, 0 Finishers)

Stock Full (Stock full-sized trucks) — Josh Hall/Sam Cothrun/Thad Stump, Hummer H-2, 25:05:40 (28.25 mph) (8 Starters, 3 Finishers)

Stock Mini (Stock mini-sized trucks) — Rod Hall/Mike Winkel, Hummer H-3, 28:11:21 (25.14 mph) (2 Starters, 1 Finisher)

Protruck (Limited trucks) — Jimmy Nuckles/Jeff Dickerson, F-150, 18:47:37 (37.71 mph) (12 Starters, 8 Finishers)

Baja Challenge (Identically-equipped “Wide Open Baja” touring cars with 2.5-liter Porsche motors) — Robert Sutton/Rod Millen /Mike “Mouse” McCoy/Richard Kelsey, 19:38:56 (38.07 mph) (16 Starters, 10 Finishers)

Class 17 (aka JeepSpeed) — No Finishers (1 Starter, 0 Finishers)

The Sportsman entries had an even rougher day with twenty entries and only three finishers: a 15% success rate.

Sportsman Legend (Meyer’s Manx) — No Finishers (1 Starter, 0 Finishers)

Sportsman Buggy — Heidi Steele, 23:39:37 (29.96 mph) (9 Starters, 2 Finishers)

Sportsman Truck — Vince DeMaio/Dan Fresh, 25:14:05 (28.09 mph) (10 Starters, 1 Finisher)

THE COURSE

The 709-mile “metric ‘1000’” course began in front of the white Convention Center on Boulevard Costero Gral Lazaro Cárdenas, at 0930 on Friday, November 18th, running up the spectator-jumpered Rio Ensenada east to the burgeoning agricultural area of Ojos Negros. Getting out of town was the usual red-dirt CFD and bumper-to-bumper traffic on Highway 3. (The odd Toyota of #14 Ikuo Hanawa had to be “encouraged” by Bob Shepard, #82, to drive faster than 40 mph … where the SCORE limit was 60 per.) “Then he wanted to race when we got to the dirt by the Pepsi Stand. We knocked him through a fence!”

The traditional Tres Hermanos-Cerro Colorado loop was used to get the field out to the Independencia valley and the run over The Summit (always in caps). This was the original Summit, however the usual road, cut into the mountains side, had been severely washed out and SCORE used a rock wash that was “technical,” to say the least. The drop into the Laguna Salada basin was steep and rutted; “This is the worst that I have ever seen it,” remarked Sal Fish during the course marking expedition.

A number of T-T teams told me that a flat in the first one hundred miles sent them back in the dust of even the fast “1s” and that was the race, as far as they were concerned! (The overall winner came from 36th off the line. Change the flat and move on! It ain't a sprint race. The fourth and sixth Overall came from 46th and 47th off the line. Good enough for a trophy in the T-T class. Me thinks a lot of the T-Ts have forgotten, or never knew, what it was like to start in a competitive class with 100 or more dust-making cars ahead of you, 5-1600, for example. If you are a mid-pack or back-marker T-T, then you never race in dust except when the ‘1’ cars blow by you.

Sounds like sniveling to me. Send 'em back to the minors to do time in Class 1600, where the real men are.)

The simple washes and two-trackers were a welcome respite as these dozens of miles of little-used track brought the racers quickly to Cohobuzo Junction – linking Highway 2 from the north to the west side of the dry lake. (The ubiquitous Locos Mocos set up their fix-and-feed pit at RM127: GPS Coordinates N 31'50 150, W 115'34 000) The “Laguna” section was trivial – in the daylight – but under conditions of darkness many racers without the racecourse on a GPS would become flummoxed and driving in aimless circles. During the day you just head for southern mountains!

After successfully traversing the flat featureless plain, past the black-capped Cerro El Caprote, the drivers went up Arroyo Grande past the well fields that supply water to the Fortuna gold mine east of the Sierras Las Pintas. The pass through the mountains was via the rocky (what else?) “Crack o’ Doom” and El Chinero Wash. The run to Laguna Armaga (“Bitter Water”, aka “Borrego”) was over the roughest section of the course. Well-used by CODE events, the ridgelines were punctuated by wheel-deep stair-step climbs and totally exposed lava beds. It was tough even in a Class 1 car.

After the Highway 3 crossing at RM200 the course went for thirty-plus miles through the unceasing whoops to the borracho-ridden Zoo Road, the always-charming San Felipe dump, bypassing the Arches to the Old Puertocitos Road.

Around RM252, by the airport access, mean-spirited “Spectators created a five-foot trap on course. Supposedly this was the thing that took Andy McMillin out of the front-runner spot. By the time you guys went through, there was probably a route around.” It took out Dale Ebberts, supposedly doing The Ton while passing the #38 Geiser of Garron Cadiente. Former Ford Rough Rider John Swift (T-T #27) hit the booby trap and as John described: “I was, literally, a ¼ of an inch from endoing the truck.” The incident saw them breaking all the front grill lights, but John soldiered on. The trap was quickly filled in and everyone settled in, other than Dale Ebberts, who, from our fly-by (dis)vantage point, had what appeared to be terminal A-arm failure and tore the engine/tranny out of the back.

Chasepit #82 stickers -- $5

Skip loader passing by and talked into grading #82 pit -- 12-pack of Tecate

Skip loader pilot sporting Chasepit #82 sticker, drinking Tecate and digging massive bobby trap -- Priceless

Note: due to the 10,000-foot-high Sierra San Pedro Martir the sun went behind the mountains at 1620 hours! (We put the light bar on a RM218 [K159]).

From then on the course was the same-o same-o, until the turnoff to Matomi Wash to Llano San Fermin where the “Chollas To Max” section began. I used my cholla comb to good results, flicking off bolls that were tossed in by the front wheels.

Going UP Matomi was a rare treat, so to speak, as the tight stuff was also soft. Bad lines in two-wheel-drive vehicles would prove “troublesome,” at best! Dave Sykes confessed: “Yea, the course was really was beat by the time we hit Matomi and I did not have my best game on at that time. Not only did I pick terrible lines, but I broke the steering box on one of those rocks. We did repair and finish the race.

The El Parral Wash was braided – many lines – and some were better than the others. This is where the Herbsts got by Bob Shepard’s #82 “Geiser.” The two uphill fence line roads, while straight as an arrow, were all whooped to the limit of the Angle Of Repose! Chanate Wash had experienced a significant amount of summer rain and what were, usually, sand bars, were now exposed “Compton” boulders. Care was required to pass through the many narrow sections.

