Back from the Bitchin' Baja 500

I just got back from the Baja 500 and I'm still in a bit of a haze... so this may not be the most exciting blog. But, in a nutshell, it was another great experience.

Carlson, Jefe, Rasp and I arrived in Ensenada around 9 pm on Wednesday, but the Dragonfire crew was still out pre-running the east coast part of the course. So, we headed out for some tacos and beers while we waited for them to get back (mmmmm, Mexican tacos - I love 'em). I had the fortunate luck of sharing a SINGLE bed that night... in a room with 2 loud snorers... but I guess that was better then sleeping on the floor. Rasp and Erik were out pretty late, so all-in-all I think most of us got very little sleep that night.

The guys got up early on Thursday to pre-run ~300 miles of the course. I must say, Rasp was looking quite sharp in his tube top flack jacket and Carlson's white boots were very Playboy'ish. Jack told me "We should be back by early afternoon"... one glowing chode later, and they rolled in after 8 pm. In the meanwhile, I hung out with Todd and Hanz as they got the 1 car and Teryx ready for the race. By some really good luck, Todd was able to get both cars inspected by tech so we didn't have to go through Contigency on Friday (which amounts to hours and hours of pushing the cars through the maze of people and vendors... but its actually kind of fun).

After the cars were made "official" Todd said it was time to pre-run of the start of the race. So, I jumped in the back of the pre-runner... basically this is the puke seat. My heart must have been beating at about 190 bpm the entire time. We only got up to about 60 mph but that was enough for me! We were bouncing off rocks, blasting through 3 feet deep ruts - IT WAS AWESOME!! Well, awesome until 45 minutes into it, when I felt like I was going to throw up. Just as I was desperately looking for a puking spot, we pulled off the course and on to a gravel road. I barely managed to keep it all down. We stopped at Horsepower Ranch for a couple beers, which was just enough time for me to get my stomach settled. As we pulled out of the ranch, the sun was just starting to set over the desert hills of the Baja... a beautiful end to a great day.

Friday morning we slept in a little and then made our way to Contingency so we could see all the other race cars, trucks and motorcycles. This place is a total zoo. Grown men pushing kids out of the way for a sticker... scantily clad "models"... guys trying to one-up each other... this is machismo at its finest. (sorry for cutting your head off in this pic Rasp... but you're kind of a giant and Jack's arms can only reach so far)
We rolled back to the hotel to continue preparations on the cars. But, at some point I was convinced to take Carlson's bike out for a spin (when am I going to stop trying to be the cool kid and just say no?). To spare you all the details, it took 5 minutes to get the bike moving because I kept stalling it, then it died on me 10 minutes into my "ride" because the fuel was off, finally I ran into a hole and Fuji'd (formerly known as Superman'ing) myself over the handlebars, bashing my knee and thigh on the handlebars as I flew over. This is what I get for trying to hang with the boys.

Anyhoo, I will also spare you the details of the last minute scramble to get the cars ready, all the tires pumped, chase vehicles loaded up, etc... I was getting major anxiety just watching everyone run around. But, we finally made it to team dinner at Horsepower Ranch around 9 that night and then right back to the houses so everyone could get a good night sleep before the race.

We woke up early to see the start of the motorcycles at 6:30 am. They give the bikes a 3 hours head start before they send the trucks/cars so the trucks don't run over the bikes (but, if you're too slow, the trucks will catch up to the bikes and then its a mad scramble to get the hell out of the way so they don't crush you). After the bikes were done, we went back to the hotel to make any last minute adjustments on the cars. But, they were pretty much good to go. Now it was just sitting and waiting for the start.

9:30 am was finally go time! We followed the 1 car to the staging area and waited as the trophy trucks took off. Class 1 cars were next. I ran down to the start line to get pictures and videos of the start. It was so cool to see them tear around the corner coming inches from all the spectators. Then, we headed back to the staging area to push Reid in the UTV to the finish line. That little UTV is a crowd favorite. Everyone was checking it out and taking their picture next to it. But, just as the UTV was supposed to start, someone at tech told them that the light was not attached correctly, so it was a mad scramble to get it fixed to start the race. I guess Reid decided to give the rest of the cars in the class a 10 minute head start.

