NORRA 1000

Baja can be your best friend, and Baja can be your worst enemy. You know, you do what you’ve got to do, but it’s all about overcoming the adversity. We’re NORRA 1000 is like the ultimate adventure and a great race. You’re starting at the top of the Baja and racing vintage vehicles all the way down to Cabo over five days.

So we’re doing it in a 1968 Bronco* with a single-chase truck, and there’s a lot that gets left to chance on something like this. [ Music ] Ensenada is a really cool place. It’s called the Off-Road City in Mexico. The mayor calls himself the Off-Road Mayor.

Why? Because this is where so many off-road races start. We have NORRA running out of here. This is where the Baja 1000 starts.

This is where the Baja 500 starts. This town has such a great off-road vibe, and it’s a really cool place to be and such a privilege. This is like the entry to Baja. It’s cool here, but Baja only gets cooler as you head south.

We dealt with some issues today, ones we weren’t expecting. A little service on the race truck, which is perfectly fine, but we’ve had some turbo noise in the chase truck which of course could, you know, have a drastic effect on our race. So Jake and everybody tore that down right down to the turbo. We had a look at it.

We did some research. We think we’re okay but, you know, it’s all the little butterflies right before the race. So got it behind me right now. We’re just going through the last plans about where we’re going to fuel, where we’re coming out on the highway.

There’s so many layers of logistics in a race like this. So we’re right down to the last details right now, and I can’t wait to wake up in the morning, get behind the wheel of this thing and take off out of Ensenada. [ Music ] Now is the time you throw caution to the wind and hope that everything you’ve done is going to help you get to the end. [ Engine Roaring ] If they break down, they can use the sat phone to call us, which we have to keep on at all times.

We would go in on an access road after all the race traffic has cleared and repair the race truck with all the stuff that we have here on the chase truck. The terrain leaving Ensenada is very mountainous. Then we get down to some fast stuff that we’ve run before with the SCORE Baja 1000. We work our way through to some new trails and some access road when we go down Laguna Diablo, which is this dry lake bed.

It’s going to be real loose from the San Felipe 250 that was just run. We touched some silt and some big hoops. Worked our way through the Morelia Junction into San Felipe, which is on the Sea of Cortez. What a wonderful place where we’ll camp tonight, camped out on the beach.

What a great day, you know? The Bronco ran super clean. The adventure down here in Baja, I know we’re going to have crazy ups and downs that are not even around in racing. We’re just hanging out down here on the beach, camped out, working on the Bronco, and here comes a paraglider and gave us all rides.

How cool is that! I’ve never been up in something like that. Stuff like that happens every year, whether it’s that or, you know, we got tangled up in a school crossing sign last year. And it’s a great adventure, and that’s why people really end up coming down to Baja.

There’s a ton of people down here, whether they’re racing, just enjoying outdoors and adventure. You’ve got to love it. [ Music ] A lot of people see there’s a race happening in Baja, but the unseen part of the race is everything that happens in the chase truck and everything that happens throughout the day and the crew working their way down the course to catch the race truck. And, you know, the bonds and the friendship that you develop in a race truck, the experience with the locals — you know, today we gave a little girl a sticker, and she immediately slaps it on her bike.

And I’m not going to lie. It brought a tear to my eye. And every time I come down here, every year that I come down here there’s just one split second where I see something that brings a tear to my eye. So, when you’re in Baja, the craziest things can happen.

I’ve been coming to Baja for years. I’ve been driving vehicles for years. I’ve never once in my life had a valve stem fail. Today I had two valve stems fail in a period of less than an hour.

We had rough roads. We had all kinds of stuff. We had to scramble and do all kinds of engineering to get the chase truck down to the finish line. Fortunately, the race truck was doing really well and beat us to the finish line.

Man, today was a big day. Oh, my gosh. Started off the first special stage and things were haywire with communication between helmets. We got that sorted out going into the second stage.

And Jeremy Hammer, a buddy of ours, he’s a few cars ahead of us, and he rolls. We’re leaving our class. What do I do? Do I stop?

Pull him back over? We stopped and made sure he was all right, and they had the strap out. They know what they’re doing, so we were able to yank them back over, buy a little bit of good karma. Karma’s a big deal in Baja.

You need it. And got down through Calloway Wash [phonetic spelling]. There’s a lot of mud and water down there. After that we took off and finished up the last stage, 15 miler right where this thing loves to run.

Had a few exciting moments in there on two wheels but finished up in Bay of L.A. Ran the gas stations dry of fuel. We’ll go back, make sure the truck’s good to go tonight and off we go south tomorrow. [ Music ] We’re up this morning and get up with the sun as it pokes up around 6 a.m.

