You just don't wander south to see the Baja 1000; you go there to immerse yourself in the entire Baja experience. It starts when you cross the border, and watch the road riders take their helmets off and lash them to sides of their bikes. Right here, you realize they're all in search of a taste of freedom that's all but vanished in America.

Yes, Baja is looser, and maybe you won't find all the comforts of home as you travel further and further south, but there's an exhilaration that's real. You're headed for adventures, and in the process, you're going to get to see the fastest off-road racers in the world.

It was estimated that about 250,000 people showed up to see this, the 30th running of the Baja 1000. If you did what the OFF-ROAD.COM staff did (wander all over the peninsula to cover and to even co-drive the race like Tony Tellier did), you would have seen massive clusters of spectators gathered at every spot on the course where viewing was possible. Then there were the braver souls who took their 4x4s way back in to find a prime viewing location.

Spectating at the Baja 1000 is like no other racing event in the world. You don't sit in the grandstands and watch the good old boys go around in a big circle, waiting for someone to kiss the wall. Here, you fold out a map and figure out the range in your truck, and head 200 or 300 miles south. Smart fans make

Tony's Baja 1000 Ride Click Here For Tony's Story and comments on the race. Click Here for 720x442 pixel version.

Normally, the Baja 1000 starts in Ensenada, and most years, it ends up there. The course is a giant loop that ranges from 700 to over 1000 miles, depending on how the promoters want to lay it out.

If it's a short course, you can plan on it being tougher, tighter and nastier than usual. If it's a long race, there will be many faster, smoother sections. Every third or fourth year, SCORE will decide to skip the loop race and go all the way to La Paz, close to the end of the peninsula.

1997 Baja 1000 Course Map Click Here To download and view a larger, 560x791 pixel version.

Why not go to the end every year, as they did 30 years ago when the Baja was started? Cost is the prime factor. A privateer team could race the Baja 1000 on a loop race for $2500 or so, by pinching pennies. Double that cost to go all the way to the end. It costs SCORE about $150,000 in manpower to put on a loop race, and more than a quarter million to run to the end.

On Wednesday, cars, bikes and trucks started rolling into Ensenada, a tourist and fishing town located about an hour south of the US border. Hotels quickly filled up and those who didn't have reservations, scrounged around looking for rooms to share with friends. Many people spent the night sleeping in the back of vans, or in tents pitched on the beach.

On Thursday morning, the town was over-flowing with a mass of humanity and the main streets turned into a parking lot. This day is set aside for Contingency and Tech. A quarter mile of the main drag is blocked off, with sponsors and after-market companies setting up booths like a giant swap meet.

After the drivers and riders sign up, they push their vehicles through Contingency row, and then go for a routine tech inspec tion. By ten o'clock, Contingency row is a veritable madhouse of people, all eager to get right next to the exotic racers. Machines like Ivan Stewart's Toyota Trophy Truck and Larry Rag land's Chevy, are surrounded by a crowd 50-deep. People elbow their way to the front, photos are taken, and the expected ooohs and aaaahs are heard, as they marvel at the mega-buck racers.

There's a mad dash for everyone to get the right stickers on the machines, because each and every sticker represents money! If you place in the top three in your class, the race sponsors will give you hard money, or valuable product. But you gotta have their sticker on, and often, it must be in certain location. You can hardly see what color some of the vehicles are, they're so loaded with decals and stickers

Little Mexican kids work contingency row as if their life depended on it, gathering as many posters and stickers as they can carry. OFF-ROAD.COM was there with a booth, passing out stickers and information like so many drunken sailors. We were delighted to see most of the race vehicles sporting the OFF- ROAD.COM stickers and giving us numerous thumbs-up signs.

Early in the day, a light rain started to fall, and we expected it would detune the crowd. Not so. They just put plastic bags over their heads and trudged through the puddles. Vendors were everywhere, selling 30-weight tacos, burritos laced with battery-acid hot sauce, t-shirts, hats, jackets, beer, and very suspicious looking sausages. Loud music was the rule, and the gorgeous-looking Tecate girls were followed around by drooling locals, who specialized in leering stares and lewd comments, apparently thinking that this would turn the ladies on.

