November 20, 2010 44th Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 The 44th Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 was a 1061 mile race from Ensenada to La Paz this year. The logistics of a Baja 1000 peninsula run is a challenge of its own. The race course was fast paced and there was no way for teams to “chase” the race. Every pit and support truck had to be stationed ahead of time or else it would be impossible to keep up with the pace of the race truck. The #35 Trophy Truck crew of Voss Motorsports spent weeks traveling the Baja peninsula preparing for the race. The team was busy taking notes on possible pit locations, writing down travel times from pit to pit, marking access roads that led to the race course, and of course mapping out their favorite road side taco stands. Meanwhile Rich Voss, Jason Voss, and John Swift (third driver for the race) were all out pre-running their sections of the course as many times as they could before race day. This sometimes required sleeping during the day and pre-running at night in order to see the course as they would during the race. The #35 TT was the 11th truck off the starting line at around 11:40 on Thursday morning. The pit crews were all ready set up along the peninsula waiting for the arrival of the race truck. Rich Voss and James East started the race and drove a solid race. Rich had moved up to 7th place before San Felipe, only to be passed back while in the pits at race mile 148. Rich continued on to Coco’s corner where Voss Motorsports planned to have a full pit with tires, fuel and a driver’s change. John Swift got in and drove the truck from Coco’s Corner to race mile 549, just before San Ignacio. John and James set a fast pace and quickly began to gain some time on the trucks in front of them. John came across a lot of motorcycles that he had to navigate around in the dark. Luckily John had put in a lot of time pre-running and knew all of the different lines in his section, making it easy to pass the motorcycles at night while fighting the dust. John and James got out of the truck at race mile 549 and Jason Voss and co-pilot Johnny Niewoehner got in the truck. It was about 9:35 p.m when Jason and Johnny got in the race truck. They drove all night trying to make up time on the leaders; however it was hard to gain positions due to the heavy dust and fog. Around race mile 860 Jason came around a corner in the fog and there was a truck stuck right in the middle of the course. With nowhere else to go Jason mashed the gas and hit the back of the truck trying to push him out of the silt. When the dust cleared the #35 Trophy Truck was stuck in the silt with their front bumper resting against the truck in front of them. Locals were gathered all around the two stuck trucks and there was a farmer in a tractor already waiting to pull them out. After paying the farmer the $50 dollars that he requested, the farmer pulled out the trucks and they were both on their way. Three trucks were able to pass the # 35 while they were stuck, but Jason and Johnny continued to race on and fight the heavy fog until daylight came. Around race mile 900 Jason was able to pass the truck that caused him to get stuck in the silt. Finally after a long foggy night of racing the #35 race truck crossed the Finish line in La Paz for a 9th place finish. Voss Motorsports would like to especially thank General Tire, the #35 Trophy Truck raced through 1061 miles of rugged off-road terrain without a single flat tire. Voss Motorsports would also like to thank Jimco Racing, KC HiLites, Teasdale Quality Foods, TrailReady Beadlocks, Mastercraft, Fox Racing Shox, Phiten and the entire pit crew for helping them beat the grueling Baja terrain.
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