Category: Baja 1000 2015

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Today was supposed to be the first of two days of pre-running that would take us to the southern end of the course. Baja laughed.

Cyrus, Carl and Adam joined Dennis Hollenbeck in the Jeeps. I packed up the Westie with three days worth of stuff. We hit the Pemex for gas (I somehow ended up with 15 gallons of fuel in jugs in the car, which made me a rolling gas bomb).

They headed north to pick up the course somewhere around RM35. I headed south toward a town whose name I forgot about five seconds after Dennis told me for the seventh time. We started with radios and then switched to texting with the Iridium Go’s to stay in touch.

Why green signs indicate “Wrong Way” is beyond me.

By the time I hit San Tomas I knew I’d gone too far, so I doubled back, then took a wrong turn and ended up in a vineyard. Finally spotted a bunch of “Wrong Way” signs and knew I was in the right place.

This is where they were supposed to come out.

I had five hours to kill, so once I got parked, I added Chase decals to Chase 1, which had been dubbed El Tortuga. Because of that, Cyrus said I could give his Jeep a nickname. I’m leaning toward “The Gimp” (see below).

Once I got everything set up perfectly, I got a text via the Go that they’d broken a shock 10 miles into pre-running, and they were headed back. So I did too.

Cyrus and Adam headed to San Diego for a new set of shocks, which they picked up at 7:40 p.m., installed and then debated driving back that night. I told them “Don’t.” They stayed.  I think they’e making another trip to the parts store and should be back around noon, at which time  pre-running resumes.

Carl and I entertained each other learning how to tie a bowline knot. Adam taught us how.

“The rabbit comes out of the hole, goes behind the tree and then goes down the hole.”

“First I have to do this, and then I do that.”

“No, use your terminology.”

“I had to make the tree and the hole.”

I’m just going to say right off the bat the trip to Mexico is not the most exciting. I departed Felton at 4 a.m. and met Cyrus and adam at 6 a.m. at the Pea Soup Anderson parking lot in Santa Nella (or Gustine if you’re Google Maps).

We took a break at the rest area on Tejon Pass for Cyrus to decal up Chase 2.

From there it was pretty much a straight shot to San Diego where Cyrus picked up Carl at the airport and then scouted junkyards for spare pats for the newly christened Chase 2, a Jeep Cherokee. I, on the other hand, chillaxed with fellow birthday boy Josh Martelli, who, in addition to being a good friend, also supports Desert Dingo Racing.

Monday morning Cyrus and crew bought more stuff and I met the owner of Apollo Satellite Communications to pick up four Iridium Go! satellite uplinks that we use to coordinate chase vehicles during the race and to order race fuel like I seem to forget to do every year. Christy with Amber Race Services has the patience of a saint.

I was hauling so much crap in the Westie the Mexican border guards ran the car through the x-ray machine and then it was a rocket run in the rain to Ensenada, where we set up shop at Dennis and Deb Hollenbeck’s Las Tres Palmas just south of town. Dennis’ H12:One Class 11 has 5 to 1 odds for winning and we’re next at 8 to 1. We’re still waiting for nine time winner Eric Solorzano to pay his entry fee (which he’ll likely do race morning) to see what odds he gets. Still trying to figure out where we can bet on ourselves.

Cyrus’s Jeep Cherokee is powered by that green stuff from “Repo Man.”

I spent the evening vegging and tossing a plastic Coke bottle to our new mascot, Leica, the yard dog.. Cyrus, Adam and Carl added a light bar from our sponsor Lifetime LED and a GPS unit and drilled all manner of hols in the Cherokee.

Dennis and Deb surprised me with a birthday cake last night. It was great cake. I did, however, graciously decline Dennis’ offer of “Mordida”, which is, technically, the offer of the first bite, but usually ends up with someone face down in the cake.

Thank you everyone.

SCORE has released the preliminary GPS file of the Baja 1000, which means I’ve been flying the course in Google Earth.

If you want to see what the course looks like by “flying” it, here’s what you do:

1. Download the baja10002015KML file.
2. Launch Google Earth.
3. Open the KLM file in Google Earth.
4. On the Google Earth sidebar on the left, look for the “Places” section and under it look for “GPS Device”. Make sure the box mark next to it is checked.
5. Click the small triangle to the left of “GPS Device” so that a menu appears underneath it. It looks like this:
6. 
7. Click the triangle to the left of  “Tracks”
8. Click the triangle to the left of “B1K sec 1”
9. Click on “Path”
10. Click this button  down below the “Temporary Places” listing.
11. You’ll have to repeat the process for each section of the course – “B1K sec 2”, “B1k sec 3”, etc.

That should get you flying.