BAJA 500 '08

Just able to sit down and write up a trip report for the 500 at
Race mile 134

I have been up in Oceanside all week working 12+ hour days on a Habitat for Humanity “blitz build”. Hundreds of volunteers, vendors and contractors built 4 houses, 2 to completion, 2 to 90% in 5 days. It was an exhausting, hectic schedule, but very rewarding. 12 hours of sleep last night helped, but I’ll need a couple more to get back to not feeling tired, stiff and sore.

Pre-race and trail rides:
A few of us met on Wednesday out at Rancho Trabajo in Lakeside to stage all the pit gear to get ready for load up on Thursday for Friday AM departure to Ensenada.

Thursday:
We were one of 3 rigs headed down in AM to cross at Tecate, hit the dirt up to Laguna Hanson, Ojos and on into Ensenada. Myself and bro-in-law Scott in GSB, Barry and Curtis in his Chaos Taco, John and daughter in a factory lifted F-150. Curtis and Klaus had their video premier of Dezert People Checkpoint 6 at Papas and Beer that night. We had rooms at Tom’s Ensenada Beach House for the night.

We hit the trail head at El Condor and I gave my usual speech of the trail having traffic, stay clear of each others dust so you can see, don’t rely on me for traffic as a rancher could come onto trail behind me etc., mainly for Johns benefit.

Soon I had Scott clapping and yelling even at cautious speeds for me. Scott is no slouch when it comes to going fast in the dirt, as he was scary fast on a bike or quad in his youth. He does the Jeep trail ride thing now, so riding in a 5900 lb. bull dog like GSB that’s fast was new to him. I called the turns on point and we were soon to the park with no issues.

Incident 1:
Cruising into the park at 25mph or so I went right at an either or Y. It was pretty good silt and there was a nasty stump on the right. Scott and I both commented that it was a hazard best avoided. As I got back on the main trail I looked in my mirrors to see if one of the others was close to warn them onto the left fork. I saw nothing but dust. Just as I reached for the mike John radioed that he thought he hit a stump. He had pulled right up behind me and was blinded by my dust. I turned around and went back just as Barry pulled up.
Bent front cross member
Broken lower A-arm
Broken CV joint
Bent stub axel
Drag link and tie rod pushed up to frame
Bent sway bar
Bent and broken frame horn
Fender rubbing tire
John’s not making it to the pit, maybe not off the mountain.

We assess the damage and see what works that’s still good. We decide to try and drive it out and get as far as we can to Ojos. I head out fast for Ojos to find a welder. Luckily we keep radio comm. the entire time except for a little bit while I’m down in the valley and they are limping on the other side of the ridge. I ask around for a welder and find it easy. The guys name is Eric. GPS coordinate on it if any of you want it for future is N31 54.577 W116 16.403. Eric seems to think he will be welding on a race rig and that we are some sort of chase crew. My Spanish didn’t seem to work well enough to get things across to him. A crowd is gathering only to disperse just as fast when they see Johns leaned over truck pull off the road.

30 minutes later we’ve stickered and postered all the steekerz hounds and the patch job is done on the lower A-arm. Eric has done way more than requested and the repair looks strong. He wants 300 pesos, I tell John to give him 400 as the job is worth way more in peace of mind putting the wounded truck on the hiway with oncoming traffic. We’re all happy and we may just get Curtis to town in time for his premier party.

We make it safe to Ensenada, check into the hotel, grind some tacos and head for Papas and Beer. We shoot some pool waiting for the video to start, drink a bucket of beer (thanks Curtis) and watch the video on the crappiest video equipment ever. Distorted, out of focus and off color. Scott couldn’t figure out why so many racers painted their vehicles bright pink, and were 2 feet tall and 8 feet wide until he looked at one of the smaller screens and saw they were red and normal dimensions.

Friday:
Up to a cool morning and great, fast, hot, friendly and tasty breakfast service at the hotel restaurant.

Time to head for the Sonoco fuel dump and Baja pits pickup. We have arraigned to have a truck and car hauler follow Baja Jones and the pit trailer down to extract the wounded F-150. John has contact with an insurance adjuster to meet him on the Malecon at the pit pick up. We wait around until they show up. Carlos is still signing up racers. Total was 58 bikes and or quads and 31 vehicles.

Our plans are to meet 5 other rigs at Valle de T for lunch, fuel and hit the course at around RM 90. We’re late as usual by a couple hours. But our Locos bros are patiently waiting. We gas and taco in Valle de T, get run off the road by Robby out abusing the H2 a day before the race and all meet up at the access road at K103.

The summit climb is rough but fun. Jeep guys would love it and Scott did. Mark and I made the first climb in 2wd and agreed to stop and lock the front hubs for the rest of it. The bare bones of these red volcanic ridges offer great traction and also lots of tire and skid plate abuse. This is race course that takes patience to traverse and not end up with a sack of broken parts on the other side. I am impressed by all the racers who make it over and keep on pace to finish the race. The view from the top is spectacular for sure.

