mexican 1000 Rally Mexicali To La Paz - vw Based Buggy - Photo 28715750

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If there is any one vehicle that epitomizes Baja, it's the Meyers Manx VW-based buggy. With a warm breeze in your face (no A/C), dust swirling around the cockpit (no windows either), and the harmonic drone of an uncorked four-cylinder lawnmower behind the seat, you can't help but want to take it for a 1,000-mile joyride.

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Walking around the start line was like falling into a time machine. Vintage VW Bugs, Myers Manx dune buggies, classic Broncos and single seat Funco sand rails, stretched along the road leading to the Laguna Salada dry lakebed.

Vic Hickey, a legend in his own time when it came to building cutting-edge racecars, built the Olds Cutlass Banshee for actor James Garner. It sported a 445ci aluminum block V-8 and was the first known off-road car with the engine relocated (moved back) for better weight distribution.

All of us race wannabes were tripping over each other as the long of vintage cars rolled through contingency. Rod Hall's 1969 championship Bronco, James Garner's Olds 442 Cutlass, Malcolm Smiths Bel-Ray Bullet and Ray Swift's Edsel were eye candy for any off-road fan.

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The Mexican 1000 brought dozens of racing icons out of retirement. In 1970, Bill Stroppe talked Parnelli Jones (who won the 1963 Indianapolis 500 almost 50 years ago) into joining the ranks of off-road racing. Parnelli took to it like a duck to water, and 40 years later, he climbed into this yellow Chevy Blazer, reclaimed his youth and put another thousand miles of Baja's best under his tires.

Race, chase, or clean up; running the course behind the competitors means you find all the breakdowns, wrecks, and stragglers. The No. 30 car, a Porsche 911, blew a corner and ended up high-sided in the weeds with a bad clutch. A quick tow strap and a bump start got him back on the track. We're not sure how he made it through some of the boulder-strewn sections near San Fancisquito, but he crossed the finish line in La Paz.

The Bel-Ray Bullet was state-of-the-art when it appeared in 1976. Owned and driven by Malcolm Smith, the Bullet was one of the first racecars with a Type II VW independent rear suspension. For the Mexican 1000, the old Bullet was pulled from his collection, race-prepped, and Malcolm once again climbed behind the wheel for another trek down Baja.

The field was broken into the original eleven categories from the 1972 NORRA rulebook, and a few more classes were added for Class 1, alternative fuels, etc. With the exception of the alternative fuel class, all vehicles needed to have a pre-'89 build date.

I was only 8 years old when Parnelli Jones slipped behind the wheel of Big Oly, a unique concept Bronco that came from the Stroppe shop. With a tube-framed, four-link rear suspension, and V-8 power, Big Oly (that, of course, was sponsored by Olympia Beer) was a modern marvel of off-road technology. This replica of the original caught everyone's eye as it blazed by in route to La Paz.

Bob Gordon is no stranger to the racing world. In 1998 he piloted his Class 1 Toyota to victory, limping over the finish line with limited steering. Competing in the alternative fuels class, Gordon again finessed the Toyota through Baja's best to claim the overall championship.

To keep everyone in the right pecking order, the fastest car each day was the first to start the next (day). Getting everyone sorted out in the narrow dirt streets of Bahia de Los Angeles was an ordeal. The green flag revealed Roger Norman to be the day-one leader.

Coco's Corner is a regular pit stop during peninsula races (rather than a loop race) and always a center of activity. We arrived well after dark (and with another hundred miles still to go) to find one of the rescue trucks on jacks with a steering problem.

The track record for the Rod Hall/Bill Stroppe No. 32 Ford Bronco, overall winner in 1969.

While not all that vintage, Roger Norman's Category 11 truck blasted its way to a category win.

In true Mexican 1000 tradition, the race was open to just about anything with a motor, even a Harley Davidson with a sidecar.

All you need to do is flip through Marty Fiolka's book 1000 Miles to Glory to find vintage rigs like this Bill Stroppe Bronco and many others entered in the Mexican 1000. Rod Hall piloted the No. 32 Bronco to a 1969 victory.

You don't see one of these every day. A lifted, locked, and race-prepped AMC Hornet. Barely sputtering across the finish line in La Paz, a dirty and dog-beat tired Jeff McCullough said, "This poor car is completely destroyed. I'll be lucky if I can get it to my trailer."

If there is any one vehicle that epitomizes Baja, it's the Meyers Manx VW-based buggy. With a warm breeze in your face (no A/C), dust swirling around the cockpit (no windows either), and the harmonic drone of an uncorked four-cylinder lawnmower behind the seat, you can't help but want to take it for a 1,000-mile joyride.

If you look on Page 47 of the book 1000 Miles to Glory, you'll see this exact No. 8 Burro with the exact same graphics from bumper to tailpipe. Steve Heckert and Les Potter rousted the Burro from a 35-year nap, dusted it off, and pointed the wheels towards La Paz.

Dirt racing is ingrained in the people of Baja, and the cities of Bahia de Los Angeles, Loreto and La Paz rolled out the red carpet. The finish line in La Paz was lined with hundreds of vendors and thousands of local fans.

Robert and Morgan Laughlin spent a total time of 1,432 minutes behind the wheel getting to La Paz, but they made it.

The public may have snubbed the snub-nosed Ford Edsel back in its day. But little did they know it could handle a thousand miles of Baja's brutal backroads. The Edsel didn't finish its '70s-circa races. But Ray Swift, who rebuilt the Edsel after it was T-boned by a train, rolled under the checkered flag in La Paz to claim a Category 1 victory for his unpresuming Edsel.

Less than a mile into day-three, a dozen or so competitors became bogged to the axles in a sand wash near Loreto. We pulled in with a tow strap and tugged a number of them to terra firma.

If anyone had a game face on, it was racing legend Walker Evans. Walker shocked the racing world in 1979 with the first overall win in a pickup. Evans pulled the old Category 8 Dodge out of his collection, mounted a new set of Goodyear MT/R Radials, and put the pedal to the metal. He finished, but only landed a fourth place in class.

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The people of Baja love their racing, lining up at every corner, or in this case abandoned truck, to watch the action.

STEEEKERS, STEEEKERS. If you head to Baja for a race or just vacation, bring a bundle of stickers... pronounced "steekers." You'll make instant friends.