After a few hours of wandering through Contingency row, your mind is swimming with visual and audio input, and you're forced to retire to a local restaurant for a cholesterol overload and truly superb Mexican beer, or volatile margaritas.

By the end of the day, the race fan has seen everything from superbly prepped factory race bikes, to sleek Porsche-powered buggies, to million dollar Trophy Trucks, to crusty fifteen-year old buggies that would not be competitive if the race was held in total darkness with no lights permitted.

They all showed up, like the guys from Maine in the ancient Class 3 Bronco, who drove to the race and expected to drive home after the race in the same vehicle. Or the Japanese team who showed up with a 4x4 SUV only slightly bigger than a phone booth. Or all those masochistic guys who enter on near bone-stock Class 11 Volkswagens with not much more horsepower than a blender, and plenty of shovels to un-bury them from the silt beds.

Two guys from Maine drove this early Bronco to the race, raced it, and drove it home. Way cool! No, they didn't win or finish but, they towed a bunch of racers out of ditches and ravines and had a hell of great time overall. Click Here To download and view a larger, 498x324 pixel version.

The long day on Contingency row mercifully ended, with the rain still pattering down, and the racers settled down to a driver's meeting, while all the race fans found a restaurant/bar and sampled shrimp, lobster and hard-to-guess meats wrapped up in the ubiquitous tortilla. Goat? Road kill? Who knew, but it was by and large, good eating.

The rowdy crowd spent the night before the race with butts perched on wobbly stools, swilling down obscenely large pitchers of margaritas, followed by tequila shooters. The drill went like this: Take a piece of lime, and rub it on the back of your hand near the thumb, then sprinkle some salt on. Grab a small glass of tequila in the other hand and get it poised near your mouth. Lick the salt off, then toss the tequila in your mouth and imme diately bite on the wedge of lime. Repeat until you pass out on the floor.

Another variation on this theme is the slammer. A large, stout shot glass is filled with half tequila and half Seven-Up. The drinker places his palm over the glass to keep the contents from spilling out, then slams the glass down on the bar with a towel or napkin under it to keep the glass from shattering. A loud yell is appropriate when slamming, and the action makes the soda fizz up wildly. The drinker then tosses the fizzing mixture down, hopefully without tasting the vile mixture. Done with the right amount of flair, this move will draw loud approving babbling from your drinking buddies, none of whom can focus more than one eye at this time, and they'll pound you on the back and encourage you do it again.

Some truly monumental hangovers awaited those foolish enough to indulge in these risky sports. Cotton mouth will reign the next morning.

Not so for the racers. They try to go to bed as early as they can, in spite of the fact that their crew is still fiddling with the race machine, doing those last minute things. Sleep does not come easy.

Since this was the 30th running of the Baja 1000, lots of old names came out of the woodwork. Rod Hall, who has 15 class wins and one overall to his credit, has not been competing on the SCORE circuit as of late, but decided to field a team of three bright red Hummers for this event. And why not? Rod is the only person who has raced in every one of the 30 Baja 1000 events.

Rod Hall brought a team of three Hummers south. He's the only man to have raced in all 30 Baja 1000 events. Click Here To download and view a larger, 380x482 pixel version of Rod, Here for a 440x332 pixel version of the Hummer.

Motorcycle great, Larry Roeseler, has a stranglehold on this race, with 11 wins. Incredibly, he registered 10 overall motor cycle wins and one Class victory in his Class 7 mini-truck last year.

Ivan "The Ironman" Stewart has been competing for 25 plus years, and has a record that's awesome. Think about this: 82 career victories and 10 driver's championships. Included in this string are 15 Baja 500 wins, eight Mint 400s, four Parker 400s and two wins at the Baja 1000.

Oddly enough, the Baja 1000 has not been kind to Ivan, with fate taking victory away from him on a number of occasions. Numerous times, he seemingly had the Baja 1000 win in hand, only to have something happen in the last few miles and rob him of victory.

It's not because Team Toyota doesn't try. This year, Precision Preparation Inc., (PPI) showed up with 75 crew members, two semis, 30 support vehicles, two chase helicopters and an air plane. Everything but the coffee makers was equipped with a Global Positioning System. And now that Ivan has a V-8 under the hood, he's no longer at a horsepower disadvantage.

