My outlook and experience at the Baja 1000 - Pirate4x4.Com : 4x4 and Off-Road Forum

MIKE S · 11-22-2006, 11:51 AM

Here is a short story through my eyes of our trip down to the Baja 1000. While I feel like most people wont understand how intense and how many stories we have while we are down there, I will try to explain it how it went down. Monday we arrived at our hotel just north of Ensenada. As time passes on the next few days, more and more of our chase vehicles and drivers start to arrive. Wed. rolls around and we take the rig to tech, and it checks out with no problems. After tech all of our chase teams with the exception of Aj and John hall head south to where they will camp until the race vehicle arrives.

Wed. night at 7pm we get to the drivers meeting. I was completely amazed of how many racers there was, it’s unbelievable when you see a room full of hundreds of drivers and co-drivers. As the room fills up, Sal Fish begins the drivers meeting, a few minutes later a driver sits down on the steps at the front of me at my feet. I notice that the driver in none other than Robby Gordon. This is when it really starts to hit me, this is the real deal, were really here to race the Baja 1000. After the drivers meeting, we take off and head up town with some friends that are racing in the sportsman’s buggy class. The next morning at noon we start staging the jeep, we contact the chase team that will be following us which is AJ and John hall, we then find out where they’re set up at.

One O clock rolls around and were about 2 cars back from the start. We pull up on the start, and we get the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…GO and so the race begins for us. We drop into the first wash and I keep reminding myself to “take it easy, slow down I still have to get the rig to lance”. About 10miles into the race a Jeepspeed blows by us completely (in my opinion) out of control and is doing at least twice our speed. Shortly after the Jeepspeed passes, we get passed by two sportsman’s trucks, about another 10-15 miles down the
road the Fat city jeep, while he is not pushing hard , I decide to let him pass by, and follow in his dust for a little ways. After about 20 miles or so into the race the jeep starts
to have running issues, the same issues we have been fighting all year.

Shortly after this we hit the first silt bed, we pull into the silt bed and there is two class 5 bugs stuck right in front of me, and a class one car stuck off to my left. I give one of the class 5 bugs a push and he gets going and picks a left line out through the bushes and motors on. At this time the first Jeepspeed that passed us, comes up on our right. ( I guess some where back we must have passed him.)
As he goes by he’s sliding onto the class 5 bugs right in front of me, since he is on a pretty bad side hill. About this time I get a call on the radio from the fat city guys, telling us they are stuck about 2 cars in front of us in the silt bed, apparently as the Jeepspeed that was passing us drove by the fat city guys on the right side they rolled over. I get behind Eric from fat city to give him a push, while he is getting a tug from the front. After he gets out they pull off to the right and we drive by, but we wait a little further up the road at a steep silty hill to make sure the fat city guys make it up okay since there are only 2wd. They get up the hill okay so we motor on, Fatcity radios to us shortly after that they are having some running issues, so we stop at the next road crossing where John Hall and Aj are waiting to work on our vehicles to try out find the running issues. We Checked to make sure that our pickup in the fuel cell didn’t make it to the top of the foam, and we checked to see if our filter was clogged with foam. After Aj and John Hall Finish getting ours together they head on over to the fat city guys and find that there filter is clogged with fuel cell foam. We motor on while our chase team stays and unclogged Fat cities fuel filter, and they removed all the fuel cell foam. They radio to us and let us know that they fixed fat cities running problems,. The next point that they were going to meet up with us, they wanted to pull out our fuel cell foam, and blow out our fuel lines incase any foam was in there. So at the next point we did just that.

After that everything else went pretty much flawlessly, until we got to Coco’s corner and did our driver change. And while it would take another 3 hours to explain what else happened, the only other things we had to fix on the rig during the rest of the race, our shifter momentarily quit working on Jody, we had 2 cracked motor mounts that had to be welded, and about 47 miles before the finish the rig caught on fire, but Bob and Camo managed to put out the fire. Other than that we didn’t have one flat tire or any major breakage issue’s.