The bad side to the Baja is that the entire course is open to the public... which means that jackasses can drive their cars anywhere they went. As we were heading to our first pit at Race Mile 290 the first "code red" came over the radio. A motorcycle had hit head on with a local who was driving up the course about 3 miles from our pit area. We arrived just as a helicopter was landing to get the rider. I saw them take the rider from the ambulance and load him in the helicopter... but the helicopter turned off its engine persumably because they were trying to recucitate the rider. We found out later that he did not survive.

We set up our sweet couch and shaded tent, then waited for the first trophy trucks to make their way through. We had killer seats to watch all the vehicles come bombing down the and go flying by us at 90+ mph. When the Dragonfire car came through at 4:30 or so, they were in 7th place (they started 11th) and didn't need anything, so they just gave us the thumbs up and flew by. We packed up the truck and headed to the Race Mile 350. We only waited 15 minutes or so before we saw them come down the mountain. This time, they were in 5th place!

This time they stopped (note: from this point on we will only refer to this pit stop as "The Gatorade Incident")... My only job is to make sure these guys are hydrated and fed when they need it... but I was up at the corner flagging them down so I wasn't able to get everything ready. All they wanted was water, and we didn't have that ready, so they got Gatorade. The problem was, the bottles still had the safety seal. So, when they went to drink them, nothing came out. That's when Jeff popped it with his knuckle and sprayed it all over Jack's eyes and helmet. Oops. Jack gave us a disapproving look and it felt like we had let them down... BUT, they pulled out and were back on the course, without losing their place -- I call that a success.

Back to RM 290 to wait for Hanz and the UTV to come through. We had A LOT of time to kill, so Rasp used Magnus's rock to set up the horseshoe pit in the grape vineyard. Erik showed me how to throw and then the beat-down was on! Did you know that Carlson and I always win at horseshoe's when we go to the Baja 500? Well, we do... and by "win" I mean we kicked their ass by 12 points :-)

At some point, we realized that Rasp had a cell phone signal out in the middle of nowhere, so we called Jeff's brother in Utah to get updates. All the vehicles are hooked up with GPS tracking, so you can follow the race in live time. Jeff's brother was able to get online and tell us exactly where Car #1803 was... stopped at RM 190 for 3 hours. Now it was just a guessing game... when would Hanz come through? WOULD Hanz come through? how long do we wait? Just as we were thinking about packing up, we got word that they were moving again.

Here's the sad part... the next text we got was "Todd and Jack stopped at RM 423... should have stopped at 420". WHAT!?!? The Class 1 car was dead less then 10 miles from the finish line - and they had made it all the way up the 3rd place before they died. We were all gutted. Weatherman said it was a blown engine, but we found out later that they were rammed by Weatherman's son and that's what killed the engine. Todd said he could see the finish line from the top of the hill. Talk about a heartbreaker!

Then we got another text that Car #1803 was stopped again at RM 223. They'd only made it 30 miles! Were they ever going to make it to us? We decided to just wait it out until we got official word. Fortunately, they were able to fix whatever was wrong and get it back on the course. Hanz finally got to us just before midnight. Kevin and Darren had followed Hanz for part of the race, so they were just behind him when he pulled in to our pit. Hanz looked exhausted. He had been up since 5 am and was chasing the car before he even got in to drive it. We gave him some water and a poptart then sent him on his way.

We packed up and headed to RM 350, again... only this time, we didn't know what we could actually do to support Hanz. Besides, Kevin and Darren were right behind us, and Darren is the mechanic of the group... it was at this point that we decided to ditch those guys and head back to the hotel. We got back to hotel, expecting it to be empty, but Jim was able to tow Todd and Jack back home before we arrived. They were fast asleep by the time we got there at 2 am. I took a quick shower then went to bed. At this point, we had no idea if Hanz had finished or not.

Come to find out, Hanz finished at 6 am and won his class. I'm pretty sure there were only two cars that actually finished in that class. So, overall a successful outing for the UTV... and thiiiiisssss close for the Class 1 car. Another super fun weekend with a great group of guys. I love hanging out with this crew.

Well done boys!! Thanks for letting me come along for the ride and I'm totally looking forward to the next one!!!

Here's all the pics and videos: 2009 Baja 500 - Dragonfire Racing Car #111 and #1803