The only familiar face was that of Ryan Arciero, Troy’s accomplished co-driver and another desert-racing luminary whom we’ve met before in Baja. It was relaxed and jovial, like walking in on a family reunion sponsored by Monster Energy. We first met the BFG-supported team, including father Ed Herbst and his sons, Tim and Troy, the night before the race over dinner with the crew-all 98 of them, mostly volunteers. One of Baja’s royal families, the Herbsts have been successfully involved in desert racing for years. The 1000 is entirely different when seen from the fast end of the field, as we learned by tagging along with Las Vegas-based Terrible Herbst Motorsports, a team gunning for overall victory in the Trophy Truck class- the most advanced of Baja’s unlimited, tube-frame race cars with bellowing V-8s and three feet of suspension travel.
He was speaking from experience both he and Lovell race in the BC class.
With a forgiving chassis and naturally aspirated Subaru flat-fours making only about 170 horsepower, the durable BC buggies are fun and “just powerful enough to get you into trouble,” Comrie-Picard told us.
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A thrilling ridealong awakened us to the lightweight open-wheelers’ 18 inches of suspension travel and tight four-speed manual gearboxes, after which Lovell bravely rode shotgun as we built up the nerve to hit the track’s 12-foot-tall tabletop jump flat out. “As long as you’re still running and keep in communication, we’ll keep the lights on,” he adds.īFG also supports SCORE’s Baja Challenge (BC) class of spec buggies, which we had the chance to experience on Ensenada’s jump-rich short-course dirt track with racers Brad Lovell and Andrew Comrie-Picard. Services include communications assistance, full-course navigation and notes, refueling, tire changes, and onsite fabricating-“creative engineering,” as Frank DeAngelo, BFG’s long-time off-road guru, calls it. With more than 240 mostly volunteer workers, along with three tractor-trailers and a fleet of smaller vehicles, BFG would be operating five full-service pit stations for more than 100 teams. While some bigger teams do take up the offer, grassroots participants are what BFG’s motorsports director Chris Baker calls “the heart and soul of our sport.” Teams basically drop off their supplies and indicate where they’ll be pitting, and everyone is given a detailed booklet of maps and information for the race.
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This is where you come if you’re new to Baja or on a tight budget, as the company is dedicated to supplying free pit services to any BFG-shod racer that registers for them. The scope of the action was evident when we toured BFG’s broad and charitable operation. To celebrate its 40th anniversary at the 1000 this past November, BFG invited us into the trenches for a front-row look at how racers would survive this year’s 855-mile race course.
BFGoodrich (BFG) has championed desert racers for decades, including supplying tires for 28 overall winners at the 1000 and outfitting nearly 60 percent of this year’s 270-strong field with its rubber. Next year’s 50th running will be from Ensenada to La Paz, essentially the length of the peninsula. An alternating format has this year’s 49th running set as a loop race that starts and finishes in the seaside port of Ensenada, about 80 miles south of San Diego. And the big show is the Baja 1000, the final and most grueling event in the SCORE International off-road championship.Ī lot has changed since a Meyers Manx buggy won the first 1000 in 1967, recording its official time-27 hours and 38 minutes from Tijuana to La Paz-via telegraph. Any race there is a test of human and mechanical endurance against a desert steeped in mystique, with the occasional booby trap from overzealous fans thrown in for good measure. There’s a reason Mexico’s Baja California peninsula has been a pillar of off-road racing for nearly half a century. While a near-stock Ford F-150 Raptor can technically complete the race, simply finishing the 1000 is a triumph for anyone. But just how much effort will it take to pull off? You have money and vacation days in the bank, talked some friends into helping out, and have a vehicle that complies with one of the myriad racing classes, from Baja bug to exotic prototype. So you want to run the legendary Baja 1000 desert race.
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