If I had to pick one moment during my leg of the race that stands out in my mind, it would be running through the big whoops coming into San Felipe, just about side by side with the Fat city guys. Id did clip a spectator with the drivers side mirror, all and all it was more of an adventure than a race.

And I can say that I am very honored to have raced with the other drivers/co-drivers on our team. But most of all would like to thank the volunteer chase teams that made the race for us, and also our sponsors.

Sponsors are:
Powertank
Currie
Radflo
Bilstein
Full traction
Roundeyes
Bfgoodrich
Pirate4x4.com
4x4oil’s
Alloy Usa
Precision gear

Dirty Harry · 11-22-2006, 12:01 PM

Thanks for sharing your story Mike. It is cool to see guys working together and helping eachother out, I think that is what sets the offroad community apart from other motorsports.

desertbull · 11-22-2006, 12:13 PM

EPIC!

Mike, I agree with you that until you actually race the Baja 1000, explaining it to someone does not do it justice. I've tried and tried and tried..like I told Lance way back when---just gotta do it!

Tell me the truth --- Supercrawl or Baja 1000?

LOL---No need to answer---I know what your thinking!

Shaffers Offroad · 11-22-2006, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by desertbull

EPIC!

Mike, I agree with you that until you actually race the Baja 1000, explaining it to someone does not do it justice. I've tried and tried and tried..like I told Lance way back when---just gotta do it!

Tell me the truth --- Supercrawl or Baja 1000?

LOL---No need to answer---I know what your thinking!

What is this Supercrawl?

Mike

XJJack · 11-22-2006, 12:42 PM

Welcome to the addiction. Glad you had a good first experience in baja, hope you can have it again, but it can be like a drug it's never as good as the first hit.

MIKE S · 11-22-2006, 01:11 PM

One more thing i would like to add, i cant believe i almost forgot about it. When we got to la Paz we didnt have a room, and couldnt find any rooms. We pulled in front of the hotel, and one of the guys inside our chase truck ran into the hotel to see if they had any rooms available. It was about 5.30am at this point. While i was waiting outside a guy walked up to my window and asked if we had any room on the trailer for a class 1 car. I told him no but if he couldnt find a trailer i told him to give me call and we will put it on our trailer and we will just drive the jeep speed back. then i asked him if by chance he had any extra rooms, and he said actually no, but you guys can have the key to the room and go get some sleep. Later on that day we ran into him again, and he gave me a key to the room informing me that it was paid for another night. The coolest thing about this was the guy that gave us his room was Malcom Smith(6 time baja 1000 champion) and he raced the very first baja 1000 on a motorcyle. Like i said before, everything about this trip was totally amazing.

jwag · 11-22-2006, 01:18 PM

Thanks Mike for taking the time. Seems like you fullfilled a lifelong dream. I hope to do the same some day. I have so may questions for you guys...$$$,logistics,GPS, etc.

And of course, Congrats...You Won the BAJA1000!

Bomber52 · 11-23-2006, 10:23 PM

Mike,

Well done to you and all that took part with you. It seems it was an epic adventure. One to be remembered forever.

I am hoping to race in the Baja 1000 next year. If I could get it right to finish the way all of you did would be an absolute dream. The spirit of both teams, 1701 and 1702 , was amazing, and I waited with keen anticipation for any result.

Once again, congratulations.

Glenn

Racing Ron · 11-24-2006, 08:49 AM

For those that haven't read all the different threads; Mike Shaffer also lent us (1702) a front shock that kept us in the race. AND - Randy Ellis stayed back to help us at Coco's!

A Racer and Friend.

And how cool is the Malcom Smith story?

Congrats Mike!

Hype4x4 · 11-24-2006, 09:23 AM

I look forward to attending the Baja 1000 next year... story's like this make me want to attend even more...

Kyle_T · 11-24-2006, 11:49 AM

Cool Story.

