On June 3 I raced the Baja 500. It’s the second race of a four-race series – The San Felipe 250, Baja 500, Baja 400, and Baja 1000 which is the longest off-road race in the world. My goal is a season points championship in the Pro UTV N/A class. (N/A means normally aspirated, or not a turbo engine).
The first race we lost our electronic control module and the car would not move forward. We had to get towed five miles by a local (lucky it wasn’t farther and in a worse spot) an we met our pit crew, figured it out, fixed it, and got back in the race. We lost four hours but finished fourth. Tough start to try to win the season.
We had been struggling with the suspension setup. Since the terrain is so rough, having a great suspension is critical. We finally got it right, and I felt the car was responding well to aggressive driving in rough terrain.
You know how when you get into a car accident your head goes forward or back on impact? Well – being in one of these races in a UTV is like getting into 500 car accidents in a day! It’s rough!
Dustin Gebers was my navigator. A navigator sits in the passenger seat and looks at a GPS screen in front of him and calls the turns for me so I know what is coming and can drive fast. “30 left short…40 right long…open”. Knowing what is around the corner – a slight turn or a hairpin is critical because if you drive off a cliff or into a ditch or boulder it could be catastrophic – or at least you may be out of the race by breaking the car.
We were to start 3rd of 7. They let a car go every 30 seconds. We got the green at 10:30 am.
At mile 15 we passed one car that finished the previous race and got more points than us. Another car that finished the previous race didn’t show up for this race. So there was just one car to try to beat – #1957, and he started first and was in the lead.
At mile 50 our tracker lit up blue, meaning a faster vehicle was behind us and wanted to pass us. There were a bunch of different classes behind us. We pulled over and were bummed out to see a car in our class, last years season points champion, go by. Dang. Third place again.
To be continued tomorrow…
Kudos to you, and Dustin, if it took last years season points champion 50 miles to catch you.