WORDS: Sean Clarke
PHOTOS: Rob Creemers
DESERT
STORM
KIWIS
he Baja 1000 is a 700-1000+ mile
race through the desert sands
of the Baja Peninsula in Mexico,
and has famously seen movie star
Steve McQueen turn up to compete. 2017
saw the 50th running of this event and it
was the second time that I’ve been there
to race.
The first time I rode was in 2012 when
Rob Creemers and Peter Herd wanted to
do the race, and they invited Kevin Archer
and I to join them. The plan was simple...
to rent a race package from Tim Morton,
who runs a company called Baja Bound,
and just go. It turned out Tim had raced
the Baja 1000 for 26-odd years and is a
real legend when it comes to racing and
knowing everything about the Baja. Tim
is a Honda man through and through, so
it wasn’t surprising the bike he supplied
was a CRF450X.
The race itself is the most ‘out there’
cross country desert race in the world,
there is no doubt about that. Most years
the Baja starts and finishes in the city of
Ensenada and is about 700 or 800 miles
long, but every five years they run the
race all the way down the Baja peninsula
to the city of La Paz, about 900 miles as
The infamous Baja
1000 is a desert race
that’s longer than New
Zealand. Sean Clarke
and a plucky band of
Kiwis raced it... twice.
the crow flies to the south, but the course
for the race is about 1130 miles long as it
crosses back and forth over the country.
Score International runs the race and
advertises the course on its website
one month before the start so everyone
knows where the course is going and has
plenty of time to pre-run it. And pre-run
they do! Every man and his dog heads
south from the USA to run the track
whether they are racing in the race or not.
So it gets pretty crazy with off roaders,
bikes and quads going everywhere.
KIWI RIDER 51