Day 5: The Long Push to La Paz

After missing most of Day 3 and all of Day 4, we planned to preserve the truck and survive the long haul to La Paz.

The first 70 miles of Stage 1 were uneventful. We passed several vehicles on the way to San Javier since we were starting way in the back. After the mission, I took an alternate road to avoid silt—but it turned into a dead end. So much for those passes.

The road after the mission was rocky and twisty. I was careful to avoid hitting more rocks with the rear diff (the truck looked like a Baja Bug from behind). We kept a reasonable pace until we came upon a Class 11 with a broken ball joint. We towed them to a flat spot to make repairs and were on our way again.

Then we hit a nightmare spot where the road ended in boulders leading into a soft sand wash. About seven vehicles were stuck. Since I couldn’t get a run-up due to the rocks, we had one shot—and didn’t make it.

Our winch wasn’t enough, so we added a ratchet strap. We eventually got out and were about to tow out a broken buggy. One guy looked to be getting heat stroke pretty bad. A chase truck called in and said they were close. Since we’d freed ourselves, I asked them to help the stuck cars and get the heat stroke guy out instead.

After the wash, it was mostly fast, sandy two-track. About two miles before the stage end, the truck started pulling right every time I hit the gas. I thought it was a flat, but on hardpack, the truck wasn’t leaning. That’s when I knew—it was an axle or rear-end issue.

When we reached the end of the stage, the course worker told us we’d timed out and he was closed. Just icing on the cake.

Day 6: Hopes, Heartbreak, and a Hard Lesson

Valerie Douglas suggested we get to Stage 2’s start before it closed, take the green flag, and then get off-course to fix it. Good call.

But when we pulled the axle, it was stuck in the spool. Once out, we found the axle splines were beat up and the spool was stripped on the right side. As most of you know, Baja is tough enough in two-wheel drive—one-wheel drive is impossible.

So back to the highway we went, hoping the left side of the spool held. At that point, we had done only about 550 miles of dirt—the rest was pavement. Since we were the only ones in our class, we could technically finish and get a trophy. I’m not one for that kind of thing, but I’d do it for the team—for the picture, and for the knowledge that we all arrived safely in San Jose del Cabo.

The Finish… and a Disqualification

When we arrived at the finish in La Paz, Eliseo Garcia had to give us the bad news: we were disqualified. Our chase team had gone backward on course traffic while trying to retrieve us.

Even though they had Starlink and stayed out of the way of racers, it was a clear violation. I agreed with the ruling, even though it hurt. That’s not something that will happen again.