Official UTVUnderground 2014 SCORE Baja 500 Photos / Results / Story

BiggJim

I Hate Rules - UTVUnderground Approved
Jan 15, 2009
2,079
452
83
Bakersfield
congrats to marc burnett and team on the win. He obviously got thru the bottle necks and checked out. When we made RM260 he had over 2 hours on us.
 

Hapa

Ricky Racer - UTVUnderground Approved
Jan 15, 2009
340
11
18
Oc
www.glamisdunesstorage.com
Very cool seeing everyone running this race. I cant believe they still call them utility vehicles.
CLASS 19 (Limited, Stock 4-wheel Utility Vehicle) (Starters: 17, Finishers: 9)

And just to be clear Brian B and Jonny finished better than you Joey D?
 

ALBANATE

Active Member
Feb 13, 2012
202
43
28
We got our asses kicked in the bottleneck. All I can say is congrats Marc! You were effin cooking! Put in the time prerunning and it pays off.

I would also like to say a huge congrats to Reid. Without Reid Marc would have never made the starting line. Good job getting what needed to be done at the last minute!

Nate
Alba Racing
 

JoeyD23

#utvunderground
Jan 9, 2009
18,569
1,368
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North County San Diego
www.utvunderground.com
Very cool seeing everyone running this race. I cant believe they still call them utility vehicles.
CLASS 19 (Limited, Stock 4-wheel Utility Vehicle) (Starters: 17, Finishers: 9)

And just to be clear Brian B and Jonny finished better than you Joey D?
Oh look who came out to troll... lol Geez, had to knock the dust off your login and password huh? hahah

Yes, they beat us.. by a c-hair.. hahaha Johnny can wheel that car!
 

NIKAL

Well-Known Member
May 13, 2012
970
310
63
Joey I see why they put you on the other side of the peninsula and let you get in after dark. You wore a Fox logo'ed flame suit in a Walker Evans supported car!! LOL!

No joke I have been in the same position. My 5/1600 team we raced on Yokohama tires and were actually getting some support from them. Then I got the chance to race in the Jimco "In house" class 10 car in BITD which had support from BFG. We won 3 out of the 5 races that year, and finished 2nd in the other two. So every time we won we were given BFG Winners hats to wear. So there I am wearing a BFG Winners hat with Yokohama on my suit and doing interviews with Judy Smith about how great the tires were. Ooops!
 

JoeyD23

#utvunderground
Jan 9, 2009
18,569
1,368
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North County San Diego
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Yeah I am lucky and honored to both have friends at FOX and Walker Evans Racing who understand that there is enough content here on UTVUnderground.com for them both to support the site and me personally on projects. I was lucky enough last year to race our then sponsored RZR 570 in place of Cody Rahders for FOX. The 570 th eyear previous was my personal unit from Polaris that I put Cody in. FOX came on board to support it, they won the championship and in return got to keep the RZR 570!!! Pretty cool deal huh?? Well this last year Cody had a schedule conflict and asked me if I would like to race in place of him. I agreed and FOX decided they couldn't let me not look like a pro and dialed me in with my very own custom Impact suit, Oakley Gloves and Impact Helmet. The Helmet I later had painted by our buddy Chad Riccio of CR Designs.

Anyway, thats the story of the suit and yes I am sure I will take heat for it every time I wear it from my friends at Walker and even King just as I do when I wear one of their articles of merch around one of my Fox guys.. lol Its a vicious circle but someone has to do it! haah
 

Johnny

UTVUnderground Approved
Jan 15, 2009
672
470
63
Mesa Arizona
Thanks for all the coverage Joey and team I could not believe my eyes when I pulled up to a bottle neck silt mountain and saw your camera guy snapping pictures covered in silt head to toe we sat there for a few minutes and he decided to do a interview as I was looking for a split second opening to hit the hill of course he ask what was going on and I had some kinda smart ass answer but in all truth I cant believe the shit those guys go thru to get a photo



Kudos guys great work !!!

Thanks for the UTV coverage cause if you where not doing it we would not have shit to remember the Baja 500
 

Bajaxp

SXS Racer Extraordinaire - UTVUnderground Approved
Jan 21, 2010
1,597
253
83
OC
Congrats to Marc on the win. Nice work! Congrats to Branden and Justin on getting on the podium.

While we are not too thrilled with a 5th place finish, the whole team had a blast racing this year's 500.

Why RS?: A lot of people have asked why I decided to rear start this year's race. There are benefits to starting up front and benefits to a rear start. I have to say that after I pre-ran our section from the start to RM 265, I knew it was a mistake because there might be many many bottlenecks. And there were.

Recap:
We were waved off of the line at approximately 11:50 am on Saturday as the 17th and last UTV off the line. We just settled into a smooth pace heading up to Ojos. The car was running great and I could tell all of the changes we made in testing after the AV250 were really helping.

