DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN
Yes, the Baja 1000 somehow managed to happen once again, this one,
the last of the 1900s. Of course, all of the talk is/was about the
huge thing coming up next year, the Baja 2000. Maybe that's why
SCORE, the people who put on the event, gave the racers what
appeared to many, as a half-hearted effort. It was almost as if
they were saying: "Let's get this one out of the way, so we can
start preparing for the Big Deal next year!" Consider: the 1999
running of the race was less than 700 miles in length and ran two
loops on the same course. This made for a beat-up course by the
second loop, and certainly did not provide a great deal of variety.
Part of the mystique about the 1000, is the grandeur of the event.
You go a thousand miles, the length of the Baja peninsula. Even
when it's a loop race, rather than a point to point event, the
racers dive deep into the lesser traveled regions of Baja. And when
they race from Ensenada to La Paz, there's a certain mad purity to
the event. You HAVE DONE IT! Racers and racer followers alike
understand the magnitude of the 1000. Sadly, the people who run the
event just might not share this feeling. HOWEVER...Indeed,
however, this year the race turned out to be a genuine test and a
real destroyer of machines and egos. It pounded, pummeled and
ground many of the racers into submission. It squared wheels,
cooked motors, smoked trannys, snapped CV-joints, ripped
cross-members off, tweaked steel tubing like licorice sticks,
turned expensive glass fenders into hairy pieces of scrap, blew
seals on shocks, ripped chunks of rubber from expensive racing
tires and converted many and varied fluids into vapor, as
temperatures wandered into uncharted zones. Tough? Plenty tough.
But not for one man. Taking away all of suspense right up front,
Larry Ragland simply put his big Chevy into "Drive" and comfortably
cruised to victory. For the fifth time. And for the fourth time in
a very old, very stout Chevy truck. Little did Nelson and Nelson
think that when they built this beast, that it would have such a
glorious racing history.Taking nothing away from the win, Ragland
had some lucky early-race incidents to help him win the
Trophy-Truck division and snare the overall four-wheeled win in the
32nd running of the legendary desert race.
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The Iron Hombre! Ivan fought valiantly to regain lost ground, but an inopportune course blockage early in the race put Ragland well out of the iron reach. |
THE OVERALL WINNERS! While Ragland smoked all the cars and trucks, Johnny Campbell, San Clemente, Calif., and Tim Staab, Pacific Beach, Calif., rode a new Honda XR650 motorcycle to the overall and Class 22 victory. Campbell/Staab completed the course in a winning time of 14:15:42, averaging 47.16mph. For Campbell, it was his third straight victory in the Baja 1000, also teaming up with Staab in 1997. Honda's all-new XR650Rs performed flawlessly, bringing their riders home first and second. This was Honda's 10th overall win in the Mexican race. The second team of Jonah Street, Torsten Bostrom and Greg Bringle, came home second motorcycle on their XR650R about 11 minutes back, and just 14 seconds behind the first Trophy Truck of Larry Ragland. In fact, Honda riders made it 1-2-3-4 in the motorcycle class. Campbell's win meant he also won the six-race Laughlin/SCORE International Desert Series. The course was made for the much more nimble bikes, as it had not yet recovered from the Baja 500 event in June, and because of a lot of pre-running by competitors, the course was diabolically rough, dry and beat up, making visibility almost zero at night. Moreover, there were no ultra-high-speed dry lake bed sections, with large sections of the course instead winding through Baja's pine forests. "This was a more technical Baja race," said winner Campbell, "a lot of turning, twisting through the trees. We only averaged 47.1 miles an hour." On top of that, a two-loop course meant there would be lots of traffic for the leaders to contend with at night. When Campbell took the checkered flag, there were still many competitors heading out for their second lap. Riders were waved off at the start in 30-second intervals, and Campbell started second, behind Honda rider, Ricardo Malo. "I had a decent start position," Campbell said, "and only had to pass one guy and got by him around the 25-mile mark. I just tried to ride consistently. My arms were pumping a little bit because it was a little bit shadowy and hard to see in the morning. And cold, because the first 15 miles were pretty wide-open, and the wind chill goes up when you're going 90 mph. After that, I just tried to be smooth and consistent and get the bike to Tim." Jonah Street started sixth and quickly worked his way up into second, turning it into a duel between the two XR650R teams. Even so, the Campbell/Staab duo was never headed, although the Street/Bostrom/Bringle team did get to within 6.5 minutes at the halfway point. Campbell's and Staab's winning time was 14 hours 15 minutes and 42 seconds.
