Year: 2017

My Baja 1000 experience was far different from years past, and unique compared to my teammates.  To put this in perspective some numbers are in order:

• 12,000 miles flown, 27 ½ hours on 5 different airplanes, 9 hours waiting in airports.
• 1,880 miles driven in chase trucks
• 180 miles driving Monica
• 6 border crossings
• Not enough tacos, Mexican coke or time spent with friends!

 

Since I moved to Japan I wasn’t sure I would be able to race the 50^th anniversary Baja 1000.  With a new job and demanding schedule, it was going to be difficult to make it work.  On top of that I would be the freeloader this year.  The guy who flew in, jumped in the truck to race and went home.  I devoted little time in the shop turning wrenches or arduously cleaning the dirt, dust and muck that finds its way into every nook and cranny of Monica.  I did what I could during my short time in Utah this summer and helped with the limited paperwork I could from Japan.  On top of all that, I missed one of the best parts of the Baja 1000 – contingency.  I arrived in Ensenada at 1 AM the day the race started, and would be driving about 15 hours later.

I got a little sleep but was up early.  It was nice to see the new wrap on Monica and see all my friends that I haven’t seen for many months.  The race nerves and jitters began to set in as Ensenada is surrounded by the sights, sounds and smells of desert racing.  Chase 1 and chase 3 were responsible for getting Monica off the line.  We had time to watch some trophy trucks start, but it was pretty uneventful with a speed zone through town and in the beginning of the wash.  With about 250 trucks starting before us we had plenty of time to relax a little and chat with other racers as we staged for the start.  We helped Marc and Ryan Nakaya get in the truck and before long our Baja 1000 had officially started.

Having arrived late the night before, I had to get a turista and some pesos before heading South.  Once that was done we made the trek towards Ojos Negros to keep in contact with the race truck and get prepared for me to get in the truck.  Monica was running great and Marc was making great time.  We were able to watch Monica pass a couple times and were in almost constant radio contact.  Chase 1 and 3 made our way to RM 130, our first driver change and where I would get in.  The sun was just about to set and night was beginning to fall.  However, since I was still on Japan time, it was just about time to wake up.

The truck arrived and it was a quick and efficient swap with Marc getting out of the driver’s seat and me getting in.  Ryan Nakaya would stay in the co-driver seat until we handed the truck over to Dave and Darren.  The first few miles were rough, with large rocks, whoops and plenty of corners to keep it interesting.  It’s been one year since I have driven Monica so I wanted to get comfortable and familiar before I turned the speed up too high.  I knew the Rod Hall Hummer was about three minutes behind us as well and I certainly didn’t want to get passed.  On top of that I have been driving on the right hand side for the last year and this left hand drive stuff took a second to get used to.

By mile 140 I was feeling great, Ryan and I were connecting well and Monica was operating perfectly.  There was still plenty of competition on the course and it was fun to pass and be passed often.  We hit the dry lakebed and it was flat out up to 105 miles per hour.  The night was dark and I was driving faster than we could see; it required constant communication with Ryan to know when a turn may come up and when the high-speed lakebed would end.  We passed a few more competitors on the lakebed and it was back to the whoops and rocks.  The race course was pretty brutal but we were making good time and Monica continued to work flawlessly.  It was still early and there were lots of people cheering us on as we passed their small campfires.

I apologize for the next paragraph as it may be a little too much information, but not all of racing is glamorous.  Since you will be in the truck for a long time and you need to stay hydrated you have to be prepared to relieve yourself without stopping.  We all wear an external catheter, and although its difficult to pee sitting down, I have never had any problem with my catheter staying put and the plumbing working as it should.  Well about race mile 160 my luck changed.  We were on a relatively smooth and fast section and it was a perfect time to focus my attention and muscles to releasing the build-up in my bladder.  It always takes effort to “go” but this was different.  Once I started I could tell I was building pressure, instead of the unique feeling of urine flowing down your leg and exiting the tube near your shoe.  This pressure built until an explosion occurred as the catheter came off and filled my suit with my own urine.  Too late now, the rest of the race would be spent peeing my pants!

One of the things Monica excels at is powering through the deep sand and silt beds so common on the Baja peninsula.  Somewhere near race mile 295 we hit a huge sand/silt bed, it was pure chaos with trucks stuck everywhere.  We zig zagged our way through and past at least 10 trucks all stuck within 200 yards of each other.  Shortly after it was pure mayhem as the race course and highway traffic were both heading South on highway 5, which is under construction and poorly marked at best.  It was not a speed controlled zone, so we were trying to go race speed in the dust and passing semi-trucks, cars and other teams chase trucks.  Luckily, we made it through that mess and into checkpoint 1 at Coco’s Corner.

