Where Grit Meets Dust: 52nd Annual SCORE Baja 1000

For some, it doesn’t matter how big the SCORE Baja 1000 ultimately gets. In all likelihood (and much to the chagrin of nearly everyone reading this article) off-road desert racing will probably never become an official Olympic sport. There are scores of nations that lack any off-roading activity at all. And, for that matter, plenty of countries with no deserts to even speak of.

But Mexico—specifically the Baja Peninsula just south of California, where Mexico meets the gloriously azure Pacific—has no such lack of racing culture. In fact, some might argue that it’d be tough to find a place that has more racing culture. After all, it’s the place that’s home to the world-renowned 52nd Annual SCORE Baja 1000.

It is the most famous, timeless, and arguably, the most rigorous off-road desert race ever conceived by man.

People travel from every state in the union and myriad countries the world over just to get a sniff of the dust at the starting line. It means to some in the automotive world what the 1992 Dream Team meant to international basketball. What Dorothy Hamill meant to figure skating. What the 1980 Miracle On Ice in Lake Placid meant to everybody’s blue collar, beer-drinkin’ old man.

Pack Your Bags

The 52nd Annual SCORE Baja 1000, and the week’s surrounding festivities, will take place this year from November 19-24, on a loop course beginning and ending in historic Ensenada, 80 miles south of the U.S. border at San Diego. However, this is not the case every year.

The name of the Baja 1000 can often be a bit of a misnomer. Some years, the “Baja” 1000—the 4th, final, and most famous leg of the SCORE World Desert Championship—is run on a “point-to-point” course. Most recently, in 2017, it ran from Ensenada, south to La Paz, at the bottom of the Baja Peninsula. But 6 of the last 10 runs have actually had their start and finish line in Ensenada.

And although it is always called the SCORE Baja “1000,” and although point-to-point courses for this race generally break the 1,000-mile mark, loop courses actually vary year-to-year. In fact, they typically only measure between 600-850 miles, and the 2019 course is no exception—officially coming in at 799.1 miles.

52 Years in the Making

Well into its second half-century atop the off-road desert racing calendar, the SCORE Baja 1000 has as rich a history as one might expect from an event known around the globe as the “Granddaddy Of All Desert Races.”

Founded by Ed Pearlman in 1967, it was originally known as the NORRA Mexican 1000 Rally and ran from Tijuana to La Paz. The Mexican 1000 was mostly conceived as a means to officially rank and categorize the fastest runs of the Baja Peninsula, which had become an increasing popular feat to attempt over the previous decade. It grew so quickly in popularity, however, that by 1968, ABC Network was already captivated.

Jim Mckay and Wide World of Sports traveled to cover the event, which was now attracting racers who would become legends of the sport: movie actor James Garner, Indy 500 winner Parnelli Jones, and a man who needs no introduction to the off-roading community—Mickey Thompson.

Apart from a one-year sabbatical in 1974 during OPEC’s Arab Oil Embargo, the ever-growing Baja desert race flourished. Baja Governor Milton Castellanos handed over the reins of the race to a Mexican non-profit organization, the Baja Sports Committee, who officially renamed the event the “Baja Mil” or Baja 1000.

When a promotional partnership with NORRA proved less than ideal, Mickey Thompson’s SCORE International organization was asked to adopt stewardship of the race. They accepted, and from its return in 1975 until present day, the SCORE Baja 1000 has remained a constant in the desert racing community.

Various Vehicles

Year by year, the scope, appeal, and legend of the SCORE Baja 1000 only grows. Today, a number of official classes of vehicles race through the desolate, ever-changing Mexican landscape for a chance at glory, including: motorcycles, ATVs, UTVs, stock Volkswagens, production vehicles, buggies, trucks, and custom-fabricated rigs.

The race will again be televised, this time on ABC’s World of X Games as a one-hour special. Trophy trucks and Class 1 vehicles can nowadays qualify for a preferential starting position at SEMA, sidestepping the random-draw start positions that are the norm for most racers. And that helps, because the very best desert racing teams, from everywhere on Earth that you can imagine desert racing teams to originate, will line up in Ensenada for their chance at international recognition. (And perhaps, international glory.)

Lethal Challenges

Of course, the SCORE Baja 1000 is not without its perils. For many, winning is not the objective. It is a feat for most to simply finish.

The fastest vehicles will cover the course in an estimated 16 hours. (We’re talking about BIG money teams, with plenty of support and the fiscal means to adapt to practically any quagmire that arises.) But the time limit to officially finish the race is set at 34 hours.

And to most of the 250-plus teams lined up to start the race, coming in under that time barrier is a victory unto itself. Especially on such a long, treacherous course, notorious for containing hidden booby traps set by meddling spectators. Ne’er-do-well fans have, in the past, dug holes, blocked river flow, and buried hidden obstacles to impact the race. Will it happen this year? It’s anybody’s guess. Although, it’s awfully tough to police every one of those 799 miles of desert terrain.

By all accounts, the 2019 SCORE Baja 1000 will be the biggest one yet. Teams will be there from, like, everywhere. Argentina. The Bahamas. Finland. Brazil. Japan. Guam. Saudi Arabia. Yugoslavia. As well as dozens of other nations. Though it may have been born in Mexico to American parents, the 52nd Annual SCORE Baja 1000 is truly the whole world’s baby now.

Show Your Support

With more interested outlets in traditional media and on the internet, plus a boom in automotive aftermarket equipment specifically designed for desert racing, 52 years is not nearly enough time for this race to reach its peak. The sky (the desert sky, to be specific), truly is the limit.

But really, will desert racing, and events in the style of the SCORE Baja 1000, ever have a decent chance to make it into the sports mainstream? Into every household? Into the Olympics? Who knows? But one thing is for sure. If they do, the first gold medalist is not gonna just step up onto that podium. No chance. They’re gonna do a fully vertical crawl up the side of that thing, flexing an insane suspension setup and a set of Mickey Thompson tires.