By the time we hit Ojos we had moved up four positions and within the next ten miles we got by another three utes, putting us into 10th physically. We hit our first bottleneck and it cleared pretty quickly and lost only two minutes. The next bottleneck was longer and we tried to find a way around it but there was no way. This one had us sitting nine minutes. We continued to pick off UTV's and then at another bottleneck we simply bush wacked about 15 yards away and got around this whole group. This put us in 3rd physically at approximately RM60. So at this point I thought the rear start was a good thing. But then we lost 4wd.

We came into Urapan and had JXBS in Chase 1 see if he could find anything obvious but he didn't see anything and the indicator light was out confirming that 4wd wasn't working. We lost a couple of minutes at this stop and gave a couple of positions back. Glascraft was now right behind us as we went down the highway towards Santo Tomas.

We hit the fun beach section but driving on the rally roads in 2wd was tough. While only having 2wd didn't hurt us in the fast or straight sections it slowed us down in the tight sections because the thing wanted to swap ends every time you got into the throttle. Simms got by us here but we were able to gap Glascraft and were able to keep Angal behind us.

At Erindia at RM 110 we stopped for fuel and Chase 5 got intel from Chase 2 to see if a fuse was blown. We screwed around with the fuse box for around 5 minutes but they couldn't fix it, so we continued on in 2wd. At this point I am guessing that we were in 4th or 5th physically. We struggled in the deep sand in 2wd, but made it to our fuel splash at RM 175. This stop was quick and JXBS was able to shove a fuse in and we got 4wd back, but the fuse cover was missing. Angal got by us at this stop but in a couple of miles going up the rocky wash we reeled him in and could see his blue light. But then we lost 4wd AGAIN at RM 180. I was super nervous to do the Mike's loop in 2wd, so I pulled over and Keith tried to see if he could find where the fuse went. He tried for about 4 minutes, then I told him to get in and we would give 'er hell in 2wd.

We took off right in front of the Murray's but they were faster in the tight stuff with their 4wd and got by us. We stayed with them until we got to the first bottle neck at around RM 180. We sat there for around 10-15 minutes and finally we got through. We got to the next bottle neck and this one cleared in about 3 minutes, but a lot of the UTV's and other classes were now bunched up.

We got to our third bottle neck at RM 210 and waited for a around 30 minutes. There were around 25 cars parked and Keith hiked around but couldn't find any way around. The car causing the problem was a class 10 and the Angal UTV Inc car pushed it up the hill and thus the 1920 got clear. Next up was the RPM class 8. It got complexly stuck trying to get up the hill and now they blocked the course. All of the co-drivers got out and tried to get the truck clear, but no dice. So Derek Murray acted like a parking attendant and we got all of the cars waiting, off to the side so Donald Moss in his class 3 4wd Bronco could snatch the Class 8 out backwards and off course. Another 40 minute had now passed but now the Moss Bronco wouldn't move off of the course because he wanted to go first as his 'reward' for clearing the course. So another couple of minutes went by while his co-dog dicked around with the high lift jack, put away the tow strap and putting his helmet on. This was absolutely painful to watch and now the sun had gone down. He finally went up the hill, followed by the Murray's. I made it up no problem in 2wd, followed by Cognito.

If you are wondering what these hills look like, they typically about 50 - 100 yards long with two trenches about 18 inches deep filled with silt and hidden baby-head rocks. These roads were cut into the side of a mountain so going around is next to impossible.

We took off but there was zero breeze and despite only two cars being immediately ahead of us, the dust was blinding. This was made worse because both of our lower lights were pointed at the sky and one was loose and bobble-heading around. We had Chase 5 at RM 220 so we pulled in to see if they could aim the lights. I told them that I HAD to get out ahead of Cognito even if it meant driving with messed up lights. But they mistook the single lower light on the Cognito car for a local with a flashlight and Cognito drove right by while we were parked. Doh! So I decided not to dick around any more and we took off about a minute behind them with our lights still loose and pointed up. All in all we were only parked for about 3 minutes.

On the way to Mike's we saw the Murray's on their side and both Cognito and we got by. We chased Cognito all the way to Mike's and got to about 20 yards behind them going up one of the steep rocky hills at around RM 245, but I couldn't get to their bumper without potentially driving off of a cliff.

At the drivers change at RM 265 we pulled in just as Cognito was pulling out. Other than the 4wd issue the car was in perfect condition. While Jason and Joey D got in, we fixed and aimed the lower lights, fueled the car, Brandon shoved a new fuse into the fuse box and we finally got 4wd back. Whooo Hoo!


So they took off and things were going well except the belt temp sky rocketed every time they tried to go WFO. So I told them to just peddle it until the temps came back down. Coming back up from the dry lake, they center punched a rock and were worried that they might have destroyed the front end. So they pulled over at RM 320 for a quick look and while they had put a dent in one of the A-arms and the front of the skid plate was torn from it's mount, everything else looked good and they were still good to go.

