Baja 1000: Winners and also-rans

Image by Boyd Jaynes/SCG
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emailBy: Marty Fiolka | 14 hours ago

As it has been for decades, the hearty brand of rebel racers that comprised this year’s BFGoodrich SCORE Baja 1000 field is now cleaning dirty equipment and dumping coolers filled with a few waters and beers still bobbing in stinky, lukewarm water. With memory banks full and checking accounts emptied, all looked forward to a well-earned rest as the major league off-road racing season is over for 2019.

This Baja 1000 became a one-of-a-kind kaleidoscope of triumph and struggle, with pre-race storms changing the entire complexity of an event already considered one of the toughest in the world. The pre-race talk among participants was about how difficult the 800.5-mile grind of a course was going to be. Then came the rains, creating deep mud holes and suspension-crushing washouts on trails so rocky and technical they were almost impassible in the first place.
Trophy-Truck Spec contender Sara Price illustrates the fatigue all Baja participants must endure. Image by Art Eugenio

The race went on to demonstrate in no uncertain terms that “beating the Baja” is no joke, a rite of passage granting all finishers world-class bragging rights for the rest of their lives. There are no participation awards. But even taking on this relentless and time-proven challenge separates all comers into an uncommon minority. This isn’t soccer camp, but in this case, finishing was victory in itself.

Not everyone is a winner, but there were those that conquered and those that were also-rans for a variety of reasons. Not all have to do with the final results box. Here is our list:

Winner: The Ampudias

Talk about the ultimate dark horse story. Nobody could have dared predict that this small but tight-knit hometown team would have emerged from the Baja darkness to cross the finish line first in the Trophy-Truck class and first overall. Way back in 1990 Rodrigo and Rogerio Ampudia won the Baja 1000 driving a little Neth-VW in Class 1-2/1600. Almost 30 years later sons Alan, Aaron and Rodrigo Ampudia Jr. claimed the sport’s biggest title for their hometown of Ensenada, Mexico. The victory came in a bright pink I.D. Designs two-wheel-drive chassis — maintained right in town — that carried an eclectic mix of sponsors including Toyo Tire, Papas & Beer (the family’s chain of Mexican nightclubs), Weedmaps (online cannabis company) and Four Loko (caffeine in-fused alcohol drink).
Alan Ampudia catches air in the winning Trophy-Truck. Image by Art Eugenio

After spending much of their last few seasons with Rodrigo’s Pro 2 efforts in the Lucas Oil short-course series, this win will be celebrated Baja-style until New Year’s Eve. As Alan stated after the race, “This has been a dream for us since we were little. Watching Ivan Stewart, Robby Gordon, all the legends in this sport. To be able to come out here with a stacked field like it was today and come out on top through all the elements Baja threw at us this year with the rain and the mud, it was crazy.”

Winner: Crew members

Win, lose or break, this tough race was a logistical nightmare to support, given the fact there were really two courses, one to the west and then a separate section to the east. The rain made the highways and access roads even more treacherous than normal, not to mention having to work on once pristine and perfectly prepared vehicles that had become rolling balls of sticky mud.
A long night for the unsung heroes on the crews. Image by Get Some Photo

Being part of the Baja is never easy, with teams being given up to 34 hours to find the Ensenada finish line. Sleep is a prized possession, as is finding a good hot meal on what is essentially a cold night race. All that comes after months of endless preparation from dedicated and passionate crew members consisting primarily of friends and family, not paid professionals. It can be a dangerous endeavor, but one that provides unmatched satisfaction for just finishing the race. Cheers to all of them.

 

Baja 1000: Winners and also-rans

Image by Boyd Jaynes/SCG
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emailBy: Marty Fiolka | 14 hours ago

Also Ran: Robby Gordon

The prodigal son of “Baja” Bob Gordon, for the past three decades Robby Gordon has been the sport’s most recognized personality. When it comes to that “it” factor, nobody’s come close since Ivan “Ironman” Stewart or Walker Evans in the 1990s. This is especially true for the ever-present local fans up and down the peninsula. Gordon’s behind-the-wheel bravado is untouched, as is a flair for theatrics he must channel from the late, great Mickey Thompson.

