Baja 1000 Peak Empire Pit Bull Tires Reports

UPDATED! February 20, 2008

Baja Racing News.com

received a report the Pit Bull tire found in the Baja wilderness, after the Baja 1000 race is being shipped back east to Ted Holt. The team leader who led one of the most memorable off-road racing disasters in recent Baja history. Now, in the old days, this kind of tire failure is why the r & d of the last quarter century has overcome the rubber companies sins in the early fits and starts in off road racing.

Now, after putting up with Teds asenine comments for months, now, its our turn.

Thanks for the response on the $2,000 Pit Bull Tires gave you! A Pit Bull Tires Vacation! [Cabo is Nice!] Do you have any more tires? Theres a bar in Ensenada, that wants to have one on their wall, they love your Baja 1000 story!

Here's a collection of photos posted on the teams website, celebrating their Pit Bull Tires vacation celebration!
Special thanks to the team member who put up the pictures of the PIT BULL TIRES on the internet. Sweet story.

PHOTO: Ted Holt Captain/Team Leader Peak Empire Racing

Ted, thanks for keeping this in the publics eye. Baja Racing News.com

Original Team Reports: From 11-29-07 2007 Baja 1000:
Peak Empire Teamates report on the Baja 1000 Peak Empire - Pit Bull Tires Effort

Ted Holt, Team Leader Reports:

1 year ago this month, me and some of my good friends decided to run the 2007 Baja 1000. We started with nothing and ended up with a Bad Ass Jeepspeed Jeep. It took all our money, time, and skills to build it.. And it was done right. Me, Gary, and Karl worked our ass off on this thing.. Did it pay off..? Yes, I think it did...This trip started on the 23 of October for me... I went to Cali, to Vegas(got Married) back to Cali, and then into Mexico Nov. 6th.. Pre Ran several days. Got stuck in silt beds, Lost, problems with fuel cell, and finally the shake down in TJ... then.. it was time. On race day, Gary and I went to the staging are and got in line.. Most of the Chase guys headed out to there 1st pit destinations, except for Kurt, Stephanie, Rob, and Justin, who were at the start line to make sure we left without a hitch.... The feeling of sitting in line with all the other racers was as surreal as it could get.. It felt like becoming part of history... Pulling on the mound to shake hands with Sal Fish is something that I will never forget. The green flag waves and we are off... Driving down, and making that left turn in Ensenada was like being stuck in the movie- Dust to Glory.. Just awesome.. We made the turn and headed off to the famous Ensenada wash... Went in and made the right, drifting, slinging a little mud on the spectators, then over the jump.. and then headed out of town hitting a 4ft drop off and an up-hill silt bed....The next 20 miles were crazy.. Everyone is bunched up.. Trophy Trucks broke down and then knocking on your door... Passed a lot of guys with early problems... Jeep felt good, tight, and we were making great progress and time... At, or about, RM 20, the Transmission started heating up... We really weren't sure what the problem was, but kept going until we had to stop or ruin the tranny... The cooling fan for the trans was not coming on.. Found the problem, did some quick re-wiring on the side of the trail while a car load of drunk mexicans tried to help us... We seriously thought we had a problem when one of them grabbed Gary by the collar and jerked him back... After about 25 minutes, and yelling at them to back the fawk up, we were off again...At about RM 30, we had some sort of "stumbling" problem with the motor. Felt like a fuel problem, but really wasn't sure... We kept having to stop, turn everything off, wait 15 seconds, crank.. and GO!.. Did this every 1/4 to 1/2 mile for hours... Stopped and pitted 5 times, with Chase 1 headed up by Jimmy, Karl, and Frank, trying to figure it out.. Threw everything we had at it... Including the Knowledge of Mike and Tom Barnett from T and J. We were a little behind, so time was an issue now.. When we hit the Silt bed at RM 54(the same bed I burried the Jeep in Pre-Running, we took the hint given to us by a Pro Truck team, and followed the yellow ribons. We missed the bed just about completely.. Saved us a lot of time... About RM 70, the Jeep started the stumbling again.. We had a scheduled pit at RM 80 with Chase Tequila, and changed the distributor, and worked on the Fuel Cell again. Chase 1 was with them. We hit it with everything we had.. And then we were off.. Hit Checkpoint 1, with about an hour to spare, but we were 3 hours behind(what we thought we should be at)... We cranked up the speed a bit and headed into the night.. After Ckpt 1, it was a pretty fast section.. I had pre ran the spot and hauled ass.. We passed the Shaffer XJ with a broken steering box, and felt pretty good about where we were considering. Jeep did well... Only problem between there and Mikes Sky Ranch, was me getting off the course a bit where you could go faster, and ended up in a big fawking ditch... Should have heard Gary... Ha good times... Another time Gary gave me the thumbs down, somewhere in this section, in the dark, he said, hey, were doing over 40 mph.. Slow it a bit sir. Fueled up and RM110, and headed to Mikes Sky.... and checkpoint 2. Hit Checkpoint 2, RM 177, and saw "Dustybooger's" XJ at the BFG pit we think.. Anyways, gave them the beep beep and kept on going... Pretty fast after the checkpoint from what I remember.. Kurt, in Chase 4, was set up at RM 210. Last fuel stop was at 110.. Fuel was getting low or maybe we were delirious.. Who knows.. Hit him at RM210, at 3am. Me and Gary were feeling the signs of fatigue. We left the start line at 12:45pm. And pretty much were in it ever since. Just before leaving the pit(after a red bull, snickers, and Camel light) Shaffer's XJ passed us along with the guys in the silver JK. Seeing that, we jumped in, hit the 2nd wind, and caught up to them. The JK stopped complaining about a weird vibration in the front end. And we kept going getting close to Shaffer. The section from 210 to about 240 or so was a very, very rough, tight, and scary section. It was Switchback hell I think. It