Day 130
The Baja 1000.
Only in Baja!
You've got to live it!
We want to say a big thanks to Pascal Côté for introducing us to a movie
we absolutely recommend to each and every off-road motorized sports enthousiasts:
"Dust to Glory".
It's a real life documentary on all aspects of the Baja race. Super! It
will make you discover the feeling of the Baja 1000 as well as the ambiance that surrounds
it.
We have watched that movie many times and the fact that we are now here,
on location, in Baja, to see the race live, brings a very intense thrill to us. Think of
your favorite movie and try to imagine yourself having the incredible fortune to be there,
to live it.
Full throttle!
When we got here, we were alone, remember?
Some of those buggies are actually faster than the Trophy trucks!
...Working hard!
See our little tent, top left center?
When was the last time you stood 3 feet from cars driving by at 80m/h?
What a thrill !! The sound of the engine alone is incredible!
We got lucky! The guys that set-up next to us have a radio that gets all the
communications between pilots, support teams and the weatherman (weatherman is the guy who
is radio relay and support coodinator in case of emergency or mechanical difficulties). We
can hear every time someone asks for assistance, mechanical or otherwise. With over 500
participants in the race, it never stops! There's always something going on!
All of a sudden, the weatherman asks that all that don't have an extreme emergency
leave the airwaves. There's been an accident. There are dozens of accidents. But this one
is serious. A few teams have helicopters that guide their race pilots from the air. One of
them went down...2 deads, 2 seriously injured...Most pilots (if not all of them) have
radios. They heard. The race goes on...
Shake, rattle and roll! Check out the suspensions! He's doing around 70m/h.
Quadtrek was here!
Minnie looks worried! "Don't you think we're a little too close not to face
them?"
...If you thought we were close...Wait...
...Check out this dude on the race course ! (just besides
the left front wheel of the car). They're going at wide open throttle, remember? Anything
for a great picture!
Leaning!
The idea behind the fact of having a chopper flying ahead of the racer is that it seems
people will often throw obstacles like telephone polls or dig a huge hole in the track,
just like that, to see more action!...It's always nice to know that ahead of time, if
you're a pilot!
There are soooo many different classes of vehicules in the race that you have to an
expert to know them all. Here, a highly modified VW. Some run the race in almost stock
VW bugs! That's class 11. They're recognized by all drivers as the real hard core
racers! There are also classes for close to stock vehicules (bikes and trucks) that you
can enter, if you wish.
Showing off!
Unfortunately, there are very few quads in the race...Guess 4 wheels will shake you
worst than 2...
Think those guys will see where they're going when night falls? All those lights are
HIDs. It'll be like daytime again!
Some of those trucks are worth up to $500,000 US !!
It's a shame you guys can't hear the sound of the engine! It's hallucinating!
At 20m/h, on a quad, it was OK. At 80m/h, in a truck, it's completely nuts!
Rush hour traffic jam.
It's 10:30pm. We slip into our sleeping bags exhausted by the emotions and the sun.
Racers will zoom by our tent in a rage of thunder until late at night. They had mechanical
issues or were invloved in a crash and are now back on track. We're at mile marker 100.
It's 10:30pm. They still have about 1,200 more miles to go...
That's the Baja 1000. That's nuts!
For more details, see the score
international website
Thanks to Jim Greene. He took many of the pics you see here.
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