Case in point:
Race day radio traffic.
Robby broke at RM 120, around the first wash after the summit.
Copter flies through valley at full song 10 minutes later.
10 minutes later it flies back out.
Suspected Robby extraction to head for NASCAR early.
Crew get to haul abused H2 out.
We never see it pass us.

We have an advanced crew who came in off the dry lake with the radio gear and mast to set up for crew comm. arriving at various times. As we are very late at this point we are starting to see the writing on the wall of a late night. Jones, Bethel, Tiny and Sarge should have been heard from by now on their way in. We have line of site comm. with the guys at the pit site just with our in cab radios. Apparently the big antenna and radio didn’t get set up do to a bottle of vodka get taken out instead. Oh well.

We get down the summit and through the washes with some more skid plate testing. The washes were fast and very fun, but had some serious tomb stones hidden in the deep sand.

Incident 2:
BCG1 with blown CV joint boot
Gooey wheel well

We get to the pit site and set up the radio and big mast, establish comm. with BFG relay 15, Bob at the summit and with Weatherman. Start looking for Jones and the trailer, he ahs our dinner. They are going to be on Laguna Salada in the dark. We have some GPS on the several turns off Google earth but have never logged anything for certain heading out that way before. Wish we had and now we do. Barry heads out for an escort with me close behind after we get what we can set up at the pit. We’ve got comm. with Jones now and he tells us he didn’t get out of Ensenada until 4PM for the drive back up to Tecate and Hwy 2. We get headlights from them and talk them to us just after dark. We now have 20 miles of CODE and SCORE race course with some pretty good sand whoops and a few fast sections back to the pit. The trailer is way more loaded than expected, Carlos has been busy. Jones couldn’t leave the pit drop off until the last late Rhino co-dog delivered his Twinkie and Gatorade. Dinner will be late.

We get them to the pit by 9:30 or so, dump the trailer and dig out the kitchen. Carne Asada and Shrimp burritos with the works under buggy light, big camp fire, spectacular fireworks display and bed late. Ahhhh Baja!

Race day:
Awake like it or not as the sun starts to cook me like shake n bake in my tent. Coffee pot is on, time to work.

Tires are organized
Dump cans and dry breaks are filled
Easy ups go up
Lights get strung
Tools are laid out on the tables
Welder it set up
Genie-O is fired up
Banners are hung on course
The National anthems playing come in over the radio
Ears are tuned for the first copter rotors slapping the morning air
We pray for some breeze (blowing the right way)
Its go time.

We had all but 6 of our moto or quad sign ups make it to us and all the vehicles. Even the class 11 and 15! I guess the posers stayed home with the issues lately.
We dumped fuel
Cooled down over heated racers
Did some serious welding
Hosted Stuart Chase’s chase crew (Chase chase ???)
Pulled cactus spines out of a co-dog shoulder
Pimped one of our big sponsors, Ken from AirGas
Put a class 7 truck back in the race
Ended the miserable existence of 2 leaky dump cans
Encouraged some to continue
Burned holes in a Persian flying carpet
Ate like kings thanks to Jones and Bethel

We started breaking down the pit around 10PM and had most of the gear stowed and staged for loading the trailer in the morning. This was the first time we haven’t had to sweat our asses off all morning in the sun with no breeze for hours. We were packed up and trailer loaded in record time.

Incident 3:
Chaos Fab Easter egg Tacoma on SCORE course
Broken side gear, rear diff
Nicole with heavy throttle foot suspected
Pulled diff to inspect for broken parts that may cause rear wheels to seize
Nicole displaying painted toe nails noticed and admired
Nice pair of heels suggested for next desert outing
Pulled rear drive line
Easter egg now front wheel drive WRC truck

Incident 4:
GSB on CODE course
Blown sidewall left rear
60mph right hand sweeper
Rear end sliding clips square edged rock
Rock doesn’t budge
Spare installed
On move in 10 minutes
Seen it before

Incident 5:
BajaPiña Chaos Yota
Dry lake at Hwy2
Cracked upper radiator neck
Cooled it down
Cleaned it up
Fast JB Weld
Purged air bubble in block
Good to go home

La Rumerosa for taco grinds at Taco Lalo
Filled up with ice and cold drinks for border
Topped off gas tanks with $2.60 gas
Border crossing in 1 hour + or –

Thanks to all of the crew for their hard work.
Any of you who were slackers, please re-think things.
Sorry for all of you who missed the fun.


View from summit down course

[Edited on 6-9-2008 by Gadget]

Valle de T crew at summit

[Edited on 6-8-2008 by Gadget]

Happy bee and cactus

[Edited on 6-8-2008 by Gadget]

Game on

[Edited on 6-8-2008 by Gadget]

A port in a storm

[Edited on 6-8-2008 by Gadget]

Gadget and Mike Koenig aka BCG7
Mike just won 1st in class and 6th overall in a NORRA 400 miler in his new 7 open Chaos Toyota

Sadly they both came in dead last in fashion sence

[Edited on 6-8-2008 by Gadget]

Durawall failure at way too much G force



[Edited on 6-8-2008 by Gadget]

No debate here, just a suggestion. Try a set of Toyo M/T. For a vehicle that weighs as much as yours, I think they are a good match. And no, you will NOT get 45K miles on them.