The 1973 Baja 1000 video from my camera, I was 16, enjoy!

Thanks for sharing! Great footage!

 

Thank you for the comment... not bad for a 16-year-old with a Bell & Howell, I guess?

 

It was my first off road race to see in person. To meet or be next to people like Parnelli Jones and Mickey Thompson was cool, too. I was 16 and it was a father & son trip. My dad was so cool... if he thought I would like something Baja-wise, he would take time off work and we would go.

The next race in Baja I went to was the 1974 (July) SCORE Baja Internacional. It was Score's first Baja race, a 400 mile loop starting and ending in Ensenada with a mandatory one hour down time at Mike's Sky Rancho. We camped at Mike's and I took many photos of the racers arriving at the checkpoint there. I have a thread on Baja Nomad Forums with my old photos from Baja trips in the 1960's and to 1975 there: http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=80549

In 1973, after the NORRA (National Off Road Racing Association) BAJA 500 finished (in June) with Parnelli Jones winning in his Big Oly Bronco, rolling and flipping it three times along the way, the Mexican authorities told NORRA they were no longer sanctioned to run races in the state of Baja California (this is the northern half of the peninsula of Baja California). A group of Mexicans said they could run the two Baja races (Mexican 1000 and Baja 500), and keep profits in Mexico... "for the children". Yes, they actually said that. NORRA (who created the events in Baja) was out and the Mexican organization "Baja Sports Committee" (B.S.C.) was in.

The long race to La Paz was renamed "Baja 1000" [Baja Mil in Spanish] (as it was often called anyway) and the November 1973 race (seen in the video I shot above) was the first B.S.C. race. Sadly, the finishers that made it to La Paz would learn that the money for the winners and top placed finishers had vanished! Corruption, mismanagement, whatever... a black eye on Mexican organizers, in either case.

The Baja Sports Committee actually attempted to run the 500 in June of 1974, and nearly nobody came... big surprise. NORRA had offered up an alternative race in Arizona called then Parker Dam 500, and that's where the money was, so that is where most of the racers went. BSC failed, the businessmen in Baja California quickly rallied and contacted Mickey Thompson who had just created his SCORE organization with a short course race in Riverside in 1973. They knew Mickey loved Baja racing and invited him to have SCORE sanction races in Baja. SCORE would no longer stand for "Short Course Off Road Enterprises" and ran the 1974 Baja Internacional in July. It was a HUGE success, SCORE sealed the deal and had exclusive rights to Baja races for many years.

There was not enough time from the deal being made to November to properly set up the 1000 race, so 1974 was the ONLY year since the first in 1967 that no 1000 was run. For several years, the shorter SCORE race moved to June from July was called Baja Internacional as NORRA maintained some legal rights to the name Baja 500. Also, the 1000 race did not go to La Paz, as again NORRA had a contract in the southern territory and SCORE did longer loop races in the northern state in 1975-1978. In 1976 and 1977, they actually called it the Baja 1000 Km. as it was closer to 600 miles than 1000.

1979 was the first year that SCORE ran the Baja 1000 to La Paz, and that was the year I was a co-driver! Great fun... we broke down early, but it was great to have that perspective of being in the cockpit, having Sal Fish wish you a great race, get the green flag, screaming down Ensenada streets and up the riverbed towards Ojos Negros.

VIVA BAJA!

 

David K just got him a new stalker. BAJA!!!

 

If you want to kill some time and be in Baja, at least in the mind, you will enjoy my website... links to Baja stuff... and my trip photos with my three Tacomas: http://vivabaja.com

 

Let me tell you a story son....The music was smooth. The trucks were boxy. The year was 73.

 

The 2015 Baja 1000 on CBS Sports Network is on tonight (twice). Direct TV Ch. 221 at 6 & 10 pm PST. It is a rare 2 hour show, as well. Note, DirectTV has mislabeled the show as The Baja 500.

 

Baja race season begins again in a couple of weeks... I will add a post with the San Felipe 250 map.