The course jumped out of Chanate and ran northward across a bajada to Huatamote Wash, which, oddly enough, was not so very much different than other times. The East Valley road was flat and fast, except for a long section of washed–out corrugated culverts but extra markings and the SCORE GPS pointed the high-speeders the correct way. (The washes were studded with slow motorcyclists … we actually pulled over from one that had popped out of a Mag 7 pit as we passed … his HID gave us thought that it was a T-T that raced up onto our rear bumper. We had to follow him until Huatamote!)

Morelia Junction to the second of the dry lakes was the usual sand whoops to the minor silt beds leading to the elevated access road past “Jose’s Tienda” – a remote beer store on the edge of Laguna Diablo. Rain had exposed the “proud” edge of a concrete culvert. This was extra-marked. (We got spooked here, pulling over for a “Trophy-Truck” that proved to be the full desert moon in our mirrors!)

A new old twist was the San Matias Pass crossing where we went up the wash to a farm gate (RM410), following a power line road behind the town of San Matias to the route to Rancho Mike’s.

The road out of Sky Rancho was twisty-turny though stands of Pinion Pines, up-and-downhills, and water crossings. This was a “good’ place to find a bottleneck. The transitions section on the San Telmo Road was new “tortilla-thin” pavement – look for Puertocitos-type potholes within a year! The hills south were though farmlands then deep, wet Live Oak canyons back to the Road. The course then went northward to Mike’s via the ridgelines of the 2004 “500” and out via Simpson’s Ranch to Valle de la Trinidad (where SMD had the largest pit complex in modern times!), bypassing the Power Station this time, out to the grassy plane west to the vineyards and Llano Colorado along Highway 1.

The Erindera tomato farming area was per the usual – featuring a terribly-soft sand wash to the sea – different only with a jog off the cobble beach through several backyards -- and up past Coyote Cal’s ($15 a night w/ breakfast!) The graded road to Santo Tomas (great pickled quail eggs at El Palomar!) was flat and fast. The big Army interdiction stop at Maneadero had been moved south of the Uruapan turnoff, at the top of the grade, which eased the load for a goodly number of pitters and chasers. Nothing can be said regarding the well-used reverse Tres Hermanos leg other than “rutted”: “Class 1600” winner Vic Bruckmann stuck a wheel in one such rut and was helped out by the SMD’s #27.

The Ojos Negros return leg was mas traditional and cold: we saw 29 ºF at 0530 hours. Finishers would catch Avenida Ruiz then retrace their steps down the “Rio” to the baseball park and a finisher’s pin.

709 miles of “The best that Baja has to offer.”

TROPHY-TRUCKS

(30 Starters, 17 Finishers)

#28 Alan Pflueger: “This was the toughest race I have ever been in,” Pflueger continued. “The course was absolutely grueling – both physically and mentally – but that’s what makes it the ‘Baja 1000’. We didn’t come here expecting it to be easy.” Pflueger started 6th out of 33 drivers in the Trophy-Truck class. From the onset, Pflueger and navigator Mike Emerson started reeling in the field, but by RM275 the truck started having problems with its cooling system. “It’s a testament to this team – our attitude and preparation”, said crew chief John Hoffman. “We didn’t let it become an issue. Never once did I see anyone get down. The team just got to work to fix the problem. When you race in the desert, things are going to happen. You just deal with them and move on. That’s what this team did. I’m proud of all of them.”

“It was an amazing race,” Aloha Alan said. “I’m stoked that we had such a good finish. We were not too far behind Bob (Shepard) considering we had eight flats and motor temp problems: the engine was hot from Borrego (RM200) to the finish. I can't believe that it didn't blow!”

“We came here ready to race,” Pflueger said. “We spent weeks preparing for this race, and we knew what it was going to take to win. We went out and performed as a team, and everyone on this team did their part. We did what it takes to win this race; we just had a little bit of bad luck. That’s to be expected in off-road racing. I can’t say enough how proud I am of this team and our effort here today.”

#80: Chad Ragland: “I was told, ‘Just keep your position.’ That was my mission. Unfortunately, somewhere before the first highway crossing, a rock knocked a brake pad off the right rear caliper, and we were out rear brakes. This was tough with a mid-engine truck and with Alan Pflueger behind us. At RM78 our crew made the decision to make an unscheduled pit and look at the caliper. The team did an amazing job fixing the problem, and we only lost nine minutes and four positions.

Mark Miller was there and told me ‘not to get frustrated, it was going to be a long race’. So I headed up to The Summit right behind one of the Baldwins. We basically kept our position, and did not make a move until The Summit. We were able to get around Josh (or Jason) and headed into the washes after The Summit. My truck, Arnold, was running great, and we made another pass approaching the dry lakebed. Coming into our pit at RM160 we were fourth physically on the racecourse. Our pit was super-fast. I think we surprised them a bit, but we were out in no time and racing towards Borrego.

This is where I started to feel like we had a truck that was definitely capable of racing with the leaders. We passed a few before Borrego who were changing flats. We crossed the highway at Borrego and made the dash towards San Felipe in second position. Somewhere, in the whoops, we saw Vildosala (#4) struggling, and we made the pass with what turned into the pass for the physical lead. I wasn't aware of this, but we were then first on course. I thought this would be our slowest section, but it turned out to be our fastest, according to BFG timing. From RM260 to RM410 I kept our lead, and tried to keep the truck in one piece. Unfortunately, I dinged a driveline in one of the washes, and gave the guys at Pit 3 more work to do. I noticed that what appeared to be my dad suited up at our third pit, almost pulling me out of the truck. I thought that Brian Collins must be right behind me, and he was helping me get out of the truck. What I didn't see was that he got into Arnold. I finally realized what was going on, and I was so excited that my dad was going to drive the last 300 miles in Arnold.

Larry drove flawlessly, kept the truck in the Trophy-Truck lead, and could have made a great run for the Overall. Unfortunately, Arnold lost a head gasket, rear end seal, and brakes. These problems came at different times, and Larry was actually able to keep the Trophy-Truck lead all the way to Ojos Negros, but the troubles became too much, and he really struggled just to make it to the finish.

I have to thank my Dad, Brian Collins for his enormous generosity and belief in me, the entire Collins Motorsports team, and Tony McCormick, my co-driver, and the guys responsible for preparing an 11-year-old Trophy-Truck that could run with the best.”

#84 Nick Vanderwey DNFed due to a tranny problem. Nick was pretty sure it was heat related, not mechanical. (!) He drove eight hours without getting out. He raved about how cool it was to race in T-T instead of Class 8. (!) There was virtually no dust, and no slower Class 10 cars to get in the way. They were tenth on the road when they broke, after starting twenty-ninth. Their spare tranny was on the wrong side of the peninsula. (!) Nick was pumped about it and said he will now be a regular entry in T-T for the 2006 “500” and the “1000”.