WOBBLEWAGON · 11-24-2006, 07:06 PM

Mike that was a cool story. Glad to hear you all had a great time and look forward to meeting you all at the next score race that you all participate in. I work with Wide Open for all those annoying little BC Cars Haha!

Brutpwr · 11-25-2006, 08:13 AM

...glad you had a great time...always love all the Baja stories from other racers and chase teams!!!

Jason

nevadayj · 11-25-2006, 07:30 PM

Mike,

I agree, what an adventure. So what's your plan for next year

We all left LaPaz with our doubts about attempting the thing again, but now that a week has gone by it sounds like a great idea. Our car is sold, so we have to find somehting to race next year....Class 1 maybe?!

Anyhow, had some good times with you and Kyle. Glad we all survived, cause there were times when I had my doubts!

Doug

11-22-2006, 11:51 AM	#1 (permalink)
MIKE S Registered User Join Date: Dec 2000 Member # 2457 Location: Oakland, Ca Posts: 848	My outlook and experience at the Baja 1000 Here is a short story through my eyes of our trip down to the Baja 1000. While I feel like most people wont understand how intense and how many stories we have while we are down there, I will try to explain it how it went down. Monday we arrived at our hotel just north of Ensenada. As time passes on the next few days, more and more of our chase vehicles and drivers start to arrive. Wed. rolls around and we take the rig to tech, and it checks out with no problems. After tech all of our chase teams with the exception of Aj and John hall head south to where they will camp until the race vehicle arrives. Wed. night at 7pm we get to the drivers meeting. I was completely amazed of how many racers there was, it’s unbelievable when you see a room full of hundreds of drivers and co-drivers. As the room fills up, Sal Fish begins the drivers meeting, a few minutes later a driver sits down on the steps at the front of me at my feet. I notice that the driver in none other than Robby Gordon. This is when it really starts to hit me, this is the real deal, were really here to race the Baja 1000. After the drivers meeting, we take off and head up town with some friends that are racing in the sportsman’s buggy class. The next morning at noon we start staging the jeep, we contact the chase team that will be following us which is AJ and John hall, we then find out where they’re set up at. One O clock rolls around and were about 2 cars back from the start. We pull up on the start, and we get the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…GO and so the race begins for us. We drop into the first wash and I keep reminding myself to “take it easy, slow down I still have to get the rig to lance”. About 10miles into the race a Jeepspeed blows by us completely (in my opinion) out of control and is doing at least twice our speed. Shortly after the Jeepspeed passes, we get passed by two sportsman’s trucks, about another 10-15 miles down the road the Fat city jeep, while he is not pushing hard , I decide to let him pass by, and follow in his dust for a little ways. After about 20 miles or so into the race the jeep starts to have running issues, the same issues we have been fighting all year. Shortly after this we hit the first silt bed, we pull into the silt bed and there is two class 5 bugs stuck right in front of me, and a class one car stuck off to my left. I give one of the class 5 bugs a push and he gets going and picks a left line out through the bushes and motors on. At this time the first Jeepspeed that passed us, comes up on our right. ( I guess some where back we must have passed him.) As he goes by he’s sliding onto the class 5 bugs right in front of me, since he is on a pretty bad side hill. About this time I get a call on the radio from the fat city guys, telling us they are stuck about 2 cars in front of us in the silt bed, apparently as the Jeepspeed that was passing us drove by the fat city guys on the right side they rolled over. I get behind Eric from fat city to give him a push, while he is getting a tug from the front. After he gets out they pull off to the right and we drive by, but we wait a little further up the road at a steep silty hill to make sure the fat city guys make it up okay since there are only 2wd. They get up the hill okay so we motor on, Fatcity radios to us shortly after that they are having some running issues, so we stop at the next road crossing where John Hall and Aj are waiting to work on our vehicles to try out find the running issues. We Checked to make sure that our pickup in the fuel cell didn’t make it to the top of the foam, and we checked to see if our filter was clogged with foam. After Aj and John Hall Finish getting ours together they head on over to the fat city guys and find that there filter is clogged with fuel cell foam. We motor on while our chase team stays and unclogged Fat cities fuel filter, and they removed all the fuel cell foam. They radio to us and let us know that they fixed fat cities running problems,. The next point that they were going to meet up with us, they wanted to pull out our fuel cell foam, and blow out our fuel lines incase any foam was in there. So at the next point we did just that. After that everything else went pretty much flawlessly, until we got to Coco’s corner and did our driver change. And while it would take another 3 hours to explain what else happened, the only other things we had to fix on the rig during the rest of the race, our shifter momentarily quit working on Jody, we had 2 cracked motor mounts that had to be welded, and about 47 miles before the finish the rig caught on fire, but Bob and Camo managed to put out the fire. Other than that we didn’t have one flat tire or any major breakage issue’s. If I had to pick one moment during my leg of the race that stands out in my mind, it would be running through the big whoops coming into San Felipe, just about side by side with the Fat city guys. Id did clip a spectator with the drivers side mirror, all and all it was more of an adventure than a race. And I can say that I am very honored to have raced with the other drivers/co-drivers on our team. But most of all would like to thank the volunteer chase teams that made the race for us, and also our sponsors. Sponsors are: Powertank Currie Radflo Bilstein Full traction Roundeyes Bfgoodrich Pirate4x4.com 4x4oil’s Alloy Usa Precision gear __________________ ShaffersOffroad.com (510)533-5202 Shaffer-Motorsports.com Torchmate.com Torchmateracing.com Last edited by MIKE S; 11-22-2006 at 11:16 PM.

