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April 27, 2021
The Latest From NORRA
2021 YOKOHAMA NORRA Mexican 1000 Presented By Method Race Wheels Day 2 Of Racing Heads Down The Coast On New Course! San Felipe ~ Bahia de los Angeles
Agua Dulce, CALIF. – For the last 2 days, the traveling celebration that is the Yokohama NORRA Mexican 1000 Presented by Method Race Wheels resumed at the Horsepower Ranch outside Ensenada, Baja Mexico. The Rigid Industries Welcome Fiesta, and Bilstein technical inspection both took place under gorgeous Baja sunshine. NORRA Celebrates the Past, While Forging the Future so Horsepower Ranch became an incredible living display of historic race vehicles, and a showcase for state of the art engineering on 2 wheels and 4.
While day one of racing had lots of tight, technical sections through the mountains, day two had more fast sections, as well as deep sand where big tires, and gobs of horsepower were beneficial. On day one we saw a pair of lightweight open wheel cars take the top 2 spots; Troy Johnson first overall, and Rhys Millen second. Justin Lofton was right there in third; probably looking forward to day two. It was really no surprise to see that two big powerful vehicles would take over the lead in the conditions previously described. Lofton assumed the overall lead, with Gay Smith right behind him. Both vehicles designed to eat terrain at high speeds. Going across the Diablo Dry lake bed on day one, Rhys Millen hit a top speed of 117 mph, but dropped down to 113 to make his car happy. The NORRA Mexican 1000 is “The Happiest Race On Earth!” for participants, but the vehicles need to stay happy too. Meanwhile, Lofton hit 130 miles per hour. It’s hard to overcome a speed advantage like that.
Despite them battling against huge tires, and 800 plus horsepower, Johnson, and Millen remained 3rd, and 4th overall. All vehicles in the top ten overall are Evolution era unlimited buggies or trucks, which is not a surprise. You can find full results on the NORRA website here: www.norra.com. What is a surprise is 11th place overall. The spot belongs to Hap Kellogg driving his Vintage VW Class 5 unlimited. Two spots behind Hap is Bill Hernquist in his Vintage VW Class 5. Other surprises include Scott Steinberger in 15th overall in his Evolution Modified Turbo UTV Can Am X3, and in 18th PJ Jones also in a Can AM X3. PJ is running a “Big Oly” livery to honor his Father, Bill Stroppe, and Dick Russell. The OG gold color looks as great today, as it did way back in the 1960’s. PJ is doing them all proud.
Overall standings are interesting to follow, but there are 37 different class leaders all competing for a win. These battles all have their own rivalries, and personal goals along the way. On day one, Boyd Jaynes, and Brian Godfrey wanted to beat all the broncos to San Felipe. The Vintage Class 11 VW Sedan racers just want to finish each day, and then see how it comes out in the end. If you can imagine negotiating terrain that swallows big powerful cars and trucks with V8 engines, and a couple feet of suspension travel in a nearly stock VW beetle; well, the class 11 guys are just plain amazing. That’s why the fans cheer when they come along.
The cool thing about NORRA is that you can pick a favorite no matter what type of cars, trucks, UTV’s or bikes you like. There are also plenty of incredible drivers; both young and old, who inspire us. There are top pros, and regular Joe’s that distinguish themselves with their performances. Look at riders like Jeff Leonard, and Robert Stewart who compete in the 60+ Vintage Dudes class, or the Busch’s who ride the whole way tandem. Everyone in the field is pursuing a personal best, or fulfilling a dream. You can’t comprehend what all those people having the time of their lives does to the whole atmosphere. Add in Baja’s charms and you know why it’s “The Happiest Race On Earth!”.
Day 3 will be a large loop that will take in lots of challenging terrain around Bay of LA. Both the 4 wheel, and 2 wheel competitors will be in Bay of LA at the end of the stages. Internet is difficult at best, so we’ll have to see what information we can gather, but we’ll do our best to bring it to you. We will provide race updates every day to keep you informed. Just go to NORRA’s facebook www.facebook.com/
### "The Happiest Race On Earth!" ###
ABOUT NORRA
Beginning in 2010, the National Off Road Racing Association (NORRA) began promoting a rebirth of the NORRA Mexican 1000 rally. The unique off-road rally was co-created by promoter Mike Pearlman to consist of special stages (unlimited speed timed stages in the dirt) linked together by controlled speed liaison / transit sections (highway). The one-of-a-kind, once-a-year, five-day rally includes vintage off-road vehicles and motorcycles, as well as modern pre-runners, trucks, buggies, UTVs, bikes and desert Rally Raid cars.
Pearlman’s late father Ed and others established the first running of the NORRA Mexican 1000 off-road rally in November of 1967, which eventually became internationally recognized and evolved into the Baja 1000 in the mid-1970's.
NORRA enjoys corporate partnerships with Yokohama Tire, Method Race Wheels, South Point Hotel & Casino, Bilstein Shock Absorbers, RIGID, STEEL-IT, Volcon, Slime, Optima Batteries, K&N, Satellite Phone Store.com, Biltwell, PCI Race Radios, Schampa, Nite Rider Offroad, Multitool USA, Stage V Media, B3KREATIV, Mag7 Pits, The Fab School, Cerveceria Transpeninsular, Horsepower Ranch, Baja Bush Pilots, the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame (ORMHOF), and many more.
