2009 Baja 1000 Pre-Running Starts Friday

The world’s best desert racers will begin practicing Friday as official pre-running starts for November’s 42nd Annual Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 desert race.

This is the mother of all off-road races. Its one thing to watch video clips on HDnet, ESPN or Jesse James Is A Deadman but its another thing to actually be there.

Imagine a race where you never really know what’s around the next bend. You’re hauling ass at over 90mph and realize that the locals have just dug a ditch that wasn’t there the day before. What to do?

With over 325 racers from 38 states and 13 countries competing, it promises to be quite a competition.

It’s the oldest and most well known of all desert races, and it remains as the single most appealing accomplishment to a driver. Since 1967, the Granddaddy of all desert races has been run over the mysterious Baja California peninsula. Because of the economics and logistics involved, some years it is a peninsula run while most years it is a loop race, starting and finishing in Ensenada. The race course is just over 672 miles long!

Cars, trucks, atv’s and motorcycles leave in 30-second intervals in the elapsed-time race and while the fastest finishers are expected to complete the course in approximately 14 hours. All vehicles will have a 31-hour time limit to become official finishers in the legendary adventure.

The course features six checkpoints, where vehicle numbers and passing times are recorded to help verify the information gathered on the electronic recording devices that are mounted on all vehicles in the race.

This year’s Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 desert race will be televised on a delayed basis as a one-hour NBC Sports special, in association with SCORE and Aura360, for the sixth consecutive year. It is scheduled to air on NBC at 2 p.m. (EST) on Sunday, Dec. 19 on NBC.

Since the chances are that you won’t be down in Mexico this weekend to witness this spectacle with your own eyes, set your DVR to tape it Dec 19. I highly recommend it.

- Excerpts courtesy Tecate Score Baja 1000