Racing his 2003 Dodge Ram Cummins Turbo Diesel 4WD truck along side the most technologically advanced race trucks and tube-framed buggies in the off-road motorsports world, Kroeker and his small team of volunteers ventured into an unforgiving realm known to beat even the best of world class teams.

There were many tests early in the race, from vomiting co-drivers to Mexican booby traps, but none that disabled the tremendous effort of KORE Racing.

Nearing 9:00 p.m. race time, Kroeker encountered race vehicles buried axle-deep on the race course in the marshy section of Calamajue Wash, somewhere around Race Mile 345. The last crackle of the Weatherman's radio voice was heard on the radio as he was landing in Loreto. Kroeker encountered the log jam of race vehicles and circled his 9000lb Dodge Ram CTD 4WD truck around the side to the front of the stuck trucks where he found a Class 8 truck buried to the frame rails, effectively halting all the race traffic

Kroeker knew that he was armed with some of the best rubber on planet earth. Under full-throttle, he confidently turned the Toyo Tire Open Country Mud Terrains loose upon the thick, black marsh mud. The deep lugs on his 37"x13.50"x17 inch Toyo Tire churned in the sticky mud as he pulled right to the front of the line of stuck trucks. KORE and Team Toyo Off-Road Motorsports to the rescue! Although still in aggressive race mode, and wanting to keep his speed average as high as possible, Kroeker threw out the tow strap! "It's a matter of Baja honor," Kroeker said later, "You never know when you're going to need the same kind of help..." Kroeker extracted the deeply-buried Class 8 truck, instantly releasing the log jam! As Kroeker accelerated away, his co-driver reeled in the tow strap and the KORE Dodge Ram raged on into the night!

Shortly after sunrise, racing into the town of Komondu, Kroeker saw the eventual Stock Full class winner, Chad Hall, was catching Kroeker's Dodge Ram race truck. By the time they exited the small village Hall had taken the lead from Kroeker with only 300 miles to the finish line.

However, the biggest test of the race was about to smack the KORE race team right in the face. Fueled and pitted by his stout pit crew at Insurgentes around Race Mile 832, Kroeker headed into what has been regarded as some of the deepest whoops ever seen in a Baja race. It has been estimated that this section was approximately 53 miles long.

Less than 200 miles of the finish line Kroeker tried to preserve his 9000lb race truck through the endless whoops and that slowed them to a snails' pace. While pounding through the deeply whooped section. Bob Graham, driving the Nissan Titan Stock Full Class truck attempted to pass. Kroeker fended off Grahm's efforts all the way down the beach west of La Paz.

"His advantage was that his Nissan Titan is three thousand pounds lighter than the mighty KORE race truck! My plan was to slow him down in the silt beds so he would get stuck. Nothing, and I mean, nothing can stick the KORE race truck's Toyo tires. I tried this method in two silt beds, each time gaining a little on him. Then he caught on to what I was doing. When he had fought his way out of the last silt bed he rammed us hard in the right rear quarter panel. Not wanting to have to stop to make repairs, I allowed him to pass."

Kroeker knew that if the course ever widened up he would be able to catch up, but Graham pushed the Titan truck to extreme limits with Kroeker and his Dodge Ram Cummins Turbo Diesel finishing only ten minutes behind after 1016.3 tortureous race miles.

At the finish, while Graham was loading his race truck on the trailer, Kroeker jokingly asked him for his insurance papers - for the hit-and-run! "I'm driving this thing back to San Diego and I want her to look pretty when I arrive!" Kroeker laughed as he hopped back into the Dodge...

Kroeker's KORE Race truck raced the entire race on the same four Toyo Tire Open Country Mud Terrain tires that it left the starting line with ...........Toyo Tires rock!

Not one flat!

Not one puncture!

And a tremendous effort by the entire KORE Racing team! Congrats on a job well done.

But the Toyo Tire Baja 1000 story continues...

It was late Friday afternoon several days before the race when the well-known Off-Road.com Desert Tank crossed the border into Mexico at the famed Tijuana border crossing. The Desert Tank has long been heralded as the off-road work horse for Off-Road.com's many adventures and broadcasting live event coverage from remote regions in the United States and Mexico.

Its not uncommon to light up the dark Baja night and blaze trails around the dirt of Baja, but this assignment was pushing the limits. We planned to prerun the Baja 1000 race course from start-to-finish.........on our newly acquired Toyo Tire Open Country Mud Terrains.

Utilizing the 37"x13.50"x17" tire size on our Alcoa Aluminum wheels we set out on an adventure. Our assignment was to pre-run the course and meet up with teams, drivers and friends during our planned assault. Having been a part of the BFGoodrich family for several years and trusting our BFG's at speeds that we shouldn't publish here, swapping over to Toyo Tires took some convincing. However, with some prodding from Toyo Tire's Director of Marketing - Travis Roffler and the boys at Toyo Tires, we took em' for a test ride.

Let's just get this over real quick like....over 1200 miles RAGING in the dirt on the Baja 1000 race course and NOT ONE FLAT! And then only days later we drove home up the Baja Peninsula covering over 2500 miles in one week!

