Baja 1000 2014: Dates, Route, Course Map, Race Classes and Full Schedule
Dirt, dust and a high-octane, fuel-burning race to the finish line.
That, in a nutshell, is the Baja 1000, an off-road race featuring everything from motorcycles to ATVs to trucks, all on the same course, all screaming down the Baja California Peninsula in one of the flagship competitions of the SCORE International Off-Road Racing series.
If you're a fan of the Mad Max movies, this race is for you.
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The Baja 1000 is the last of five races in the 2014 SCORE World Desert Championship, which also includes the Baja 500, the Rigid Industries SCORE Desert Challenge, the San Felipe 250 and the Imperial Valley 250.
Some of the hardiest road warriors out there will descend upon the city of Ensenada, Mexico, to slake their thirst for competition in a dry, unforgiving landscape.
Here is a look at the race information, schedule and list of vehicle classes.
Baja 1000 Basic Race Info
Dates: Nov. 12-16 (full event activities)
Race Start Date: Thursday, Nov. 13
Start: Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico
Finish: La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico
Course Map: A complete course map can be found here.
TV: CBS Sports Network, Dec. 28 (delayed broadcast, per official website)
Race Schedule
The race itself is only one part of the congregation in the desert. The full schedule of events can be found here.
| Start Time (PST) | Vehicle Class |
| 6 a.m. | Motorcycles |
| Quads | |
| 12:30 p.m. | Cars |
| Trucks |
| Class | |
| Trophy Truck | |
| Class 1 | |
| TT Spec | |
| 8 | |
| 5 Unlimited | |
| 12 Score Lites | |
| Heavy Metal | |
| 10 | |
| 3 | |
| 3000 | |
| 2 | |
| 1/2-1600 | |
| Trophy Lite | |
| 6 | |
| 7 | |
| Pro Truck | |
| 11 | |
| 1700 JeepSpeed | |
| 3700 JeepSpeed | |
| 5-1600 Ltd | |
| 7sx | |
| 9 | |
| Stock Full | |
| Stock Mini | |
| 19 | |
| Baja Challenge | |
| 2000 Ltd Truck | |
| 1400 Unlimited Open Truck | |
| 1500 Unlimited Buggy | |
| 19 | |
| "Ironman" (Solo) | |
| Limited Pro | |
| Open Pro | |
| 30 | |
| 40 | |
| 50 | |
| 60 | |
| Pro Quad | |
| Sportsman M/C | |
| Sportsman ATV |
Note: A breakdown of each class level can be found at Score-International.com.
Preview
The premier racing class in the Baja 1000 is arguably the Trophy Truck series, although the fact that several different types of vehicles will be on the course at any given point in time is responsible for some of the charm of the competition.
Robby Gordon finished first in qualifying for the Trophy Truck class and will be the first driver to start the race, per Score-International.com.
What might be lost on some folks is the amount of preparation that goes into this race. Pre-running the course can be highly beneficial for a driver, as all kinds of misfortunes can plague a competitor in this race. Score International provided a look at some pre-running footage from Robby Bell:
Autoweek's John Hoffman gave some insight into the meticulous care one must take in pre-running at the Baja 1000 course:
"The main pre-runner will get a more detailed inspection because it is used throughout the race week. We will log more miles on the pre-runner because we expect to go around the race course five or six times, maybe more. We’ll use the pre-runners for reconnaissance before the race and as a support vehicle during the race. That means they clock more than 5,000 miles during race week. The lead mechanics will use the pre-runner to get to the race buggy quickly should there be problem during the event.
"
This is a mechanized marathon through the desert that can take more than a full day to complete. The vast gap between times is truly staggering and gives some sense of the grand scale of this contest.
B.J. Baldwin's winning time of 18 hours, 36 minutes and 30 seconds in the Trophy Truck class would've seemed like a mere pit stop to Gary Magness, who spent more than 32 hours traversing that very same course.
And it's not like this is unexplored, completely unfamiliar territory; conditions are just that brutal.
Ensenada also serves as the starting and finishing point for the Baja 500, which is essentially the younger sibling of this race. Gordon gave fans a look at the 2014 edition of that gauntlet from a competitor's point of view:
This is the kind of event that should hand out participation medals along with the starting points to those brave enough to rocket through the desert on hunks of metal powered by combustion.
Take a look at the 2013 race results. The entire document looks like a cruise ship manifest, but the number of competitors who finished the race could be tucked comfortably into a small fishing boat cabin.
In fact, the name Baja 1000 undersells this race. According to the course map, the serpentine route is approximately 1,250 miles, with a total of 10 checkpoints between the start and finish lines.
One might wonder why a race of this magnitude has a relatively low profile in the world of sports. Roger Norman, owner of SCORE, noted prior to the 2013 Baja 1000 that the challenges off-road racing faces are comparable to those the faced by the UFC enterprise at one point in time.
"The only tough thing about taking SCORE to the next level is promoting it to the next level," said Norman, via U-T San Diego's Bill Center in November 2013. "UFC had the same problem. The networks want a given. They want to know people will love the product in advance."
This unique event may not garner much attention outside of the area in which it takes place and the core set of fans it serves, but it's a marquee event in its world and one worth appreciating, if only to get a glimpse of the extreme lengths some go to for the sake of sport and competition.
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