went, Left, Right, Dip, Climb, repeat.. We saw many, many racers broke, with campfires, and tents.. Like a big Camp ground.. Several guys had missed turns and went over the cliffs.. Some were very, very deep.. hundreds of feet. Saw guys hurt and bleeding.. But we stayed in it.. 20+ miles an hour through this stuff. We were almost out at about 4:30 Am, when we came around a curve, with mountain on the Right side, and Death Cliff on the left... and Rocks on either side of the trail to hit. I took the one on the right. Broke a wheel and we were stopped. It took I guess about 20 minutes to change out the tire. A huge chunk was missing out of the inside part of the wheel... But, it's part of it and we changed it and were off again.. We had till 9am to get through checkpoint 3 and that was RM 306. 30 minutes later we had another flat.. We are not sure what the happened, but the inside of the wheel was taco'd.. it was the front drivers tire that was down.. We were on a tight single track with a deep, deep cliff to our left. We assessed the damage and realizing we had to change another wheel/Tire out when another racer approached. We were blocking the trail and trying to get out of the way, Mtn side of course. He kept yelling to get on the cliff side so he could go around, but that wasn't happening. With Gary out of the jeep directing traffic, I finally put it in 4wd, and drove away looking for a place to pull off. Of course, that was 1/4 mile up the course. Gary was very happy when he got there. After a few choice words, the sun coming up, and Gary getting his BP back to normal, not good, but normal, we were off again. This was about racemile 240.. Funny, we came around a turn and there was a 1600 buggie missing a wheel with a crazy guy behind the wheel and a class 11 blocking the trail.. They pretty much said if we would help them, they would move. So we did so we could get by. The class 16 guys we had to leave.. Sorry. Finally, we were out of the canyon from hell.. No spare tires, Delirious.. Seeing things. Last words from Gary were "Hey, that's our last spare, take it easy!" Of course I said.... RM 250 we were bent our 3rd wheel. Not sure how or why, but it was bent. Taco'd again in side. Passenger front. We pulled in to the Baja pits,(of course we were using Mag7) and begged for some help but they were cleaning up and said they couldn't help us. I finally got Dustin around 6 AM on the Sat phone and Driver change 1 in Guayaquill and said "Get Mike, get dressed, and get out here with spares. I know we are behind, but we are not stopping!" Talked to Cass a sec, and told her what was going on, and hung up and waited....... Not sure what all was going on outside the valley of death, but me and gary were waiting... AT one time we thought there were Mountain lions staring at us.. waiting to pounce us or something.. After we snuck up on them and threw rocks, we realized it was a rock and a cactus with a piece of paper in it. At about 1, after chkpoint 3 had closed, Karl and Frank took off in the jeep. They were as tired as me and Gary and were taking it to Dusin and Mike to head out.. Behind as we were, we were not stopping. Gary and I headed out of the desert in the F150 with Jimmy... Took us forever and were were beat down bad. Seriously about to give up on getting out. about 6:30 or 7, i finally got radio contact with Frank.. He was in the jeep, and it had stopped... some kinda problem, and I asked him where Chase Tequila was, and Mike and Dustin... He said Mike(our only fresh driver) and Chase Teuqila were gone. Frank said he was done and so was Karl. Too tired from the night before chasing to safely continue. I made the executive decision to pull the plug. We met at driver change 1, RM 368, where the Jeep made it's last mile. Team was 5 short. We had a couple shots of Tequila... and all fell out about 11 PM. Next morning, we packed up and drove to Cabo as a team... and enjoyed the hell out of it. As far as the race goes, I learned a helluva lot. We gained experience and we will have that with us forever. The reason we did not finish the race in the 53 hours is all on my shoulders. Poor wheel choice, probably not. Untested Jeep, I don't think so. Some sort of ignition problem, definetly. Poor research on the 1st 300 miles... was a biggie... The 1st leg of 368 miles was going to take us almost twice what we thought. But lesson learned. Not finishing the race had nothing to do with part of our team leaving and I don't want that to be what people think. We had a blast and the memories of this "plethora of craziness" will be with me forever. On this trip I got married, raced in the biggest race in the world, made some new lifelong friends, and lost 1 at the same time. Thanks to all that came with us and supported us through the Journey. I'm sure I left out something and Gary can add to it or I will as I remember...."

