38th Tecate/SCORE Baja 1000
Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2005 10:46 am
If there is one race that could be completely described as "being in a 24-hr plane crash", it would have to be the Tecate/SCORE Baja 1000. Every November for 38 yrs. now, drivers, celebrities, and a couple-hundred thousand spectators have traveled to Ensenanda, on the Baja Peninsula, for the annual desert race. This year's field of racers is as varied as the desert landscapes they'll be passing through. From the ranks of that "800-lb. gorilla" known as NASCAR come Boris Said, stock-car newcomer Michel Jourdain, Jr. and the racer known as "Baja's Prodigal Son", Robby Gordon(as racing commentator Paul Page put it in the film "Dust to Glory", "It's his world. It's not Indy or Daytona, it's the Baja desert." From the ranks of the IRL comes the 2004 Indy 500 winner, Buddy Rice, and from the rival ChampCar series comes Newman-Haas Racing's duo of Oriol Servia and Sebastien Bourdais. There are also some famous celebrities there, too. ESPN commentator Cameron Steele is an accomplished Trophy-Truck racer; famed bike-builder Jesse James is also entered, as is IRL team owner(and sports-car racer) Patrick Dempsey.
And what is the Baja 1000? It's 1000 miles of washouts, gullies, silt, rock-strewn roads, highways(which are all open to the public during the race!! ) and other desert obstacles. On Friday, Nov. 18th, over 350 entries, in Trophy-Trucks, ATVs', motorcycles, and pre-1982 VW Beetles, among others, will begin the race. The rules are simple.....you get 30 hrs. from the 6:30 AM PST start to finish the 1000-mile looping course. And, yes, it both starts in Ensenada and ends in Ensenada. In a sense, it's a cross btwn. the 24 Hrs. of LeMans, the Bathurst 1000, the Indy 500, and moto-cross racing, all rolled into a 1000-mile "insane-driven" desert course.
And what is the Baja 1000? It's 1000 miles of washouts, gullies, silt, rock-strewn roads, highways(which are all open to the public during the race!! ) and other desert obstacles. On Friday, Nov. 18th, over 350 entries, in Trophy-Trucks, ATVs', motorcycles, and pre-1982 VW Beetles, among others, will begin the race. The rules are simple.....you get 30 hrs. from the 6:30 AM PST start to finish the 1000-mile looping course. And, yes, it both starts in Ensenada and ends in Ensenada. In a sense, it's a cross btwn. the 24 Hrs. of LeMans, the Bathurst 1000, the Indy 500, and moto-cross racing, all rolled into a 1000-mile "insane-driven" desert course.