The Baja Off Road Race

There are two times during the year that I get as excited for as I do Thanks Giving and Christmas and one of those weeks is in June and the other is in November. Yea, I do, I turn into a little kid when it comes time for the Annual Baja races. I’ve always liked racing and even as a kid I loved those trips to Saugust Speedway to watch the races with my Dad. No matter where you go though you seem to be set back way off from the action and you just have no freedom to roam around. Now mind you I can see why and totally respect safty and chain link fences, but the Baja Races are something way different. For those of you just reading this to be nice and have no idea what the Baja race is all about, well, it’s one of the roughest, badest, kick-butt off road races around.

One of my one time big dreams was to be able to head out, camp out then watch the race and BBQ and hang out with friends. One year a friend of mine came down to visit and watch the race, but her brought about 5 buddies from our High School days and we headed out to watch the race. Eventually we started to camp out and yea, we cooked Carne Asada, Steak, Big Pots of Birriea, huge monster breakfasts… So my dream did come true, but still we need to find another way to share this experience, thus started the slide show.

My slide shows started out to mainly share the event with my buddies that came down to watch the race, and it has evolved into a small hobbie of video editing and picture taking. Debbie and I have found out that we work well together in this area and I’ve even graduated her to a digital SLR camera. But you might be reading this and wondering how ministry can work into this, and well, in some ways it has. As we go out we have opened up to those around us watching the race and have been able to share with them what we do. We’ve even invited people over to spend the night after a long dusty day. I’m also hoping to eventualy make the ministry site available to race teams that are looking for a more quieter and mellower place to stay as they prep for the race.

So we love this race for many reasons. There’s the being out in the middle of the desert waiting for that first Trophy Truck. There’s the low flying helicopters that hug the roads and bairly miss the hill tops. There is the rumble of powerful V8′s screaming by, and sometimes flying through the air. One can only imagine what it is like to be in the race, and who know’s, maybe someday that will happen. For now though we’ll continue to film and shoot pics of this crazy insane race, and then share it with you!

The video below is from the race this last November and it was Debbie, myself and Neil our fall intern that camped out for this event.