0852 Hours: Joe Heger dishing out some old fashion roost on last year's Class 5 points champion George "El Chivo" Seeley, the Chivalrous Checker who has a tough time losing. Seeley is said to have had some sort of trouble with his car early on and will most certainly play the catch up game. Heger leads long-time rival, Michael Jackobson by only a few seconds as they both make their way up the wash.

0854 Hours: The "Mad Cow" Class 8 truck of Nick Vanderway is the first truck through the wash with the notorious Beny Canela up in his dust just a few seconds back. Picking up the slack with a quicker pace and an attitude that never quits is the unamed Class 8 ambassodor Joe Patelli. Wouldn't it be something to see him win this race?

0855 Hours: Hector Salazar is leading Class 7, going fender to fender after only 30 miles of racing with theg up always tough Ernesto Cervantes and the almost always victorious Perry McNeil. We caught up with McNeil yesterday during contingency when he told us that the course would be nothing but fast for him as he solos the course along with an expected 10 co-drivers that he plans to pick up and kick out along the way. This race will be tight with some tough competition in the mix.

McNeil's a good one for stories. Perhaps the most memorable story that I remember of him is back in the '96 1000, when he ended up having to drive his underclassed prerunner for the win. The motor in his Class 7 truck gave up the ghost the morning of the race (as I remember). His crew tried to swap it out with only a few hours before the start, but just couldn't cut the time constraints. What the hell? He fired up the Ranger prerunner, slapped on the old helmet, and took the green with the truck that had just saw the entire course two times. Now, these were the days when off-road racing had much more factory backing then it does today. Anyway, after the victory, McNeil's motor home also gave up the ghost. Bum luck to say the least. After the 1000-mile victory for the Ensenada loop race, the crew called upon the 4.0 Liter Ford Ranger once again. This time, it towed the monstrous motorhome all the way back through the border. When he arrived at the border, customs officials scratched their heads, but the only thing they asked was, "Where are the license plates?" Evidently, they were stashed away in the glove box. Enough said.

0908 Hours: Eric Hardin has a three-minute lead on the rest of the 7s class. His Chevy is just a quick flat tire ahead of Dan "Fresco" Fresh and Eduardo Diaz.

0910 Hours: We're unsure of what time she passed through - or the rest of the pack for that matter - because of the dust, but Cindy Greinke seems to be leading the Class 16 race. We, as well as the fans in the immediate vicinity, are unsure who is up front in the Class 15 and Class 12 race, also.

0916 Hours: Rob Taylor's South Bay Stucco 5-1600 Volkswagon Bug is pulling a good two-minute lead on his Mexican-dominated class. Oscar Galindo heads up the pack in second, going side-by-side the tough Danny Ledezma and the green Negrete Boys car of Ernie Negrete.

0925 Hours: It's Checker town for the Challenger Class. Darin McGuffin chisles out a sizable six-minute lead in his Inland Valley Carb car of Saugus, California. The Checker leads the 12-car class that's packed tightly together in his dust. Our friend from East LA, and fellow MDR racer, Arturo Velasco, finally got his car back together for a Baja run. And this time, with the help of his dad, he's up tight in second in Class 9, dicing it up in Guadalupe Wash with Raul Aguiar, Raul Aguiar, Scott Hewitt, Tom McAdams and EricFisher, who's tail gunner for the clustered pack.

0935 Hours: Don "Ain't Growing No" Moss is just shoving his Class 3 competitors aside in his later model Ford Bronco. He drove up on the non-Jeepspeed Cherokee XJ of Billy Bunch (built by Walker Evans) with authority. The straight six just coudln't compete on the flat. Last year's Jeepspeed champion in the Skyjacker Suspension XJ, Barrie Thompson, is weaving through the dust and awaiting his move. More conservative, we think he'll wait it out and take the pass later in the race when it actually means something.

0945 Hours: The Fabtech truck of Craig Turner just passed through. He's way off the Class 7 leaders.

0947 Hours: Because of the extreme dust hazard, it's difficult to see who iswho and what physical position they are in.

1002 Hours: Class 11 is also a tight race, the dust is too thick to call with much certainty, but we do know that Fernando Flores was up in front. Eric Solorzano may be up in the dust somewhere. It's even likely that he's up front, as usual. Alfredo Chavarin was the second Class 11 that we saw pass through.

1059 Hours: With but a half-dozen hours sleep for the last three days running, we're going to finish up here in the Sleepy Little Trout Fishing Village of Guadalupe (inside joke) and head into town for some food and hopefully a nap. We'll be bringing some more photos forward once we hook up with Trackside Photo later on in the day at the finish line. We don't expect a finisher until around 5 p.m. today. We'll update you as we find out more. Stay tuned and thanks for hanging in there.

And Steve Barlow thought he had it easy in his Red Bull Ford Protruck. Introduce Marc Stein and Dave Sykes, Stock Full transplants, into the Protruck Class and there they are up front.
	George Seeley was lagging way behind. We're thinking he stopped off to help someone out along the course, either that or he had problems.
The dust was pretty bad. It was tough to tell whether you were about to be hit or not. You know, it's tough being a spectator.
	Creeping along to a Class 11 victory? It's a long time before that can be determined. Alfredo Chavarin has more than 400 miles to earn that one.
The Ford chase truck in action.
	Mana the dog taking the watch of the ORC communications center as the last Class 11 passing through.
Joe Patelli charging through the wash.
	The faces of Tecate bid a farewell until the finish, which should take place for Team Honda near 4 p.m. Until then.

Race@Off-Road.com