General Race Strategy

Our general strategy for the race was to stop for fuel twice, the first time at around 420 miles and the second around 850 miles into the course.  As fuel at the pits is very expensive we decided to get mom and dad to load up our 16 jerry cans with gas and meet up with us at our designated pit areas.  This is what actually happened:

Pre Race 

Race day started bright and early as we packed up CK and send mom and dad on their way to get some fuel for our first pit stop and get down the course to meet us.  We also still had some last minute things to do on Tazi to get him race ready.  Finally about 9 AM mom, dad and CK set off.  Chad and I went over the truck one last time then went over to see the Mc Millin’s get their Trophy truck, class one buggy, and their class 16 buggy ready for the race.  It was pretty cool to see them checking out their machines but that would be another story.

We have decided to not run with the tire pressure monitors on Tazi as they may get ripped off during the race and take the valve stems with them.  As we were still trying to kill time we wondered over to the local NAPA to pick up some normal caps.  Just outside the campground we spot CK heading our way (CK isn’t hard to spot in a crowd).  ”Ohoh they are supposed to heading down the course not back to our campground, what is wrong??“ I think to myself.  Dad pulls to a stop next to us saying something about the clutch is leaking badly.  This isn’t good news.  The clutch slave cylinder has been leaking for quite awhile now.  I have a spare cylinder for Tazi, which looks identical but the piston is slightly bigger and where the hose connects is a slightly different thread.  I discovered this after I had already installed Tazi’s spare onto CK and was laying under CK with my arm contorted up and behind my head as I tried to reconnect the clutch line.

As the slave cylinder had just been out I hoped that there might be a slim possibility that the seals needed seating so we re bled the clutch, bought a whole bunch more fluid and sent mom and dad on their way hoping that that CK would settle down and behave himself.

Now it was getting closer to our start time so we set off to the local Pemex gas station for a last top up of fuel.  Then we set off to find the cueing location for our class.  You would think that there would be a map in your race package to show you where to go, there wasn’t one so we set out exploring all of the closed or blocked streets trying to find our marshalling area.  It didn’t help that the trophy trucks were rocketing off the line and their fans were every where trying to get a glimpse of the trucks before they are obscured in the dust.

Finally we find another class 8 truck then find our way into the cues.  At this point we get out, and wonder around to find out just what we need to do next.  Chad points to the gaping hole in the side of Tazi and asks, ”Where is the fuel cover?“  ”#### I must have forgotten to put it back on at the gas station.“  I felt horrible about it as Chad pulled off his driving suit and set off running to get the missing cover.  While Chad was off the cues slowly moved along merging and dividing as we were slowly sorted into our starting order.  As the start line grew closer I started to get concerned about the lack of Chad, I was sure hoping to see him soon.

Shortly before the start line Chad shows up with the missing cover.  I throw him a water bottle and he gets suited up for the race.  It turns out that we were actually still a couple of minutes from the start and by the time we reach the legendary Sal Fish at the start line we have settled back into racing car drivers. 

Start Line

After a brief chat with Sal (which left him shacking his head in disbelief) we roll up to the start line.  We get a 5 second wave then we are waved off the line.  The course quickly dives down into the Ensenada Wash where there are massive crowds and some groomed jumps for the trucks to jump over.  We have never hit a real jump before so we are taking it easy but still manage to get all of the wheels off the ground.  Coming out of the wash we come into the most stressful portion of the race.  We know that we are horribly out classed in our division and the vehicles starting after us are much faster and have much more suspension then us.  Also we have heard a lot about, ”NASCAR Nudges“ which scare us.  The Baja 1000 race is over very narrow tracks, so to pass you hit the car in front of you to let them know that you want by.  Our 110 is much lower then the cars behind us and Tazi’s back is just made out of thin aluminum.  A NASCAR Nudge would cause serious damage to our Tazi.  As our competitors come roaring up behind us we quickly wave our acknowledgement and take the first opportunity to drive off the course to let them by.  All but one of the other drivers were very respectful of Tazi and did not hit us.  (Thanks! Guys)

Driving to TeamDust's Pit One

The crowds of people are everywhere, and frequently they had been busy building jumps and other obstacles to entertain them selves.  The sides of the trail was also full of the carnage of broken vehicles and vehicles undergoing last minute repairs.

