[h=2]In RACER Magazine: A Thousand to One Shot[/h] Wednesday, 08 February 2017
Eric Johnson / Images by Larry Chen (Monster Energy), LAT
Two-time winner BJ Baldwin loves the Baja 1000. But the toughest, most unforgiving off-road race of them all doesn’t always love him back...
As BJ Baldwin gets his race face on for the 49th SCORE Baja 1000, he pauses for a few moments in front of the sun bleached Riviera del Pacifico Cultural Center, a well-worn landmark in hustling, bustling Ensenada, Mexico.
Sitting quietly in his 6,100lb Toyota Trophy Truck (a $750,000 beast that sits benignly enough now, but you just know is psychotically looking forward to trying to rip itself apart in just a short time), Baldwin grabs his cell phone and types up a Facebook post for 370,000-plus friends out there in cyberspace.
The mayhem starts in 112 minutes. We’ve done everything we can to prepare for this #Baja1000 mentally, physically, and mechanically. My team and I have been looking forward to this day since last December. I feel great, Rampage is running great and my team is on point. We are excited for our opportunity to win our third Baja 1000. To my fellow competitors, I wish you a safe race, especially our motorcycle competitors. Alright, time to get ready. This is the part where you wish us good luck.
Las Vegas, Nevada’s “Ballistic” BJ Baldwin has been racing Trophy Trucks on the Baja California peninsula since 2003. He won the 1000 back-to-back in 2012-’13 – both times driving the whole course himself, “Ironman”-style – and he wants nothing more than to win it again. And so it’s race day, Friday, Nov. 18, south of the border, and Baldwin mulls the daunting task that lies ahead.
“I’m the only driver to Ironman and win it two years in a row in the Trophy Truck, and I want another win more than anything,” he says. “That’s not any exaggeration – I do want it more than anything.”
Planning for the 2016 race is something Baldwin and his tight-knit team have been working on since driving back over the border into California and home to Las Vegas after last year’s 1000.
Not all Baja 1000s are 1000 miles, and the 2016 race is an 850-mile, Ensenada to Ensenada loop, but the logistics of keeping a race truck fueled, serviced and watched over in the barren, beautiful Baja wilderness is as complex as ever. Swelling the numbers on the ground, Baldwin’s support runs to 30 team members, eight chase and refueling trucks, a helicopter and a fixed wing aircraft.
“Mentally, this race is a perpetual thing,” says Baldwin. “I don’t really ever stop thinking about it, and none of my crew guys do either. It’s so important that we do well here that we’re constantly thinking about how we can improve the plan.”
Making the truck faster, more bullet-proof; preparing for the expected, and trying to second-guess the unexpected. Learning from your mistakes. Nobody ever goes to the Baja 1000 completely confident they’ve got everything covered – that would be foolish – but putting the work in, covering off the details, having a Plan B, C and D, all help to move the needle from impossible to, just maybe, possible.
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