Shortly after checkpoint 1, things got ugly.  We crested a small rise and as the suspension compressed slightly on the other side things went South.  The truck lurched down and then skyward, and suddenly we were skidding off the right side of the race course as we watched our right front tire pass us and roll off into the darkness.  The truck came to a stop leaning badly to the right.  It was off camber enough I was slightly worried it was going to roll onto its side as the weight shifted with us moving around.  That moment seemed to last forever, I was devastated that such a great run had ended with me behind the wheel.  Thoughts raced through my mind: was I driving too hard?  Are we out of the race?  Where is the hummer?  Are we going to get hit by another race truck?  Can we get this fixed?

Ryan and I got out of the truck and began to assess the situation.  All five lug studs had sheared off, our brake rotor had broken out large pieces, the CV axle boot was torn open, our wheel had disappeared somewhere into the desert and I was completely soaked in my own urine.  I quickly realized there was no place I would rather be.  We sprang into action.  Communicating with chase crews to find the parts and rifling through the truck finding anything we could to patch the truck back together and keep it moving.  Once we got the rotor off we found the root cause of the problem.  The four bolts that hold the wheel bearing housing to the spindle had come loose and damaged the rotor and lug studs.  It was a relief it wasn’t my driving, but I knew we still had to get this thing back together and get to a chase crew where we could fix it properly.  We found some bolts to hold the bearing in place, had spare lug studs and decided the rotor would hold up for a few miles to get back to a pit.  Just as we put the truck back on the ground, chase 8 showed up to escort us the quickest way back to Coco’s corner where an army of chase crew was ready and waiting to fix the truck.  It was a slow ride back to coco’s but our team made quick work on the repair and before long we were bombing down course again.  The 35 miles from Coco’s to the next driver swap was incredible.  High speed, whoops and an incredibly cool narrow rock canyon with plenty of water crossings.  Before I knew it we had reached the next pit and it was time to hand the truck over to Dave and Darren.  My adventure behind the wheel of Monica was over and it was time to clean myself up and help chase another 800 miles down the peninsula.

The rest of the race really is a blur.  Little sleep combined with jet lag and a race high left me completely exhausted.  A type of exhausted that can’t be described or compared unless you have experienced it.  If you are reading this, you already know how our race went.  The repairs held up perfectly, and the rest of the race went perfectly.  Dave, Darren, Ryan and Kurt all made heroic efforts to catch the hummer.  Unfortunately, we just ran out of road and finished in second place a mere 16 minutes from 1^st place.  I will take a second place versus a DNF anyday!!!

-Will C

Every year I face the challenge of trying to summarize 37 hours of racing in one succinct post. It’s difficult to get 29 different stories into one. Also I struggle with brevity so I’ll try a different format. Here we go…

4 days of tacos and exploring Baja.

2 excellent days of Contingency.

IVAN STEWART!!!!!!!!!! Go watch our Facebook live video. He signed our truck and hung out with the team for almost 2 hours.  Truly an honor to spend some time with the legend.  It was awesome.

Will arrives from Japan 12 hours before the start of the race.

29 people and 8 rigs leave Ensenada for 1134 miles of chasing.

Marc and Ryan Nakaya at the Start. Nice clean start with zero issues and good speed east through RM 136.  Will hops in with Nakaya. As the sun sets on the desert they turn south into the whoops near San Felipe.

Fuel and Pit at RM180 then back into the whoops.  Making good time. Out in the lead in class by about an hour after 10 hours of racing.

Then disaster.  Passenger front tire comes off and slams against the side of Monica a couple of times as Will tries to keep the now skidding 7k pound Land Cruiser from sliding out of control.  Out they climb. Our entire right hub assembly is gone.  Such a small thing cost us the race. During prep we used the wrong torque setting on our unit-bearing assembly. Toyota uses an SST for assembly that has a lower torque rating than a standard wrench.  It was a simple oversight but in racing those are glaringly magnified.

A couple of satellite phone calls were made. Luckily we had chase teams nearby. Spare parts were about an hour away on the main highway.  All of them except the spare front rotor which was back in Ely, NV. We accidentally packed 3 rear rotors.  A quick plan was hatched to pull the rotor of Dave’s Tundra.  The other parts are Cruiser specific but the rotor is the same. Luckily Dave runs the exact same StopTech rotors on his Tundra that we do on Monica.  Dave’s truck now trailered up, parts headed down to Coco’s corner and within 90 mins we were back at it about 3 hours behind our competition.

Driver changed moved up from 360 to 340 because of Chase 2 being removed from use during the race.

Monica gets to 340 about an hour after the repair is finalized. A weird location made it hard for them to find us.  Will and Nakaya out. Dave in behind the wheel with Darren co-driving. An amped up Will tells Dave “the repair is 100% good to go, Monica is awesome. Get after it.”

