Outer Bounds Racing Baja 1000

Well, Mexico sure is a wild place.

We have just got back from pre-running the Baja Mil. I am absolutely amazed Julsons pre-runner made it back in one piece; it has been through everything from boggy salt lakes to set on fire and everything in between….. 

So here is the run down, Brian is doing the first 3^rd of the race, which is made up of some really tight tree sections and ends in some big long whooped out sections through the desert. Travis is doing the 2^nd section which is the San Felipe loop made up of 220miles of relentless whoops and my section is the last which is made up of everything from 300foot cliff face runs to dark foggy forest sections filled with silt. All in all it is a very, very tough course and just finishing will be a big deal.  

Here’s how our pre-run went……

Wednesday we made our way to Ensenada and met up with all the crew, we were lucky enough to pre-run with some very experienced people including the guys from Lofton Motorsport (who are currently fielding a NASCAR and have just built a Jimco Trophy-Truck) aswell as Gay Smith Racing, Stroble Motorsport(who are currently building a Trophy Truck aswell) and of course Mike Julson.  

So we started in Ensenada and run the first 130miles of the course, lots of tight stuff through the trees mixed in with a heap of rocky sections. It was a fairly uneventful day and all the pre-runners made it through without any problems. We stayed the night at a little Ranch in San Veronica.

On Thursday we planned to get to San Felipe early in the afternoon as we had a hotel right on the beach and apparently it was the perfect place to drink coronas as the sun goes down. Well, 15miles into the day Gay Smith had been trying to find a way to go across the “dry” lake bed when he found a “not so dry” part and was completely stuck in his Jimco 2000 with the beetle body.  So after getting every pre-runner stuck, unstuck and stuck again it was Curt Leduc to the rescue in his Bronco pre-runner and eventually some 4 hours later we were back on the road. After a quick passenger change Travis was in with Mike to do half of the San Felipe loop. Finally everyone made it to San Felipe for a well earnt meal at the local steak house and a few beers.

Come Friday the pre-runners were looking a bit worn out, after a quick prep thanks to Mike’s son-in-law Junior we were ready to go. Trav and Mike aswell as Jeff Howe were off to pre-run the last half of Trav’s section. After 30miles of relentless whoops the power steering gave way and sprayed fluid over the headers resulting in quite a large fire in the back of the pre-runner. Needless to say the fire was put out in record time thanks to Trav(must be all that practice at all the hotel rooms across the country!) and luckily enough Mr. Howe himself was on board to fix the problem and get them going again. 

When they finally arrived at the pit where I will be getting in come race day we had a few minor problems that we fixed and I was strapped in to have a look at what my section would bring. As expected it started with a heap of big whoops and soon smoothed out, all seemed ok, we had to change a flat on the side of a 200foot mountain just before dark. 

As we got closer to the coast it started to get really dark and foggy and soon enough we were doing about 5miles an hour just trying to see where we were going. 

After the beach section it finally cleared up and we headed into the forest for some of the craziest terrain I’ve ever seen, one of the biggest obstacles was/will be 4 or 5 uphill silt covered hill climbs. Each being  300-500m in length going straight up in the softest silt/sand you have ever seen. But we should be ok, the car is nice and light with fairly good power. 

All in all it is a tough course and the attrition will be huge, we have a good game plan and I think as long as we all keep calm and don’t do anything stupid we will be in a good position come the finish.

Attached are some photos for you and I will be trying to get a little video up soon aswell. If anyone wants some high res photos just let me know which ones and I will send them to you. 

Cheers,