“I’m unsure why, however I really feel like I might invade San Felipe”, I stated to myself quietly, as I left the pre-race briefing, my physique stuffed with testosterone and thoughts brimming with logistics. However that’s not the place this story begins.
The virtually straight freeway down from Mexicali to San Felipe is awash with textures, mountains that don’t appear to get nearer till you’re in them, and sky-blue water from the Gulf of California. It’s tranquility. Stunning, relaxed driving in its easiest kind. An nearly good distinction to the high-octane race I used to be heading towards.
As I blissfully made my method towards my Airbnb, flowing to some folky tunes, I used to be keenly conscious that in lower than two days, a whole lot of drivers and riders can be hanging on for pricey life proper subsequent to the easily paved street I used to be on. I spent lots of time pondering what it have to be prefer to journey sooner than I used to be, catching air, and concurrently inhaling half the Baja Californian desert.
The grit and dirt of all of it.
So, after I arrived in San Felipe and made my technique to the Polaris Manufacturing unit Racing paddock after spending the previous 120 miles imagining the rawness of the 6-hour race, I used to be stunned by the precision.
The Paddock
An innocuous road that was a hard-packed grime street led me spherical a nook the place 80 Polaris Manufacturing unit Racing crew members stood, making a sea of black t-shirt-wearers prepping like every little thing was on the road.
That’s as a result of it was.
Polaris’ manufacturing facility racing crew is the crew to beat, a goal set firmly on its again. They took first and third place within the 2023 Rating Worldwide championship, successful three out of the 4 races, together with the Baja 1000. Shedding to a privateer crew in one other RZR over a foolish mistake can be borderline humiliating.
If I advised you I went to Mercedes’ paddock on the Miami GP and located 80 crew members working tirelessly, you’d in all probability nod your head in a, “Yeah that’s what I’d anticipate” sort of method. However to see these numbers, with this power, prepping for the shortest and lesser-known occasion of the Rating Worldwide Off-Street Collection caught me utterly off-guard. What left me speechless, although, was the equipment.
4 Gen-2 RZRs, large trailers, countless Ford Raptors shifting out and in of what I’d desire to name the “compound”, and greater than a few F-250s carrying equipment that made me really feel like I wanted to face 6-feet again always. Contemporary, anodized elements had been in every single place, some in plastic and a few getting greased up. Each machine, each half, each software organized to a tee… once more, in the course of the desert.
It was right here I bought to satisfy all of the drivers who’d already spent the earlier week prerunning the 280-mile course. Their machines had coated greater than 1,000 miles since they arrived, and the drivers had all chosen their traces.
To offer you an thought of the element and thought that goes behind each resolution the crew makes, take heed to this. About 20 hours earlier than the UTVs had been because of set off, I discovered a crew of mechanics in a frantic state, as they had been attempting to determine whether or not they’d need to angle grind all 4 jack factors off the RZRs, sand the floor down, and re-weld the factors at a barely completely different angle. All of this was to cease the jack from pushing extensive ought to a tire have to be modified in deep sand.
Keep in mind, that the present setup wouldn’t stop a tire change, however this alteration would possibly save them a number of seconds. Within the crew’s thoughts, it’s the compounding impact of actions like these that win or lose races.
If I had any notion that you may simply hop in a side-by-side for a desert race and “give it a go” forward of San Felipe, it was now lengthy gone. Not less than not if you wish to contact Polaris’ Manufacturing unit Workforce, as was made unquestionably clear to me the following night time.
The Temporary of All Briefs
Such as you, I had no thought what a pre-race transient consisted of for one of many “shortest” desert races in Baja. And perhaps I nonetheless don’t as a result of I can’t think about another crew doing it with Polaris’ precision.
Everyone from CAD designers, engineers, first-aid responders, mechanics, and naturally, the drivers, attend. By the top, anybody who listened knew the race format to the minute, a minimum of as long as every little thing went to plan.
This transient coordinated 4 “direct chase” autos within the type of Ford Raptors, every of which had been designated an RZR to remain as near as potential and supply help if wanted. Then there have been 4 extra “normal chase” F-250s, which carried gas and heavy-duty tools ought to any of the drivers encounter bother in one of many many famous high-risk sections. There was even one other Gen-1 RZR with largely interchangeable elements that’d be mendacity in wait on the solely necessary pit cease in case the crew wanted a sooner choice to achieve a driver.
Extra comms programs than I might depend, codenames, the way to talk so that you don’t overwhelm the crew, what to do if any mixture of issues occurs on the refueling pit cease at mile 150, and even what number of instances the brand new helicopter lands to refuel was delivered. The knowledge was relentless, exact, and nearly militant in its supply. Till it wasn’t.
As I sat there feeling able to take over San Felipe, the Director of Race Operations completed his half. However earlier than we wrapped up, Alex Scheuerell, Polaris Manufacturing unit Racing Technical Director, took the ground to remind everybody that “We’re a household”, however he wasn’t simply referring to the crew, he was speaking about each racer. That closing observe was that for those who see one other racer who wants assist, that turns into your precedence.
It was a superbly healthful observe to convey a room of race junkies, jacked up on logistics and tacos again all the way down to earth, and remind everyone that this tiny desert city is right here as a result of all of them love the identical factor, identical to you and I.
Pace Meets Precision In The Pits
Nowhere did the stress culminate greater than the one necessary pit cease.
If all issues are going nicely, the pit crew is a very powerful crew as soon as the race begins. These are the one crew members who work together with the UTVs throughout the race exterior of the drivers. They know they need to carry out on the day and know ought to they make a mistake throughout their 30-second window, it might price the motive force his place and a win for the crew.
However you wouldn’t understand it from this image.
The day isn’t designed for the crew to be in time with the drivers, it’s designed for them to be method forward of the drivers. So as soon as the pit station was arrange, and it was hours earlier than the primary UTV got here in, there was time to relax, chat, and watch trophy vans burn via my financial institution steadiness in gasoline in lower than 30 seconds.
And then you definitely see the helicopter. A driver is shut.
It is available in over the radio, and we hear from the direct chase truck driver, “Brock is 20 miles out. 15 miles. 10 miles. 5 miles. One mile out, guys! 30 seconds!”. There was nearly a direct correlation between how far the primary RZR was away from the pits and my coronary heart charge. Every mile the motive force traveled added a minimum of one BPM on my Garmin. And I don’t imagine it’s as a result of I used to be inexperienced.
The mode shifted. The tranquil desert was so far as we might see, however a bubble of tense, targeted power surrounded the pit cease. They suited up and began stretching, repeating the actions they’d must carry out in order that they grew to become second nature, and the gas filler dawned his flame retardant apron. Then we waited and listened for an engine observe we hadn’t heard that day, the distinct high-pitched growl of a naturally aspirated 2-liter inline-four.
Fortunately, not one of the UTVs had unexpected issues, that means they had been in, refueled, inspected, and again on the monitor in lower than 30 seconds. If there was a slip-up on the pits, I didn’t see it. Nor was it consequential to the race outcomes.
Mercedes’ F1 crew must take notes.
No Maverick Maneuvers
Plenty of the enjoyable engineering a racer is discovering the grey space of the parameters and bending, however not breaking the principles. However that’s not what occurred right here.
The ethos surrounding the Polaris Manufacturing unit Racing crew isn’t about pulling Maverick maneuvers. It’s pace, consistency, and precision. The crew was assured that they’d the automobile, drivers, and assist crew to take any race.
And so they greater than proved that on the day.
It was podium domination, with first, second, and third, and the three autos ending inside nearly two minutes of one another… after 280 miles of off-road racing. Sadly, although, Max Eddy Jr. missed one in all his markers by a number of ft, which relegated him to fifth place after the crew bought to line up for what gave the impression to be a sweep.
However, if something, that simply offers this precision-driven bunch one other space to good earlier than the Baja 400, for which they’ve simply eight weeks to arrange.