Gordon knows he is in the business of show, and he is good at it. But he hasn’t won a Baja 1000 since 2006, when teamed with a young Andy McMillin. His efforts in recent years have been a bit unfocused given his busy schedule with Stadium Super Trucks and UTVs. This year he crashed a new all-wheel-drive truck that was set to debut and jumped last minute into a new Geiser-prepared RPM Trophy-Truck. He finished a disappointing 16th in class. His fans on both sides of the border desperately want and deserve more. They want to their hero win.

Winner: The Jones family

Unlike Gordon, longtime off-road racer Jesse Jones prefers a far lower profile. One of the best gentlemen drivers in the Trophy-Truck division, Jones came to the Baja 1000 with a new all-wheel-drive Mason-built machine and a leg cast due to an injury at the Baja 400 (it was a Vespa accident!). Undeterred, the Arizonan dialed up a duo of Dakar Rally champions, Austrian Toby Price and Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah. Neither had driven the truck before coming to Baja last week, and it was Al-Attiyah’s first trip to the race. Overcoming a somewhat embarrassing pre-race testing roll-over by Price, the tandem used their world-class talent and experience to bring the No. 76 Red Bull-backed truck home second in class.
The Baja mud couldn’t slow Toby Price and company. Image by Get Some Photo

“This is my first Baja 1000 and it was fantastic,” declared Al-Attiyah. “Compared to my Dakar car, there is no limit with these trucks and I really love to be here. I promise I am coming back next year.”

Adding insanity to injury, Jones’ ultra-fast 23-year old son AJ Jones dominated the Trophy-Truck Spec class, winning the division by more than 90 minutes with help from Brock Heger. This year, everybody wanted to keep up with the Joneses.

Winner: Sara Price/Kristen Matlock

Unlike most other forms of motorsports, women have been a welcome addition to the culture since Mary McGee and Donna Crean were part of the first NORRA Mexican 1000s. It was a heritage passed to other pioneering ladies, most especially to Jean Calvin and Judy Smith in the 1970s. That legacy took two impactful steps forward at the 2019 Baja 1000, as both Sara Price (No. 204 4WP Trophy Truck Spec) and Kristen Matlock (No. 1954 Polaris Pro UTV NA) not only competed in the epic endurance race but did it as solo drivers!
Sara Price endured all Baja could throw at her solo. Image by Get Some Photo

Both racers are hardly backmarkers, but their incredible spirit and final results cemented their impact on the sport for others around the world. For Price (whose co-driver was another female, Erica Sacks) a second-place finish in an ultra-competitive class earned her the 2019 SCORE championship. In terms of this year’s 1000, Matlock did even one better, taking the category title over a dozen other entries. Their performance wasn’t just historic, but impressive on every level imaginable.

 

Baja 1000: Winners and also-rans

Image by Boyd Jaynes/SCG
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emailBy: Marty Fiolka | 15 hours ago

Winner: Brendan Gaughan

It took decades for 44-year old Brendan Gaughan, the son of pioneering racer and Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame inductee Michael Gaughan, to finally bring a Baja victory back to their Las Vegas home. A NASCAR journeyman in both the Cup and Xfinity series, Brendan returned to his off-road roots this year, driving an older Class 1 buggy sponsored by his family’s South Point Casino.

For the Baja 1000, Gaughan teamed with young phenom R.J. Anderson (who won September’s huge Red Bull Crandon Cup short-course race) and desert veteran Buddy Feldkamp. The effort over-came tough conditions that took out better equipped Class 1 competitors, earning an unexpected victory and 20th overall in the final standings.
Baja delivered an emotional boost Gaughan never got from NASCAR. Image by Get Some Photo

Gaughan was visibly moved at the finish, saying that the win “was way better than anything I have experienced in the last 20 years in NASCAR.” The only blemish on their performance was that two of the traditionally slower Class 10 buggies (limited displacement) of Chase Warren and Eliseo Garcia beat them back to Ensenada on time. Congratulations to all.

