MOTOR RACING : Baja 1000 Comes a Long Way in 25 Years
Twenty-five years ago, Rod Hall and Larry Minor drove a four-wheel-drive Jeep from their home in Hemet to Tijuana, where they entered it in a length-of-Baja California off-road racing adventure called the Mexican 1000.
They were among 68 entries in the first of what was to become the Baja 1000, off-road racing’s most prestigious event.
Next Thursday, Hall and Jim Fricker will be in Ensenada for the Silver Anniversary race, the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000. They will be in a 1992 Dodge 4x4 half-ton pickup, one of more than 300 entries from 21 states and 10 countries.
“Other than the fact that we leave Ensenada and wind up in La Paz, there is little resemblance to that first race,” Hall said from his shop in Reno. “Neither Larry nor I had ever been below Ensenada before. It was all virgin territory, not only for us but for just about everybody who was there.
“There were no such things as pre-running, chase crews, radio communications, arrows to tell you which way to go. The Mexicans didn’t have any idea what was going on because nothing like that had ever happened there before, so when you tried to communicate, it was a lost cause. You just aimed at La Paz and hoped you got there.”
By contrast, Hall and Fricker have pre-run the 1,035-mile course twice this year, taking five days for each trip. For the race, a crew of 24 will crisscross the peninsula in seven vehicles to service Hall’s truck.
“Another thing that’s different from that first race is that your fuel was included in the entry fee,” Hall recalled. “We ran on Pemex gas we got in Baja. Most of the vehicles we have today wouldn’t run on it. When we got to places like El Arco, we went to a designated spot where there was a pump and filled ‘er up. In the outlying areas, the organizers had trucked in barrels of fuel the week before the race.
“It was pretty casual. We’d climb out of the Jeep, walk around, stretch, chat with the natives, ask who’d come through before us and after the gas was in, we’d jump back in and take off.”
Hall and Minor won the four-wheel-drive class that first year, the first of 12 Hall was to win in the next 24 years. The overall winners were Vic Wilson and Ted Mangeis in a Meyers Manx, a VW-like fiberglass-bodied two-seater. Malcolm Smith and J.N. Roberts, on a motorcycle, finished second.
“The race started with a lot of fanfare at the bullring in Tijuana at midnight. We drove to Ensenada, then had a restart at 6 a.m. for the race to La Paz. The paved road ended about 60 miles below Ensenada and then it was every man for himself. There were two-track trails and a few maintained dirt roads, but when you came to a ‘Y’ there were no arrows or signs to point the way.
“The best thing that happened to us was when a friend of mine, Bill Hardy, gave me a compass and said, ‘Wherever you are, keep going south by southwest and you’ll eventually get to La Paz.’ There were a few times when we couldn’t believe it, but we followed his advice and made it. We drove all day and all night and didn’t get to La Paz until 2 p.m. the next afternoon--about 32 hours after we left.”
The winning vehicle this year should take no more than 18 to 20 hours, but Hall has a word of warning for competitors.
“It’s an interesting course, but the hurricanes added a little more challenge. Down near the Bay of Los Angeles, the road has disintegrated and there are six-foot washouts in what was once a nice graded road. You can be going about 90 (m.p.h.) and suddenly run out of road. There are no warning signs, kind of like it was 25 years ago, but someone who hasn’t pre-run since the hurricane could be in some serious trouble.”
Hall, 55, who won the High Desert Racing Assn.’s opening race in Lucerne Valley this year, will do all the driving. Since Fricker joined him in the early 1970s, Hall has done the driving, Fricker the repair work and the navigating.
“Fricker couldn’t drive a wheelbarrow,” Hall said. “I sure wouldn’t let him drive a race car, especially with me in it.”
Motor Racing Notes
STOCK CARS--The opening race of the I-15 Freeway Series for sportsman cars is Saturday night at San Bernardino’s Orange Show Speedway. The $6,000, two-race series will conclude next week at Las Vegas. Ed Hale, winner of the Fall Classic at the Saugus, Cajon and Mesa Marin tracks, is entered in what will be the season’s final race at Orange Show. . . . Blythe Speedway will be the site of a 100-lap race for street stocks Saturday night. Track champion George Manning Jr. is among the favorites for the $1,000 prize.
Overlooked in the drama that saw Davey Allison soar to the top of the Winston Cup standings last Sunday in Phoenix was the fact that Bill Sedgwick’s 27th-place finish in the Pyroil 500 gave him his second consecutive Winston West championship. The Granada Hills veteran was the fourth-highest West Coast finisher. When his Chevrolet finished ahead of Bill Schmitt’s Ford, the title was his. Rick Carelli of Denver edged Ron Hornaday Jr. of Palmdale for rookie of the year honors by two points. Hornaday, however, won the Southwest Tour championship a day earlier.
INDY CARS--Rookie driver Rod Bennett of Campbell, Calif., won the American International IndyCar series with a third-place finish in a March-Chevrolet last Sunday at Willow Springs Raceway. Johnny Unser, a cousin of Indianapolis 500 winner Al Unser Jr., won the L.A. Grand Prix for his first victory since early in 1990.
SPRINT CARS--A nationally televised World of Outlaws winter series will start Sunday night at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix. There will be 10 races through Jan. 23 with weekends off for Thanksgiving and Christmas. . . . The California Racing Assn. will resume racing Saturday night at Yuma, Ariz.
LAND SPEED--The late Mickey Thompson’s Challenger I, the first vehicle to break 400 m.p.h. on the Bonneville Salt Flats in 1960, has been restored to its original condition by Jim Travis of Whittier. The car, powered by four piston-driven Pontiac engines, can be seen at the SEMA show in Las Vegas. . . . The Southern California Timing Assn. will hold its final 1992 time trials at El Mirage dry lake on Sunday.
MOTORCYCLES--Nominees for the American Motorcyclist Assn.’s athlete of the year award include Wayne Rainey, three-time world road racing champion from Norwalk; Jeff Stanton, Camel Supercross and national 250cc motocross champion and the 1990 award winner; Chris Carr, Camel Pro Series dirt track champion; Doug Polen, two-time world superbike champion; Scott Russell, national superbike champion, and the United States Motocross des Nations team of Jeff Emig, Mike LaRocco and Billy Liles. The winner will be announced Nov. 21 at the AMA awards banquet at the Doubletree hotel in San Pedro.
Motocross action returns to Ventura Raceway on Saturday night with the Coors Light combined motocross and off-road races. The series will end Dec. 5.
DRAG RACING--The final race of the Southern California Pro Gas Assn. will be held Saturday at the Los Angeles County Raceway in Palmdale. Ed Sellnow of Crestline has clinched the championship. . . . Dannielle DePorter, 20, of Scottsdale, Ariz., was named National Hot Rod Assn. rookie of the year. She finished 10th in top fuel standings after upsetting Kenny Bernstein to reach the semifinals of the Winston Finals last Sunday at Pomona.
HONORS--Hank Ives, Orange-based publicist for Michael and Mario Andretti and the upcoming Hawaiian Super Gran Prix, received the Mr. Good Guy away from the Orange County Sports Hall of Fame.
