Canguro Racing - Baja 1000 2014

Next week I'll be in Mexico as part of the chase crew again for Canguro Racing. I know it's not a Tacoma but it is a Toyota. We just got the 200 Series Land Cruiser back from getting the new wrap installed and of course had a photoshoot prior to the race. We'll be racing as a Class 8 or "stock fullsize" against the Toyota factory team in their TRD Pro Tundra race truck, so we'll see who comes out on top.

I designed the logo for the race team and in addition to typical chase/pit duties I get to take most of the photos too. I'll share LOTS when I get back and should have some video as well.

 

What do the flaps under the truck do?

 

The protect the shafts of the rear shocks from gravel

 

They help in the dust.

 

How is it down there? Safety wise. Don't really trust Mexico. Been there 10+ times (Tijuana) but that was before 2007. Want to go, but corruption holding me back.

 

What about the fans? Shock cooling? Who pays for the build on this truck, the sponsors, or do they just provide parts?

 

Fans are for the radiator mounted in front of em and sponsers pay for everything

 

Tijuana is a beast of it's own. The border towns can be sketchy, but the race leaves the border towns and is away from the more dangerous places. It's still a place where you want to be careful, but I've never felt scared.

See below

....and false.

You're right the fans are for the rear mounted radiator.

This is a small grassroots racing team of a bunch of guys that are just into Land Cruisers and into racing. We don't have the luxury of big name sponsors who will pay for everything. Currently our sponsors more or less are just helping us cover race fees and much of the recent sponsor money helped to pay for the wrap, that's about it.

There is one member of the team (he also drives) who is the primary source of financing the truck and the mods/repairs. He purchased the truck from Toyota. The other members of the team help with some of the other financial responsibilities of each race like travel and lodging and food. They also donate countless hours of time into the buildup, maintenance and care of the race truck.

This is a labor of love for the members of the team, not a "hey big company pay us a bunch of money so we can build a truck and go racing".

So a little history. The truth is this truck was a Toyota Factory racetruck and has already has several Baja 1000 class wins under it's belt before our team bought it. Being a factory built truck we new it was built right. The cool thing is the drivetrain on the truck is completely stock so it's deadnuts reliable and hasn't required anything in the entire time it's been raced except for shock tuning/rebuilding. It even still runs on pump gas.

Bottom line is, it's a major sacrifice for everyone involved to be racing with this team. Call it a bucket list thing. A bunch of guys wanted to race in Baja and do it in a Land Cruiser, so they made it happen.

 

Just awesome.

 

And this make what your doin that much cooler

 

Go pro it for us will ya

 

There are no less than 3 GoPros running full time in the truck throughout the race. So there will be 40+hours of footage.

Here's a short vid one of my fellow chase crew guys put together from Vegas 2 Reno this summer. This was the teams first race in this Land Cruiser.
http://youtu.be/2oUERVLeenA

Watching the Trophy Trucks pass our checkpoint during Baja 1000 2012
http://youtu.be/rg9cGq6uH9g

 

i want to see more pics, subd

 

Funny, I saw this rig at the wrap shop while I was out running. I stopped and almost shit myself after taking a closer look. This rig is a beast!

Have fun Adam and most of all Good Luck!

 

So can you call it a Land Cruiser when it's really a GX570 with a face lift

Do you know if they bought the first or second 570 that Joe and Geiser built? I've seen both in person and this looks like the newer one, incredibly cool truck, extremely well built by the best out there and competitive. When Joe still owned it I stopped by a test session and watched it cruise around and it was impressive. Very cool that someone was able to obtain it from Toyota considering almost all of their factory builds see the crusher, gunna be a good battle between this one and the Tundra, two entirely different animals with the same power plant.

 

Thanks man

Absolutely we call it a Land Cruiser because that is what it is. And FYI it would have been an LX570 not a GX570. The GX are the ones built on the 4Runner platform. All of the Lexus ones begin life as Toyotas first so it is most definitely a Land Cruiser at it's core and we were proud to put it back there.

It is the newer of the two trucks that were driven by Joe Bacal and built by Geiser Bros and Long Beach Racers.
This is how it looked at the Baja 1000 in 2012

 

CONGRATULATIONS Adam (and Team Canguro!) on a great finish position in Baja!

Utah represent!

 

Did they beat the factory tundra...? seemed like his only goal.

And BTW Toyota will have done less modification than geiser bros so canguro probably has a better platform

 

Pretty sure the Tundra won Class 8100, and the Cruiser finished 2nd or 3rd. They were running in third behind the Tundra and Rod Hall in the Hummer H1 last time I checked the Tracker.

The Tundra was built by Smith-Herbst Fab (Terrible Herbst) and was not under built by any means. These stock classes basically do everything they possibly can in modifications as permitted by the rules so the two were pretty equally matched but the cruiser was already proven. It took us almost a full season to work out all the kinks and gremlins on the 6100 truck.

Congrats on the finish guys! Hope to see you at a few stateside races this year.