Baja Racing News.com comments: The most dangerous thing the team Leader did was get married!

The Co-Dawg Report:

Here is what I can remember from race day. (however to much sun and beer in cabo has put a bit of a haze on things) [Can we get a Hell yea! for the co-dawg!]Finding our way to the staging area was the craziest thing I have ever seen. Once we were in the right place and waiting to be lined up the pressure hit. One year's worth of heart ache comes down to this very moment. The Score guy yells at Ted and I that our time is now and lines us up. We could see the hand full of Jeepspeed rigs going over the dirt mound and up to the start line. Before I knew it Sal was leaning in the window telling us to have a good race. Down the mound to the start where the flag guy gives me and Ted the thumbs up and off we went. I was so ampd up that I think I actually gave Ted the turn for the first big left off the line. We drove down in the wash and were quickly heading out of Ensenada. Once we were outside of town the crowd in the wash seemed to be the small one. There were people everywhere at every turn giving us the thumbs up and cheering us on. After 10 miles of working frantically checking gauges, gps and our rear for faster buggies and trucks that had stopped for whatever reason and were now knocking down our back door we settled into the race. It was in the next 10 miles that we hit the trans issue and Ted pulled off to check things out. In no time we had 7 Mexicans all over us wanting to help or something. One of them grabbed me by the collar and pulled me away from the back of the jeep. Then Ted grabbed me by the collar and said, "get in the jeep and whatever you do don't let that conversion van go around us". So I got in the jeep and tried to figure out how a conversion van got out here in the middle of this dirt trail. Ted finished his fix of the wiring issue and we headed off onto the race course again. One more stop on the highway for a better fix and a small seat belt issue that I seemed to be having (thanks frank) put us back in the race. We jumped back off of the highway and back into the country side. Everything was going really smoothly as I scanned up and down the GPS and Ted somehow followed my directions to keep us on course. It was just before the next road crossing that the problem with the motor showed up. It would stumble dead and Ted would shut it down for 20 seconds or so and fire it back up until it would stumble dead again. To our relief Karl, Jimmy and Frank where at the road crossing ready with the T&J guys waiting for us to pull in their pit. The hood popped up and guys where going through the motor and another team of guys were going through the fuel system. They must have checked a weeks worth of stuff in about 20mins. After some discussion we headed back out to the race course as best we could while guys ran to get a new distributor. We fought through the issues and made it through the silt bed with little issue. However, our biggest problem was that now all of the spectators were starting to go home. Of course that meant that they were driving the wrong way on the race course. We must have driven 15 miles with me on the horn and Ted doing everything he could to miss them. Night fall came and left us in the pitch dark desert working our way to the next pit to hopefully get the jeep running full strength again. After passing several race cars out of the race with camp fires going we made it to our next pit. The new distributor went in, nuts and bolts were checked and gas was given. We jumped back in the jeep and headed to check point 1. After check point one we realized that there was a new urgency in our race. Ted and I discussed the pace we needed in order to make check point 2 which was helped by the new life the jeep gave us. Whether it was the new distributor or the other hundred things done to make the jeep run better, it was. The jeep running better was only offset by the relentless race course we drove into. We must have spent 6 hours going down the rockiest road I have ever seen. That only led into the canyon of bad dreams where tight turns, unseen dips and carnage everywhere made up the landscape. It wasn’t only how rocky or tight or both the section of the race course was it was how constant and unforgiving it was. We had to be perfect on every turn or risk losing a tire, a wheel, or go plunging off the side of a cliff. I have never been so happy to see familiar faces as I was when we hit race mile 110 and Kurt, Justin and Rob jumped on the jeep like a seasoned nascar pit team. They check everything twice, gassed us up and told us good luck and sent us back out to the race. Just when we thought we were alone in this race another jeepspeed came bouncing down the course and right by our pit. Ted got the rig turned around and we gave chase. 200 miles in and I don’t know how many hours behind we were racing hard trying to keep pace with the red tail lights ahead of us. Back into more canyons with even more carnage we were back in sync as I shouted direction and Ted whipped the jeep from right to left sometimes topping 40mph which felt like 100 on the single track trail. Blind turn after blind turn left me yelling, “LEFT! LEFT!” when Ted almost followed a pro-truck that missed a turn and landed in the bottom of a 100’ ravine. We had almost survived the canyon when we barreled around another blind turn to find 2 very sharp rocks jetting out from both sides with no room to spare in the middle. Gambling on the mountain side rock we ended up clipping it and sliding to a stop. Fearing that we just broke the tie rod I jumped out to survey the damage. Lucky for us it was only the drivers front wheel had been damaged and since we had just gone thru a wheel change about 10 miles ago we knew the drill. While we were sizing up our options another racer came screaming around the corner right up behind us. With only enough room for one rig Ted threw the jeep in 4lo and headed up the trail with other race car right behind him. This left me in the pitch dark on the side of a cliff and in the middle of a blind turn. It was defiantly one of those, “how did I end up here” moments. Not being a runner and feeling the effects of several hours in the race car I made my way up the trail. I found where Ted had pulled off the trail by way of him yelling at me to get my lazy ass up to where he was so that I could help him change the wheel. I’m not sure what we said to each other during this stop but whatever it was had scared the Mexicans in the canyon and caused them to go after other less aggravated racers stuck in a near by ravine. Spare wheel #2 on the rig and under way again we made it out to the flat desert. Feeling that the tuff part was behind us I reminded Ted that we were out of spares and 60 miles from the nearest highway. He agreed and drove as fast as we could into the sun that had now started to come up. It was then that we noticed my side of the jeep was a slight bit shorter than Ted’s side. To our disbelief the passenger side front had gone down but I wasn’t that worried as we pulled up to a baja pit. I thought for sure Ted was going to talk the guys there into helping us and he almost did when this other guy came out of nowhere and told everybody at the pit not to help us. At that point we were left with no option but go as far as we could on the flat. We must have gone about another 10 miles before we stopped fearing that we would eventually tare off the break line. I have never done drugs but being in the desert and exhausted we kept seeing the craziest things. Ted asked me if I saw a big cat about a hundred yards from us looking our way. I did see that cat and we went after it with rocks and sticks only to find that it was a piece of trash blowing in a bush. Soon after the “cat” a helicopter comes over the rise and heads straight for us. Not sure if we were really seeing this or not it starts to circle about fifty feet above us. Ted asked me if the helicopter was real and I told him to lie down and act hurt. If they landed and saved us it must have been a real helicopter. The guy in the side door takes a few pictures and gives us the thumbs up. I returned his thumbs up with one of my own and they head off back over the rise they came from.