#27 Los Dos Scaronis: “The two weeks prior was fraught with a continual litany of problems that they had to overcome, and continued to overcome, obstacle after obstacle after obstacle. They had to do three tranny changes the week before the race, two alternator changes, fuel pumps going out, but “we persevered and we made it to Ensenada, made it to the start line and we had a great race for #27. Matt Scaroni was second off the line and he diced with the Terrible Herbst #19 Trophy-Truck and the frontrunners all the way to Borrego until a flat and a broken wheel stud lost time.”

The driver change in San Felipe showed our inexperience with the fueling tower; that cost us time with a fueling ‘mishap’ (Note: They dumped ten gallons after they purposely cut the fueling hose with a knife … ). We put former Ford Rough Rider John Swift in the truck and he took off for the lower San Felipe loop. A flat and a brake problem, with a fix at the BFG Chanate pit, cost precious race time. John had a clean run after that up Huatamote to Diablo, over to Mike’s, and back down to Valle T where he handed the truck to Steve Scaroni.

Steve overcame booby-traps and “then coming off the beach heading to Santo Tomas we hit a rock which pushed up the skid plate, which pushed up the pan on the transmission, which broke the valve body. We had to call in Mark Cowan and Willie Valdez to do a transmission change in the dirt by the beach that cost two hours.

Just as we were leaving the tranny repair for Santo Tomas, we got a call that David, trying to make up time in the 12 car, lost reverse so we elected to wait for David at Santo Tomas, let him get by and took off. On the way through the Uruapan section we were able to assist Darren Hardesty (on three cylinders) and the Gaddis ‘1600’ car that was in a ditch; we got there as they were pushing it out. We then became the sweep car for the SMD team and our friends. Vibration forced a driveline change in Ojos and then it was ‘Just take it easy” to the finish for our sixteenth place.”

The #16 Board Ford of Cameron Steele was re-done before the “500” and made into a “real” Trophy-Truck, with finishes at the Baja 500 and Baja 1000. “In the San Felipe whoops it was awesome, the guys at Fox Shox are geniuses”, said Steele. However, oil sump pump belt problems and a mysterious lock-up of the steering rack as Clyde Stout did the Mike’s Sky Ranch loop would become time-consuming issues. All three drivers were, eventually, able to negotiate their sections, with ’04 Indy 500 winner Buddy Rice getting across the finish line fifteenth in his first “1000”.

The #76 truck of Jesse Jones was running hard, too hard, it seems, through the first 390 miles of the race and had put passes on several T-Ts. Jesse had yet to fit his truck with the team’s Alloy USA gear setup and it was thus a blown rear end that would cost him a lot of time as the truck sat waiting, waiting, for repairs in the cholla-framed wash leading to San Matias Pass. Jesse eventually finished eleventh.

A tough day got tougher for the #2 Speedway Raceway three-seat Geiser of “Pistol” Pete Sohren, who shot himself in the foot when a throttle problem early on left them with a DNF. It’s always something. Rig up a coat hanger!

The Mark Post’s #3 broke a rear brake rotor passing the G n R “Geiser” and never caught back up with the leaders. Travis Coyne said that his Dad, Marty, had a flat early in $5 was stuck in the dust from then on. Everyone is getting seriously faster and if you are not up front you probably will not be able to.

“I heard the story on this first hand. Guess Nick pretty much left the co-driver out there to fix the #99 truck, Jeff Lewis lost four hours while the chase truck’s the rear end fell off while trying to get to Nick. They had to put a tranny in it to get it out; started driving it out and it was running great. They decided to keep going thinking Nick wouldn't mind but I guess he did. Jeff Lewis is a GREAT guy and I personally think they are idiots for firing him. Isn't the whole reason to race Baja to finish! Unbelievable”. Wardy

CLASS 1

(26 Starters, 9 Finishers)

Tom Bradley (Sr.) was teamed with the #129 Jose de Jesus Flores gang from his southern home town of La Paz. The car was worked on by the Locos Mocos at RM127, digging dirtly into the left rear hub. Not good.

“At RM78 (Cerro Colorado area), where the cars came off Highway 3 back into the dirt, they had to go through a cattle guard. The Robertson/Chase #120 car came off the highway so hot they took out the entire fence and came within three feet of hitting the tailgate of my truck while taking out seven-foot bushes to find their way back to the race course. Wild and way out of control. Pretty intense, though. “Never turn your head on a race car,” right?” - Kash

“That's what you get for being on the outside of a turn. Not out of control though; ‘Calculated madness’.” – Stuart Chase/#120

Chase: “Race day morning we were off at 10:20, fast and furious. Dust-free all day. Our prerunning paid off and, sure as hell there was Kash, just past the cattle guard at RM78 as we got back on the dirt. I tried to get as close as possible for the roost; guess it worked. Might add that the course workers were not visible at that spot.

We headed for The Summit and caught a little dust and could see two cars going up The Summit. There was an ‘either-or’ line at the top of The Summit as you begin your descent. When we preran I went left, (son) Eric right and he beat us by an easy two minutes. Needless to say that was our race day line and we did pass Mike Volyes at that section. I almost caught the other, but got smoked out and could not catch him.

There were two ‘either-ors’ on the way to RM155 where we were scheduled to get gas; the left lines were quicker on both. After that the mud flats line was clearly quicker. Straight forward all the way to Borrego from there.

We caught and passed one car and were eighth on adjusted time at RM155. A number of cars must have either broken or made a fuel stop. We were clean through the silt; we caught and passed two cars here, don't know who. We passed Jerry Penhall off to the side with a fuel problem, or so I'm told. Just before Borrego we got a front flat, changed it with some Mexican NASCAR enthusiasts’ help and off to RM218.

We get to the drivers change (at K159); Billy and TT were in lounge chairs with the girls holding cocktails with umbrellas in them. We discovered a power steering leak at the cooler section. The crew quickly fixed that with a bypass and I noticed two torn boots. Fxxx, the day was suddenly not looking good but we decided to haul ass and expected to fix it at the next Checker pit. Billy and TT were now in with the help of all the ladies adjusting their crotch belts.

We sent one truck to SF for inner tubes to fabricate boots and another truck to Borrego looking for any Class 1 pits, with spare boots, while I called McKenzie's from the sat phone trying to locate anyone with parts down here. No good, but the eleven remaining Checker pits fed the car CV grease throughout the rest of the night. Billy got out at RM392, where we were waiting with Bar-B-Que, campfire, steaks, and assorted stuff. All three trucks chased to Valley T, then Ojos, then Ensenada for an eighth-place finish; excellent considering our problems. What an adventure. As Kris Kristofferson said in the movie ‘The Song Writer’: ‘IT DON'T GET NO BETTER THAN THIS!’ I'm READY TO GO BACK!”