11-22-2006, 12:01 PM	#2 (permalink)
Dirty Harry Registered User Join Date: Nov 2000 Member # 2242 Location: Reno, NV Posts: 2,537	Thanks for sharing your story Mike. It is cool to see guys working together and helping eachother out, I think that is what sets the offroad community apart from other motorsports. __________________ Harry Situations Harry Wagner Freelance 4WD Writing & Photography Vehicle Features, Tech, & Trail Reports

11-22-2006, 12:13 PM	#3 (permalink)
desertbull Registered User Join Date: May 2003 Member # 19936 Location: So Cal Posts: 227	EPIC! Mike, I agree with you that until you actually race the Baja 1000, explaining it to someone does not do it justice. I've tried and tried and tried..like I told Lance way back when---just gotta do it! Tell me the truth --- Supercrawl or Baja 1000? LOL---No need to answer---I know what your thinking! __________________ Carnage Crew 08 XRRA Champs Just for the record, "I am not Mike Overcast!" ROTFLMAO

11-22-2006, 01:11 PM	#6 (permalink)
MIKE S Registered User Join Date: Dec 2000 Member # 2457 Location: Oakland, Ca Posts: 848	One more thing i would like to add, i cant believe i almost forgot about it. When we got to la Paz we didnt have a room, and couldnt find any rooms. We pulled in front of the hotel, and one of the guys inside our chase truck ran into the hotel to see if they had any rooms available. It was about 5.30am at this point. While i was waiting outside a guy walked up to my window and asked if we had any room on the trailer for a class 1 car. I told him no but if he couldnt find a trailer i told him to give me call and we will put it on our trailer and we will just drive the jeep speed back. then i asked him if by chance he had any extra rooms, and he said actually no, but you guys can have the key to the room and go get some sleep. Later on that day we ran into him again, and he gave me a key to the room informing me that it was paid for another night. The coolest thing about this was the guy that gave us his room was Malcom Smith(6 time baja 1000 champion) and he raced the very first baja 1000 on a motorcyle. Like i said before, everything about this trip was totally amazing. __________________ ShaffersOffroad.com (510)533-5202 Shaffer-Motorsports.com Torchmate.com Torchmateracing.com

