Two auto racers from Holland team up to win grueling "Baja 1000" event in Mexico
From The Holland Sentinek
By LEE LAMBERTS
Holland — "Say you’re planning a trip from your home in Holland to, oh, Jacksonville, Fla. You get packed, load everything in your car, then take the
trip south on a series of interstate highways that, according to Googlemaps.com, should cover just over 1,100 miles and last about 17 hours.
Now, cover that same distance in a stripped-down vehicle. Instead of paved highways all the way, you’re faced with challenges like rocks, mud,
mountains, river crossings, silt beds and desert. In addition, in the words of one of the contestants in the 2012 “Baja 1000” race, you’ve got
“whoops” to contend with, too.
Oh, and you have to complete the race in 45 hours, otherwise you are automatically disqualified.
“The challenge is to complete 1,121 miles, finishing first in your class is a bonus,” Phil Speet of Holland said. “Of the 316 entries it is not
unusual that only half of these vehicles will make it to the finish line.”
Speet was one of a team of eight who participated in last month’s race down the Baja peninsula in Mexico. He was the principal navigator for a team
that was headed and funded by Todd Welling, formerly of Holland. And the bonus was, that team won, completing the race in about 29 1/2 hours.
“It’s quite the adventure,” Welling said of this year’s race that began in Ensenada to La Paz. Welling is the son of former Ottawa County Fair board
member Earl Welling and owner of a cabinet making firm in San Carlos, Calif."
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness.”
—Mark Twain
\"La vida es dura, el corazon es puro, y cantamos hasta la madrugada.” (Life is hard, the heart is pure and we sing until dawn.)
—Kirsty MacColl, Mambo de la Luna
\"Alea iacta est.\"
—Julius Caesar
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