Johnny
Campbell They came, they saw, they kicked some ...well, you
know... With it's all new 650's making their Mexican debut, Johnny, Tim Stabb, and Team Honda will enter the next millenium as the team to beat! |
THE HOT BIKES - BY THE NUMBERS
1. Johnny Campbell/Tim Staab - Honda XR650R;
14:15:42 (Overall event winner)
2. Jonah Street/Torsten Bostrom/Greg Bringle -
Honda XR650R; 14:26:50
3. Tex Mitchell/Ron Wilson/Scott Meyers - Honda
XR628R; 14:57:23
4. Mike Dellar/Eric Brown/Harry Nevil/Mark Varner -
Honda XR600R; 16:17:32
5. Jose/Ruvalcaba/Leonel Ruvalcaba - Yamaha YZ250;
16:19:36
RANDOM RACE NOTES, RUMORS, FACTS AND TALL
TALES
We heard a radio report about a guy who repeatedly
landed a chopper in the dirt at Santo Tomas. The resulting dirt
cloud was so bad highway traffic was forced to come to a complete
stop.
A badly spooked ATV rider came into the Camalu
checkpoint with a hole in his engine cases from a piece of reebar
that was imbedded in the course. A booby trap or just trash on the
trail? No one knew for sure.
The Class 1 car of Glen Greer (#108) broke a
uniball on the rear trailing arm and the rearward movement ripped
out the axle and damaged the CV. They were about race mile 200 or
so. They paid some locals big $$$ to be pulled out. It would have
been nearly impossible to go backwards on the course to get to
them.
About a half-hour after the start, BFG Air
announced that "A booby trap is being built between race mile 41
and 42." It was also heard that Valle de Trinidad was flooded
intentionally before/during the second lap.
Doug Fortin Jr. Doug Fortin was leading Class 1 about 80 miles before the finish, but had problems and was forced to settle for fourth in class with the SCAT-powered buggy. |
Lovely Bekki Freeman won Class 1600. Most of the
guys in Baja are in love with her. And, oddly enough, she’s
fast enough to beat most of the guys in Baja.
Weather was great during the day, but got very cold
at night.
Bikes rolled off the line at 7:00am-'ish, with the
4-wheeled vehicles leaving at 9:00am.
A bike (no number known) rider suffered a broken
collar bone around 10:00 AM, and the evacuation procedures were
very long because of the logistics.
At 10:40 in the morning, we heard a radio report
about Jeff Lewis (#700 Chevy S-10) upside down. He did not finish,
which after a major flip, was no surprise.
As the radio crackled, we heard that Kreg Donahoe
(#17 Trophy Truck) was out with a blown motor, and that Mike
Lorenzi (#1612) was on its side. It seemed that there were more
incidents like this than in a "normal" Baja 1000.
The area between race mile 38-41 must have been a
rough one, as another report came in about four cars broken down in
that spot.
Car #115, the John Herder Toyota/Jimco, broke a
steering rod shortly after noon.
Ivan Stewart rolled in the San Vincente pits with
his right rear tire flat and balled up around the axle and brakes.
The PPI crew worked like demons to get the tangled up mess cleared
and slapped on a fresh wheel. More time lost for the frustrated
Ironman.
Phillip Moulton, in a venerable, tired old 1970
Bronco (#301) was down for a long time at El Alamo with a broken
axle yoke and heavy damage from contact with another vehicle.
The radio kept up its pace of reports, with the
driver of #1099x suffering a broken knee at El Alamo and a mention
of #251 possibly getting disqualified for allegedly cruising
through an off-limits tomato field.
Duralast F-150. The guy(s) who designed the 32 valve engine in the Ashley/Smith truck must have been just a little "concerned", as the radical Ford engine blew up near Km77 on the second lap. |
Speaking of booby traps, there was an "enhanced"v-shaped rut in the road after the pebble beach in Erindera. Dave
Sundquist (Class 10) smacked it bad and put the a-arm into his
lower leg.
Robby Gordon had a load of problems at this year's
1000. Beside his down time (reason unknown), he had an accident at
checkpoint #4 on the first lap. For whatever reason, he failed to
stop in time and crashed into the back of a class 10 car that was
stopped at the checkpoint to receive their stub ticket. No one was
injured, but the check crew did have to jump for safety. Gordon was
unable to attend the CRB and sent a note of apology, offering to
pay for any damages. In a unanimous vote he was DQ'ed for unsafe
driving that endangered the checkpoint personnel.