11-22-2006, 01:18 PM	#7 (permalink)
jwag Rock God Join Date: Oct 2001 Member # 7638 Location: norcal Posts: 1,100	Thanks Mike for taking the time. Seems like you fullfilled a lifelong dream. I hope to do the same some day. I have so may questions for you guys...$$$,logistics,GPS, etc. And of course, Congrats...You Won the BAJA1000! __________________ www.westcoastfabworks.com

11-22-2006, 12:42 PM	#5 (permalink)
XJJack Registered User Join Date: Mar 2001 Member # 3698 Location: Hawthorne, CA Posts: 740	Welcome to the addiction. Glad you had a good first experience in baja, hope you can have it again, but it can be like a drug it's never as good as the first hit.

11-23-2006, 10:23 PM	#8 (permalink)
Bomber52 Granite Guru Join Date: Aug 2005 Member # 51365 Location: Fountain Valley, Ca Posts: 536	Mike, Well done to you and all that took part with you. It seems it was an epic adventure. One to be remembered forever. I am hoping to race in the Baja 1000 next year. If I could get it right to finish the way all of you did would be an absolute dream. The spirit of both teams, 1701 and 1702 , was amazing, and I waited with keen anticipation for any result. Once again, congratulations. Glenn __________________ www.radflo.com Radflo Suspension Technology 714 965-7828 Like us on Facebook

11-24-2006, 08:49 AM	#9 (permalink)
Racing Ron Granite Guru Join Date: Aug 2003 Member # 21914 Location: So Cal Posts: 854	For those that haven't read all the different threads; Mike Shaffer also lent us (1702) a front shock that kept us in the race. AND - Randy Ellis stayed back to help us at Coco's! A Racer and Friend. And how cool is the Malcom Smith story? Congrats Mike! __________________ www.tenfactory.com www.motivegear.com www.desertraceschool.com

11-24-2006, 09:23 AM	#10 (permalink)
Hype4x4 Registered User Join Date: Nov 2006 Member # 82819 Posts: 9	I look forward to attending the Baja 1000 next year... story's like this make me want to attend even more...

11-24-2006, 11:49 AM	#11 (permalink)
Kyle_T Texas by GOD Join Date: Mar 2006 Member # 69765 Location: Fort Worthless, TX Posts: 1,714	Cool Story. __________________ ~ Kyle 1999 Land Rover Discovery II - Lift, Tires, Axles, Stuff. /forum/land-rover/924588-my-d2-axle-swap-thread.html 2006 Range Rover Urban Assault Vehicle

11-24-2006, 07:06 PM	#12 (permalink)
WOBBLEWAGON Newbie Join Date: Jul 2005 Member # 50586 Location: NORTH BAY, CA Posts: 75	Baja 1000 Mike that was a cool story. Glad to hear you all had a great time and look forward to meeting you all at the next score race that you all participate in. I work with Wide Open for all those annoying little BC Cars Haha! Attached Images __________________ www.wideopenbaja.com Those little annoying BC Cars Crew Chief WWW.ThurenFabrication.COM WWW.THECARLISUSPENSION.COM Last edited by WOBBLEWAGON; 11-24-2006 at 07:12 PM.

11-25-2006, 08:13 AM	#13 (permalink)
Brutpwr Zeus of the Sluice Join Date: Mar 2000 Member # 481 Location: San Jose, CA, USA Posts: 3,856	...glad you had a great time...always love all the Baja stories from other racers and chase teams!!! Jason

11-25-2006, 07:30 PM	#14 (permalink)
nevadayj Granite Guru Join Date: Apr 2002 Member # 11578 Location: Minden, NV Posts: 922	Mike, I agree, what an adventure. So what's your plan for next year We all left LaPaz with our doubts about attempting the thing again, but now that a week has gone by it sounds like a great idea. Our car is sold, so we have to find somehting to race next year....Class 1 maybe?! Anyhow, had some good times with you and Kyle. Glad we all survived, cause there were times when I had my doubts! Doug __________________ Boat dealer extraordinaire!

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