That was the last time we saw anybody for over 5 hours. I called my wife on the sat phone to tell her that I was stuck in the desert and not sure when somebody would come save us but I was sure everything was going to be ok. I then feel asleep for a while and woke up to find Ted talking with some creatures. I’m not sure who or what they were but they gave us some hot bottled water and drove off in a very small truck. A while after that was when Karl’s voice started to crackle over the radio. They had somehow made their way into the canyon and were coming up the racecourse to our location. With a new wheel in hand Karl threw it on the jeep and with Ted and I out of gas ourselves Karl and Frank suited up to take the jeep the rest of the way to the first driver change. Before we headed off in the f150 Ted tells me to get the wheel that had just came off the jeep and throw it on the truck. It was later when I saw that wheel on the Internet that I realized that I may have forgotten to do that. Oh well, wasn’t the first time one of my slip-ups has ended up the topic of discussion for web wheelers across the nation. Thinking that our adventure was over we drove off in the f150 to meet the guys at the next driver change. However, we drove from canyon to canyon to canyon. I have never seen anything like it and with the sun going down and matched by the gas gauge going down I was starting to get worried that we would never find our way out of the canyons. Finally, we found the onion fields and started to make our way back to the highway. Back on the highway we pointed the f150 south and made our way to the roadside pit. Once at the pit and without a fresh driver one look on the weary faces of our crew it was obvious that it would be too dangerous to push on. I ate vienna sausages that tasted like prime rib and shared a shot of tequila with a great group of folks and slept like a baby in my little tent next to the highway. The next morning we broke down camp and trailered the rest of the way to Cabo. I was devastated to not have finished the race but it was in the snow storm in Texas on the way home looking across our Thanksgiving meal at Ted and Cassie that I realized that racing is about giving it everything you have and the love of the sport is the unknown. We did give it everything we had and I meet some awesome folks that I will never forget. Every time I tell my story of the baja 2007 I realize that I had the time of my life and I wouldn’t change a thing that happened this year. (I'm the only person in the world that can leave a wheel in 100 thousand square miles of desert and it end up on the internet) Ouch!

Team Members Report:

"As soon as we stopped supporting his own private joy ride, he turned on his team and falsified tons of stuff to try and make it look like he was averaging 35 mph the whole race and he showed up to a fuel stop and everyone had gone home."
"As I went to extract JeepSpeed 1749 at race mile 240, I heard you guys on the radio with the weatherman north, on an unapproved radio frequency. Bad move as you could not use BFGoodrich Tires radio relay. Everyone on the road said the tire choice killed you. 3 flats in 250 miles. I have a Pit Bull tire I found on the course with a giant hole thru the tread. I believe that those tires suck. Whoever was in that truck at RM 250 needs to learn pack it in, pack it out. The area where we found the tire and rim was disgusting. Trash everywhere. There is/was no issue with the rim I have, I can put a tire on it and run it. The tire is/was junk. Also they timed out for Checkpoint 3 by several hours by my watch. They were done. They were at Race Mile 250 at 2 pm, waiting for support. (I was in the area listening to weatherman)".
"Our chase guys said the rims were broke, and I know Ted had said he was going to limp the jeep as far as possible on one flat, so its not surprising to me that at least one tire was totally trashed. I would put more confidence in that, then the word on the road. This is the first I heard of leaving the tire and rim behind, or any other trash, that is not cool. Not to sound defensive, but are [you] sure it was someone from 3736 on the weatherman channel or an unapproved frequency? We used our "race channel" extensively, which I thought was something from SCORE that we got well in advance of the race and had all our radios programmed to. This is the first I heard of anyone on the team trying to use the weatherman channel. My understanding is there were a lot of teams out there trying to get out, just curious if you are positive if it was someone from Peak. Maybe the ball did get dropped on the radio frequencies, but it seemed to me that had been taken care of."

"The tire was driven on for about 1.5 miles flat as the team was out of spares. One of the other rims was beaten back into place and was believed to be able to hold air but no source was available. Maybe the tires are to stiff for the rims maybe not but none were punctured prior to rim failure.
I guess with your pictures there is proof that even more lies/half truths are being spread. I was under the impression that we had rim failures, I guess not. We were running 26 psi in all of the tires. Is that not enough? I mean the tires are untested and all, and they are bias ply, but I figured 26 psi was enough. What does everyone seem to be running in the radials? As for leaving the tire behind, I am sad that happened. Whitewater, I was under the impression that we recieved our frequency from PCI and we were registered with weatherman. I guess not. You are spot on though, every bit of advice you guys tried to give our team is proving true. I wish I would not have gotten caught up in our Captians 'E Peen A Thon' and listened a bit more. Live and learn and thank God nobody got hurt."

Baja Racing News.com Follow-Up Story, prior to the Baja 1000

Peak Empire and Pit Bull Tires team up to Peak Baja!

"We've never driven in the desert before", said one of the team members in an interview Sunday at the Off Road Expo in Pomona. Never in the desert, never in the Baja and never in Mexico. That explains the Pit bull Tires! They've called RT. 1, "Interstate 1". Lets talk about those tires. They are running bias ply, rock crawlers that are far heavier than the BFG's, Toyo's, Goodyears and the rest that are run in the JeepSpeed class. "We are cutting them to reduce weight", said one of the team members. Last year, when Pit Bull was approached to run in the Baja races, one team told Baja Racing News, Pit Bull Tires did not feel they were ready to take on the competition. This year, with all the publicity, they feel they are ready. For the publicity. They are the same tires."Baja Will be Peaked". Its a mountain top term, when you've been to the top of a mountain you've 'peaked it'. This team claims it will win its class, beating far more experienced teams. Equipped with Baja Champion tires. No prior experience, bias ply tires and more time spent online than any other team in their class, Tony Tellier may be right. They don't have a chance to finish. Good Luck Boys. Check out the pics HERE

The ORIGINAL PRESS RELEASE

Pit Bull Tires Competes in Baja 1000

"Dateline: Akron, Ohio.
Pit Bull Tires has become a sponsor of the Peak Empire Carcing team’s entry in the upcoming Baja 1000 race. The race, from Nov. 10 to 16, starts in Ensenada, Mexico and finishes in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. It will be the 40th anniversary of the race, and more than 500 entrants are expected. This will be the first time the tire maker has sponsored a team in a Baja Mexico race. The tire maker started in industrial tire sales and moved into sled pulling, rock crawling, rock racing and off-road. Baja Mexico will be a step up for the tire manufacturer." We will report on their progress.

Baja Racing News.com