ODO: 315,043
But what is it like inside the car? We’re glad you asked!
Visors down, dump the clutch….here we go! We bomb through the wash leading into Loreto. We got in the car a solid hour and a half before we expected to. In the daylight!! We run down the wash and into town, getting our feet under us as we start to get into the groove. Town is our first speed zone. Speed zones are a great time to catch a breath, tighten your belts, get a drink of water, have a nice little chat, talk about what’s coming up ahead, etc.
We knew going into this race that our section would likely be the roughest of the race. We had a plan, an agreement, an acknowledgement. We knew we were NOT going to win the race in our section, but we certainly could lose it. We knew we were in for a long night. We were in survival mode. Our race was essentially three sections. 1st, get out of Loreto and to the cross-over road through the silt. 2nd, get over the mountains and then up to San Ignacio. 3rd, get out of San Ignacio and to the start of the Bay of L.A. road (El Arco).
Let’s start by getting out of town. Getting out of Loreto to the north involves a long series of washes and riverbeds. During pre-running we noticed how the ruts were already getting deep, and revealing icebergs in the center. This was one of those spots that you’re not going to win the race, but you sure could lose it here. We saw vehicles littering the course like crazy through here. Trucks with their rear ends ripped out that had hooked an iceberg. Cars on their sides and roofs that were trying to skirt the edge of the ruts and hooked one and launched off the other side. We just played it cool. We kept a good solid pace through here but never pushed…Survive!
First hurdle out of the way, lets start thinking about getting through the silt. I knew it was going to be bad, WE knew it was going to be bad, it was worse. Thank god we got here before the sun went down! We roll up to the first silt bed, stick to our plan, and follow our notes. We scoot around the big holes and cruise on through, passing stuck cars left and right. We repeat this process several times over the next hour, largely successfully. We wound up getting stuck once. We were both pissed! But it couldn’t have happened at a better place, as there were some locals already stationed at this spot. $20, a tractor and 10 minutes later we’re back on the move! Half an hour, lots of cactus, a few trees, and about 100ft of fence line later, we’re through the silt. Now we wave to our friends, and take a 90 left onto the crossover road. Who’s ready for some rocks????
Crossing over the mountains from near the Bay of Conception to La Purisima this year was… much rougher than I remembered it being. It was evident to us during pre-running. We used to run this road for fun in Baja, but this year, yikes. Babies heads, sharp exposed rock, sharp loose rock, occasional silty ruts, steep rocky climbs, long loose twisty downhills. More survival, simple as that.
Dropping out of the hills and into La Purisima is awesome, the views from the top are epic, that hill is sooo steep, and those switchbacks are sooo sharp. We came through in the dark, so no views for us. Quick stop for some gas with BFG, and back on the road. Just after La Purisima there’s a water crossing. Normally its pretty simple and tame, a great photo op. In the dark, with spectators everywhere, it can get a little more…interesting. We got a little off track and tried our best to turn the car into a submarine, and end our race all at once. A stroke of luck got us back on the land bridge and out of the water. After the panic settled, we had a little laugh, and back at it! A short jaunt over some more hills and we make it out to the coast and San Juanico! Wave at some more friends and crew on our way past town, and north we go. This was to be the straightest, smoothest, fastest part of our section but the fog had other thoughts. Its hard to describe how frustrating it is knowing that you’re in a spot where you should be doing 110mph while you’re at the ragged edge of visibility doing 60mph. After a while the fog and dust subsided and we were able to pick the pace back up. Some more silt, some more babies heads, some more rocks, and before you know it, we’re rolling into San Ignacio!
We roll through town, past the old mission, and then stopped in for another splash of gas with BFG. A quick nut-and-bolt check, some tiny Snickers from KoKo, wave to our teammates again, and we’re back on the road. About 100 miles to go.
The next 50 miles were wild, something like a rodeo in the sand. Super sandy, bumps, jumps, dropoffs, deep silt, deep sand. I swear we spent half an hour in second gear at wide open throttle. It was just nonstop, hit after hit.
Our last 50 miles just flew past. Fast, winding, a slot car race. The last 10 miles we had good comms with our team as we approached our driver change pit stop. We gave them a download of how the car was working (as near as matters, the car was still 100%, but has taken a beating). Everyone get ready, we’re 3 minutes out!
We pull into the pit, pour ourselves out of the car, and in what feels like an instant, Team Mello disappears into the darkness. Out of the car now, adrenaline pumping, we get a second to catch our breath. We did it. We delivered a clean (-ish) car, safely, and at what felt like a pretty reasonable pace. It wasn’t until this moment that we learned that with our “conservative” pace we were also putting time on our competitors. Combined with the lead that Mike handed off to us, we continued that trend, and handed off a car to Mello in a comfortable spot.
Job done, high fives all around, and now time to get back to work. There’s still half of the Baja 1000 to chase. Lets get after it!!!
