It’s a race for anything strong enough – man, bike, or monster truck – That can stay the course. Non-stop for 1,000km of Mexico’s Baja peninsula, the Baja 1000 is world motorsport’s most demanding race.
Those who feel that motor racing has been strangled by rules and regulations should look to the Baja 1000. It is old-school, and brutal. It’s certainly the most demanding off-road race in the world. The Dakar Rally is perhaps the world’s most notable race of this type, especially since its move from Africa to South America, but it is run in stages. The Baja 1000 is non-stop from start to finish.
Ever since the mid-1960s, hundreds of drivers from all over the world have raced their way around the Mexican peninsula of Baja California. Adrenalin, oil, shock-absorbers and bits of motorbike and truck have all been left behind on those dusty desert roads, where men and machine compete in a test of skill and aggression for a day and a night, and part of the next day, too.
It’s a race that has taken on some of the characteristics of its location: it’s passionate and emotional, where other races might be more controlled. That’s not to say the Baja 1000 is reckless, for it is also a true test of driving skill.
This year, the race celebrated its 44th edition with 275 drivers from Mexico, the USA and 16 other countries. This wild communion of cars, trucks, motorbikes and all-terrain vehicles (three- and four-wheeled motorbikes) followed a route that didn’t stray beyond the borders of Baja California; a little over 1,115km of rugged, searing terrain, with the start and finish lines on the Boulevard Costero, in front of Riviera del Pacifico in the port city of Ensenada, a place known as the Pearl of the Pacific, or the Cinderella, depending on its mood.
“The people of baja have off-road in their veins.Ii was 17 years old the first time I raced. I was my father’s co-driver. We rolled the car over”
Rallying the masses
Ensenada, Pacific Ocean, November 17. This is where it all begins; the day for contingency planning, registration and the vehicles’ technical inspection. Fans gather early on the Boulevard and as the day advances, the mood ratchets from slightly tense to extremely intense, amid the roar of the engines and endless, throbbing Mexican music. In among the hostesses, the petrolhead masses are clamouring for an autograph from their idols. But the beating heart of this throng, and the main reason that crowds pack the length of the course, are the Trophy Trucks, the unlimited power tubular chassis pick-ups that rule the Baja roost.
Fans are cautious and excited, juggling cameras and mobile phones to take photographs of shock-absorbers, tyres and tubular-chassis cabs. These mighty monster trucks are unique vehicles, evolved from of years of turn-it-up-to-11 development. They’ll top 200kph, devouring everything in their path: rocks, sand, mud, even people. Yes, a few wayward fans have sometimes been known to get in their way.
Read the full story in January's issue of The Red Bulletin.
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