TT’s Tale

After Stuart and Eric Chase came in at RM218/Km 159 Billy and I buckled in then watched as the leaking power steering oil cooler was removed (who else runs one?) Overpressured, one would think, or poorly mounted, or mounted in a potentially-“stressed” position; then the CV Boot Alert was given. We parked for a while as fine minds thought.

RM200: Stuart and Eric With A Flat In The Basket

Given the nod we jumped right into the fray without any entrance ramp: 21 miles of the worst whoops that Baja has to offer. At the Zoo Road we backed off and were unceremoniously “tapped’ by Steve Myer’s red “10”. We took to the right and plowed through:

Rocks

Spectators

Coolers

Chairs

Creosotes

No harm, no foul fowl. Anyone who would watch at that point should have their cabeza examined.

On the final stretch to the Dump Road Billy reported that the power steering had gone away and he had to muscle it through any turns: it obviously worked OK straight ahead. We chose the non-fast line east of the power poles to stay out of harm’s way

I hoped to find friendly pits at:

Rancho Carrera

Chasepit 82

Saw neither. In fact, saw no friendly faces.

We caught the specially-marked “Veer Left” onto the smoother eastern Olde Puertocitos Road. There were surprisingly few spectators at the airport road. Dale Ebbert’s car was off to the west side and appeared to have suffered major front-end damage. I called Checker South for a visual on our car; was quite surprised to see them at RM260, as opposed to the posted RM270. Access appeared to be through the (un)FAIR pit. A FAIR guy refused to move. What a dick.

Thumper and the guys confirmed:

Power steering oil leak (Old news)

Torn CV Boots everywhere (Old news)

Power steering reservoir “Full” (Bad New news, i.e., no obvious fix available)

We took the left onto the “Cholla To The Max” Arroyo San Fermin leading to Matomi Wash. “We” took down a healthy Staghorn Cholla and my lanyard comb came into perfect play. The sharp turn into Matomi was getting extremely soft, but not an issue for us. In the wide-open lower area John Cooley went right when we went left and he disappeared.

The lights came on and I noted, also, that the BC cars had been given “WOB” mileage stakes every mile. For $80K you do some deserve babysitting. I saw a couple of stranded red “1” cars – Hovey? -- before we got into the rocks and Aggie’s way-too-remote BFG aux pit. The bank of our HIDs were so bright that all colors were washed out; Smoke Trees looked like granite boulders that look like Brittlebush; “Stay away from everything” was good idea.

(Billy: “I earned real soon how to ‘drive around’ the power steering issue. If you snapped out of the throttle, no P/S. Brake into a corner early, down shift, or get on the throttle. After halfway through Matomi I got used to it: Keep the RPM up.”)

While the GPS track is sufficient for basic directions, my two trips through the washes provided a lot of insight into exactly WHICH way to poke the car through the rocks: “Climb left!”

Note: MANY bad rocks, but not all, were sprayed a bright “red”! Who COULD have done that, one may wonder.

We began to collect slower motorcycles along the two whooped-out fence lines. Luckily for them, our lights were a huge “Hello!” and they dove off to remain in the gene pool. Smart guys.

After the ridge into Chanate we passed Robby Gordon’s #83. True. He was moving, too. Sort of. Was that his coil-over spring we had seen in the course? So, what’s with this guy? He has been self-importantly quoted: “I’m racing to win, not to finish”, so as to demean the efforts of those who really want to finish. He pompously told me the same thing a decade ago. And here he is clogging up the course for some back marker position. Like in NASCAR.

Mistake No. 1

We passed a Mag 7 pit and did not realize that they had held a bike and then released him right after we passed. His HID, suddenly right behind us, prompted us to pull over; “It’s a GODDAMNED bike!” We had been trailing his dust, on and off the brakes, until RM335 on the way over to Huatamote. We were verbally kicking our asses on THAT one.

We picked off a couple more in Huatamote then stair-stepped over to the Dry Lake side. None of the washes were of any problem.

A CV was starting to click. Gloom.

Once on the East Valley Road we legged it out, catching my extra “Danger’ markers at the long washed-out section. The course GPS actually had that route.

Billy started to remark on a possible low tire: “Well, its not ‘flat’ flat; the car is still level,” we agreed.

Mistake #2

I called Checker Morelia and got nada. This was when I realized that we had received zero radio chatter, which I almost-correctly attributed to the RF shadow of the deep washes, canyons, and arroyos. And the high mountains. The radio was seen set to the “Las Vegas Checker” channel – and the race was being run on “Checker Main”. The radio is mounted to that I cannot reach any knobs while strapped in and at those speeds I was unwilling to loosen up to change it.

The pit reset the radio to “Checker Main”, changed the right front that was “low”, and slapped more grease into the CVs. We left downhill through the sand rollers to Laguna Diablo and got all the lines correct. However we did get to eat a wave of silt just before the climb to Jose’s Tienda: ”Bee, double Ee, double Are, You, En; Beer Run!”

The two 90-degree turns on the High Road were very rutted and very silty. Five miles later we saw behind us a bank of HIDs making the left-hand turn; we allowed them a few clicks of the CVs then pulled over. A very-late “#4” of Vildosola and MacCachren roared by and we rejoined the race, which was already in progress.

A couple of miles later we were startled by another bright light in the mirrors. We pulled over in a solid spot: it was the full moon in our mirrors.

Mistake #3.

I called Maxine and told of the CV issue and that everybody should get their rubber gloves on. We were comin’ in.

We dodged the extra-marked washouted concrete vado and sailed on blithely, watching for any closely-trailing moons.

The egress at the top end of Diablo was timely and Stuart gave me a slug of Scotch. I put on my jacket, Taylor fixed me a Baja Burger, and I cadged a cerveza. Life was good.

After they tied down the new spare to the wiring harness …

… Glenn Rolfe took off for pines of Mike’s.

We then chased on to Valley T and headed up to the Power Station and beyond, a way I had never been: the course did not go by “The Big Rock’ but bypassed the farm fields to the grassy meadow on the way to the vineyards and Llano Colorado..

The VdT area was a scene out of “Road Warrior”; we were held up at the course access by the #5 Coyne gang who were running a stop-and-go visual. Once gone we moved up to where we could overlook “Scaroni City”, easily the biggest pit layout in all of my Bajas.

We were low on CV spooge so I went down and “ordered” Brian Parkhouse’s crew to cough up a tube. A decidedly disgruntled Parkhouse hesitated for only a moment; “My car is OUT”. His was one of the red buggies in Matomi.