Other serious multiple champs included Larry Ragland, who was not only gunning for his third straight overall Baja 1000 win, but was proudly displaying his OFF-ROAD.COM windshield sticker for maximum luck.

Ragland drove smart and smooth in his "detuned" Chevy Trophy Truck. Click Here To download and view a larger, 739x479 pixel version.

Bob Gordon teamed with Frank Arciero in a Class 1 Chenowth buggy for his umpteenth attempt. Bob is the father of Robby Gordon, who was on a mission to show the off-road world that he still has cojones the size of watermelons, and will go at speeds that frighten mere mortals.

Old farts included Danny Letner (69) in a brutally fast Chevy S-10 Trophy Truck, Carl Post (62), Tom Bradley (56), Rayborn Gibson (56), Ed McLean (72), Dan Blain (57), Gene Grienpentrog (58), and Rod Hall (59).

Supercross/MX legend, Ricky Johnson, met with the ORC crew and told us: "I haven't been on a bike for three years. I did a little bit of pre-running and felt OK. Actually, I'm just here for the fun. It would be nice to win, but we're here just going

Ricky's Wild Ride! An ecstatic Ricky Johnson is surrounded by his team, as he managed to limp home for a class win, in spite of a freaky trans in their XR-600. Click Here for the full story. Click Here To download and view a larger, 331x440 pixel version.

Those steely-eyed glares must have worked, because RJ and his pals easily won Class 30, and got an amazing 4th overall!

Curt LeDuc was pacing around looking very nervous, as he had to finish the race to wrap up the SCORE Trophy Truck championships.

The team of Dan Smith and Dave Ashley were hoping to get a win to salvage a disappointing season in their Class 8 Ford. Both men were great motorcycle racers, with Dan Smith at one time being the King of the Desert and Ashley being a Six Days medalist several times. Dan even pre-runs on a bike, just to get the feel of the terrain.

Unlike the drizzly skies of the day before, race day dawned cool and clear. Standing water forced a change in the start to the edge of town, but somehow, a mob of people managed to find it.

Dust would not be a problem, at least in the top half of the course. Enough rain had fallen to soak the sand; some mud was here and there, but not enough to cause traction problems or stuck situations.

The Terrible Herbst "Truggy" sported a serious Jaws paint job and buckets of horsepower. An early charger, Truggy had serious problems in the race. Click Here To download and view a larger, 702x450 pixel version.

The OFF-ROAD.COM crew got up early and scattered all over the place, cameras in hand. Pat Chicas, Dean Waters and Rick Sieman covered the start, and noted that three vehicles left the line with an attitude. Ivan Stewart just about ate the starting flag when it dropped and could be heard revving the Toyota V-8 for all it was worth as he disappeared from sight.

When Ragland left the line, his Chevy dug a trench that went half way to China. Robby Gordon, sporting the red/white/blue US flag paint job he used at the Fireworks 250, had everyone's hair standing on end, as he released nearly 800 ponies. The huge Ford bellowed through the canyon on the start, echoing off the walls, and spraying gravel off the hoods of old cars parked two blocks away. Robby was deadly serious.

But 707 miles of racing was in front of the racers.

The ORC crew started following the action as best we could. Kirk Overby and Norm Lenhart covered the north section, and Chicas/Sieman/Waters headed south in the huge GMC dually (affec tionately know as the Great White Shark), at sensible speeds. One does not play hero on Baja roads loaded with traffic.

We were able to follow the developing drama by using a Uniden race radio with incredible range. Between bursts of static, we found out that Ivan Stewart and Larry Ragland were running neck and neck, with Robby Gordon in hot pursuit.

By Checkpoint 3, Ivan had opened up a nice lead, and it looked like the Ironman was on his way to an almost clinical victory. When in the lead, Ivan rarely makes a mistake.

Ivan Stewart charged early and hard, then broke early and hard when his Toyota over-heated. Click Here To download and view a larger, 379x255 pixel version.

