Baja 1000, Life of a Pit Crew
By Mike West (West Coast Broncos)
Photo courtesy of Dan Wright
Standing at the finish line watching our drivers signing autographs on slips of paper and T shirts it seemed hard to think of what the road to getting there had been like. Here we were in La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico at the end of the 1017 mile race course and we had finished third. Not too bad at all, considering it was the second year for this team and race truck.
Old Horse Racing Photo courtesy of Chuck Atkinson |
Team BC Broncos Photo courtesy of Chuck Atkinson |
A Long Hard Race For Any Rig
I had joined the team only the Saturday before. Dan Wright had sent me an e-mail and wanted to know if I could work on the pit crew for Old Horse Racing. They would be supporting Chuck Atkinson and his team from BC Broncos. Old Horse racing was formed the year before and is dedicated to helping those who want to run an early Bronco in the Baja 1000.
The Baja 1000 is a long hard race for any rig and team. In even years the race is from Ensenada to La Paz. On odd years it circles back to end in Ensenada.
After telling Dan I was good to go, I drove from my home in Klamath Falls, Oregon to his place in Rio Vista, CA on Saturday the 13th of November. We finished loading the pit gear there and then headed to Elk Grove to pick up Jack, the pit crew chief, and Gary. It is the 2nd year for Jack and the also the first for Gary. We left in the afternoon and headed to Hesperia in Southern California. We plan to spend the night at a motel then go to BC Broncos shop to pick up some spare parts.
When we woke up at the motel we found that someone had stolen $2000.00 worth of equipment out of the truck. It didn’t seem like the way you wanted to start a trip like this. We made our way over to Chuck’s place and meet up with Jeremy. He had the race rig on the back of the truck he was driving. The race drivers were already in Mexico working on prerunning the course.
On Monday we headed to the border. As we crossed into Mexico we were stopped by the customs office. After 1-1/2 hours, two tee shirts and $150.00 duty fee we were welcomed into Mexico. As Americans we take so many freedoms for granted, one trip into Baja and you will appreciate living in the good old US of A.
Monday and Tuesday were spent getting everything ready in Ensenada, as the race team returned from prerunning the course and other members of the pit and chase teams arrived. Wednesday the drivers and race truck go to the event know as "contingency" where the rig is checked over and cleared to race.
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Photos courtesy of Chuck Atkinson
Loco In The Cabasa
We departed in the late afternoon as we would need to be 700 miles down course to do our first pit. Along with Dan and I were Greg and John. Greg had his Bronco to work as Chase-2 and brought along John to ride with. In Baja no team member ever works alone.
The roads in Baja are not the same as here at home. Lanes are 9-1/2 to 10 feet wide with no shoulders for the most part. From Ensenada to La Paz there are seven military check points and one immigration check point to pass through when you enter into Baja Sur. Greg, John, Dan and I got along well. This is a good thing if you are going to spend 2000 miles together in the pit truck.
Heading south on Hwy 1 we passed through San Vicente, San Quintin and El Rosario all the while in search of some badly needed supplies. You see, as luck would have it, we did not find that the guys in Hesperia had also taken Dan's cans of chewing tobacco until we had left Ensenada. We stopped at ten Farmacias (Pharmacies) on the way down but none had any, and at one place after translating what I needed, the woman told me that I was "loco in la cabasa, that is bad for you". I did not bother to tell her it was not for me. We stopped for night at Catavina for some badly needed rest.
The next day we made our way to the immigration port at Guerrero Negro to enter Baja Sur. We continued south past Santa Rosalia, Mulege, through the mountains to Ciudad Insurgentes then turned north on Hwy 53 to La Purisma arriving at 7:30 in the evening.
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Photos courtesy of Dan Wright
Off Again In Two Minutes
At La Purisma we set up for the upcoming pit which was to take place sometime in the morning. We set up right across from the crew that was working for Robbie Gordon. They asked if we could help them out with lights and help them pit the truck.
Now let me explain for those of you who do not follow the sport, Robbie drives a trophy truck (these rigs cost hundreds of thousands of dollars) which can make their way across the desert at over 100 mph. We helped change the tires and fuel and he was off again in less than two minutes. The tires that were changed had been so hot; they were still warm two hours later. After that Greg and John headed down to pit row, and Dan and I waited to help pit another rig where only one member of the crew had showed up. As it turned out Greg and John helped another team also. So there we were at 2am having already pitted three rigs, and none of them were ours.
