Official UTVUnderground 2013 SCORE Baja 1000 Results / Story / Photos
- Thread starter JoeyD23
- Start date
Thanks for the sweet write up Joey!!!! Your words make me feel like I was there, but in all actuality I was at work with the rest of the "ACURA'S" (Arm Chair UTV Racers of America) Yeah, we were on the edge of our seats all weekend and this write up is like crossing the finishline.... Hopefully some of the Drivers can chime in on there experiences.... Thanks for all the photos you guys got while down there too
Here's Marc Burnetts story copied from FB
The Baja 1000 Race Report
Sorry it took me this long to report to you guys what happened in Baja. The week of the race I was sick and had to come back home two days before the race. When I got back down to Baja it was Thursday Contingency day. I had my guys go down and bring my cars thru tech which went well with all the people down there. The next day the race started at around 11:00 am. Everyone told me to drive very slowly in this race which I did. As the race started we got to Ojos Negros and we passed a few cars before we got there. As I proceeded around the 90 mile marker we were currently around 5th place or so. We started 18th in the race. I wasn’t really keeping track as to who I was passing. I was just driving my car like a Sunday driver. When we got to the dry bed lake I was told that we were in 2nd place at that point. Right after that the belt broke. It took us about 25 minutes or so to replace the belt. We saw all the competitors drive by as I waiving them on. We got going again and we notice that one of skid plates was gone. At that time I made sure we stopped into our pit at approx. 192 mile marker. It took us a while to make some sort of skid plate for the bottom of the car. After we got going again we hit a booby trap with all sharp stakes in it. It flatten all four tires on the vehicle and we had no other tires with us beside the tires that were on our pre-runners that we still had from our pre-runner car to use as a replacement until we got down the road farther. After that we started picking up the pace a little more and getting closer and closer to the lead runners again. We made a very bad mistake somewhere around Gonzaga Bay, we missed our pit being that we couldn’t see it cause of the heavy dust. We missed the pit at approx. 324 mile marker. That cost us a lot of time. As we proceeded we passed Arctic Cat Wildcat in the whinny road going toward Coco’s Corner that’s when we caught site of the Murray Brothers on the side of the road. We braked really hard and turned around to make sure that they were ok or if they needed anything. They told us that the motor blew on the car. They wished us good luck and we were off on our way again. We were now back in the dust behind one of the Tonka Toy Wild Cats UTV. We again had to pass them and then proceeded to get thru Coco’s Corner and all the big wash in Calamajue. We then ran out of gas. Lucky for us we ran out of gas on a flat road. We were very fortunate to locate a person after 15-20 of running out of gas that could help us. He towed us for approx. 3/4 mile to our next pit. Unfortunately our team did not make it on time to meet us at the pit because the trailer that had the spare Can-Am on it broke an axle. So we were able to speak to them on the sat phone and told them not to come down to meet us at this pit. We proceeded to go thru check point number 3 into the really bad section with no pit support or support from our team. Now we are going way slower because everyone told me that I drive the car too fast or too hard and I did not want to have a problem in this section. That particular section of the Baja from mile 410-460 it was graveyard of vehicles everywhere. We could not believe how many vehicles were stuck from local to race vehicles. We got to our Baja pit on 441 mile marker and we realized we had to make up some more time. So we started speeding up and about a mile later the clutch blew up. So now we are not only dealing with the belt issue but now we also had clutch issues as well. As we proceeded to put a new clutch on the vehicle the main bolt that holds clutch on broke off on the crank. When this happened I was totally feeling like shit. I knew it was going to be rough after that happened. We had to call the Baja pit guys to come out and get me a drill to try and drill it out. They had very little tools to get the job done right but the guys were very helpful and courteous and tried to help as much as they could. If I did not have the drill I would still be sitting in the middle of the desert looking at the sky. After I drilled the hole on the broken bolt I had nothing to pull it out with so I had to improvise. I used everything I had in my tool box and his to pull it out. I forgot to mention that I had red Loctite on the bolt which made it harder to get out. I sat there for about 4 hours trying to get the bolt out and finally I managed to get it out. We got going again and I was worried that my secondary clutch was beat up really bad and also concern that the belt was going to break because of how damaged it was. So I started off driving very slow. As we started to realize the time, I was getting really close to check point 4. At that point I also realized there was a vehicle close behind us and I was over driving like Miss Daisy. I decided to turn it back up to Marc Burnett’s speed not caring what broke. We got check point 4 approx. 3 minutes before it closed. We worked on the vehicle and replaced the secondary clutch along with other parts that needed work. I thanked my pit crew for a great pit. As I proceeded out of the pit everything was going great for approx. 15 miles. Then we got into more heavey dusty area. We were going 60 miles an hour to 0 when the motor blew-up. That ended my day at the Baja after that happen. I’m still trying to learn two things on the vehicles that I haven’t been able to figure out or overcome. The clutch and also the airbox both seem to be a problem. The car was amazing all day long besides those two issues. The suspension, the car itself still looks brand new. This is definitely the worst year I’ve had racing in my entire racing career. I believe I raced 5 races and I have DNF in every race. People have commented that I drive the car too fast and those are where the issues are. On this race I drove the car 50% and it didn’t matter. I’m still looking for to finish one of these races. If I can finish I know I can win. I would like to thank Can-Am, Monster Energy and General Tires for their support and all our other sponsors that have contributed to us this year. We have all put a lot of money into the program. I feel really bad that we have been unable to prove ourselves in the class. I also like to thank the Murray brothers for all their help and support this year. When we first broke our belt in the dry bed they were going to stop and help us but I waved for them to keep going. Also like to thank my pit crew and co-drivers for all help and support. Looking forward to a better race season in 2014.
