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Baja 1000 |
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 Baja 1000 is an off-road race that takes place on Mexico's Baja California Peninsula in the fall. The event includes various types of vehicle classes such as small and large bore motorcycles, stock VW, production vehicles, buggies, trucks, and custom fabricated race vehicles. The course has remained relatively the same over the years with the majority of events being either a point to point race from Ensenada to La Paz, or a loop race starting and finishing in Ensenada. The name of the event is misleading as the mileage varies for the type of event (loop or point to point) and has represented Kilometers in the past.
The first official race started in Tijuana, Baja California on October 31, 1967 and was named the NORRA Mexican 1000 Rally. The course length that year was 849 miles and ended in La Paz, Baja California Sur with the overall winning time of 27 hours 38 minutes (27:38) set by Vic Wilson and Ted Mangels while driving a Meyers Manx buggy.
From 1967 to 1972 the race was organized by the National Off Road Racing Association (NORRA). In 1973, Baja California governor Milton Castellanos handed over sanctioning of the event to a non-profit Mexican corporation called Baja Sports Committee (BSC). BSC renamed the event to Baja Mil (Baja 1000) and scheduled the race to run on the original dates chosen by NORRA. Though NORRA held a competing event in the United States that same weekend, BSC successfully ran the race from Ensenada to La Paz like the years prior. Unaware of the challenges, BSC found promoting Baja races more difficult than anticipated. Instead of giving up the race, the Mexican government requested help from Short Course Off-Road Enterprises (SCORE) in hosting and promoting future Baja races. Through negotiations with Mickey Thompson and his SCORE organization, the Mexican Government agreed to give exclusive rights to SCORE to hold Baja races and also reluctantly allowed SCORE to cancel the event for 1974. SCORE hired Sal Fish as president and took control of the Baja 1000 from that year on with the Baja 1000 race resuming under new control in 1975.
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Point to point: A point to point race is one that starts and ends in two different locations. The start is traditionally held in ensenada but has been held in Tijuana and Mexicali as well. The course length varies for a point to point but is often over a 1000 miles and ends in La Paz.
• Loop race: A loop race is one that starts and finishes in the same location. Traditionally the race starts and ends in Ensenada but has started/finished in Mexicalli as well. The course length averages 830 miles.
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