We ran into some Hilltoppers and told a few nostalgiods …

Then I went to Carlo Caya at the SMD pits for rubber gloves. Those guys had EVERYTHING!

The #120 car came in in the same relative position: behind the leading “10” of Yee and the front-running Protruck of Dickerson and Nuckles. “120” received the full packing package and we departed for Ojos Negros as the LS1 Penhall split for the coast.

Ojos was colder’n a well digger’s boot sole: 29 °F on the rearview mirror. We tried to stay warm by putting our caps in front of the radiant propane heater! Sorry-ass bike riders rode through with hands on cylinder heads. The usual CV Grease method was to pour cold motor oil, freshly out of the beer cooler, then adding grease. This time the oil was colder than in the cooler so wiser heads prevailed.

The Checker Relay pattern had a dead spot there; as if the car wouldn’t call that they were coming in! The car came in, finally. It seemed forever – some of us actually caught some badly needed Zzzzs, but it was in the general relative position; the cars had really spread out.

They were greased and sent out for the finish as the sun peeked over the peaks.

The finish was about 0630, eighth Class 1, and we even got a $1,000 check from UPR! Who would thunk it that you could run over five-hundred miles without CV boots, only ripped inner tubes, torn rags, and flailing cable ties: shades of George Seeley!

We hit the Stepdown Bar just as they were setting up. As old customers they fixed us up inside with Clamatos; they put a Dos Equis in a coffee cup. “Is that nun in here again?!” We then had a breakfast that couldn’t be beat followed by a shower then a nap until noon.

Then started all over again, telling tales, telling facts, telling lies, hoisting and toasting.

As Stuart wrote: “IT DON'T GET NO BETTER THAN THIS! I'M READY TO GO BACK!”

CLASS 1600

(28 Starters, 12 Finishers)

1600 saw the reversals of fortune that Baja can inflict upon, well, just about anyone. Rob MacCachren appeared to be a shoe-in for the class win, championship and overall SCORE deal. But waiting in the wings was rookie-novice sensation Caleb Gaddis who most-wisely put in noted beam car expert Vic Bruckmann into the TWG Mexicali-built Curry chassis. Vic and CODE-star wife Michelle got the car to the end in 19:28:37 after dropping a wheel in the Uruapan route ruts. Not-so-mad Max Hanberg was a surprising second in the Solvang-centered Lothringer “Clog” car. The Duran brothers – Hiram and Eric – were third in their bright “Neth”.

Brian Burgess and Daniel Folts were reportedly leading the class when the transmission mounts broke out of the #1611 car. Brian had two 1600 cars running for the year and was trying to earn the season points championship. Both “BB King” cars made the finish in the top 10 in class – #1601 L. J. Kennedy and Wayne Lacher were Fourth -- and he was able to defeat rival Rob MacCachren for both the “1000” and the championship, ended up Seventh in the race and Second, overall, in the SCORE series points.

Dan Martin didn't get to drive the Andrew Neal #1615 : “What can you do? The bolt that holds the Compufire in the distributor backed out and the engine started to run bad and holed Number 3 at RM150.” Gary Stairs #1617 preran to San Felipe then quickly and wisely decided that his planned run from the start to San Matias was ill-advised so he put Ken Tapert in earlier then took over the controls for the final run to Ninth in his first “1000”.

CLASS 3

(6 Starters, 3 Finishers)

The “Cinnamon Ranch” #300 Bronco of brothers Don and Ken Moss completed the “1000”, winning Class 3 while securing a fourth consecutive class championship. This was the seventeenth Class 3 win for their ‘79 Ford Bronco.

“Don Moss guided the Bronco off the line and drove the first two-hundred miles, where it was Ken’s turn to race through the night. Don took over the driving again on Saturday morning, bringing it in for the win. The #300 entry was the third off the line in their class of six starters and finished three hours ahead of the only two other finishers in their class.

Given the technicality and difficulty of this year’s course, the Moss brothers set their focus on finishing and prior to the race checked everything on the Bronco while crew chief Dave Grundman fabricated a new axle truss to add strength and clearance.

Don Moss: “We started the race second off the line. Two early Broncos of #301 Phillip Moulton and #302 Charles Atkinson were supposed to start in front, but the first one had an engine failure driving into town before the race even started.

Atkinson had carburetor problems, and we caught him and passed him before we got off the pavement. They broke a track bar before they had gone 75 miles. There was the Beal Nissan, the Pike Blazer, the Raffo Blazer, and the Griffin early Bronco starting behind us. (That other Bronco -- run by a well-known EB vendor -- had a poorly designed lower trac bar, aka, panhard bar, mount that attached to the front of the radius arm cap. As the suspension flexed, the trac bar pushed the radius arm off the C-caps on the axle, extruded the C-bushings out the side. Duh!!)

For some reason, they held up our class from starting for 20 minutes after the previous class. The good thing was there was no dust from the slower cars. The down side was that the local traffic thought all the entries were gone, and started plugging up the course, coming head on!

When we got to RM4, we could see the brush fire on the hillside. We could see the course ran right through the middle. That wasn’t so bad, but what was crazy was the local spectators and their cars were still in the burned out places!

Our crew at the Ojos mentioned that the Raffo Blazer was a minute behind us. At RM50 we came across the Honda Ridgeline that had started in the Stock Full Size class. It could not negotiate a booby trap in the middle of the course and was backing up. Going around him through the rocks, we caught the corner of the Honda and caved in our right door. The locals cheered wildly!

We went on and at RM65, there was a loud bang, I felt something hit the floor, and the right front corner sagged down to the bump stop. The right front coil spring had broken two coils from the top and had spit itself out. With a long bolt we were able to capture the spring enough to limp out. All of the vehicles still running in our class went by; Raffo giving us a little honk. We had the crew at RM75 and bolted in a spare spring. We had used these back in the ‘2000’ and found them to be too soft; the truck was bottoming out on the bigger bumps.

We made it over The Summit, passing a lot of parked vehicles. We caught the Beal’s Nissan on the way down and caught the Pike’s Blazer and the Griffin Bronco at RM140. They were all running very steady. We had hoped to run quickly in this section that we had pre-run, but it was dark and the dust was horrible.

There were some huge silt beds between RM160 and 170, but we were able to negotiate these through alternate routes. We could see the lights of many stuck cars. At RM180 we passed the Raffo Blazer, which had a very shredded left rear tire, returning their honk. There was a horrible noise coming from the front of the truck. The course got rougher and rougher until we reached the Borrego BFG pit at RM200.