Then sketchy reports started coming in: Stewart's truck was running hot. Rumor has it there was a stiff tail wind behind Ivan as he was running hard, and not enough air was being forced into the radiator. The temperature sky-rocketed and the engine went into melt-down mode. The massive Toyota/PPI effort went down in flames.

Jeff Lewis inherited the lead, and then the radio crackled with news once again. Lewis was down and Ragland was in the lead. At this point, Ragland used his years of racing experience to dial in a pace that would eat up the miles, but not take any chances in the process.

With Kawasaki out of the Baja effort (Paul Krause was the sole KX serious effort, but without factory backing), it looked like a Honda parade. A seemingly endless line of XRs thumped along the barren landscape, like so many lemmings to the sea.

The Factory Honda Team of Johnny Campbell, Tim Staab and Greg Bringle took the overall in 13 hours, 19 minutes and 59 seconds, over 33 minutes ahead of the first 4-wheeled vehicle. Click Here To download and view a larger, 359x291 pixel version.

The team of Johnny Campbell/Tim Stabb/GregBringle took an early lead with their XR-628 Honda. Apparently, Honda has learned its lesson and reduced the compression ratio on the 628s, enabling them to finish a race without turning into a solid lump of aluminum. When you get a bike that pings on 112 octane race gas, something is wrong with that picture.

Richard Jackson smoked the 50+ bike class and just about everyone else with a 13th overall finish. Click Here To download and view a larger, 500x451 pixel version.

Richard Jackson, the seemingly ageless racer in the over 50 class, led a solid team to an early lead, and they never looked back. And yes, it was another Honda.

Maybe, just maybe, we'll see Kawasaki get all rankled and get back in the battle again. Even though Honda dominated, it was domination by default, since Kawasaki simply disappeared from the scene after years of kicking Honda's butt.

In the 250 class, a strong four man team easily ran away from all the other quarter-liter bikes. Fred Willert/Tim Morton/Chad Hauck and Ron Wilson managed a blisteringly fast 46.91 mph aver age. No one else was even close.

The winning ATVs had a rough time of it, averaging a mere 30 miles per hour for the event. Twenty-two hours of wrestling a quad is a lot of work.

With intense interest focused on the Class 8 trucks, everybody figured it was all over at the half-way point, as the White Lightning Chevy team of Dale White and Brian Collins were running

Dave Westhem and Tony McCormack were to outlast the megabucks Collins and White effort to take the Class #8 win. Click Here To download and view a larger, 379x255 pixel version.

As we flitted around the landscape, the real nature of the race developed. Ragland came through somewhere around the 400 mile mark with a huge lead, his truck looking clean and unscathed. We worked the radio to find out where Robby Gordon was, and found

Robby Gordon put on the charge of his life, but came up short, via an unplanned launch into a ravine when trying to take the lead. Click Here To download and view a larger, 627x421 pixel version.

Imagine, if you can, what it must feel like to wrestle a 5,000 pound race truck through sand washes, dodging rocks, slithering around fire roads and taking 30 foot jumps, with the steering wheel trying to snap your fingers off.

Astonishingly, Gordon actually made some time up on Ragland driving with no power steering! Time was lost in the pits making repairs, and once more, it looked like Gordon would be no challenge to the smooth-driving Ragland.

With the last rays of sunlight fading over the mountain tops, we watched Ragland come through, driving with almost surgical precision, short-shifting the tranny, giving his slightly detuned engine every chance in the world to survive. You see, Ragland

Want a workout? Then wrestle a quad for a full day plus. Ricky Stator was 1st in the Sportsman class. Click Here To download and view a larger, 440x308 pixel version.

Not so with Gordon. His Ford had the full load of ponies, and with the power steering repaired, he held absolutely nothing back. There would still be a race to the finish, no matter how far behind Gordon was.

He drove like the hounds of hell were after him, working the edges of every turn, and slithering to the edges of the fire roads, as he pitched the big truck into the turns like an Outlaw sprint car. His pace was nothing less than 100 percent, and at times, he was past the edge of control. Little chunks of fiber glass were ripped off his bodywork here and there, as a simple two-inch thick branch would hit the side like a steel pipe at in sane speeds.

