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Friday, November 09, 2007
NEWS BULLETIN BAJA 1000 FROM La Paz, Mexico
UPDATED!
"There are two bad silt beds, the first is around RM 875, very bad. The second silt bed is at RM 890."
Original Report From Tony Tellier:
""From La Paz, headed to Cabo for second time.
Silt getting bad. Supposed re-route N of Loreto, but not confirmed.
Rob Mac. Said he 'barely made it' in his 4-seater two nights ago.
Wishes it would be marked out to highway.
Guys are trying to around silt just past Insurgentes. Farmers is
furious and has dug 2 trenches on left side of road. Has also put up
rebar all along section and strung wire between it.
Helped Post get out of silt beds S of Punta Conejo; took 3 hours, 14
guys, 4 4-seaters, 6 tow straps, a winch and a 7 truck to go 200'.
Damn I love Baja!!!""
EXCLUSIVELY from
Baja Racing News.com
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Baja Backdoor Opens November 19 for Baja 1000
HERE IS THE SOUTH BAY EXPRESSWAY BAJA'S BACKDOOR WEBSITE
Heading to Baja, Mexico South? Heading North out of Baja?
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
PreRunning the Baja 1000

THE WILD & UNLIMITED world of prerunning in Baja Mexico for the 2007 Baja 1000.




"We just cameback from a whole peninsula run, and this is the roughest section, very rocky and up and down narrow roads, very
slow, kind of Simpson's and Mike sky's ranch combined, but it goes on for many more miles. We believe that this is the part were most people are going to brake, or are going to be stuck, the difference on the 2 is the amount of miles being rough, while on the Mike's ranch it's only about 5 to 10 miles,this section goes on and on and on. Took us almost 7 hours to go 120 miles!"



The Baja 1000 once attracted only thrill-seeking hobbyists. And while there's still plenty of those among the record 432 entrants, pros from other motor sports disciplines like drag racing (J.R. Todd and Morgan Lucas), open-wheel (Danny Sullivan) and NASCAR Gordon and Gaughan are scheduled to make the trek down the Baja Peninsula when the race gets underway, Tuesday.


Ever since, Hall says when he sees a crowd, he slows down and "tries to figure out what they're trying to do to you." "I don't think they do it to hurt us. They just want to have a little more excitement at the spot they're at."

Pre-run and pre-fish.




Third, Baja is a practical place to have an uncanned adventure. Tickets to San Diego are cheap; the border is only 20 minutes from the airport. If you don’t mind eating beans three times a day and sleeping on the beach, you can fish your brains out for weeks without burning up your bank account.



You can fish Mike’s only if you’re skilled (or stubborn) enough to navigate the road to his place. It’s about 30 miles long, a rutted-up track through sand and rock that’s part of the course of the Baja 500 international offroad race. This is not fun terrain for a novice, especially at the end of a long day on a motorcycle. I crashed once on the way in when my front tire washed out in deep sand, and arrived at the ranch as strung out as I’ve ever been from traveling.


We fished for two more hours, working our way up the river, which was wide enough in places to jump across. I wanted to stay longer but we had a long way to go on the bikes that day; as the sun scared the last of the shadows from the canyon floor, we packed up our rods, hiked out, and hit the road again.


The police might have been worse, but we were fortunate enough to avoid them. Nick said they stop gringos just to take bribes, and he’d brought along a plastic bag full of racing stickers as mordida, which translates literally as “the bite.” Apparently Baja cops love the things. In case the stickers failed, we never carried all our cash in one place, instead hiding rolls of pesos in our shoes, in side pockets in our bags, and even in rod tubes.

On top of these dangers I worried that we weren’t finding enough time to fish. We’d planned our route to follow dirt roads along the peninsula’s eastern coastline, adding hundreds of miles to the trip so we could sleep on the beach and fish for a few hours each morning and evening in the Sea of Cortez. But the distances we had to cover, especially on the dirt, took far longer than expected, and each time we got to a campsite the sun was already down. We had barely the time or, frankly, the energy to find a scorpion-free stretch of sand on which to throw our sleeping bags.

On the first day we hired one of the Ranch's 28-foot cruisers, the Coastal Pirate. We bought live mullet from a bait boat waiting near the dock, then motored out to set our lines. The target was striped marlin, and the rods were thick, like small saplings. They had pulleys in place of guides. We used five rods: two on the outriggers that swung out from the sides of the cabin, one on each corner of the transom, and one in the center of the bridge.
To find marlin you scanned the water, looking for bills and fins breaking the surface, for the splash of a feeding fish, or for one breaching—when the fish would leap 10 feet out of the water, turn in the air, and land with a smack against the surface. Alejandro, a guide at the resort, told me later that day (Capt. Bernardo didn’t speak English) that they do this to knock off the lice and remoras that attach to their sides.