At BFG2 the truck was checked; the source of the noise could not be found. Ken reported that truck was fine, but at RM210 they called that they had another broken spring and ha no front brakes! I had to quit listening to the radio at this point, since there was nothing I could do. They replaced the spring and the brake line, destroyed when the spring broke. All of the rest of the trucks in the class went by, again.

The front end was now very soft, and would bottom on just about all the bumps. In San Felipe they adjusted the bypass tubes on the front shocks, and this made a huge difference and we were able to run along pretty well, as fast we would have with the other springs. Ken and Dan passed all the others in the class, again, before Morelia. They reported seeing the Raffo Blazer parked before Matomi. They apparently were out.

The next stop was the BFG pit at RM475, and Dave got in, and he and Ken headed over the to Valle de Trinidad. We moved both of the chase trucks and the motor home to the RM530 area where we waited for another four hours.

We headed west over the same section that we had run for the Baja 500, only in reverse. We met the chase truck for the last pit at RM575 near Highway 1. We caught a Sportsman Jeep Cherokee (#1701 Norman Cesana) that was running slightly slower than us, but because of the dust, could not catch, and pass him. We reached the beach and thought we had it made when he turned off. We actually followed markers on to a dead end section of the beach before realizing someone had moved the markers. A few miles later we were right behind the Jeep again.

The course headed toward Santo Tomas. We were surprised by a cattle guard. The surprise came when we were on the way back down from the launch and we realized the road made a hard left turn right after the cattle guard! It quickly became obvious the truck was not going to be able to stay on the road and make the turn, so my only choice was to try and straighten it out as it went off the side and through the barb wired fence into a field. There was a whole load of locals on the road in a pickup truck, and they saw the whole thing. It turned out they had spotted a gate and were running over to get it open. After doing a couple of doughnuts in the field we were our way. My apologies to the farmer.

We finally caught the Jeep in Santo Tomas when he pitted. We just added a little gas; there was no way I was going to let the Jeep get out ahead of us. The only word from any of our competitors was that the Griffin Bronco had been seen on a trailer on Highway 1.

We continued on with a stop in Ojos Negros. The steering stabilizer had broken prior to RM530 and the steering would shake violently on straight roads. There was not much that could be done, but the crew noticed that the right rear tire was almost flat.

We continued to the finish. It is always a challenge to find your way back through the last twenty miles because there are a lot of spectators and they pick most of the course markers prior to our arrival. On top of that, the brush fire had moved through this section, and what hadn’t burned had been removed by heavy equipment in preparation for some construction project. How the timing worked out to where they did this work between when I drove through on two consecutive days, I will never know, but I didn’t recognize a thing! We did find our way, and negotiated a mud bog just before the finish line, again created by some zealous locals.

The Pike Blazer finished two hours behind us, with the Beal Nissan about another hour behind. There were no other finishers in the class. To give you an idea of how tough it was, it took us just under 25 hours to finish 709 miles, and last year 24 hours to cover 1017. That is an hour longer to cover 300 less miles!”

CLASS 5

(5 Starters, 2 Finishers)

Perennial class champion George Seeley had to relinquish his crown when a leaking fuel cell sidelined them at the top of Laguna Diablo (RM392). They “thought” for rigging a “jerry can’ on the cage but cooler heads prevailed and they stepped down, some time behind Chris Bowman. His retirement “gave” the win to Bowman along with the “500” number for the 2006 season. Luivan Voelker and “DR Offroad TV ’s” Victor Gasca trailed to the bittersweet end in their Lalo Mayoral-chassis #517 VW.

Victor Gasca: “Wednesday we blew up our race engine, so we used our old 2.0 engine and we finished the change in the early hours on Thursday; we did not have a chance to test the car. Thursday morning we went to Ensenada via VT to check last-minute details and test the car a couple of miles in the valley. Our car trailer blew a tire and the guy driving was not experienced with this and the trailer pushed us off of the highway and sent us in to a 5-foot-deep 6-foot-long ravine. The hitch broke and suddenly the F-150 was out of control until we stopped coming out of the ravine thanks to a big tree. No injuries; only my left hand hurt a little bit, and I lost my two camcorders. Thanks to the Pflueger Crew who stopped to help us and the guys of 256x (Don Myll) and our savior, a blue Mercedes Unimog.

Well after some hours we were in Ensenada did our final prep -- it was 0300 when we finally got to bed.

Luivan Voelker started on ‘safe mode’ as we decided to save the car and only try to finish the race. At Km77 we were in second behind Seeley; the Bowman #501 guys were waiting for his car. At the bottom of The Summit Luivan had a flat tire. A bunch of friends were a quarter- mile ahead of him where he stopped to change that tire. After that he drove very carefully to our second pit at RM220.

Our second driver, Carlos Albañez, drove, without any problems, the SF loop from RM220 thru San Matias. He was stopped at Matomi in a traffic jam and I pitted the car in Morelia Junction. At San Matias we did our third pit stop for a lose axle lug nut, a broken light; we changed the radio because was not working all day, and did some front-end adjustment.

Luivan drove from San Matias to VT RM520 his only problem was a flat tire. I was waiting for the car at 0630 as we heard him coming down from the Simpson’s ranch, meanwhile the leader, the Bowman car, was a full hour ahead of us. At 0640 I got in the car for the final 198 miles to the finish. At RM535 we saw the Mango Racing Protruck down a cliff. We stopped, everybody was OK, and the driver asked we could tell his crew in Llano Colorado the bad news.

We did it clean through Llano Colorado; our chase crew was in there just in case. I saw the Mango Team chase truck so I stopped and told the crew about the truck. After that we raced very clean, no mistakes, no driver errors, we did a great time until we passed Santo Tomas for a splash of gas, after Uruapan i was passed by the #802 and the AZ Land Class 8 trucks. We hit Ojos again and our team informed me that the #501 car was only eighteen minutes in front of us, but with only 38 miles away from the finish we kept calm to secure the finish. We navigated our last ten miles very carefully because I didn’t see any markers and I don’t want to be lost. We crossed the finish line after twenty-four hours of racing with a second place in the race and in the championship.”

Primm winner Tommy Brown: “Weird stuff. Car ran crappy off the start: couldn’t make big hill at RM5.33 (+/-), had to wait to get towed up hill, after that, the motor cleared out ran like shot out of a cannon (quoted from driver: the mayor of Blythe, Kirk “Skippy” Kontilis) now we were 1.25 hrs behind. No big deal ... took a splash at RM95 and headed over The Summit passing a lot of slower cars.

