Baja 500 :-)

[27tim]

Who here has heard of it - I'm curious to know of its fame?!

[Dare2Fail]

Yes. All petrol heads should be forced to watch From Dust To Glory.

[100SRV]

I make three of us then!

Dust to glory - ignore the voiceover and marvel at the racing.

Also read "to dakar and back" by Laurence Hacking - great book.

I think that events like Baja, Dakar and similar are proper races - a mix of amateurs and professionals, unpredictable conditions, a true test of endurance and skill.

Sadly such events don't merit coverage by a ball-sports obsessed media :-(

[27tim]

Yeah - that was a great book too! I really enjoyed the read. Duke I think it is do some great DVD's about the Dakar which are surprisingly good too.

I just got my entry in for the Baja...no experience racing off road at all and for sure I've never driven a space frame V8 truck with 2' of suspension travel and 36" tyres but thats just a mere technicality I'm sure...

How tough can 500 miles through the Mexican desert be? ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoHzN8shXQA

I was told this gem by the team "when you catch someone, give them 10secs of siren, if they don't pull over after that just drive into them, its called bumping. Oh yeah, you might find Mexican's too on course driving, if they're in front of you just punt them off, don't let them get in the way!"

It doesn't matter what class you enter you don't need ANY sort of licence either...its the last bastion of crazy desert racing!

[100SRV]

Pirate 4x4 has a desert racing section and there have been some good threads on speedhunters recently showcasing the Mint 400 in Nevada and also King of the Hammers - quite a thing given that site's interest in drift, drag, modified, time attack and so on. Linkys here:

Mint 400
http://www.speedhunters.com/2014/03/the-mint-400-m...

http://www.speedhunters.com/2014/03/heroes-strip-c...

KoH
http://www.speedhunters.com/2013/02/through-my-len...

Way more spectacular than surfaced racing...