Blood, vomit and fun.

I woke in the night, sweaty, pained, and nauseous. Sometime while emptying the contents of my stomach I must have blacked out because I woke up on the floor of the bathroom with blood all over the place. Chipped my front tooth pretty good, cut my chin wide open. I ought to get stitches but since I don't think there is a doctor around within a hundred miles to deal with me safely, I'm just going to apply first aid and hope for the best. Pretty sure it was food related. I feel better now. I think I’ll skip breakfast. Pleasant!
It’s morning, everyone is starting to stir and load out for pit setup. I can hear radio traffic from the three Speed Technologies chase trucks in the parking lot outside my little room here at the Tourista Motel.
Though there is no hurry, as we won’t see the car for several hours, I find myself anxious to be underway.

Contingency

Today started a bit later…. For that I am thankful. Unfortunately, it was also a day of small mishaps but happy endings. A little work had to be done to swap tires around after rolling the two race cars through contingency. Contingency itself was about like the first year, 2005, that I came down for the Baja 1000. Lots of people all packed in around a long line of race vehicles inching their way towards the SCORE officials who inspected each car to verify class qualification and safety. There was a live band that kept playing various reggaesque songs and inviting random girls up on stage to sing, dance or just make noise.
We planned on getting clear of Ensenada by noon but had several set backs relating to prepping The Dominator for the race. We didn’t pull out of town until around four o’clock. By the time we arrived where we are now at La Tourista motel in El Rosario it was well past dark. The drive down was uneventful, just the way we like it. Everyone is pretty beat and with nothing to really do in this little town, we are all heading to bed early.
We’ll get plenty of sleep and set up pits near Cataviña in the morning. Then we begin the long anxious wait, all ears straining into the dark for the sound of a distant V10 howling into the night. Tomorrow the 40th Baja 1000 begins.

Parnelli Jones, !Torta Grande!, The Dominator

San Diego to Ensenada went fairly smooth. I easily linked up with Frank from the 1749 Jeepspeed team. Luckily, it wasn't putting him out at all to come get me from the airport as his team needed some header wrap and asked him to find it. We looked around at a couple parts stores but they really don't carry that kind of thing. Offroad Warehouse was closed, and everywhere else we could think of right away was closed too. So I called my friend Shane Henry. Shane knew where to score some- his house. It was Frank's lucky day. Shane sold him a bunch of wrap and some safety wire to put it on there with.

While at Shane's shop I took a look at a really sweet project he's working on. I'm not going into much detail right here but expect to hear more about it....

Anyhow, next we headed South. The border crossing was uneventful. I made a quick stop there to get myself a Mexican Tourist Card or, "FMT". These are not visas precisely but are required if you are leaving t

he border area or staying in Mexico longer than 72 hours. Last year, I blew it off in favor of grabbing it in Ensenada at the port there. Bad move. The port master, jacked us for three times the actual cost and was a jackass about it as well. This time was much smoother and it cost only $23. Last year, no on

e even bothered to ask me for the stupid thing but since I'm actually returning from Baja via air, I'll actually need it to board my plane at the other end.

We cleared the retched hive of scum and villainy known as Tijuana as fast as humanly possible without speeding. Seventy-two kilometers down th

e road we stopped at Baja Seasons, a hotel. There Frank dropped off his tape and I ran into a familar face or two.

Next Frank took me to Las Rosas where I was pleased to see both JT Taylor and Mark Munson immediately upon my arrival. We BS'd a bit and JT introduced me to the other guys and gals in the Speed Technologies family

. Everyone was super friendly and down to earth. 

I had time to throw my gear in JT's room and relax for a few minutes and then the Prerunner driven by Mark c

alled on the radio asking to meet up with him at a Pemex station in town. Before I knew it, I was being herded into the Prerunner, a white Bronco with very little of it's former Bronco self remaining.

Mark, Cammy and I strapped in and got underway. Cammy, is Speed Technologies PR person. This race will be her first real exposure to any kind of offroad motorsports. I'm not sure who enjoyed more our ride

 through the first 13 miles of the race course as it snakes through the back streets of Ensenada, me or her. 

Mark didn't push the Bronco too hard but we definitely broke 60mph a few times which was a blast. I was really amazed at how well behaved and soft the suspensi

on was. I could barely feel big holes and ditches. 

Groups of 5 or 10 Mexican children ran out by the side of the course and screamed at us to give them stickers. Mark stopped to give a few stickers out but didn't stop for the ones he recognized from earlier runs throughout the day. Those kids hur

led rocks at us.

Eventually we hopped back on Highway 3 and made for the hotel.  When we pulled into the hotel there was a special surprise awaiting me.

Meet The Dominator. This is Speed Technologies' brand new Class I buggy. This year, they are actually racing both the old buggy and the new one. No words or even this one picture can describe exactly just how bad ass this car is. To give you a little inkling, it has a Dodge V10 with over 700HP at the wheels..... yeah.

Battery is dying on me now and I need food and water. We leave early tomorrow for Cataviña. I'll try to update from there but if I can't.... this will be all you hear until I reach Cabo. Wish me luck.

The toughest 1000 (or 1300) miles of racing known to man.

Well, I've been up for about 45 minutes. It's 4:30am right now. I swore last week at this same time that I would look for later flights from now on. Hell, I *had* an earlier flight but I would be suspicious if anything I planned for Baja went according to that plan.

Ok so lets count... yep third time. This makes my third consecutive Baja 1000. The plan is to link up with a dude named Frank off who I met through Pirate4x4.com. He is hooking me up with a ride from San Diego, across the border... oops ride to the airport is here...

5:30am- Phew! I love the PDX airport. Even when busy it runs sooo much smoother than most airports. The free wi-fi is especially nice as well. I'm sitting at the Capers Cafe which is right in front of you as you exit the A,B,C, gates security checkpoint. They have really great food here by any standards, not just the standards of air travel.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, my third Baja. I wouldn't go so far as to say i'm a veteran but at least I have a pretty good idea what will happen or rather what won't happen. Nothing will go according to plan, that much I figure is definite but the plan is: I link up with JT Taylor of XRRA Rock Racing noteworthiness. JT heads up a chase team for Speed Technologies. ST is races Class I. I will attempt to find JT at Las Rosas hotel, a few miles North of Ensenada sometime today. It's my only real mission today really and if I pull that off I'm set to ride with JT's chase team tomorrow morning from Ensenada to Cataviña several hundred miles South.

Here in this blog, if I have internet connection, I'll try to keep a blow by blow for those of you that enjoy such things. You'll have the extra pleasure of an un-edited account of this trip. If you are excited by the idea, curb your enthusiasm until you see what happens when my writing sees the light of day sans editing and polish. Though i will post some photos here, you'll need to check the pages of CRAWL Magazine to see the best ones as well as more details and minutia that I will no doubt be too lazy to put in this blog while on the road.

Ok.... here we go.

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