Robby was on a mission, and as light turned into darkness, he flipped on a bank of lights that was so intense you had to look at it from an angle to keep from burning your corneas out. Normally, when it gets to be night during a race, the pace changes. Not Gordon. If anything, the ten huge lights defined every bump and rut on the course in stark relief. The only problems with vision were when the nose of the Ford would launch into the ink black sky, and the beams of light would flicker off the moon. Then, landing was pure braille!

With darkness upon us, it was impossible to follow the lead racers, so we headed to the last checkpoint before the finish line, at Ojos Negros (in Spanish, it means black eyes), about 65 miles from the finish.

Bob Gordon at the Ojos Negros BFG Pits. Click Here To download and view a larger, 640x411 pixel version.

We found the BF Goodrich pit and got an update. Their last radio information had Gordon about 20 minutes behind and gaining time quickly. But there wasn't much racing room left.

Since Ragland was due in shortly, we headed to his pits, right across the road from the massive BFG semi. His crew looked more nervous than they should have, and the pit signal board on the ground told us why. It read: GORDON 9 MINUTES BEHIND! His pits had just received the updated information and wanted to make sure Larry knew what he had to do.

The terrain left in the race was set up perfectly for Ragland to prevail. About 25 miles after the pits, there would be twisty fire-roads and moderate speeds. Then there would be the massive Guadalupe sand wash, a section about 18 miles long, where speeds would be limited only by how fast a driver dared to go!

After the wash end, there was a nasty, tight, long uphill switch-back section, where passing would be next to impossible, followed by an equally intimidating downhill switch-back before they headed to the finish line. The switch-backs were a bit more than one vehicle wide, with frightening drop-offs on one side and the mountain on the other side. If Gordon even thought about passing here, he stood a chance of launching off the cliffs and ending his life in a swan dive into a black abyss.

Gordon would have to make his move in the sand wash, that is, if he could get close enough to Ragland to make it even remotely possible. Still, nine minutes was a near eternity to make up.

Shivering against the cold night air, we waited for Ragland to appear. His people lined up dump cans full of racing fuel and stacked up mounted tires, ready for changing. One crew man stood there holding that "GORDON" sign like it was a box full of snakes.

A brilliant swath of lights appeared in the distance, and the Ragland crew jumped into action. One man aimed a flashlight at the pit entrance, to guide Larry into the right slot, the fuel dumpers hoisted their gas cans and the man with the "GORDON" sign raised it to eye level.

Quicktime Video! Larry Ragland in and out of the last White Lightening Pit at Ojos Negros. Robby Gordon is just minutes behind at this point and closing. Click Here To download and view. File length=1.95mb

Ragland darted cleanly into the pits, stopping right on the marks, and the crew went to work. Fuel was dumped and fresh rubber was slapped on. To make sure that Larry got the message, the sign was leaned against his windshield opening. When Ragland saw the message, his eyes widened! The crew chief yelled in structions to Ragland, and he nodded his head. He now knew what he had to do to ensure victory.

So many "ifs" that the mind reeled.

The huge Chevy eased out of the pit area, then once cleared, the throttle was rolled on and the BFG tires chirped on the hard packed terrain. In moments, all that could be seen of the Chevy was the arc of headlights crazily bouncing off the terrain, and moments later, the truck was out of sight and sound. The quietness was eerie.

We talked about the possibilities; would Gordon pick up time in the sand wash? Would he melt the motor by driving the wheels off the Ford?

Before we had exhausted the possibilities, a powerful tunnel of light appeared in the distance. It could only be Gordon; nobody else was armed with that much lighting power. I glanced at my watch: Gordon was only 4 1/2 minutes behind; he had cut the distance between him and Ragland IN HALF in the last 30 miles or so!

The lights grew bigger, much quicker than they should have, and a fraction later, Gordon thundered by at full revs. The motor was howling; nothing was left over. Sources tell us that, at full throttle, Gordon's truck will do over 140 miles per hour, and here he was, full honk, in pitch darkness

The sound from the exhaust sent the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. I've driven at 130 miles per hour off road, under perfect conditions, in bright sunlight, on a dry lake bed, and it was spooky. I could not comprehend how Gordon could do 140, at night, on a narrow road.