He took lights at RM155 headed to Borrego. Then the clutch master cylinder went bye-bye -- no problem -- we were forty miles away. Don’t stop. At RM194 is a big uphill. Slower cars were struggling to get up it. Kirk had to stop but couldn’t re-start. Burned up the starter trying to "bump" in first gear. Wouldn’t go. 1630 pm and getting "dusk". We waited to see if he could get some help. Nothing. I headed in with the Suburban, the "Mayor’s" limo, as its 4x and I’m familiar rock crawler stuff.

We found #518 at the burning bush at 2100, hooked up and started the extraction to BFG2 We got to the hill at RM196. A class 8 truck (figures) had broken a spindle on the only road that we could use to get the Suburban and the 5 car out. We waited three hours for him to fix it and clear the path and, of course, we are last up the hill. Forty-five minutes to go four miles through Hell’s Canyon. But we did get to BFG2. They are busier than a one-legged Checker at an ass-kicking party.

We looked for parts in the Borrego NAPA store but they were all out. Wide Open Baja tours wouldn’t part with anything. Thinking we were done, Dwayne Reinert and Checker Jamie Campbell basically donated there crew and ‘12’ car to the cause. His crew striped the SCORE Lite faster that a prom dress comin’ off. We replaced the clutch pedal, pulled the motor to remove the Bendix gear floating around in my bell housing, changed tires, fueled, air filters, beat the front lights on (Kirk was remodeling the bumper thru the back markers trying to make up time).

Now it was 0230. BFG came up and said that BFG3 was closing at 0600 and we had we better hurry. We left at 0300. A small shifter adjustment, that took fifteen minutes Radio went down. We figured that we could not make the 0600 matinee at RM335 by show time. Red Burgin was now at flight controls with radio in the trashcan, and some of the crew were "pinging'" so we decided to fold it up. Kirk took car to Pete’s, closest place witha bar, I’m guessing).

We all went back to the Ensenada. However, BFG3 was still in action until at 0730. If we had known that we would have continued the war ... “

CLASS 5-1600

(20 Starters, 10 Finishers)

Perhaps someone can beat Marcos Nuñez and Norberto Rivera but they have not been seen of late! The two took their time and beat Mark McAnelly by an hour’s time; Mark squeaked past Mario Reynoso, 23:15:33 to 23:18:47. They got by leader, #577 Miguel Pabloff, late in the race when the engine broke a rocker arm.

CLASS 7

(8 Starters, 4 Finishers)

Doug Siewert showed that the old Bryan Kudela “Little Mac” S-10 still had what it took to win, putting down a trio of tough Rangers: Dan Chamlee, Craig Turner, and Raul Flores.

CLASS 7S

(5 Starters, 0 Finishers)

Ted Moncure #720 -- “The Summit was like doing the Rubicon at triple-speed. We started third and passed Mike Horner before RM30. A submerged rock at RM60 sliced the left front tire, which dropped us to fourth, but we made up time over The Summit, passing Donahoe's 7 Tacoma and John Holmes’ 7S Ranger, and handed the truck off to Matt Weal at RM200 in second place.

Matt blazed through the seemingly-endless 40-mile whoop section into San Felipe, passing the leader and several more ‘7’ trucks. Matomi Wash was full of stuck Baja Challenger buggies, causing Matt to get stuck. We had the only chase truck in the wash; it still took two hours to get back on course. By Checkpoint 4, we were in first place, the only 7S truck to make it through Matomi. Getting stuck had taken its toll on our average speed though; Matt handed off the truck to Nick at San Telmo (RM475) with only ten minutes to make Checkpoint 5, ten miles away.

Nick blazed from San Telmo to Checkpoint 5 and was the last truck through, keeping alive our hopes for back-to-back Baja 1000 class wins. No one in our class made Checkpoint 4, solidifying first place in Class 7S, but SCORE doesn't pay prize money unless you cross the finish line, so Nick lit the wick and made a valiant effort to get to Checkpoint 6 before it closed at 1400. If we made Check 6, the Erindera beach run was ahead, and the finish line would be in the bag.

Coming around a steep downhill corner at high speed Nick dropped the right front wheel into a hole, tearing it from the truck and destroying the steering system. He sent out a sat phone call and we had three chase trucks on the way with ‘Heim’ joints, a welder, and a spare steering rack, but by the time the truck was repaired, Checkpoint 6 had closed and our race was done. Nick drove the truck out to the trailer at RM540 and loaded it up; we had beaten everyone in our class, but failed to beat the Baja.”

CLASS 7SX

(5 Starters, 0 Finishers)

This class had the season championship up for grabs. Jeff Lloyd had to win and Rich “Stretch” Severson had to DNF in the Perry McNeill-built “Flamingo” ranger. The latter would be the case, as Rich dropped middle gear at San Matias but Jeff was unable to make it even that far. Rich judged that sending Eddie Everett into the pines of Mike’s without the real ratio that they needed was suicide. In a genius move of tactics the #740 team radio-ed no one of their decision to toss in the towel, resulting in Jeff over-driving his truck in a futile attempt to run down Stretch. The old “Rope-A-Dope” deal? “Loose Lips Sink Ships”? The little two-wheel-drive Rangers would struggle in the wash below The Summit taking many dark hours just to reach Borrego.

CLASS 8

(6 Starters, 3 Finishers)

The orange “AZ Land” #800 truck of Todd Wyllie was way back due to transmission woes. They changed one on the fly and proved that “haste makes waste’ as they over-tightened cooling fitting, cracking the case and requiring a second change. Grrr. They were defeated by the rustic truck of Keith Fontana and Ron Lammer, 24:48:53 to 25:40:33. An expensive mistake, right?

Dave Sykes #803: “Yea, the course was really was beat by the time we hit Matomi and I did not have my best game on at that time. Not only did I pick terrible lines, but also I broke the steering box on one of those rocks. We did repair and finish the race. Aggie was very helpful in finding the problem and also lending me TWO jackets to keep warm.”

CLASS 10

(16 Starters, 7 Finishers)

When the Yees are “on” everyone else appears “off” and they were really on in Baja. Finishing Fourteenth Overall they did beat John Cooley and Dave Richardson, in the season’s champion’s Alumi Craft Type IV. Eighteenth, John smiled and said that, “Yes, this is good for business!” Darren Hardesty, in the other air-cooled Alumi Craft, dropped a cylinder in the Type I before Valley T but forged onward to Fifth behind the Porter of the Gaspers, and championship pretenders Travis and Ron Brookshire.

The Ron Dalke/Mark Brownell effort burned a throw-out bearing a couple of miles from Mike’s Sky Rancho. It cocked on the tranny input shaft collar and partially-depressed the clutch with an attending slip. With no radio communication in the canyons, Mark had to walk back several miles to some locals who gave him a ride to the highway where he was able to use someone’s radio to call us. We picked him up, replaced the faulty part and at 0200 sent him on his way to Seventh.