We soon run into our first stretches of 3’ whoops (steep 3’ high bumps about 4’ apart and stretch on for miles) we quickly find that our competition can hit these things with speed and keep on going.  We are pretty sure that Tazi will shake himself to pieces then have the axles ripped off him if we were to hit these guys at speed, so we slow down and roll over them.  It is impressive to see the suspension on the buggies in action as we roll along.  I guess this is why they were all laughing at our suspension when we were cueing with the other vehicles.

At about the 150 mile marker into the race it is night time and we are going up around Mike’s Sky Ranch.  After the ranch the course goes up some steep trail full of loose rock, stuck, broken, and almost rolled cars.  The buggies ahead of us are attempting to take runs at the hill as they try to bounce to the top.  We pause for a moment as we switch into low range and for the first time in the race we might have the best vehicle for the course.  Tazi has no problems scaling the loose rock as he weaves between our stationary competitors. 

It is near this area that earlier in the day a chopper went down killing the 4 occupants who were taken to the Ensenada morgue.  The story goes that one of the deceased was in the drug business and his amigos showed up at the morgue with guns and Suburbans to reclaim the body.  The two police officers that they ran into on their way out of town also ended up at the morgue.  So if you see some fast moving Suburbans in Mexico it might be best to just let them pass.

Since we were oblivious to this we kept on following our course notes and referencing the GPS.  The race continues for us more bumps, more slow going, and more bumps.  Eventually we round the corner to find a string of tail lights.  We pull to a stop, ”Thank Goddess“ I mutter to myself, ”I really need to take a leak.“  It turns out that one of the trucks has broken its drive shaft and is now ”blocking“ the trail.  Actually I think we could have gotten by but the other vehicles are definitely blocking our way.  So we eat, nap, and wait; forty minutes pass and the trail ahead clears and we are off bouncing away.

That is pretty much how the first portion of our race went, the occasional smooth faster portion that just brings us quicker to the next rough stretch.  We weren’t very confident about our fuel consumption so we stopped at BFG pit#3 and asked if we could get some fuel.  While they are pouring the fuel in they give the truck a quick check over.  Moments later they hand us one of our head lights.  I am not sure if it had rattled loose or if they simply weren’t use to Lucas quality.  We aren’t concerned as the stock headlights don’t add much when the rally lights are switched on.  The guys were great and we were quickly on the road again.

By 7AM we are happy to see asphalt, 100km to our first pit!  At 8 AM we arrive at TeamDust’s first pit.  We are dirty, tired and hungry; we have been driving for 22 hours and we still have over 800 miles to go.  We are happy to see mom dad, and CK who apparently has decided to behave and support the team.

It is great to see mom and dad; their excitement (dad doesn’t need to go into the trails to find us with CK) and mom’s food bring us back to life and get us ready to set off again.  While we are eating, dad and some enthusiastic Mexicans are busy pouring 290 liters of gas into Tazi.  A quick check through Tazi reveals that he is holding up fine.  Topping up some fluids and we are ready to get back into the chase.

Driving to TeamDust's Pit Two

We head off fed and fueled up again.  We are hoping to be able to pick up our pace on the middle third of the course as our current pace will have us time out before we reach Cabo. 

