So ya wanna race the desert?

H

HardScrabble

Guest
Some time last year the subject of what it was ike torun the Baja 1000 was broached. There is an articel by a journalist who rode along for a bit with some pretty good descriptions. He might be a touch overly dramatic, and is a bit of a wuss, but this is a good read.

I have soiled myself.

It's midnight at the Baja 1000, somewhere north of Bahía de los Angeles in the tortured highlands of the Sierra de San Borja and seven hours into my stint in the right seat of the Groff Motorsports Class 1 Unlimited buggy. Due to a plumbing malfunction with my "condom catheter," I have peed in my racing suit. I'm hypothermic. Also, in a phenomenon familiar to desert night racers, I'm hallucinating like a peyote-addled Yaqui shaman—Watch out for that cow . . . moose . . . CLOWN!

Worse, I vomited in my full-face helmet. The shrimp burritos I had for lunch are hanging around my neck, trapped in the helmet's dust skirt. CART superstar Jimmy Vasser, at the wheel of the Jimco-Toyota race car, expresses concern when he hears me blow almuerzo through the intercom system.
Click to expand...

For the rest of the article, which is 7 pages long, click HERE
 
Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas also deals with desert racing. Excellent book!
 
Not sure what he is talking about with the hallucinating stuff. Must be something that has happened since I was running. Never happened to me.

Apparently lots of things have changed, we never had GPS and the course was not marked well at all.

I am also surprised that he did not mention the pink polka dotted flying armadilloes that are common to the area. Used to be you would spot about a hundred or so of them racing through the night........... :D
 
Dan Neil paints a graphic picture of desert racing.You can feel the night and the grueling nature of the race through this guy!The locals setting booby traps?Incredible.Just a great article.

Just reassuring that YOU didnt hallucinate HS! :lol:
 
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