Chasing the 50th Baja 1000

My truck is loaded up ready for the pit. 10 dump cans, tools, trailer with three tires and two 55 gallon fuel drums. Our cars are currently first and third on course. But there is still a very long way to go.

BJ Baldwin is already out with a blown tranny. He hopped on his jet and flew home leaving his crew to retrieve his truck and get it home. They didn’t even try to finish. Some TT crews can swap a transmission in an hour.

 

I watched a lot of them blast off on Facebook today. There was a live feed.

 

A lot of big name TT guys out already that we’re expected to win.


This part is really weird for me as I’m still at my hotel with WiFi. I won’t see the cars for a few more hours and our pit is only about 20 miles away and right off the highway. So there’s no need to sit there for 6-7 hours. I can track my car on my phone. Never done that during the race before. Kinda nice.

 

Well we didn’t get the win but did get the Championship. The last 36 hours have been crazy and way too much to write on a phone.

 

This is awesome!! Looking forward to your review. We chased it in 2014 and 2015 when they were both loops in some 4runners and my tundra. I can’t imagine trying to chase it one way. That has to be ridiculous.

 

Well it turns out iphones can't swim. It went into the pool on Saturday when we were celebrating. So I lost all of my contacts and all of my pictures.

I just got home. 2863 miles total driven. I had to get a new phone and get ahold of my boss, luckily he texted me first.

We broke every trailer we had take down. Broke a leaf spring on the trailer carrying one of the race cars yesterday.

 

San Quintin used to have great sail fish to go after. San Felipe on Sea of Cortez side had even better fishing back in 76. The last time I was fortunate to be there. Exchange rate was nuts. Cuban Churchill cigars were a buck. A gallon of "Horseshoe" tequila was $3.

 

Sorry about the I phone. I'm sure many of us were looking forward to the pics. Congratulations on the championship.

 

Thank you. I'm working on getting photos from the rest of the team guys. Worst part is there was some really nice Tundras in the parking lot of the hotel in La Paz I got pics of.

Exchange rate right now is about 16-18 pesos right now.

I've been going to Baja since '05 and every trip I've made it a goal to go to at least one new place I've heard of every trip. This trip took a few off the list. Scorpion Bay, previously pictured, was one of them. In 2012 I was pitting the car about a mile away from it at 3am and had no idea how close I was.

On the way home we took the road to Coco's Corner which leads to Gonzaga Bay. Both I had never seen before. Unfortunately my phone was dead so I didn't get pictures. That road right now is undergoing some heavy construction right now. It was about 20 miles of dirt road cutting through a mountain range. It will eventually be paved and be great for the people of Baja. I almost got rear ended by some a-hole in a new Raptor because I stopped for an oncoming semi truck.


I was able to load some pics to the 'ole facebook before I killed my phone.


Trying to find a place to set up a pit a few day before the race. Pit guys have to prerun too.


4wd saved me here.


A couple of the locals


Hotel in Catavina


In Mulege


Me with a random dog in the middle of nowhere. He was fed and watered too.


After the race. 4th and 2nd place cars, in class.

 

Sweeet

 

We have 2 Carson trailers with 50 gallon gas tanks on them, only a brake issue on one of them. The first one that broke was our aluminum trailer. It came with one of the prerunners they bought. I'm not sure who built the black one we have but it broke a leaf spring and we got very lucky in San Felipe. The welding/machine shop had a leaf that was the right size.

 

Once we got it back to San Felipe I noticed more cracks on it. I wont be surprised if the team gets ride of it. It's very limited on what it can fit on it.

 

It's an aluminum body on top of a steel chassis sort of thing. The shackle hangers, which broke off, are steel and they were welded to the steel chassis.

 

No idea, but it's hold a cars weight. It's the road that's FUBAR. There were dozens of teams that had broken trailers. One team had a truck that lost a right front corner on the road to Bay of LA. Uniball snapped and the wheel tucked underneath the frame after hitting a huge pothole.

 

So the Baja 1000 will be airing THIS SUNDAY on the El Rey network. A 2 hour show to boot.

 

It took our video guy a while but he finally got it done.

Here's the Wilson Motorsports 2017 Baja 1000 race video. That's me at the 7 minute mark (throwing rocks)