The course becomes much more to our liking as we race along much smoother roads.  We get to run up this river canyon with was very cool as we speed along the gravel floor next to the canyon walls, we had been warned about the deep fords that we would have to cross; I am not sure if it had dried up quite a bit or if we have different concepts of deep fords as I don’t think we even got the hubs wet.  That doesn’t mean that we didn’t have any troubles.  As we got to the end of one of the fords the engine all of a sudden quit and refused to start.  We both looked at each other in surprise, ”What??“  Land Rovers don’t have problems with this sort of stuff.  I hop out of the truck into the water and pop the hood as some Volkswagen buggies offer to tow us out.  It would be very embarrassing to be pulled from water by a Volkswagen, they are great buggies but still, so we tell them to hold off while we check it out.  A quick look at the dry engine compartment showed that water and the distributor is not going to be the source of our problems.  So we went back to one of our reoccurring mystery problems; our engine is computer controlled and the power to the computer is switched by two solenoids conveniently located on the dash.  For some reason pulling the relays and re inserting them fixed a previous occurrence of a similar problem.  We tried this again and presto we were making noise again!  (Hello? Lucas is that you?)

We also got to race along some gravel roads where we were running at around 70 mph at which speed the washes crossing the road made perfect jumps as Tazi hit them at speed.  We finally felt like racers as we actually got to legitimately pass some cars (most of our other passes were of broken, smashed, or stuck vehicles which could have been passed walking).  We were quickly put back into our place when a fellow class 8 truck passed us like we were standing still showering us with rocks, smashing the windscreen and pelting the front of Tazi.  The biggest rock that hit the windshield almost went right through the glass right in front of my face.  That would have hurt!  I wonder why mud flaps aren’t required to reduce this?  We have new respect for the level of craziness that it takes to ride a motorbike in this race.

At one point I was driving when a bump that didn’t look like anything from far away demanded more respect when it was much closer.  All I had time to say was, ”Hang On“ as Tazi launched up into the air; we came down hard on the front wheels with the rear still high in the air, then the rear landed sending us fish tailing down the road.  Tazi responded well and snapped out of it, back into control.  I pull to a stop to make sure the front wheels were still there.  They were so I continued on at a little slower pace; that was a little scary, and why wasn’t the camera rolling?

We hit San Ignacio with a buggy and we pretend to be street racers as we roared through the quiet streets at the race limit of 100 km/h, police at the corner just wave as we pass.  I think this is the only time they didn’t try and give us a ticket.

From San Ignacio we headed back to the west coast where we were routed along some salt flats, the flats were beautifully smooth right to the large pot holes which suddenly appeared in your path.  We enjoyed the smooth running but kept the speed under control to prevent hitting a hole too fast and ending our race.

At 6PM we hit race marker 870 which is the region where we had chosen during out scouting mission as the location of TeamDust’s pit two.  But there isn’t any CK, mom, dad, food, or gas.  There are some well hydrated fans one of whom quickly rushes over to see why we have stopped.  We ask if he has seen another Land Rover kind of like the one we are driving.  The baffled look on his face said that he hadn’t ever seen anything quite like this before.  The 40 liters of gas left in the tank ment we needed a lot of gas to finish.  He quickly inquires as to what radio frequency we are using as he has a station set up.  We try to explain that we have no radios or communications between us and our support which seems to dumbfound him as he asks several more times about the radio. 

We decide to drive the 4 km to the highway to check if they had made it to the turnoff.  During our scouting mission we had chosen a specific sign post at the turnoff where we would note our passing.  The problem is that the sign wasn’t there, and for that matter the whole intersection looked different.

We were at the wrong place, we had passed our pit location by 3.5 miles.  We drove back on the highway, passed the marked post where we were happy to see the CK passing mark and back to the race course, where we found mom and dad who had just finished throwing everything into CK as they tried to figure out what to do.  This portion of the course looked much different at night with all of the fans and dust then it did when we scouted it.  Next time we need to do some better signage as missing the pit sucks for everyone.  We check over Tazi, top up some fluids, add 290L of gas, wash windows, lights, and mirrors, and Tazi is healthy and ready to go.

