"The Kid is Hot Tonight!" With his win at the Baja 2000, Spirkoff wrapped up the Stock Full SCORE Championship, and came one step closer to "Rookie of the Year" honors.

Don't let the headline confuse you. Because I did it! I've known Jeremy Spirkoff since he was a scrawny teenager, it's real hard for me to think of him as anything but "The Kid." Sure, he's a full-grown man now, but when I found out that he had won the fiercely competitive Stock Full-sized Truck Class at the Baja 2000, the first words to escape my mouth were: "Wow! The kid did it!"

As to winning it for "the kids" - here's the scoop on that. Jeremy donates ALL OF HIS WINNINGS to the Polinsky Children's Center in San Diego. So, indeed, this was a double win: one for The Kid and the other for The Kids.

But it wasn't all that easy to get the job done this year.

You see, since The Kid has been competing in both the SCORE and the Best in the Desert Series, he had a game plan in the Baja 2000 to simply finish the event with the truck un-damaged. Doing this would wrap up the SCORE championship. If they beat the big Ford truck up, it would be tough to get it ready for the next Best in the Dez event, which was right on the heels of the 2000 race.

If he won - fine. But finishing was the goal.

So there he sat on the starting line in Ensenada, with nine other serious trucks all around him. And he was there an hour and a half early. The truck was as perfect as the Spirit Racing shop could make it. Jeremy was relaxed, because he knew he just had to put everything on cruise control and not dog-fight with anyone.

Then, with about ten minutes to go, Sal Fish (the SCORE boss) motioned for the Stock Full-sized Class to start 'em up and stage.

Jeremy thumbed the starter button - and instead of being rewarded with a deep growl from the big block Ford engine - was greeted with a dull "click."

The starter was locked up!

Through thier racing efforts, Jeremy and Nancy have contributed over $30,000 to the Polansky Childrens Center during the 2000 season. Translation: They're winners in more ways than one!

Frantically, the waiting crew members jumped underneath, removed the inspection plate and checked to see if the teeth on the flywheel had hung up on the starter sprag.

Nope. So, with only minutes to go, they beat on it with hammers like madmen.

Something clicked - literally - inside the reluctant starter and the next time he touched the button, the big engine snarled to life. Jeremy looked at his co-driver and both breathed a deep sigh of relief.

At 10:14 in the morning, he was sixth off the line, and took it easy through the greasy wash out of town, noting the a few vehicles were already out of action from water in strange places.

Then, a mere 14 miles into the race, a glowing red light flashed on the dash, telling him that the alternator had died. By the time the chase crew reached them at Guadalupe and replaced the alternator with their only back-up unit, they had lost a half hour, and were not only last in class, but had been passed by most of the rest of the field in the race.

Jeremy was patient and didn't panic. Instead, he simply picked up the pace a bit and concentrated on passing traffic cleanly without taking chances.

By mile 120, Jeremy was dicing for the head of the class with Marc Stein, and then passed him. When he rolled in to the first BF Goodrich pits around mile 140, he had a clear lead.

However, Stein didn't roll over and give up. Instead, the two swapped positions for quite a few miles, until Jeremy finally pulled away. At Santo Tomas, his lead was substantial.

Jeremy drove the first leg to Santa Rosalalita, at race mile 575, and it took him close to 18 hours to get there. But he felt … "Still froggy and ready to race some more! … in spite of almost a full day at the wheel.

Bill Holmes took over for the next section, which went all the way a stop near Ciudad Constitucion. Holmes was not only a solid desert racer in the past, but also had plenty of rally racing experience. His style is ultra-smooth and he's very easy on equipment, while still being quite fast. Other than one flat, when Holmes tagged a sharp boulder with a 37 x 17 BF Goodrich T/A, he had no problems.

There, Jeremy got back in with his fiancé/teammate, Nancy Shearer, and the two belted up and headed south for the last leg of 459 miles to Cabo San Lucas. They drove through a lot of tight and twisty sections, plenty of sand and dodged a lifetime worth of rocks.

Forty hours, one minute and twelve seconds later, they crossed the finish line in Cabo San Lucas, first in class and an astonishing 16th overall!

Other than a few fender wrinkles, the truck was good enough to start the next race with just change of oil, and oh yes, for sure a new starter.

At the awards ceremony, Jeremy was handed an envelope with a nice class win check in it for $9134. As with all of their previous winnings, Jeremy and Nancy handed this check over to Polinsky Children's Center. So far, they've raised over $30,000 for their favorite cause.

So now you can see why we suggested that there was more than one winner.

Congratulations, Jeremy and Nancy, and the entire Spirit Team.