And getting the truck ready for another great day. Today’s like a marathon day so, you know, get all the adrenaline out. Today we’ve got to drive slow, smart; make sure we have no problems. There are two stages that are 170-plus miles.

And, you know, we have a problem out there and it’s going to really cost us. Not only is it getting the truck out of there but it’s catching up with the rally that’s heading a long way today. So today’s the one that counts. My job is to make sure that that race car gets to the finish line.

And there’s stages here that are 170 miles plus. And I don’t even get to see the car, let alone have radio contact or anything. And normally I watch the car on the track all day long, and then it comes back after 10 or 15 laps; and I get to service it and make sure it’s not going to break where out here it’s the two dollar bolt that’s going to break that you don’t check. It’s not the transmission or the engine that’s going to go.

It’s that little thing you didn’t check that is the race-ender for you. We had two stages over 170 miles. I ran the first one. Roger ran the second one.

The first one, full of dust. Huge silt beds in there. We threaded the needle. We probably passed 15 cars in that silt bed.

It really felt great, like this Bronco’s running great out there. Four-wheel drive didn’t hurt in that situation. Did real well on the first stage. Got into the second one.

It’s really remote, a lot of rock. We were down to 30 feet below sea level and these huge salt pans. The end of that stage is really rough, but we made it through clean, no problems. It was our best day yet.

We finished 52nd on the day. So we’re climbing up in the standings in the rally and running real well. [ Music ] Day 4 of NORRA is Loreto to La Paz. We start by going up past the San Javier Mission, a bunch of water crossings.

I had the first stage with Mark, and it was a dusty stage. You know, we’re running in dust. It’s really hard to see. It’s hard to know what’s going on in the car.

Navigation is real critical. We had a transit section. Ran in, got some fuel. Brad and Kyle jumped in the truck.

When you’re in the racecar and you’re shouting out commands about turning left and watching out for cattle crossings, watching out for cattle, for that matter, speed zones, you can’t think of anything else. Your brain has to be 100 percent perfectly, totally fixated and involved in which you’re working on. If not, everything will go south. It’s a great way to disconnect.

We then run a bunch of rural agricultural roads, very high speed, a lot of speed zones and villages that you’re coming through. And finally we take off on a big loop, very critical not to break the truck there. A lot of rocks, working through beautiful canyons. Then you hit the really rough rocky part, and you’re doing 3 miles an hour crawling over rocks and just waiting for it to end.

And then you come over and you just see the Sea of Cortez and La Paz, and it’s just phenomenal. The views and the scenery are incredible down here. [ Music ] The very last day of NORRA has been a short one historically. This time it’s not going to be.

La Paz to San Jose del Cabo. This time we’re headed west over through Todos Santos, through the mountains; and then we have a secret special stage at the end where there is no GPS file. We’re doing it the old-school way with just notes, so that special stage is really what I think is going to divide the winner. Baja is really magical.

I heard people say it before I came down here, and it takes coming down here and struggling through this type of environment to really feel what it’s about. There’s so much variation. There’s beauty. There’s desolation.

There’s beaches, mud, water, lots of sand, hoops, high-speed roads. It’s everything wrapped into one. It’s not a desert race. It’s a land race.

[ Music ] One thing we haven’t talked about much is where we’re running in this rally. Well, we’ve had the lead the whole time. We want to win, obviously, so we’re kind of trying to play it smart. And all that can change in the blink of an eye if you break the truck.

Wow. Last day. You know, we really needed to finish a couple of these stages to tie up the win. And the first stage was really fast, awesome.

You know, we road into Todos, and everything went good. And then after that, you know, it’s just like trying to put time on the clock and see what we can do. Came through this twisty, winding mountain stage. The GPS quit working.

There’s a bunch of mayhem. [ Radio Noise ] The GPS just blanked out. Okay. So we’re old school.

And then this last stage they didn’t give you any GPS file, so you’re just reading notes. So I had my head down reading notes. Roger was tearing through there. Didn’t miss a turn.

Up here to the finish. Three times we’ve won this thing in a row, and it’s awesome. It’s kind of just setting in, but it’s a big deal to finish this race and to win. So I’m proud of our team.

We have fought through five days and all the preparation before that to get here. It’s about finishing. If you do well and you win, boy, that’s great. But to persevere through Baja is the real challenge.

Every stop we’ve made on this trip has been beautiful, and it doesn’t matter where you go. After Day 1 I was hooked, and I want to keep coming back just because of the sheer beauty of it. What an experience, you know? Memories that will last a lifetime.