You can catch a roosterfish from a boat in two ways. The first is by chumming live sardines. This was simple: The mate, Rigo, would grab handfuls from the live well, thump them against the transom to scramble their brains, then toss them into our wake. The idea is to tease the roosters into a feeding frenzy and then cast a sardine with a hook in its head into the carnage. The less exciting method is to just troll off the back of the boat, one sardine to a rod, one rod per angler. We held the rods in our hands so that we could react quickly to strikes. At Los Frailes it didn’t take us long to realize we were in the right spot. Roosterfish have a unique dorsal fin called a comb, seven long spines that they erect when they get in a killing mood. Every 15 minutes we’d see new combs break the green surface, cutting white wakes as their owners dashed about and chopped sardines to pieces. These were big roosterfish, working in pairs, and they were smart. We spent all day chasing them around and sticking sardines in their faces without so much as a take.
Toward the end of the day the captain pulled out his secret weapon. On the way down we had purchased our sardines and some odd-looking mullet from two local fishermen selling bait from a small rowboat. The mullet looked odd, I realized, because they were not mullet, but bonefish. I hadn’t gotten a good look until we grabbed one out of the live well, stuck a hook through its nose, and handed me the rod. Using these for bait is relatively normal, and not frowned upon in Baja. The area is full of bonefish but you can’t really fish for them because there aren’t any flats. Instead the locals catch them in nets and eat them, or use them for bait. They’re also a favorite food for roosterfish.
But the celebration at the bar that night was muted, because the next morning we had to get on our motorcycles and ride back to San Diego in just two days, half the time it had taken to arrive. Pushing so hard was a foolish idea. We were already tired from three long days spent battling fish in the sun, and before that the grueling ride down. There would be no breaks, unless we wanted to ride into the night, a very bad idea with those black cows on the asphalt highway.


In the morning we hit the Pacific. The ocean currents along Baja’s western coastline flow south from Alaska,


G & R almost totals a $200,000 prerunner and their media guy trumpets the team not wearing helmets and the racing community responds.

""Had a great day pre-running, Geiser pre-runners worked great! Had a little leak issue with the brake power assist, but a little JB weld from Steve Scaroni and we were on our way. Thanks Steve! Just after Coco's Corner, Ron took a corner wide and slid into a boojum tree. Damaged door and busted window... They only injury was a minor head wound sustaned by Mad Media's own Mike Flores. Got to suffer for your art! Baja is a dangerious place, especially if you have a camera in your hand! Brushed the glass off and wiped the blood away and kept going.Little did we know their would be more drama. Just outside Bay of LA, Garron Cadiente went through a corner, hooked an edge, and did a pirouette... the truck finally came to rest on it's side. Garron, Todd Leduc, and Chaz Dana spent the next several hours trying right the truck by stacking rocks and tires. By the time we got chase trucks to them they had already got the truck back on all fours and moving. The brand new Geiser pre-runner is no virgin anymore!Day 1 of pre-running was a 19 hour day. If you don't earn it, it doesn't taste good!Ok, so what's the plan now Garron? "We are going to kick out the window and keep going. I am here to pre-run." stated the unfazed Cadiente.""
""Come on guys (not GnR). The team that I know that use Geiser pre-runners do use open face pre run helmets.We use helmets in our pre-runners as well. I did not read into the whole post as far in depth as the rest. I was making light of a situation based on the PHOTOS. I think the guys in the pre runners will hear enough from their wives and mothers at home, let alone all the ones they have on here.""
""Ok, I'm going to be on everyone's side when I say "You always need to wear your helmets". But the reality is, how many of us have been just as guilty during preruns, by not wearing race helmets? As of course it is a prerun, not a race. I know that safety is always on everyones minds (except when drinking ) and I am sure that Garron wasn't being stupid. I'm sure that they were wearing 5 point harnesses, they had a bitchen prerunner with a full cage.Sometimes **** happens. If they were being stupid, they would have been in way worse shape than they were in. Broken glass and a little blood for a piroette, is nothing compared to how bad it would have been if they were being stupid and completely disregarding safety. Again though, I am not saying you don't have to wear race hemlets when pre-running, I'm just backing up Garron in the fact that you need to look at the whole situation. There were many ways he was being safe, there was only one way he was not being safe.""
The last few miles