Like that they were gone into the darkness.  With daylight imminent and high speed roads ahead there was a good opportunity to make up some ground. As I’m writing this and know firsthand I can say the sunrise over the Bay of LA was a truly sublime moment. The entire world was awash in pink. The dust hovering in the cirrios. The clouds over the Sea of Cortez reflected in the still bay. Everything pink. Venus and Jupiter piercing through the low light. It was incredible. We passed a half dozen cars in the first hour then, with good visibility were able to make great time.  If I remember right we cut the gap from 90ish miles to 28 over the next 185 miles.  Because we knew that speed was rapidly coming to a halt we pushed as hard as we could. It’s rare you get to drive 10/10ths during an endurance race but knowing what was coming we took the risk. We had the luxury of driving this section in the daylight while our competitors drove it in the darkness.

As this was going on Woody ran into a friend and the two of them were able to track down a new rotor for Chase 2 so it could be put back into service and the remaining 600 miles of chase plan could go back into effect.

At RM525 Monica took 22 gallons of fuel and out into what the locals define as ‘we call that hell.’ Our speeds came to a screeching halt.  8, 10, 12 mph vs 85 on the east side of the highway. Fog made for awful visibility and wet driving. Only positive  was no dust. We no longer could cut into the lead. It was just about getting through and surviving. As the truck swallowing silt and non-rhythmic whoops gave way to miles of rocky river bottoms the fog burned off and heat increased.

Monica finally pulled into San Ignacio, RM 604, our halfway point, around 11am. 3 hours to go the last 80 miles.  A great pit by our awesome team, Darren and Dave switched spots and were off through the town plaza and out to the ocean and dry lake beds en route to the west coast fishing town of San Juanico. A handful of water crossings a bit of pavement and we turned back east into the mountains and towards Loreto.  An hour before sunset Dave and Darren turned the car over to Ryan and Kurt.

I need to start moving the pits solely for the last two drivers’ mindset. Ryan took the wheel first at RM780 and turned south and was met by wash after wash after wash of rocks on his way to Loreto. Not a fun way to start. As the road turned west and climbed back over the mountains speeds picked up and the sky turned yellow, then orange, then pink, then blackness fell back over our race for the second time. A moonless Baja makes for incredible stars but poor visibility.  Ryan and Kurt were greeted by silt beds once they got over the mountains and they pushed through them onto RM952.  Monica doesn’t really balk much at silt. The power and 4wd give us total confidence in the silt. It doesn’t make it fun to drive however as it’s a lot of hunting blindly for a line but we’ve never been stuck. Ryan kept us close in spite of the rough start of his leg and pulled her into RM952 ready for the final push to the finish.

Kurt hops in the driver’s seat at RM952 and Ryan Nakaya got back in to co-drive. Giving him the fine distinction of being the first on the team to be in the truck at both the start and finish line.

Remember how I need to move the pits? Kurt turned south off the highway outside Insurgentes and was greeted with 40 straight miles of whoops.  Oh joy. Those are the sections of racing the separate the men from the boys.  There is no fun in it. It’s a chore. It’s hard on the body, the truck, the patience.  As usual Kurt made efficient time and we were starting to gain on the leader. We’d heard they were having some steering issues and between them slowing and the course finally speeding up after all the whoops we thought we had an outside chance to close the once 3 hour gap.  Sadly we ran out of course.

16 mins.

After 37 hours of racing we missed out on the top of the podium by 16 mins.  It’s hard to see the other team still be interviewed on the podium as we’re being greeted by the checkered flag.  I’m going to quote myself from an Instagram post. I  wrote it on the way home when the emotions were still vivid and not diluted by work emails and conference calls.

“The finish line at the Baja 1000 is a flood of varying emotions. The rush of adrenaline from seeing the checkered flag. The relief knowing that the brutality of Baja is behind you. The tinge of disappointment from missing out first place by a razor thin margin yet again and the joy and jubilation of knowing that you’ve finished yet another Baja 1000. Two days later, as we’re pushing to get home, there is just pride. It’s no small thing to safely complete a Baja 1000. Hundreds of man hours, 29 exhausted team members and far more tacos consumed than we care to admit combine for indelible memories and the reason we do all of this.”

Racing in Baja is  a very difficult thing.  50% of the teams that started this year did not finish. There is a growing consensus that the 50^th anniversary of the Baja 1000 was the roughest course ever.  Quite appropriate. We’ve now finished 4 of 5 Baja 1000s but 3 Second Place finishes will keep pushing us to go back.  We can’t say thank you enough to our families, chase teams (and their families) and sponsors for helping us pursue this crazy dream. In this crazy world of entitlement and immediate gratification a Baja 1000 podium is only found through hard work, difficulty, emotional and physical distress and a few hundred tacos.  Choosing to be tired and uncomfortable (both race and chase crews) for 40 hours straight borders on masochism.  But you know what? We’d all go back next month in heartbeat.  Okay maybe two heartbeats. We’re all still pretty sore.

Lots of pics and video on Facebook and Instagram.