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was the media registration, to pick up my SCORE
vest and swinger along with race info. I was very
fortunate to have had long-time SCORE media
guru Dominic Clark accept my last-minute media
application before I flew out from New Zealand.
All sorted, we headed back to the base to meet up
with Rhys and the team.
For the previous two weeks, the team had been
pre-running sections of the course all day, marking
all the major hazards on their onboard GPS-
equipped iPads. Rhys’ meticulous preparation
was born out of his rally experience. Unlike a rally,
where you map every corner and detail in a special
stage, the 1000 miles non-stop is too long for
that. The many repeated runs that Rhys does over
sections help him to memorize the course, with
only the major hazards needing to be pointed out
by his co-driver, fellow Kiwi Mike Carpenter.
Rhys said that he basically writes the race notes
on the GPS as if the whole race were run in zero
visibility — and, in fact, zero visibility is pretty much
the case at the start, due to the volume of sand and
dust thrown up by the many competitors starting
in the classes in front of him. With Rhys’ Pro UTV
Forced Induction–spec RZR capable of hitting a top
speed of 105mph, the notes needed to be accurate.
The team was also joined by Hammond Meredith
from Sabot Racing in his Rhys Millen–preparedPolaris RZR. It would be Hammond’s first attempt
at the Baja.
Rhys and Hammond would each have two chase
trucks towing the pre-runners, providing the
mobile pits for fuel and any mechanicals on the
course. Four support vehicles for every race vehicle
on course is the average for the race. With more
than 400 starters, that meant there were more
than 2000 vehicles on the course and surrounding
roads for the duration of the race.
In the evening, we sat down with team race
director Tony ‘JR’ Hartley, who told us what our
roles would be. Glen and Paul were put into two
of the chase trucks — supercharged Ford Raptors,
no less. Glen would be supporting Rhys, and Paul
would be on duty for Hammond. They would start
at Ensenada when the flag dropped and chase
them all 1134 miles [1825km] to La Paz — some
32 hours later, all going to plan.
Mike Fraser and I were tasked with the “most
critical” remote pit stop — La Purisima, at race
mile 749.3. We would only be refilling the cars
not providing mechanical support. The reason it
was so critical was that we were the only team
pit filling both RZRs. Due to the isolation of the
location, none of the chase trucks would be within
120 miles of us, and there’d be no mobile-phone
coverage. No pressure then!Rhys Millen pre-running the course
David Cole at BF Goodrich’s La Purisima pits
Kiwis Phillip Casey and Quinn
Wilson at the La Paz Finish Line