baja 500 2009

[viter]

things started on Friday morning as usual - everybody was running late... but this gave me and Billy time to do some final preparations for the trip, such as putting "RideClubSD.com" stickers on our trucks - very important!

by about 12 or so we finally met up with Mike and his friends by the border and started our journey into baja... right into the secondary inspection on mexican side of the border for my truck. the agent was very thorough but after five minutes of not finding any armas de fuego he let us keep going. we caught up to the restof the group that was waiting for us on the carretera 1 by the toll booths. the drive down the winding and beautiful road to Ensenada was going uneventfully until we heard on the radio that landcruiser has some strange vibrations. we pulled off the road at exit called Sal Si Puedes (translation from spanish means "Leave if you can") - which felt very suiting our situation. Turned out the front wheel bearings rattled themselves loose on the not-so-smooth in some places carretera 1. Luckily Billy bought factory repair manual right before the trip and after reading through instructions and fiddling with very stubborn cone washers an hour and a half later we were again on our way.

 

[viter]

unlike on US freeways you can see anything including race trucks and buggies on mexican highway uno - pay the toll and you are free to drive whatever you got!

finally by 4pm very hungry we reached Ensenada. we parked on the street at the horse carriage parking (made a deal for half the price of normal parking lot cost with a guy who drove them) and started on hour half an hour long quest for tacos Miramar that Jesse heard about from one of his friends. unsuccessful in our search for Miramar, we returned back to the festivities of contingency and got some great street tacos right there.

contingency was full of mainly young mexican kids (man, makes me feel so old), they had a stage going with Tecate girls as usual, but also doing something like mexican Idol show right there on the stage, plus race vehicles, people selling T-shirts and what not, and policia in black ski masks walking away half a dozen people in handcuffs.

 

[viter]

after the tacos in Ensenada we got back on the road. Billy and Jesse were able to miraculously find the guy selling fireworks somewhere in the middle of Ostero beach. The owner kept showing us more and more different fireworks and it looked like Billy and Jesse were going to buy half of his store. I kept doubting their decision on buying so many fireworks but they insisted and I gotta say they turned out to be right.

our trip further south on hwy 1 was made slower by the fact that they were totally rebuilding the main hwy on a stretch of a couple of miles and all vehicles were sent to drive on the dirt/mut track next to the main road, which made going really slow, but at least we got some mud on our trucks. an hour or so later we finally made it to the little town of Erendira and followed dirt roads from there to our campsite on the cliffs right by the ocean.

after settling down and finding out that Mike has already crashed on his dirtbike and scored some bruised ribs and a nice black eye but was more or less OK, we went back into Erendira to get some great fish tacos for dinner! that was followed by lots of fireworks testing and beer at camp until everyone got tired and fell asleep.

in the morning Mike and I drove into town again so he could go and see a doctor at the local clinic. while waiting for doctor to show up we got a chance to go and have a great breakfast for around $3. Doctor confirmed that nothing was too bad - just bruised ribs, kidney, and liver, but luckily no concussion or anything else serious. It took whole 5 mins for doctor to see Mike and give him a bunch of different medicine totalling a whopping $10! then we drove back and a trurtle pace of 5mph so as not to crush Mike's ribs further.

 

[viter]

on the return to camp we all decided to go for a swim in the ocean - man, was it freezing cold! so the swim ended up being more of a short dunk. the rest of Saturday was spent drinking michelada cups and lots of beer, a little bit of fishing (RG caught one pretty good finish right off the start but the rest of the efforts proved futile) and ofcourse watching the race vehicles go by - trophy trucks were as usual the most impressive!

as it got dark the fireworks came out again in great force! we tried to make an impressive light show for every race vehicle passing by - blowing up M80's and shooting big and small bottle rockets all across the road they were racing on! this went on for a while fueled by beer (eventually we actually ran out, again!) and fire to keep us warm.

 

[viter]

next morning we got up early, packed up quickly, said goodbye's to Mike and his friends and started on our 2 truck journey from Erendira to Ojos Negros on the racecourse - about 50-60 miles. Drive from Erendira to Santo tomas was quite easy - a lot of prety flat and fast fire roads. Some cool views driving along the coast too.

The day before Mike and RJ, kept warning us about the very silty hill climbs that were awaiting us on the way from Acambarro to Ojos; however, as it turned out the silty hill climbs ended up being quite manageable with lowered air pressure and a good amount of skinny pedal action in some places. The trail was fun, but quite worn out and bumpy in a lot of places, so it took us about 6 hours to finally get to tacoshop in Ojos. Tacos El Meno in Ojos were once again great!

we found some race vehicle souvenirs on the way...

fueled up on tacos we got back into vehicles for the final 2 hour drive to the border on the Compadre trail - this one is basically a dirt road highway that is actually on the maps and is doable even in a car. a cool drive nevertheless as you drive through some pine forest, some oak groves and a few ranches in the fields.

the border wait in tecate was minimal - under 30 mins and we easily crossed the border. it was nice to finally get back home after a long day of driving - I personally was ready for another 3 days off work to get vacation from this vacation.

great trip and I want to explore more on the next one!

 

[viter]

more of my pics - http://s30.photobucket.com/albums/c320/ua_taco/baja 500 2009/?start=0

and my friend's much cooler pics - http://picasaweb.google.com/jesse.melrose/Baja5002009?authkey=Gv1sRgCPai5f6yqLb3NA&feat=directlink#

 

[efuentes]

Great report, thanks.

The guys in black masks we getting hold of a nephew of a big kingpin, very related to the crash of the helicopter in last years Baja 1K.

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/jun/06/1m7bcarrest211525/

Saludos

 

[SOAZ]

Nice shots. We didn't race this year, but its SO nice to see that SCORE finally laid down the law like they've been promising to do for years.
I remember 5 years ago we were all told at the drivers meeting that if anyone cut the course or went over the speed limit on the highway that they'd be DQ'ed or penalized and it never happened. Even with video evidence of it. Finally SCORE lays down the law! TONS of penalties!
http://score-international.com/253/news/Official_Results_from_Tecate_SCORE_Baja_500.aspx

 

[MATTY291]

Good Pctures & good times.

 

[viter]

Great report, thanks.

The guys in black masks we getting hold of a nephew of a big kingpin, very related to the crash of the helicopter in last years Baja 1K.

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/jun/06/1m7bcarrest211525/

Saludos

wow, didn't realize that. thanks for the link.

 

[viter]

Nice shots. We didn't race this year, but its SO nice to see that SCORE finally laid down the law like they've been promising to do for years.
I remember 5 years ago we were all told at the drivers meeting that if anyone cut the course or went over the speed limit on the highway that they'd be DQ'ed or penalized and it never happened. Even with video evidence of it. Finally SCORE lays down the law! TONS of penalties!
http://score-international.com/253/news/Official_Results_from_Tecate_SCORE_Baja_500.aspx

I heard 1st and 2nd places got shifted over to 7 and 8. I am glad they finally did it too - otherwise guys who play fair are taken advantage of by guys who don't.

 

[SOAZ]

I heard 1st and 2nd places got shifted over to 7 and 8. I am glad they finally did it too - otherwise guys who play fair are taken advantage of by guys who don't.

Exactly! :victory:


p.s. That copter crash was crazy stuff. I was running a pit at the turn off for Mikes looking down the highway for the T-Force truck I was pitting for and my buddy was looking down the dirt road toward mikes. He said "holy such and such!!" when he saw the copter go down. By the time I turned there was a giant cloud of dust. Yikes. Crazy times. :Wow1: