Baja 1000 getting ready to roar

November 10, 3:24 PMMotorcycle ExaminerKen Bingenheimer

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    The route of the 2009 Baja 1000

They come from far and wide to be part of the wildest off-road racing event in the world, the Baja 1000. This year's event will be next week, Nov. 19-22. Here's a look at what's coming.

The race starts in Ensenada, on the west coast of the Baja Peninsula, crosses to the east and heads south, loops back up through San Felipe, then crosses back to the west and heads back to Ensenada. The route crosses so effectively it's a figure-eight. I can't include the map here large enough to really see it so click here to open up a full-size map.

All told there are 28 Pro and 7 Sportsman classes for cars, trucks, motorcycles, and ATVs. The motorcycle and ATV classes will take off first, starting at 6:30 a.m. on Nov. 20. The car and truck classes will get going at 10:30 a.m., or three hours after the last ATV leaves the starting line. One contestant will start every 30 seconds.

The course is expected to take only 13 hours for the fastest contestants but all vehicles have a 31-hour time limit to become official finishers. For many, simply finishing will be success enough.

Race teams will be arriving in Ensenada well in advance of the race itself to pre-run parts of the course and get their machines tuned. In addition, the event has become a major attraction for party times and many thousands of revelers are expected. Nearly 250,000 people are anticipated to be spread out along the rugged course.

As I've previously announced, I will be following one of the motorcycle teams competing in this year's race, although I will not be there myself as previously planned, and the team I'll be following will be a different one than originally expected. I'll be introducing this new team very soon. Hang onto your hats, this is gonna be fun.

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