ODO: 315,043
What a week its been! We’ve been pushing really hard, and staying at the office until 9 or 10pm almost every night. We’ve had some cool milestones thought:
- We hit day 200! And we’re still happy with our choices
- We wrapped a major project at our temp job. It was really exciting. Maybe one day we’ll be able to talk about it
- KoKo got her Fitbit Earth badge! That’ s 7900 miles walked since she bought it about 5 years ago, which is about 4 miles a day
Now back to our adventure running the Baja 1000.
With the truck back at 100%, we had some business to finish. We’ve got to wrap up playing in the silt beds and then do the “easy” bit of our first section. Back in the silt, we made dozens of notes, ran all over the place. On one afternoon we came across some locals that were stuck in the middle of a hill on the race course. They had been there a few hours waiting for help. We winched them back down the hill, and gave them a lot of direction on how to get their 2WD truck up this disaster of a hill. It took a couple of tries, but they eventually made it. They were very grateful to not be stuck, and also to have gotten help from actual racers. The spectators for the 1000 are their own experience. They are incredibly excited to watch the race and meet anyone even remotely associated with a race team. Everyone is a celebrity for the week.
After a hundreds of miles of bumpy, silty, rocky, dusty roads, its getting close to go time. Camping in the dirt, not enough showers, midnight spaghetti, dips in the sea to freshen up, all part of putting in the work. Time to get cleaned and up and ready. We had about 36 hours to rest up before the race. We posted up at a pretty nice hotel in Loreto: pool, hot tub, bar, walking distance to everything, what more could you ask for.
We got all our notes organized and joined up with the main race file. You see, each of our notes are tied to a GPS point. As we’re racing along, our notes pop onto the screen as we approach that spot. We make a master file with the entire race that gets loaded in the car the night before the race. With that final task done it was time to try and rest.
Because he is the driver, Justin’s sleep is super important. He gets the good bed, no questions asked. Unfortunately, the 4th in our group snores like a chainsaw if that chainsaw was yelling. Justin spent his hotel nights with serious ear plugs in.
Race day: November 16th, 2023
Mike always starts the race. This is for two reasons: firstly, because his name is on the car he has to either start or finish the race. Secondly, Mike loves the challenge of trying to hand the car off in the lead. 10am start time it is.
We try and sleep as late as we can, and only eat “safe” foods or no food at all. You can’t exactly pull over and easily get out if you have a tummy emergency.
I have a specific omelette I like to have. I like to eat “champions” for breakfast. Mushrooms in Spanish sound sort of like the word champion. So, always breakfast of champions.
Mike and the car are off the line, we are officially racing. Nerves are rising, the adrenaline will kick in once we’re in the car. Everyone gets in their final shower for a while, and we pack up. Our driver change spot is just south of town in a rocky wash, so we will start our leg with a slow casual drive along the malecón in Loreto (yes, the race goes through towns). We set our pit up, and get our race suits ready. There is a lot of hurry up and wait at this point because anything can happen to the car on its way to you, and there’s nothing you can do but try and be ready. You don’t want to put your gear on too soon because it’s very warm, and it’s already very warm outside. There’s no shade near our pit to hide in.
At this point, we just look like all the other spectators, so no one pays attention to us. As soon as we suit up that changes. If you look like you might be a racer, you’re everyone’s hero today.
We were keeping track of the racecar on the tracker, and we’re confused by it’s progress. It appeared to be a full two hours ahead of schedule. Like I said, anything can happen and you have to be ready for all of it.
At the driver change everyone has a job. Justin and I help Mike and Sean out of the car. Sean and Jason help Justin and I into the car. Mike will give us a fast debrief and any updates on the car. Everyone will give the car a once over, shaking various parts and checking for missing bolts. KoKo will take as many pictures and videos as possible, and grab any forgotten things like camelbacks and more towels. We use so many towels.
Strapped in, visors down…it’s go time! Now it’s our turn to drive the doors off this thing and not fu@k it up!