The Baja 1000 Race Report
Sorry it took me this long to report to you guys what happened in Baja. The week of the race I was sick and had to come back home two days before the race. When I got back down to Baja it was Thursday Contingency day. I had my guys go down and bring my cars thru tech which went well with all the people down there. The next day the race started at around 11:00 am. Everyone told me to drive very slowly in this race which I did. As the race started we got to Ojos Negros and we passed a few cars before we got there. As I proceeded around the 90 mile marker we were currently around 5th place or so. We started 18th in the race. I wasn’t really keeping track as to who I was passing. I was just driving my car like a Sunday driver. When we got to the dry bed lake I was told that we were in 2nd place at that point. Right after that the belt broke. It took us about 25 minutes or so to replace the belt. We saw all the competitors drive by as I waiving them on. We got going again and we notice that one of skid plates was gone. At that time I made sure we stopped into our pit at approx. 192 mile marker. It took us a while to make some sort of skid plate for the bottom of the car. After we got going again we hit a booby trap with all sharp stakes in it. It flatten all four tires on the vehicle and we had no other tires with us beside the tires that were on our pre-runners that we still had from our pre-runner car to use as a replacement until we got down the road farther. After that we started picking up the pace a little more and getting closer and closer to the lead runners again. We made a very bad mistake somewhere around Gonzaga Bay, we missed our pit being that we couldn’t see it cause of the heavy dust. We missed the pit at approx. 324 mile marker. That cost us a lot of time. As we proceeded we passed Arctic Cat Wildcat in the whinny road going toward Coco’s Corner that’s when we caught site of the Murray Brothers on the side of the road. We braked really hard and turned around to make sure that they were ok or if they needed anything. They told us that the motor blew on the car. They wished us good luck and we were off on our way again. We were now back in the dust behind one of the Tonka Toy Wild Cats UTV. We again had to pass them and then proceeded to get thru Coco’s Corner and all the big wash in Calamajue. We then ran out of gas. Lucky for us we ran out of gas on a flat road. We were very fortunate to locate a person after 15-20 of running out of gas that could help us. He towed us for approx. 3/4 mile to our next pit. Unfortunately our team did not make it on time to meet us at the pit because the trailer that had the spare Can-Am on it broke an axle. So we were able to speak to them on the sat phone and told them not to come down to meet us at this pit. We proceeded to go thru check point number 3 into the really bad section with no pit support or support from our team. Now we are going way slower because everyone told me that I drive the car too fast or too hard and I did not want to have a problem in this section. That particular section of the Baja from mile 410-460 it was graveyard of vehicles everywhere. We could not believe how many vehicles were stuck from local to race vehicles. We got to our Baja pit on 441 mile marker and we realized we had to make up some more time. So we started speeding up and about a mile later the clutch blew up. So now we are not only dealing with the belt issue but now we also had clutch issues as well. As we proceeded to put a new clutch on the vehicle the main bolt that holds clutch on broke off on the crank. When this happened I was totally feeling like shit. I knew it was going to be rough after that happened. We had to call the Baja pit guys to come out and get me a drill to try and drill it out. They had very little tools to get the job done right but the guys were very helpful and courteous and tried to help as much as they could. If I did not have the drill I would still be sitting in the middle of the desert looking at the sky. After I drilled the hole on the broken bolt I had nothing to pull it out with so I had to improvise. I used everything I had in my tool box and his to pull it out. I forgot to mention that I had red Loctite on the bolt which made it harder to get out. I sat there for about 4 hours trying to get the bolt out and finally I managed to get it out. We got going again and I was worried that my secondary clutch was beat up really bad and also concern that the belt was going to break because of how damaged it was. So I started off driving very slow. As we started to realize the time, I was getting really close to check point 4. At that point I also realized there was a vehicle close behind us and I was over driving like Miss Daisy. I decided to turn it back up to Marc Burnett’s speed not caring what broke. We got check point 4 approx. 3 minutes before it closed. We worked on the vehicle and replaced the secondary clutch along with other parts that needed work. I thanked my pit crew for a great pit. As I proceeded out of the pit everything was going great for approx. 15 miles. Then we got into more heavey dusty area. We were going 60 miles an hour to 0 when the motor blew-up. That ended my day at the Baja after that happen. I’m still trying to learn two things on the vehicles that I haven’t been able to figure out or overcome. The clutch and also the airbox both seem to be a problem. The car was amazing all day long besides those two issues. The suspension, the car itself still looks brand new. This is definitely the worst year I’ve had racing in my entire racing career. I believe I raced 5 races and I have DNF in every race. People have commented that I drive the car too fast and those are where the issues are. On this race I drove the car 50% and it didn’t matter. I’m still looking for to finish one of these races. If I can finish I know I can win. I would like to thank Can-Am, Monster Energy and General Tires for their support and all our other sponsors that have contributed to us this year. We have all put a lot of money into the program. I feel really bad that we have been unable to prove ourselves in the class. I also like to thank the Murray brothers for all their help and support this year. When we first broke our belt in the dry bed they were going to stop and help us but I waved for them to keep going. Also like to thank my pit crew and co-drivers for all help and support. Looking forward to a better race season in 2014.
Awesome write up Joey, Id like to add that we did have some some very experienced baja racers that we had teamed up with. Herrera Motorsports of Tijuana, without this teams experience I dont know if we would have made the time deadline. Both the spanish speaking and the Knowledge of Baja was a HUGE help and these guys just DO NOT run out of energy. https://www.facebook.com/HerreraMotorsports?ref=br_tf
You must have mistaken one of the other Wildcats for the Tonka Wildcat at RM324. We were first on the road from Ojos to 385.