Winner: Glickenhaus/SCG Boot

History will record that Class 2 at the 2019 SCORE Baja 1000 was won by Darren Skilton, Viry Felix and John Krellwitz in an SCG (Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus) Boot (pictured, top of page). Coordinated by Skilton and created by Southern California’s Armada Engineering for Jim and son Jesse Glickenhaus, the revamped Baja Boot project lit the imagination of the racing community and media (traditional and social) in a big way.

After months of getting things ready for the Boot’s Baja 1000 debut, the team scratched and clawed its way around the 800-mile course, overcoming several issues including a broken spindle just nine miles from their goal. All of that persistence must have pleased the Baja racing gods, because when the timing clocks stopped, they achieve an official finish by just 16 seconds after 33h59m14s of racing.
Glickenhaus Boots old and new. Image by Boyd Jaynes/SCG

That alone made them winners, but what stood out to so many was the way rookie Glickenhaus and his troop executed the entire program. From beginning to end, they paid tribute to Baja 1000 history and the Boot, blending old and new with a retro mentality that extended from their Steve McQueen-inspired driving suits to a deep respect for the entire undertaking. Better yet, watching Jim and Jesse drive the priceless original Baja Boot around Ensenada like a well-used Prius set just the right tone. They came, they saw, and they conquered. Better yet, they understood.

Also Ran: Ford Bronco R

On the other side of the coin was the well-publicized Ford Bronco R factory effort. From the onset, the program seemed a bit disjointed, with the finished race vehicle clearly the result of too many cooks in the fabrication and engineering kitchen. The exercise was a collaboration between Ford, Ford Performance, Geiser Brothers Engineering and Cameron Steele’s Desert Assassin team. While everyone was very pleased and grateful to see a factory effort back at Baja, at the same time it was miles away from a program as polished as the recently ended Ganassi Ford GT campaign.

With an army of top-flight drivers, co-drivers, mechanics, engineers, media guests, PR and marketing staff, the Ford folks were everywhere in Baja. That didn’t help when myriad of apparently non-production parts and silly mistakes like too light of a skid plate (they had to fabricate one in the field using a nearby stop sign) forced the team to quit and head back to Ensenada.
Was the Bronco’s “finish line portrait” a marketing step too far?

All that is just racing, but then someone at Ford or SCORE or both decided it was OK to have the Bronco cross the finish line and take official photographs. While there were no checkered flags to be seen, with all due respect the PR stunt was a completely inauthentic move, and disrespectful of every other race team that had literally poured their lives into reaching Ensenada and earning their right to enjoy time in the spotlight as official finishers. This is the world’s toughest endurance race, not a marketing exercise.

The good news is that just before the race Ford announced its official support of SCORE International as the official truck and SUV of the series through the 2022 Baja 1000. That will give Ford ample time to better understand off-road racing culture and get the highly anticipated Bronco R to the finish line for real.

 

Click on the thumbnails for more images from the 2019 Baja 1000…
Alan Ampudia charts the way to victory. Image by Art EugenioBrendan Gaughan, R.J. Anderson and Buddy Feldkamp took the Class 1 win. Image by Art EugenioAJ Jones dominated the Trophy-Truck Spec class, winning the division by more than 90 minutes with help from Brock Heger. Image by Get Some Photo

 

Crew members chase the action. Image by Art EugenioThe Glickenhaus Boot in action. Image by SCGThe new Ford Bronco brought factory participation back to Baja. Image by Get Some Photo The SCG Baja Boot teamKristen Matlock performed a solo endurance feat in her Polaris Pro UTV NA. Image by Get Some Photo

 

Kristen Matlock at the finish. Image by Get Some Photo Dustin Helstrom, Mathieu Baumel, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Toby Price celebrate on the podium ramp. Image by Get Some PhotoThe Ampudias celebrate their winning moment. Image by Get Some Photo