Quicktime Video! Robby Gordon on the Ojos Negros pavement section, screaming by at 135+ miles per hour. Click Here To download and view. File length=1.04mb

He was either clearly insane, or under complete control. I could not figure out which.

I tried to get a shot of the truck going by, but it was hope less. How can you focus on something traveling a full football field in a second or so?

Like Ragland, Gordon's truck was soon only a bouncing pattern of lights, but the sound from the screaming exhaust could be heard long after the truck was out of sight.

We all shook our heads in disbelief.

Somewhere out in that desert, Ragland was driving smoothly, quickly and efficiently.

And only minutes behind him, was a man on a mission. A driver who would scatter his motor into ruined parts, rather than back off an inch.

Ragland was driving smart and methodical.

Gordon was driving in a near-hypnotic zone, refusing to believe that he could not run Ragland down through sheer will power.

We jumped into the Great White Beast and headed for the finish line with not much time left. With only moments to spare, the ORC crew bailed out of the GMC and ran to the finish line, just in time to see Larry Ragland's headlights come into view.

The crowd applauded loud and strong as his battered Chevy took the checkered flag. In those last frantic miles, it had taken a beating; all the glass from the back half of the truck was gone and weeds and brush were stuffed in the cage tubing. Apparently, Larry had taken more than one unplanned off-course excursion recently.

Quicktime Video! Sweet victory and a gulp of water for a partched mouth. Larry Ragland and Tom Geviss at the finish line. Click Here To download and view. File length=1.08mb

Ragland pulled off his helmet and forgot the fatigue. The feeling of a hard-fought victory brought a wide smile to his face. He pumped a fist into the air, and more cheers greeted this. For the moment, Gordon was forgotten, and the TV cameras were poked in his face, while flash-bulbs winked off by the hundreds.

Quicktime Video! Three Times In A Row, for Larry Ragland! Larry and the Tecate girls at the Finish line podium. Click Here To download and view. File length=2.10mb

Less than 30 minutes later, Robby Gordon's Ford darted under the monstrous inflated Tecate bottle that marked the finish line, with the tweaked front end clearly visible, because all the 'glass had been ripped off.

Here's what happened in those last dramatic miles: Gordon got to within 30 seconds of Ragland in the Guadalupe sand wash, in spite of the numerous man-made jumps the locals had built just for fun.

Larry Ragland tries to get this thoughts together for the TV cameras, after nailing down his third consecutive Baja 1000 win. Check out the WWW.OFF-ROAD.COM sticker on his roof. Could it have been the key to his win? Click Here To download and view a larger, 728x411 pixel version.

With the end of the wash near, Gordon missed a turn badly, and the Ford lurched off the course and dropped into a ravine. The impact flattened both front tires and damaged something in the trans; possibly the shift linkage was tweaked. It took a cursedly long time to get the snout of the Ford up into the air (jack one side up, pile some rocks under the frame, then jack up the other side) and change both tires.

Reflections: what do you feel like when you've given it everything you have and still lose? Gordon was exhausted at the end. Click Here To download and view a larger, 735x492 pixel version.

With tires swapped and emergency repairs made, all Gordon could do at this point would be to finish, and hope that the crash didn't do something fatal to the truck.

When Gordon stopped the truck at the finish line, the crowd went nuts! They realized that the kid had given it his all. A thunderous cheer went almost non-stop for minutes, and the younger race fans chanted his name.

Gordon took his helmet off and looked decades older than his 28 years at that moment in time. He was physically drained of emotion and stayed in the seat, closing his eyes a bit to reflect on his mad-dog charge through the night.

Doug Fortin was first buggy and fourth overall, with a quick 14 hours 31 minute time. Click Here To download and view a larger, 686x413 pixel version.

Ever the professional, Gordon patiently answered questions for the TV and the press for a while, then climbed out of the truck and sat on the roof with his co-driver. A cold beer was jammed into his hand, and he took a deep slug, then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

The crowd was still yelling and cheering. Then Gordon blinked and let out a big grin and raised the beer into the air.

Maybe he was just glad to be alive.

Maybe he was wondering what he could have done differently to win.

He had given it everything he had, and more.

And the cold, cruel Baja 1000 had humbled him.

For this year, at least.