CLASS 11

(6 Starters, 0 Finishers)

When Eric Solorzano’s #1100 does not finish, you know that the course was bad! “King Dave” Hendrickson’s #1149 was on a flier but came solidly back to earth with a crushed muffler and disintegrating skid plates. “El Rey” putt-putted back to Ensenada on the tarmac.

Tom reports from the field: “Coming back from Tres Pozos we met Jeff Decker’s Class 11 chase team that had a hole through their oil pan; two guys and a girl in an S10 Blazer. A little ‘JB Weld Kwik Cold Weld’ did the trick and we gave them some water. One of the guys was the driver of the ‘11’ that had broken. Saturday AM they got it going and two of the team went out with the car to get help for the ones that stayed behind. They both had satellite phones but the ones that went out didn't have their phones on. The ones left didn't seem concerned but they also didn't have a clue as to where they were; none had been to Baja. I told them to go to the wells for water, if needed, and head for the hills with the sand are along Highway 5, twelve miles away. The chase crew had come in from La Ventana to the pipeline and that's how they wanted to get out, in case their friends were coming back. After we left we stopped at the wells for thirty minutes and we didn't see them. I hope they made it OK.”

CLASS 11 Experimental

(1 Starter, 0 Finishers)

“If you build it, you can race it!” SCORE will find a slot for just about any vehicle that can pass safety Tech. Gary Hough and David Perrault brought out an “11” fitted with dual-port head cylinder heads. That did not help.

CLASS 12

(19 Starters, 9 Finishers)

Stan Potter and Dan Worley finally got their long overdue car “1000” win: “It was twelve years ago that I won the ‘1000’ in ‘Class 30’”, said an elated Worley.

David Scaroni, driving with “Uncle Tom” Watson, Mexicali Abogado Arturo “Ceviche” Honold, and Tim Noe, was able to secure a reverseless second place finish and get the SCORE points championship for the second year in a row for the Heber vegpacker.com crew.

STOCK FULL

(8 Starters, 3 Finishers)

The three finishers were all Hummers, huh? Josh Hall hauled the H-2 around the course in twenty-five hours of solo driving. Josh had car builder Sam Cothrun change seats with GM Proving Ground engineer Thad Stump as they beat brother Chad, in the more manly H-1, by forty minutes. John Griffin and Mike Sabbarese’s H-1 was three hours in arrears.

#862 Race Report by Bob Bowers  

“A quick profile of the race machine is in order.   

It was a Ford F-350 Super Duty truck

It weighed over 8,000-pounds. Whew!   

39” BFGoodrich Project T/A tires  

With Gale Banks taking it off the line having enough power was not a question. Banks Power delivered a powerplant that was huge on torque, power, and response. Banks actually reduced the power by about 30% as  an investment in reliability. The result was a very powerful truck. We had a  Stock Full truck that would smoke the tires, but not blow black smoke.   

Having Gale Banks join the team as the driver who would take the start was significant. Although his race experience was better known for  the records set at the Bonneville Salt Flats, his off-road driving  experience came mostly from driving in  the Yosemite Valley. Baja was not Yosemite, but Banks was no slouch, either.  With a bit of coaching during his prerun miles, he was quick to pick up on  the added elements that are important to driving in an off-road race  situation.   

We got off the line at just after noon. Up the wash and on to the graded  road at the end of Avenue Ruiz, then the first surprise for Banks. At RM4  was the steep silt hill. The hill was not a surprise to him. It was there on  the prerun and we knew it would be busy when we got to it. Not that we  should have a problem with it because we are a four-wheel-drive diesel truck  on the largest, strongest BFGoodrich tires available. With plenty of ground  clearance and weighing over four tons, simply motoring to the top was not an issue.   

That was, of course, unless the course was blocked by other racecars who  were either stuck, or about to be.

Many of them were motionless, but a  good number of them were still spitting dirt and dust in their attempt to  get up the hill.

Then, from the bottom of the hill, we saw the fire. It was  going full force when we got to it. I've done a lot of things in Baja races,  but never have we pointed the racecar at a twenty-foot wall of flames.  Well, that was until Friday. What the heck, a bit of thick smoke to blind us,  and a steep silty hill to slow us, but with a responsive throttle and a  little sphincter clench we blew through it.

From then on it was just a  matter of dealing with the booby traps set by the locals and we were on our  way.

Fun.

Really fun.   

Gale handled the terrain and race situation with control. We get to the road  crossing at Ojos Negros and feel a certain sense of liberation from the jam  up of people and booby traps in the first section. Gale started to get  completely tuned into the truck. He was driving it very well. Fast,  controlled, and well within the limits.  We caught the H1 Hummer of Chad Hall in the Tres Hermanos area. Mike Winkle  was at the wheel. He was running a conservative pace in the rough and  accelerating on the straight flat sections. Very smart driving for that  stage of the race. Gale wanted to go faster. The truck wants to go faster.  Yet, our pace was well ahead of the race plan. We are running a winning pace  for the Baja 1000. The job at hand was to deliver a fit race truck to the  next drivers. We stick to the job, and hold our pace. We got to the highway and pulled into our pit.

Wow. It was over for Gale Banks  and me. Out of the truck and the next guys get in and go. Steve Kreiger at  the wheel. From there my job was ‘Chase #10’. I headed for Borrego. #862  got to the summit of The Summit and exploded the steering box. Between the weight of the truck and those huge tires,  the forces on the box must be enormous.

The guys got steering box  changed and continued to Borrego without further incident.  

I got to the Donahoe Racing pit area to catch up on the progress of our trucks. The report was not great. The Class 7 Tacoma was guzzling fuel; more  than twice the amount it was supposed to use. Dylan Evans gave me a  mission: Get two dump cans to RM244. Dump them, refill them at the Pemex, and dump those at Morelia  Junction.   

I’m off toward San Felipe within minutes. We got through the military  checkpoint quickly. While we monitored the radio on our way south we heard that  #862 has come into the Borrego pit, fueled and departed. Then the radio  crackled with not-good news. Shortly after Borrego, #862 suffered the loss of  the front ring and pinion. We are now a two-wheel-drive truck. No, an 8,000 -pound two-wheel-drive truck.

Suddenly, I’m glad to be Chase #10 in a perfectly nice 4WD  Tacoma. With a heater and reclining seats, I figure I’m in good shape.   The Class 7 Donahoe Racing Tacoma, (#719), got to me at RM244 at 0200 on Saturday. We dumped the fuel and it scooted off into the dark. It  