The Final Leg

We leave our second pit fueled and energized ready to take the last 400 miles to the finish line. 

Initially we had GPS points and a detailed digital track to keep us on the race track.  Somehow our GPS lost the detailed track info after around 350miles.  We weren’t able to get the track back so we had to switch to navigating by the course book aided by points in the GPS every 10 miles.  Through most of the course this worked fine as the trail was quite well defined by the time we came along but some times there was tracks everywhere and the correct direction was difficult to discern.

Shortly after leaving our second pit we came upon a dark forest thick with dust and with car lights faintly visible pointing in all directions and none of them moving.  We had come across our first serious silt bed and there were cars stuck everywhere.  It didn’t look too bad so we plunged ahead only to very quickly come to a stop.  Tazi was plowing through the thick dust which was building up eventually stopping us.  Slipping into reverse and locking into 4WD we were able to back out to firmer ground.  Well this is going to be a little bit of fun.  With our solid axles we don’t have the ground clearance of the buggies so we can’t follow the ruts; so we decided to put our right tire in the left rut and run the left tire on the shoulder of the trail.  The ruts through the silt beds are several feet lower then the surrounding ground so this made Tazi lean at an uncomfortable angle but it did give us traction and clearance.  So with the V8 roaring we plunged back into the silt, swerving around stuck cars, switching tracks and trying to follow the course notes all at the same time.  It is kind of like deep powder skiing with your Land Rover.  When we hit the deeper sections it would go completely dark as all of our lights are completely buried and the dust was flowing over the hood, up the windshield and over the roof.   We were flying completely blind reacting to each obstacle as we confronted it picking what appeared to be the best available line through it.  Soon the tracks took us to the highway and seemed to merge on to it.  So we followed them, a kilometer later it seemed like cheating so we pulled a U-turn and returned to the dust; where we found a trail that lead to more and more dust.  We both a had a great time in the silt pits but later sitting around the pool we talked to other teams who spent 17 hours with multiple support, race, and chase vehicles stuck in the silt and eventually ran out of time to complete the race.

From the silt we hit more whoops – we again decide that whoops aren’t much fun – but we press on.  Late in the night we come across a buggy that appears to be missing a wheel on the side of the trail.  We are pretty sure that we aren’t going to win this race so we stop to help.  They are a pair of Mexicans who are having trouble.  A quick look about reveals that there jack is pinned under the car and the right rear wheel is missing.  We pull our two stage hydraulic bottle jack, and jack the buggy up off their jack.  As the buggy goes up it starts to move down the hill.  Looking at the wheels the story suddenly makes sense.  They had a flat tire so they jacked the car up, removed the flat tire but before they got the spare on the car (which was on a hill with nothing chocking the wheels) moved toppling the jack as it all came crashing down.  Luckily nobody was hurt.  We quickly chocked the wheels and explaining the problem, and continued raising the car.  We are able to retrieve their jack from under the car, which is now a fancy piece of bent junk.  Our little jack is more then adequate to lift Tazi, but place it under something with 24“ of suspension travel and it is challenged.  We try several times to jack the buggy up and chock it, then jack it up higher, but we don’t have much to support the buggy with as we reset the jack and find a suitable place to continue jacking from.  As we start to run out of ideas another buggy arrives so we give up and let them use the proper jack to lift the buggy.  We reload the scattered tools and return to the race.

I was just starting to congratulate us at getting Tazi through the race with our being nudged or smashed by the other vehicles when the lights of another truck started shining through us.  Time to get off the trail quickly to let them go through; we find a spot and pull off the trail.  The lights swerve out and then there is the horrible sound of crunching mettle as we get hit.  This really pisses me off as this truck has passed us at least 4 times.  Each time we go out of our way to clear the trail and let him through.  At this point he is well out of the race and obviously pissed off and decides to hit us.  I guess there is one at every party.  We continue on, as there isn’t much that can be done about it.