GOT TOYO?

The Desert Tank Dodge Ram 2500 4WD truck is a beefy truck to say the least. Weighing in about 9300 lbs loaded with gear and fuel and a crazed driver nicknamed, "El Robi." The Dodge Ram Diesel truck spews over 500 horsepower out of the 4 inch exhaust. The Desert Tank is powered by ATS Diesel Performance Products and has a ATS Diesel Stage IV Transmission loaded with a "billet" input shaft. So with El Robi behind the wheel and two co-drivers set for the adventure of a lifetime we were off. The trip into San Felipe was...well pretty boring to say the least. However, pulling out of San Felipe heading to Puertocitos the trip became pretty interesting. El Robi seemed to be searching out objects to plow with the new Toyo Tires on the Desert Tank. Generally, when testing tires we blaze a trail and get on with it. But, El Robi had another plan. Approaching Puertocitos the race course is a mix between asphalt, dirt and gravel surface. Take your pick depending on how fast your traveling and how bright your lights are.

El Robi had the Desert Tank sideways at about 65 mph testing the sidewalls of the Open Country Mud Terrains against the rugged surface. Next he was blasting the washboard heading into the outskirts of town and soon enough we were rock crawling on the volcanic rocks south of town as we hunted for our friend's house for some well-deserved shut eye. The heavy truck rock and rolled over the sharp volcanic rocks until we spotted the lone small house with the light on. Better than Motel 6!

At the end of the day it was Toyo Tires = 1 and the Baja Peninsula = 0.

Early the following morning we blasted towards LA Bay down what has long been called the "worst road" in Baja. The area between Puertocitos and Coco's Corner has forever been regarded as tire hell. El Robi pushed the Team Toyo Off-Road Motorsports Desert Tank to the limits over that 100 miles battling big rocks, deep sand, black swamp mud in Calamajue Wash and narrow rock walls heading into El Cucero.

But we weren't done yet.

Next was flying out of El Cucero and heading into the deep sand washes of some of Baja's nastiest arroyos. We came out at KM 16 on the LA Bay highway to see the Locos Mocos white Toyota parked with his flashing light on the top. We power turned onto the highway and headed into LA Bay for a shower and some hot chow.

At the end of the day it was Toyo Tires = 2 and the Baja Peninsula = 0.

The next day we set our from the infamous Bahia de Los Angles heading for San Ignacio at Race Mile 555.6. The run to San Rafael is very fast. El Robi was pushing 80 mph into some sweeping corners and a couple times the Desert Tank was flirting with the edge of the race course but with the Toyo Tires...just mash the pedal!

Approaching our first location for a stop the we suffered a big rock blow to the auxilary transmission cooler and we were down for a few minutes rerouting the transmission lines. And then another 100 miles down the road we suffered a broken and cracked cross-member on the drivers side rear...but the TOYO TIRES continued to rage. We limped the truck into Vizcaino for some welding repair before taking off for the wilds of San Ignacio. We hit the pavement section of the race course heading into San Ignacio and lit up the Toyo Tires on the pavement.

With a load rating of E....yes I said E....we pushed the sidewall limitations to the extreme. We were just testing the drivablity and tire mannerisms on the asphalt highway after some 500 miles of harsh Baja 1000 race course. Flying down the long dips and into the turns the tire held up excellent and certainly proved that 500 miles of Baja 1000 racecourse didn't compromise any portion of this Toyo Tire Open Country Mud Terrain. We arrived to San Ignacio and got some sleep.

At the end of the day it was Toyo Tires = 3 and the Baja Peninsula = 0.

It seemed like the days were becoming shorter and the miles longer as we headed south out of San Ignacio for a short driving day to San Juanico and Scorpion Bay. Although the road is fast, the washouts are common and you must pay close attention to your driving. Nonetheless, we made short work of the 135 miles to Scorpion Bay where we rested and relaxed for a short time. Again, the Toyo Tires held up to the rough conditions that we put them in with over 50 miles of rugged washboard road littered with softball size rocks and then down 70 miles of deep sand beach where the Toyo Tires performed as expect. The large lugs drove through the deep sand beach without hesitation as the Desert Tank hauled ass towards an afternoon of rest and relaxation.

At the end of the day it was Toyo Tires = 4 and the Baja Peninsula = 0.

Our final day prerunning the race course was expected to be very long as we had some 350 miles to the finish line. We were up early and checked out the truck and made the jump for the finish line. Undaunted by the stories of brutal terrain El Robi continued his push for the finish line. With two Toyo Tire Open Country Mud Terrain spare tires still mounted on the bed rack we pushed onward. Mile-after-mile our smile grew until we reached La Paz well into the dark and still running on the same tires we started with.

The streets at the finish line were deserted except for the first few tents that had been erected. No spectators, no checkered flag and no Tecate girls handing out icy cold finish line refreshments.

But we had our Toyo Tire Open Country Mud Terrains that withstood the punishment of what has been deemed by many as the most harsh environment in the off-road racing world.

At the end of the day it was Toyo Tires = 5 and the Baja Peninsula = 0.

Toyo Tires & KORE Performance rock the Baja 1000!