SEE THE CABO SAFARI RANCH for all your off road adventures in Baja Mexico. http://www.cabosafari.com/
Gary Newsome
Baja Racing News.com
Baja 1000 Countdown
LIVE BAJA 1000 Coverage Starts
November 11 from TIJUANA Mexico
EXCLUSIVELY on Baja Racing News.com
BAJA 1000 Pre-Run Stories
Baja Racing News.com
CHASSIS WINNERS:
MOTORCYCLE WINNERS:
CELEBRITIES TO WATCH:
BAJA 1000 WINNINGEST TEAM:
BAJA 1000 JAPANESE TEAMS:
Pro Cars & Trucks1. Andy McMillin, Poway, Calif./Robby Gordon, Charlotte, N.C., Chevy CK1500, 19:15:27 (54.41mph) (SCORE Trophy-Truck) 2. Troy Herbst, Las Vegas/Larry Roeseler, Hesperia, Calif., Smithbuilt-Ford, 19:56:22 (52.55) (Class 1)3. B.J. Baldwin/Tom Bradley Jr., Las Vegas, Chevy Silverado, 20:01:25 (52.33) (SCORE Trophy-Truck)4. Ron Whitton, Maricopa, Ariz., Ford F-150, 20:39:49 (50.71) (SCORE Trophy-Truck)5. Gary Weyhrich/Mark Weyhrich, Troutdale, Ore./B.J. Richardson, Las Vegas, Jimco-Chevy, 20:44:56 (50.50) (Class 1)6. Brian Collins, Las Vegas/Larry Ragland, Cave Creek, Ariz., Chevy Silverado, 21:07:51 (49.59) (SCORE Trophy-Truck)7. Richard Boyle, Ridgecrest, Calif./Ron Brant, Oak Hills, Calif./Travis Howard, South Padre Island, Texas, HMS-Chevy, 21:27:33 (48.83) (Class 1)8. Todd Wyllie, New River, Ariz./John Marking, El Cajon, Calif./Eduardo Gastelum, La Paz, Mexico, Chevy Silverado, 21:28:16 (48.80) (SCORE Trophy-Truck)9. Darren Hardesty, Ramona, Calif./Mark Randazzo, Poway, Calif., AlumiCraft-VW, 21:34:28 (48.57)(Class 10)10. Josh Baldwin, Newport Beach, Calif., Ford F-150, 21:35:40 (48.52) (Trophy-Truck).
Monday, November 05, 2007
Danny Sullivan Unveils TOYOTA Trophy Truck Baja 1000
VISTA, CA – Today, T Force Motorsports officially unveiled the #33 race truck scheduled to compete in the legendary Baja 1000 on November 13th. Founded earlier this year by Dan Friedkin and former Indy 500 winner and open-wheel racing star Danny Sullivan, the professional program was assembled in just under six months.The race vehicle is a Toyota Tundra Trophy Truck able to exert 765 horsepower and reach speeds nearing 140 mph on dirt. “The truck is reliable and fast, with engineering advances in multiple areas including steering and suspension” stated Crew Chief Christian Reicher. When the race truck crosses the starting line, it will be the second Tundra in off-road history to compete in the premier Trophy Truck class, following Ivan Stewart’s in the year 2000. Driving duties will be shared between Friedkin, Sullivan, Rex Whiteside and promising up-and-coming driver Chad Ragland.
The Baja 1000 is celebrating its fortieth anniversary this year. Starting in Ensenada, Baja California and finishing in Cabo San Lucas, the 1,296-mile course is a grueling mix of desert terrain. Veteran drivers who have seen many of the past forty events are commenting on this year’s course difficulty, and many are calling it the toughest in the event’s history. Although competing in a vehicle class capable of winning the overall title, Sullivan noted, “In our first year, merely completing the Baja 1000 will be a tremendous accomplishment.” About T Force MotorsportsT Force Motorsports, a division of Chupacabra Racing, LLC, was founded in May 2007. The team competes in the SCORE International Desert Series in the #33 Toyota Tundra Trophy truck. The state-of-the-art facilities are located in Vista, California.
Go to the website, go to the 'TEAM Section', then to the 'TRUCK section'. For more information and team updates from the Baja 1000, visit http://www.tforcemotorsports.com/.
Baja Racing News.com
Eric Chase releases Class 1 Baja 1000 124 photo
124 Eric Chase/Stuart Chase, Burbank, Calif., Penhall-Chevy
Baja 1000 Entry Photo Released
Baja Racing News.com
Baja Racing News.com Pushes New Videos
Baja Racing News.com wants your Off Road racing videos! Here's a great new way to get yours online easy.
Take your first look at the new VholdR, a wearable, palm-sized camcorder created especially for shooting off road, extreme video for quick uploading to YouTube. Notice that its lens takes up most of its volume, and its 4.8-ounce weight and 3.7-inch length encourage you take it along. It even includes helmet-mounting hardware for those Baja 1000 pre-runs, wild snowboarding and whitewater rafting sessions, as well as proprietary shake management so you can keep your clips from inducing viewer vomit sessions. When you're done shooting, its VholdR desktop software lets you keep your videos organized or upload them to YouTube with a single click.
Here's the link to their features page: VholdR
The VholdR is built tough for taking plenty of abuse, too, made of anodized aluminum that's splashproof. The hardware compression engine on board is impressive, crunching down its 640x480 30fps video to manageable file sizes. We especially like that single button to roll, easy to operate even with gloves on. And there's no tape or fragile hard disk to worry about—it records everything onto a microSD card. The first few are expected to be available by Christmas, retailing for $349.99.
Baja Racing News.com EXCLUSIVE