From the SCORE Competition Review Board on the Robby Gordon
incident, we have the following: "At approximately 4:00 PM on
11/05/99 during the running of the Baja 1000, while stopped at
Checkpoint #4 obtaining my stub ticket, our race vehicle was hit
very hard from behind and on the right side by the Turtle Wax,
Trophy Truck #15, driven by Robby Gordon, who in my estimate was
traveling at an excessive speed, (approx. 40 - 50 MPH) for a
checkpoint corridor. My race vehicle was trust forward and to the
left very violently, knocking at least one Checkpoint worker to the
ground and sent another running for his life." Andrew Myers was
driving the single seat car at the time of this incident and he
related the same information to the Board, adding that conditions
were "not dusty" and the light was good. He was not injured in the
collision and no reports of injuries to checkpoint workers were
received by SCORE officials. Andrew was able to continue his race,
but about 30 miles later, the damages sustained in the collision
ended the Myers' race day. They had been third in the race and
third in points. Gordon was not present to answer questions from
the Board. and in a unanimous decision (5-0), the protest was
upheld and Robby's entry was disqualified. It should be noted that
Robby did stop and speak to Andrew immediately after the incident
and that he stopped at the Ojos Negros start/finish before
beginning his second lap to inform Sal Fish of the incident. Also,
Robby sent a note to the CRB Marshal apologizing for both the
accident and his inability to appear before the Board. He also
offered to pay for damages to the Myers' vehicle.
Robby Gordon. For the second straight year, the Baja 1000 has taken it's share of "payback" out of Robby Gordon's hide. Could it be that the curse of Green race vehicles applies to desert racing too? |
Rob Reinertsons Stock Mini Ranger exploded a front
rotor, had a rear drum fall apart, break off a pitman arm, got a
flat, and blew up the motor. Not a good day, but he at least got to
mile 250.
Ed & Troy Herbst The Herbst brothers frnished fourth overall in the Trophy Truck class in their Ford 150, to earn their first season championship in 20 years of desert racing. Troy Herbst, the youngest member of the Las Vegas racing family, won the unlimited Class 1 division and finished fifth overall in his Ford-powered Smithbuilt race car. His win clinched his third consecutive Class 1 season championship. |
The only pro female racer in the event - Bekki
Freeman - made it to the finish line. Bekki won for the second
straight year in a Jimco Class 1-2/1600. Freeman's victory,
however, left her a mere eight point short of defending her season
title. Vic Bruckmann and Jason Hatz finished second to earn their
first title Class ½-1600 title..
In a drama played out well back in the field of 215
official starters, Tim Casey, with driving help from brothers Al
and Frank Arciero Jr., won the Stock Mini class by completing one
of the two laps of the course in a new Daewoo Korando sports
utility vehicle from Korea that was being seen in North America for
the first time.
A rumor was circulating that the Team Herzog did
some major road blocking for Ragland, against Roeseler, with the
Stewart Protruck. Roeseler was pissed and after he found out who it
was, he followed them into their pit, let them know of his
displeasure, and then promptly wasted their entire pit with mucho
horsepower and roosted everything.
Notes relayed to ORC from Scoob:
"We went out to finish recovering our car #108 (Glen Greer car).
While attempting to get our east side chase to come in and pull him
out, the race car reported that some locals in a pickup truck were
bringing him in (from race mile 222 to San Vicente at race mile
239). Apparently, once the strap was hooked up, the pickup towed
our car down the race course as fast as it could (guessing about
50mph). In the process, it encountered a large hole, causing severe
bending of the pickup truck rear bumper and nearly launching the
race car into the back of the pickup bed. The buggy driver was
unsure of the local’s disposition and requested us to
intercept. We got in close enough to witness the high speed towing
on the race course. A $100 bill was given to the locals, who then
requested another 50 and told em … no. After completing
towing our car to the pit trailer, we assisted a fellow Tucson
racer (#1004) with a refuel and co-driver swap. We then proceeded
to Yurapan and remained there until 0330, and we got to see Johnny
Campbell scream through leading on the second lap. It seemed for
every car that went past us, one went down the highway on a tow
strap. The Candyman (Walter Prince in a Sportsman buggy) went by,
tossing candy canes to the local youngsters.
LAST THOUGHTS
When the ORC team got back to their base in Rosarito, tired,
covered with dust, smelling like wet goats and badly in need of
sleep, we sat down for a while, sipped some suds and talked the
event over. From all the input we received over those long hours,
the bottom line was that this race will surely go down in the books
as one of the most brutal ever. No rain. No terrible winds. No fog
to fight. Just the unforgiving Baja terrain. And when congested
traffic is added to this, one must wonder about the wisdom of
putting a large number of vehicles on a course with so many narrow
spots. If there had not been a horrible bottleneck so early in the
course, we might have seen a truly great race between Ragland,
Roeseler and Ivan Stewart. As it turned out, the drama was defused.
Much like a Tyson fight. Designing an off-road race course is said
to be an art. When you consider that many strong running vehicles
simply could not make it to the finish line within the madated 24
hour limit, one must concede that it was simply bad art. Still,
like Homer Simpson once said: "I’d rather go to a bad
football game than a good opera."
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