As always, the competitors had plenty to say. Some of it we can even print.

Cameron Steele took first in class and first overall honors in this year’s Baja 1000, helped along by penalties assessed after the race to perennial contender Rob MacCachren. Don’t think Steele had the win handed to him, though – the 51^st running of the Baja 1000 was a grueling and tough event.

“We ran the entire thing with no first gear,” said Steele, proving the Baja tests the mettle of even the most seasoned competitors. “They told me it would make it and they were right.” Steel and the team also had to contend with hijinks on the track. “We had a competitor come up from behind us and catch us on the pavement and then ram us in the dirt and kinda set a weird tone for the beginning of the day.” That dust up was round about the time they lost first gear, by the way.

MacCachren had plenty to say as well. “We were just pushing hard all the way through San Felipe all the way down into Catavina and that loop.” Speaking to the racing conditions, he said “The silt was amazing, it was ridiculous the dust, just everything that went on.”

The team of Bryce Menzies had their own run in with the locals. “There actually was a stuck spectator on the course that Toby hit and got stuck for about ten minutes, which put us back a little ways. I got back in at race mile 600 and tried to catch up from there.” All this proves once again that just about anything can and does happen in the Baja 1000.

Brandon Bailey, whose team finished second in class for Unlimited Open-Wheel Single- or Two-Seaters, put an exclamation point on just how big and empty the Baja peninsula can be, especially at night. “We had some issues with the brakes and the GPS went out on us so it was a little rough trying to go through the night that way but we did what we could and got it finished and we are happy. We had two deserved flats after hitting some big rocks.”

Tim Weston, co-driver for the Chad Dorman team which finished fourth in their TT Spec (unlimited Truck/SUV, stock, sealed engines) class, told a tale that could only have originated in Baja. “Chad Dohrman started the race and got high-centered on a rock right before the goat trail, around race mile 107. Then they had to put a new driveshaft in it.” But their challenges weren’t over.

“[Dorman] handed it off to me around race mile 380. I got in and the silt was unreal,” said Weston, speaking to the conditions. “There were so many stuck cars. I hit a cactus ten miles in and drove the next 90 miles with cactus stuck in me.” To be clear, the cactus was stuck in the truck, not Weston. Neither sounds particularly comfortable.

But it was Liz Karcz, Pro Moto competitor finishing fifth in class, who best summed up the toughness and determination necessary to compete in Baja. “You know no one else is going to pick it up for you so you just have to woman-up. Towards the end when I tipped the bike over one last time because I’m so tired and I was just getting weak, I was still making OK time but I didn’t even care if I timed out.

“Every rock, every bump was just beating me up so when the bike tipped over I was just ready to throw in the towel. But then I somehow got out from under the bike and said I didn’t work hard all year to time out now so I just found it in me to stand up and literally had to give it every ounce that I had until the finish and I didn’t time out. That’s all I needed. We made it.”

Incredible stuff. The series rolls into 2019 with a four-card schedule, kicking off with the San Felipe 250 in April. Viva Baja!

[Images: Liz Karcz, SCORE]