We were up at 5:30 a.m. and ready to go. Patrick and Jason came in at 7am which was two hours ahead of when we thought they would get there. The rig had suffered a broken transmission cross member after the start and had covering 10 miles in two hours before the repairs were made. They were running faster than we thought they would even though they had lost over two hours. Once again as they had the year before, they were having radio problems and it was hard to keep track of them. We checked over the rig, got them on their way, and started down the road to meet them at the next driver change. They would have to cover 100 miles through the desert, while we would only have to cover 70 on the road.
We were to meet them at the BFG pit #6 although they would not stop there. BF Goodrich is one of the major sponsors of the race and have a total of seven pits set on the course. They were about a 1/2 hour longer than we thought they would be. Once there, they had to drive on the highway for about six miles (10 kilometers) and we would chase down to the next dirt section where they would change drivers.
Photo courtesy of Chuck Atkinson
Locals On The Course
When we arrived at the driver change, there were hundreds of locals there watching the race. Now if you have never seen any of the Baja on TV or in pictures, what happens at these places would surprise you. The locals will stand on the race course so they can get the best view, and be closest to the race rigs when they come by. When rig is coming through they will jump out of the way at the last second (keep in mind that some of the rigs are going over 100 mph when they go by) and then jump back on the track right away.
If the rig is stopping, then they surround the rig, and want to get a close up look, shake the drivers hand or even try to help. We were close enough on the highway to our drivers to them on the radio. We found out that they had had a flat on the last leg, and would need another spare. The race rig carries two spares. So as usual when they pulled in to the driver change area, they were immediately surrounded. At first did not see us coming up behind them. We were still doing 50 mph with loaded truck and trailer and it was like the parting of the Red Sea. Once stopped we quickly put a new spare on, and they flew off in to the desert.
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Photos courtesy of Dan Wright
Overdue
We met up with Pit -1 and Chase-2 just after leaving the driver change. Together we headed south to Ciudad Constitucion to grab lunch and made our way to BFG pit point seven. Once there, the long wait began. The race rig should have been into the pit about two hours after they left the driver change. At 3-1/2 hours we began to get concerned.
Dan and me both agreed that something had happened, and that the rig had most likely rolled. We did not know how right we were until the call came in form the rig that they were 11 miles away and that we would need to be ready do repairs when they got there. It took them another 25 minutes to cover the 11 miles. They were leaking oil and something was loose in the front end. They fueled first from the BFG pit and moved to our own pit area.
The racer is not your typical Bronco. The body is made up of fiberglass panels that are held in place over tube frame. The front fenders and grill are all one piece. There is a separate hood, false doors and rear quarter panels. When they came in to the pit we started to get an idea of what had happened. There was nothing left of the front fenders, and only part of the grill was in place and this was due to the hood being smashed down over it.
The fuel cell had shifted to one side, all the overhead off-road lights except one were destroyed, the navigator's access hatch was bent in half, and the center linkage in the steering system was damaged.
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Photo courtesy of Dan Wright
Rolled Down the Slope
All this damage had been caused by a roll over. Chuck had been driving and Wes was the navigator. They lost traction in loose rock, went off a steep embankment, rolled 3-1/2 times, 40 feet down the slope. There they were out in the desert, off the main road... upside down! Locals watching the race in the area came to the rescue. Because of the roll cage, helmets and racing belts, no one was hurt. Over 20 people helped to push the Bronco back onto its wheels, It was not an easy task as they had to do it going up hill. Otherwise the rig would just have kept rolling further down the bank. They pulled out machetes and hacked out a trail through the cactus back to the road.
All our repairs were made in less than a half hour and Patrick and Jason went off down the road. With 100 miles left before the finish they would take their time not to push too hard. The course at this point was such that we would not be close to them until they had only 18 miles to go. We headed down the highway and waited to meet them left and followed them into La Paz.
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Photos courtesy of Dan Wright
The Adventure Home
After a great dinner at the Crown Royal Hotel we caught a nap in the back parking lot, got up early and headed back to Ensenada, 850 miles 20 hours north. Another nap in Ensenada, then headed back to the states. In California we thought we were home free, our, adventure over, but we were wrong.
Heading back to Chuck’s place in Hisperia we found two feet of fresh snow on the ground and spent 2 hours making our way through the snow just to get down his road. Only 30 hours before, we had been in 85 degree weather in La Paz.
On the way home I reflected on the trip I had just made, and the new friends that I hoped I would see again. I had worked on a pit crew in the Baja 1000 and survived. All and all I would have to say, it was well worth the price of admission.
Photo courtesy of Dan Wright
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