This is now our second night, we have been driving nonstop for 40 hours and haven’t been able to sleep a wink.  Chad is a little more use to doing this kind of stuff, but for me it is a little out of the norm.  Soon I find that I am starting to hallucinate the shrubs cactus are appearing as all sorts of cars, people, creatures, and I find that I need to blink 3 to 4 times to have the scene return to what I believe to be reality.  I press on as I know Chad need some rest but it keeps getting harder to escape from wonderland and see what is actually there and I ask Chad to take over.  Thankfully he is in better shape and we press on.

The morning finds us on smoother roads and we are able to make much better time towards the finish line.

As we near Todos Santos we come across more silt.  Thinking that we are pros at this silt stuff we plunge in and soon we are stopped, reverse fails to get us out.  Getting out the problem is kind of obvious; none of the wheels are touching the ground.  Also something seems to be wrong the 4wd shifter as it kind of flops around now and we can’t select 4wd.  Pulling out a shovel we dig out under the axles so the wheels are again touching.  A kind farmer on his tractor shows up and asks if we need help, we tell him that we think that we can do it, he shakes his head and laughs.  We back out, step on the gas, and we are off careening down the track.  Coming around a corner we find the track goes straight up this short steep hill that has about 18“ of loose silty powder.  This must be the hill that they mentioned in the drivers meeting that you could detour around.  Detour? we haven’t come this far to detour, there was no need to say step on it, Tazi claws his way up the hill, much to the surprise to the spectators who obviously didn’t think we stood a chance!

The trail now continued on as a soft bumpy sandy track.  We are surprised to see our temperature gauge start to climb; both fans are on, it should be good.  We pull over shut down the engine and let it cool for a bit.  We help it out by pouring some surplus drinking water over the radiator.  When we go to start it up again the started acts like the battery is very weak.  The voltage meter is showing the voltage is normal but the engine is very reluctant to fire up.  After the race we discover that one of the battery disconnect switches has failed and no longer connects the second battery so we are running on only one battery when we normally run off two.

A couple miles later our temperature is again creeping up and we again shut down to let it cool down.  We discover that only one of the two radiator fans is running.  The second fan has power but won’t turn on.  We are now also starting to get concerned out our time and risk not completing the course on time.  As the engine cools we look into the fans closer and discover that if the wires feeding power into the second fan are pulled a certain way it comes on.  Good enough fix for the time being, a couple of strategic nyties and we are off.  This gets us through the rest of the soft stuff and we are soon on harder faster roads and our cooling problem disappears.

We finally approach Cabo where we call in to our support crew to let them know that we are getting close.  The last 60 miles of the course are on these interconnecting roads whose reason for existing seems to defy logic.  It feels like we are just going around in circles in some sort of bizarre joke.  We are tired, hungry, and very dirty.  I have also discovered that while working on the cooling fan I was laying on a bed of cactuses which have now become firmly embedded in my driving suit and seat.  The good news is that the fire suit is some what cactus resistant.

Then we drop into the wash, the last direction in the course book is passed and sure enough there it is!  The finish line!!

We are very happy to be in Cabo.  It is a very strange thing to cross the finish line, apparently no one told the Mexicans that we aren’t famous, or even very good for that matter and they treat us like celebrities.  We are mobbed for autographs, interviews, and pictures.  We happily oblige and enjoy our 5 minutes of fame, after which it is great to see mom and dad and share some of the funnier stories.  We made it!

We owe a big thank you to our support crew, with out who we would not have been in the race, or here at all for that matter, thanks mom and dad!  Also a big thank you to all of the fantastic people we met in Ensenada,  the McMillans for laughing and sharing some knowledge with us, the unknown Mexicans who helped pour gas, the fans that helped direct us, the great people at the BFG pits who helped keep Tazi going, and the people of Mexico who were so enthusiastic all down the course and kept us motivated.  See you all next year?