A friend told me about the Baja 1000. He told me that I had to go experience it. It was the best.Can it get any better than this. This was my first time to the Baja 1000. It was an adrenaline rush every time that I saw the racers roar through the course. I loved the hands on approach to spectator watching as we chased the leaders all day.It felt like I was in the race myself. It was an experience that I will never forget. I'm glad that I was introduced to off road racing it is truly a great sport. I can't wait for the next race.

Andres Castro
Indio,CA

I enjoyed your realtime coverage. However as of 8:00pm on Saturday the latest update is at 4:50AM. It was nice to know about the TT, Class 1 and motorcycles......but are they the only ones that people are interested in? Unable to make it to the 1000 because of my pregnancy I was counting on you to keep me up to date on ALL of the finishers.

Finally found out that our race team made it across the finish line safely. Maybe next time the reporters will document all the racers as they finish. Other than that I looked forward to checking my computer hourly to see the standings since this was such a difficult race with alot of obstacles.

Laura

Hi Laura,

We had just one person at the finish line and he had to get some sleep. We finished up at 1300hrs to catch the last finishers. We posted http://www.off-road.com/race/2001baja1000/results.html later that evening.
PJC

Staying up countless hours to attend to a damn camera, note pad and a computer that has a 9k sat connection isn't all that it's cracked up to be, unless of course it's Baja, and you're one of two members of the "press" that even bothered to venture south for the race of races.

I'll admit, I was susceptible to an hour's sleep that morning. With that said, we've all should give thanks to Judy Smith of Dusty Times, who herself had some sleep but has set a standard of being there to cover races where others weren't.
FG

Hey Gang,

On behalf of the crew and drivers of #1618, thanks mucho for the help on the "Hill from Hell" at Mile 390. Without you guys (and who's the gal with the big voice?) we, and a lot of other hapless souls would have been screwed.

I seem to recall someone with a video camera. If there is any decent footage (especially with our car) I'd love to get a copy. It has to be hysterical to watch.

Thanks again.

Mark A. Thurman
President
Pepper Construction
www.pepperconstruction.com

This one was forwarded to us from Locos Mocos. They were the guys up on the hill posing as miracle workers for one of the worse Baja courses ever.

They're a great group of hardcore spectators and ORC has the privledge of calling them our friends. Check out their website here. www.locosmocos.com. FG

HI TONY

I got in Steve Roberts' car # 1618 at the 350-mile mark. We passed the second place car 1619 that went over the side, stuck in the bushes, that made us feel good. Then we ran into some traps, it was in a tight area that the left was a dead end. I knew the course went right but the creek was straight with about a 3' drop-off. The course was blocked on the right side with 3 logs & some sheet metal on the right side. The logs were on fire, I forgot to say. 5 miles before I had lost my reverse so I had to jump the logs; I didn't want for my co-driver to get out in this area it didn't look good.

Then we came to the silt hill 390 miles. We were about 5th in line as we watched there were about 12 cars stuck on or in or over the side of this hill. I knew that I could use a skinnier tire on the rear so when I was waiting for my turn, I changed the spare front to the rear & put the rear on the tire rack. When waiting for our turn we were passed by several cars that just went around us up & over the bushes & cactus. They thought they were too good to wait their turn.

About 1 1/2 hrs then they called for me to go. I started down the hill then when going up the first hill there was a Class 12 side ways on the course. I had to stop there. So now I am, stuck. Thanks to the Locos Mocos pit guys & 1 girl. They pushed me with about 8 people over the 2 slit hills. I had to wait about 15 to 20 minutes for my co-driver to walk out (Mark Thurman) he must have gotten out of the car in this slit section about 6 times. Sure was rough with reverse out. About 10 miles later I broke the left front shock and had to pull off. Knew I had to drive a long way because the spare shocks where on hwy# 1 -- about 120 miles away, but after the 390 mile marker we kept moving on at a good pace. I started at 7 pm and got to the finish line at 9am

Rick Boyer

This email was forwarded from The Cheeze himself, Tony "The Story" Tellier. He accepts fan mail at the following locations.

Tony Tellier, Yuma, AZ or San Felipe, Baja tellier@mindspring.com www.elchineroconcepts.com
FG

Thanks for checking our brake fluid at the pit after mikes, where all the cars were stuck. You folks were great! #866

Brad Falin
Crew Chief
Team Hummer

This one was forwarded to us from Locos Mocos.
FG