Driving through tijuana can be confusing, but we made our way smoothly through the city and onto Highway 1. The start of the 40th anniversary baja 1000 was in Ensenada, about an hour south of the border. We made it in to town without a hitch and caught the end of SCORE International's contingency and tech inspection event that always takes place the day before the race. Contingency at the baja 1000 is part carnival and part Mardi Gras, except with off-road race vehicles (not half-dressed girls) as the center of attention. It's truly a site to see quarter-million-dollar race vehicles being pushed through a parade of locals and spectators.
THE NIGHT BEFORE THE RACE
Things were quiet before the race, and rightfully so. The serious competitors send their chase teams south down the course to have them in position hours, or days, before the race begins. The race drivers themselves went to bed early because they'd need all the energy they could get come race day. We, on the other hand, were at the race strictly as spectators. So we went out on the town with a group of publishers from our company's off-road magazines. And that's about all we can print about that.
BROKEN KEY
On the morning of the race, we were in the parking lot of the villa Marina hotel, wiring up a set of Holder Off-Road LED driving lights on the roof of our diesel Grand Cherokee. We were just about to leave when our friend Warren Ellis mentioned to Jeff nasi, publisher of Petersen's 4-Wheel & Off-Road, that the Warn recovery shackle Jeff had in the hitch of his Commander was loose. Jeff tried to tighten it by hand, and then decided to use the ignition key from the Commander to get some leverage on the screw-in pin. Well, you know what happened next. We all heard the pink-tink-tink-tink of the Commander's key breaking in half and falling on the ground. Then, we saw the look of horror on Jeff's face that only a man who has brought one key into Mexico could have.