Billed as the longest continually-held desert race, the mighty Baja 1000 kicks off tomorrow morning in Ensenada.

Bike and quad classes commence getting waved off at an alarming 4:00am Pacific Time, meaning Baja racers on those machines will have to get up before they go to bed. It is planned to set racers loose at thirty second intervals

Car, truck, and UTV classes begin to take their start at 10:30am local time. Here, one vehicle every 60 seconds will be waved off in the SCORE TT and Class 1 machines with a five-minute gap between those two classes. Everyone else take the green in thirty second intervals like the bikes and quads. That’s subject to change, of course, at the discretion of officials on the ground who’ll be keeping a close eye on events.

While the fastest vehicles are expected to complete the course in approximately 16 hours, all vehicles will have 36 hours from the time each starts to complete the course and become an official finisher of the 51st anniversary race.

This year’s race will start for the 44th time and finish for the 25th time in Ensenada, Baja California. Unlike some other years, the event is a loop, held over a rugged 806.76-mile race course on the northern part of Mexico’s Baja peninsula. Check out the route map below.

Starting and finishing in the heart of Ensenada in front of the historic Riviera del Pacifico Cultural Center, the course travels in a clockwise direction east to Ojos Negros before launching its weaving route around both the east and then the west side of the northern part of the peninsula.

Top racers in the mighty SCORE Trophy Truck class include the likes of Rob MacCachren, Robby Gordon, and Andy McMillin. Bryce Menzies is listed in the starting order as well.

Here’s a neat detail – as the Grand Marshal of this year’s Baja 1000, SCORE International has selected Mexico’s tourism official Nico Saad, who spox say is the only person who has been behind the scenes at all 50 of the previous races.

In 4-wheel vehicle competition, Ford engines have produced 17 overall winners, Chevy is second with 14, and VW motors have with 12 overall victories. For bike classes, Honda leads with 27 overall victories, followed by Husqvarna with 11, and Kawasaki with 10.