EventREEL – Wrappin’ the 2007 Baja 1000, eh.
Posted by Shawna Cox on November 23, 2007
Ok, I get it… I AM Canadian – and this isn’t a beer commercial… Unless it’s a Corona, I’m a steadfast Guinness girl. And, ok – I am now VERY AWARE of how much I say “eh” – because EVERYONE in the Baja made certain to let me know everytime I wrapped a sentence with it. I still think I am saying “hey”, that I am just being lazy or inarticulating and dropping the “h”, but I couldn’t win with the boys. Not for lack of trying…
check out photos from –>> DAY ONE
The 2007 Baja 1000 race started in Ensenada early on Tuesday the 13th of November – my flight left shortly after my day gig work day at 7pm PST. I dropped into Cabo San Lucas after a ridiculous flight schedule from Vancouver – that we won’t talk about (ok, a bit – complete with a 4 hour midnight layover in LA, hit on by a cool, kind-a-crazily relentless director with a Denny’s oatmeal fetish – don’t ask… ) the afternoon of the 14th – missing the top finisher, but capturing the near flawless drives of some of the top racers in North America. From there, racers would continue to cross the finish line long after the sun had dropped and into the next day – a grueling race that only the mentally and mechanically prepared can dream of finishing let alone winning.
Ryan Arciero had a great run – up until a fire slowed him down and even burnt out part of their communications. Ryan and his team are dedicated to daily satellite updates leading up to and during events and for the Baja 1000, they were planning hourly updates – until the flames took over. Still pulling into Cabo with another Baja 1000 under his belt, again proves the longevity and team work that drives Team Arciero-Miller into the top off-road forces in North America. I missed his finish (ok – yup – bad Canadian Film Girl) as the media room where we could get a live update of where the competitors was not on course, rather in a hotel a good 1/2 hour walk away… It was that 1/2 hour where I went to see where Ryan was that he happened to pull in. Nice timing. Oh well, Ryan and I were able to catch up later the following night at the Cabo hot spot “Squid Row”. Much ‘Dos Equis’ as my Margarita was just not up to Film Girl’s standard… Sorry guys.
Ok – back to the race…
check out photos from –>> DAY TWO
THEN, Canadian, Kevin Ostland and his team from High Rollerz Trux, came across the line – typically only half of the competitors cross the finish line, many left strewn along the 1,296 mile run down the length of the Baja Peninsula awaiting a tow – Kevin drove in an honorable 4th in the stock truck category. Congrats guys! And 3 days later, walking down the aisle… but that’s not my story – that’s Scott Carpenter’s, another Film guru from Calgary… 
Check out his trailer here —->>> CLICK HERE
I did find Clark Campbell of VW North America – Mark Miller’s PR guy. Finally got a pic and got some much awaited vitals for filming Mark Miller in the 2008 VW Dakar camp, straightened out. VW is really jumping into sponsoring NA desert racing events, and as a film girl, I have noticed the VW insignia on many film festivals like Calgary… Good to see – good to see. Film and desert racing – good mix. So are the Tecate girls – they seemed to be a hit.
Efforts of Kent Kroeker and Team Kore, were left at mile 867. I was in the media center with Steve and Anthony of IRC, in the mission control with the eyes of the Iritrack satellite tracking system for the race competitors, looking for my updates on my teams… Team Kore hadn’t moved – it looked as though they ran into a problem that stopped them cold. News later via text message from Darren Skilton – “We are out”. The desert still has it’s secrets and the team fell prey. Next year, guys.
And yet another fatality of the media center dislocation… Gavin Skilton, Darren’s brother, came in 3rd position in the Stock Mini Truck category with his Honda Ridgeline (there’s a Canadian Story here, but I am not sure if I am authorized to tell it… hmmmm…) – and the Canadian Film Girl was not there… Well, not again – Lesson has been learned and MUST find a way to eliminate the drop in knowing where all my guys are.
ENTER: IRC, International Racing Consultants. Check them out at racetheworld.net. After the tech run down and the interactive, live monitoring of the Iritrack system (used in the Dakar Rally) on the Baja competitors that chose to utilize this invaluable racing resourse. It felt like I was in NASA mission control, knowing every detail of a racers progress right down to live GPS co-ordinates and actual speed. If a rider stopped, the icon on the big screen turned RED from GREEN and if he stopped too long, a warning would activate and Anthony would call in for direct contact to the rider to make certain everything was ok – if he required medical assistance or if he had a mechanical. Interestingly enough – Steve and Anthony could tell from the on-screen activity, when the racers were in silt beds… On the screen, you could see the competitors all taking different paths, reversing and looking for a better route – it looked like mayhem on screen, I can’t imagine what it looked like on course, espescially in the middle of the night. Something else…
check out the photos –>> the final bit of Day Two and The Last Day…
At the end of the day – the best place to stay in Cabo is Los Milagros . It’s not the Hilton and that’s why it is so great. Sandra is a relocated New Yorker and the beautiful and serene sanctuary she has built was a welcome retreat from the exhausting and crazy Baja 1000 world only a few kilometers away. Trust me, I almost didn’t walk out the doors and back into the fray… and I am NOT talking the race – I am talking on the plane to Vancouver, back to the CUBE job…
What a great wrap to this North American Desert adventure for this one Canadian Film Girl. It all started at the 2007 Baja 500 only 6 months earlier… A call into Darren Skilton, the NA Dakar Coorespondent, to attend the 2008 Dakar Rally NA Press Conference ( to research a feature dramatic feature film I was scripting) at the Baja 500 in Ensenada. And I ended up chasing the desert. Like others before me, it seduced me and I followed.
See you at the 2008 Dakar Rally - that’s where the story really begins.
-Shawna
Aste al ribasso said
Great article I really liked it.
Jesus said
I didnt go to the Baja 1000. But i have the game. ITS AWSOME!!!