Why The Baja 1000 Is The Most Dangerous Race In North America _ Turn By Turn

Mhm .

You're looking at pro driver , Alan Ala's violent crash during the 2016 Baja 1000 while chasing after racer B J Baldwin for the lead .

He failed to slow down for a steep dip in the course and his truck tumbled off the track .

Audia walked away from his accident safely but he didn't finish that type of dramatic shift in terrain is one of the things the course is known for and part of what makes the Baja 1000 the most dangerous race in North America .

It's often called the most brutal road race of any kind out there .

It's physically punishing .

It's not a race that I think you can go into and assume you're going to finish .

The 1000 mile off road race has claimed dozens of lives since debuting in 1967 .

It's unforgiving course winds through the scorching hot desert of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula .

Racers have to navigate everything from steep mountain passes to thick sand and they use everything from massive trophy trucks to dirt bikes .

No matter what you choose though , you and your vehicle are gonna take a brutal beating , especially if you aren't looking out for booby traps for 20 to 25 hours racers trek through the most remote areas of Mexico where a simple mechanical problem can leave you stranded for days .

You're probably having the best day of your life racing and it just , it's just like a switch all of a sudden , like you switch it up and everything's going down the hill .

The Baja 1000 covers all different types of dangerous terrain that can trap your vehicle if not handled correctly .

Most notorious is the silk .

So silt is this really , really fine grain sand .

It's almost like talcum powder .

You get almost no real traction on it .

So it's just a momentum game to get through it because you're just plowing through it .

Almost like a liquid like water .

If you stop , you are going to get stuck in it and it's so fine , it comes up in clouds in your face , through every crack in your vehicle .

I mean , they're mostly open vehicles anyway , but it just covers everything and gets into absolutely everything .

It is miserable stuff .

But even if you manage to not get buried in the silt , you've still got plenty of challenges ahead that includes steep mountain passes , filled with massive boulders .

These areas can be the scene of some of the race's most violent crashes , even though it's a desert race .

The Baja 1000 has plenty of water for drivers to get through everything from ravines to flash floods can create water crossings that will leave cars floating and drivers trapped .

The , the open nature of the , most of these cars means when you go through the water , it just fills up to like your calves or ankles and you're sitting in water and then when you get out of it and you're tearing in as much as you're able to tear on the roads there .

And if you're doing that at night , you're actually , it's freezing like every sensation that's difficult on your body .

The Baja 1000 will throw at you .

The most unique danger to the Baja 1000 is the booby traps set by locals from towns along the racecourse .

These traps come in the forms of holes , hidden jumps , debris and more in the past pranksters have even redirected flood waters to create mud pits that'll stop racers dead in their tracks .

This is why racers warning one another about different sabotages along the way is a major part of the Baja 1000 .

You spend two weeks , you know , pre running , recognizing the for working on your danger and on race day , everything change .

These movie traps are done just to make things exciting for the locals who are around .

They want to see the cars flying in the air they want to see because who doesn't people here , they bleed , they bleed off racing .

There's places where like the whole town stops because it's the 1000 .

So everyone's just like there sitting on the side of the course to , to watch this , this trucks go by the Baja 1000 biggest danger though is the barren desert .

It takes place in the course , travels through some incredibly desolate areas .

Racers can go for hours without seeing any signs of human life at all .

It can feel like driving on another planet , especially at night when the only lights around are coming from your car .

If the races chaotic terrain and booby traps do leave your vehicle broken down or stuck .

These remote parts of the course are the absolute worst place for it to happen .

Crashing , running out of fuel , mechanical problems or going too far off course can leave racers stranded in the desert for hours , even days with little to no cell reception .

This was the area where we had our most car trouble .

The terrain was still so bad .

Like the silt was so deep that we , we kept getting stuck and we had to sleep in the car uh for like a few hours until dawn .

And then in the morning , what we , what Mark did was he , he just tramped out and found a bunch of guys to help us dig the car out .

Jason is an amateur racer but professionals aren't immune from getting stranded .

Either if you're new , don't go in this thinking you're gonna finish .

Just assume you're going to fail .

Probably pretty spectacularly .

Somewhere unpredictable .

Really is the only way to describe the baja 1000 , whether you're an amateur , like Jason or a professional like LALO competitors can only prepare to expect the unexpected .

Hi , I'm AJ , one of the producers of all things .

Cars at Insider .

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