Dust to Glory

The bell tolls for us. The Baja 1000.

Today, my son Tanner and I compete in the Baja 1000 – the longest non-stop cross country race in the world.  The course is laid out on the Baja peninsula in Mexico at 840 miles this year.  There are dirt bikes, dune buggies, ATV’s, etc. and 94 trophy trucks this year. We are in the Sportsman class.  You can have as many guys on your team as you want.  There are seven teams in our class, with an average of four or five riders per team.  Tanner and I are a team of two – purposely only us – father and son.  We are at a disadvantage because the other teams can do a 3 1/2 hour “sprint” and they are done as they hand the bike off to the next rider.

There are dirt roads, sand roads, some straight sections and some curvy ones, loose rock sections, up mountain roads with switchbacks, rain ruts and washes (dried riverbeds with soft sand and rocks) and sand whoop (up and down waves 3′ deep) sections including one that is 25 miles long! There are nasty cacti right alongside of the course waiting to punch needles in your arm at 50 mph.  There are boulders and rocks all over the place.  The dust from any vehicle is brutal.  Trying to pass is very difficult because the closer you get, the more dust you are in and you can’t see your line.  There are silt sections – like baby powder a foot deep that sucks you in and spews fine dust that blinds anyone behind you, and you if you stop – don’t stop or you will get stuck, disappear in dust, and maybe get run over.

We hope to average 43 miles per hour including gas stops, pits, and tight sections.  In some areas we may hit close to 100 miles per hour.  We are riding a Honda 450X modified for this race.

This is how it works.  At dawn they start letting bikes go every 30 seconds.  (The trophy trucks are let go three hours later.)  I’ll start and go 80 miles.  Where the course crosses a paved road, we meet the first chase truck and I get off and Tanner gets on.  He goes 120 miles to the next road crossing.  The chase truck gets me there before he does, and I go again.  We take 6 turns each in total.  There are gas pits every 50 miles.  

The course is loosely marked with signs, but you can’t rely on them – you have a GPS.  Some signs are knocked down, blown over, or run over.  The locals can mess with the racers and move the signs sometimes.  There are 7 actual checkpoints where you come to a full stop and they take your number and time.  If you miss one, you are disqualified. There are dozens of “virtual checkpoints” – a 100 foot invisible circle (waypoint) that you have to ride through.  They track you by GPS.  If you miss a VCP they dock your time (10 minutes).

The same bike has to start and finish.  If you crash and break the bike and can’t get to your chase truck and mechanic for repairs, you’re out.  If you get hurt, and can’t go on, if you can get your bike to your teammate, they have to finish by themselves.  If you can’t, you’re out and you will spend the night in the desert – no other racer will throw their race away to stop and help you unless you aren’t moving.

Halfway through the race it gets dark – you are riding by headlights at race speed in the rough terrain.  You have to follow your GPS.  850 hp trophy trucks come up on your butt; you have to pull over and let them by so you don’t get run over, (they can go up to 140 mph), wait for the dust to settle and keep going.

What matters in Baja, is what you do when you can’t do anymore.

We are ready.  Let’s go.