Baja 1000 Race Day – Race 1503

This one from Tim … also found an interview done by www.pirate4x4.com …

I would like to thank the entire team for their efforts in making this happen. I cannot tell the group how well everyone worked together in getting there, race week, the race and recovery. Much of what we did together is easy to take for granted, especially having been involved with a few other programs that did not have the support that our group gave. Someone actually
said they thought they went to Baja and gained weight due to the cooking effort Brooke put in. Just a good group. I did not realize the fun or angle the media piece would bring to the group. Rob really made the most of that and it was fun to see a little of that side and hear what he was doing with it.

Race day for me was a morning of anticipation. Racing on a motorcycle my expectations are higher and I am more tense. For the 1000 I was ready and anxious with a mindset of running patient. We had many jeep fans in the queue while we were sent off every 30 seconds. Many wished us luck and seemed supportive as well as still took pictures and asked for autographs. I signed a few dead presidents as well as a few T. Smiths.

When we rounded the corner and were about ten cars back it did not seem to be enough time to get helmets, goggles, radio wires, air hoses and window nets in place. For me it
was many years of learning, dreaming and working at bits and pieces all seeming to come together when I shook Sal's hand with him telling us we can do this and then down the dirt ramp holding for a green flag. It was dropped and off we went with some tire chirp. Between giving it a little fuel and the first left turn I had the emotion of it all coming together. A great
feeling of getting there... and with one left turn the feeling was past and the race focus took over. We ran the wash with many cheers (probably wanting us to go faster- and we would with another 400hp).

The humor for me is hitting a bump and having my window net drop. It seems for me that this happens or I don't get the steering wheel locked on and it comes off. So
there I am running the wash then up on a short road section trying to get the window net rod in a quarter inch hole and then the other end latched while steering with one hand or no hands at times. Sheila asked if I wanted her to steer about the time we saw 61mph on the GPS which was a no-no—60mph max on roads. Anyway I eventually got the net up without stopping and was only passed by one competitor that was faster anyway. We later passed him with some damage to his front wheel about two miles later. The next chunk of miles were nothing but hills, silt and general rough which is fun to me. A few goat trails you don't want to drive off of as we saw a few cars down in the ravines. Sheila only told me to slow down once. She told me to stop a
few times when visibility was zero. I agreed and the dust settled enough to make out silhouettes and the throttle got stomped again.

It was a nice site to cross HWY3 and see people. Most cars seemed to pit just after the crossing in a flat area. We passed many there. On to the next mountain range where silt, rock and hills kept you in check. We eventually got to some less
rough ground and made time. We had two kids try to throw a stick through the front windshield area (we don't actually have a windshield), other than that the locals were great fans and wanted to see you keep rolling. One almost head on with a local driving backwards but we had a little room to work out "sharing" the trail and never backed off.

On in to Tres Hermanos to the point of needing reverse and never getting power to the ground again. I was disappointed to say the least. Pissed at some point and accepting of "that's racing". Just hard to feel like you let the team down and there is nothing you can do. We did try to buy a Dana 20 transfer case from a local with a jeep but they did not bite. Not even when Sheila said we have money. Not sure we really did at the time and I probably had a feeling of easy targets for a second when we offered to buy it. The locals were very good to us and offered to help in any way except by taking my old transfer case/cash and giving me their good one.

Waiting on the chase jeep to get in was amusing to say the least. They had much to contend with by my maybe poor choice to push them to run the course backwards. Something about a major mistake and taking two hours to go 11 miles. The radio helped but I missed much of the three's conversation that had to be comedy. Either way it got cold and empty quickly as the sun went down. With the rear drive shaft off and a small fire built the rescue team arrived and off we went the other way with hopes of much easier trail. The rental jeep pulled the race jeep and we were cold. One bumper was messed up quickly. Dennis was my co-pilot back and constantly checked on the "three sisters" constellation- part of Orion I think after looking it up. Anyway Dennis kept an eye on the Three Sisters and never felt good about the road we guessed to get back to Ojos Negros until he saw city lights.

We did run across a father son team from Rhode Island that broke. We started to ask for confirmation of direction out but before we could we heard them ask for help in a desperate way. We opted to not ask for help and loaned some false confidence. We did support them until we made radio contact to BFG Relay which resulted in them sending in the Calvary to pull them out. Off we went again with John and crew converging at RM39 for a final load and rescue. A long day that we did not want to end that way. Acceptance and 364 days until next year.... or maybe double that. I think I will dislike transfer cases for awhile and then master reworking them so that they are never a problem. Why do we do it??? Bit by the bug, the challenge??? Hard to explain sometimes but we keep going back.