When they were at RM 360 we heard that the car was cutting out and it stalled a few times. So at the RM 370 we did the final fuel stop, Brandon found a wire that had come off of the T-MAP sensor. He fixed this, we adjusted the top light bar and Jason and Joey took off.

We saw them at the Ojos cross over and we instructed them to just bring it home. But they were still pushing hard and were trying to catch the 1920 Angal car. But the pace took out both rear CV's and they had to drive the last 20 miles in Fwd. Thank God we fixed the 4wd!

We were all super stoked to see our car get to the finish line with all of the drama of the day. I want thank the whole team for all of their hard work and keeping the car moving forward. So the rear start would have been great, but the bottlenecks wrecked our plan. I would love to have had the hour and 45 minutes that we sat waiting for stuck cars back, but that is racing.

The UTV's continue to get faster and I am guessing that SCORE will move us up in the starting order so we don't continue to get blocked by slower classes. I can't wait for the next race in September and I am really looking forward to the epic run to La Paz in November.
 

NIKAL

Well-Known Member
May 13, 2012
970
310
63
Matt thanks for the explanation on why you chose a rear start. That was a head scratcher for me when I saw it on the entry list.
 

Bajaxp

SXS Racer Extraordinaire - UTVUnderground Approved
Jan 21, 2010
1,597
253
83
OC
Matt thanks for the explanation on why you chose a rear start. That was a head scratcher for me when I saw it on the entry list.
As I said before, I knew we were in trouble after the pre-run. Oh well!
 

Ignore Amos

Active Member
Jan 14, 2011
422
32
28
Tucson, AZ
Great recap and kudos for sticking it out...might carry more fuses in the future! hope to get back to Baja next year...budget allowing.
 

NIKAL

Well-Known Member
May 13, 2012
970
310
63
Being the "has been" racer I am, I feel the need to say this for all those who raced the Baja 500 and for those who wish to race the Baja 500.

We drivers sometimes let our ego's get in the way of reality. Our names are on the cars, entry list and typically the post race stories. But I will say this and I truly believe this. The actual driver & co-rider's jobs are only 25% of the actual race, yet they are typically the ones you look up to and praise. IMO they have the easy part! The racer is only as fast as his first tank of fuel. If you dont have a great crew your race is over after you run out of fuel. Even Robby Gordon is only as good as the people who support him.

Johnny told his race recap and explained how his crew got stuck in traffic and got behind. Johnny actually had to get off the course and find a local Pemex gas station to get fuel. I have heard these stories before. While they are the stories and adventures you will remember, rarely do they end with a successful finish or a win. Johnny got lucky he was able to get fuel and continue. Many just run out and have to wait hours for their crews to find them and fill them back up or bring parts to them.

The Baja 500 actually started weeks if not months before the green flag drops. The first person or people that make it happen are the ones paying the bills. Without the money you are not leaving the garage.

Then you have the people who prep the car as they are the first ones with hands on to get you to that checkered flag. Next is the the guys that go with to help prerun. Yes even prerunning can take a team to accomplish. Prerunning in most cases is the best / most fun part of the entire event. Then you got the chase crew which like the guys helping prep & prerun are typically all volunteers and in most cases are the same guys chasing. In some cases guys might get their hotel room expenses covered, a T-Shirt and maybe a dinner covered. Sometimes the most a team can offer or afford is a thank you and maybe some beers after the race.

I have owned and ran my own team, helped and worked on some of the top teams in the sport, who have paid me to be there. And sometimes helping a team has cost me hundreds of dollars to do so, as they had barely enough money to get there. In each case I have done it for the love of being there and the experience.

I know the guys like Marc, Johnny, Brandon & Matt have said or made comments letting you know how important having their crew there to keep them going was. Without those crews not one team would have finished.

And what most dont know or realize is during this Baja 500 there was actually two races going on. One is on the race track and the other is on the narrow, sometimes very dangerous Mexico highways and dirt roads. More crew guys are killed or injured every year chasing in Baja, then you will ever see on the race track. Racing in Baja is like no other. BITD is a walk in the park compared to racing in Baja. Casey Folks lays everything out for you. The Logistics to racing in Baja is like no other, except for Dakar which makes Baja look like your local Saturday night roundy round race track.

Racing in Baja separates the men from the boys and then you throw in a point to point Baja 1000 and even those men can crumble.

I just wanted to give props to those behind the scene who might only get a quick mention on the podium, or in a race report.

Congrats guys & gals!
 

dirtguy

Member
May 4, 2013
128
5
18
In the mountains west of Las Vegas
Very nice write up Matt, It really shows the mindset of you and the whole JX team that gets wins and championships for so long.

Back in the day when UTV's were steam powered Jagged was always the powerhouse because of the professionalism of their whole racing program.

We used to think that they must work awfully hard to be that lucky. So we would try to watch and learn and it brought our game up.

This is such an exciting time for UTV's. I am working on getting out there with you guys again. I hate being left out.

Anybody want a top level 7200 truck?

Tim
 

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