Original subtitles

Sometimes you'll be surprised how close it is to you.

I found out, but that was only later.

Every day for 22 years I drove past this dry wash in the way to my shop.

In all those years, I didn't once take the time to look or even listen

to the sounds that roared at me from behind that standard scrub.

It was here a lot of the kids in the neighborhood got to racing around

in their go-karts, making a lot of dust and noise.

But when I retired, I started looking a lot at it

and learning about this world they call off-road.

Here's how you get there.

On three wheels, four, six wheels or two.

You can make that world for yourself on any steep hill.

Especially the kind of ditch to spit out the dust and keep coming back at her.

Wide open is the only way to the top.

Sometimes, the spectator takes his chances along with the driver.

Well, you're right: dirt is dirt no matter where you find it.

What made it different for me, though, was the kind of people that moved around in it.

I'm gonna...

I want to get to know better, you know?

How they think and how they feel and...

Well, you know, the highs and that kind of thing.

I got a lot of time on my hands and...

Well, I thought this would be a good way to spend it.

Well, here we go.

One of the first things I learned was that the off-road world

is a family affair.

You take bikes, for instance,

You'll find machines that match up with the size and weight

for every member of the family.

And when the kids start going head-to-head,

they bring along the fiercest rooters in the world.

Now, there everybody's a future Joelle O'Leary,

Malcolm Smith or Roger Decoster.

Like the man says: sometimes you eat the bear,

sometimes the bear eats you.

A few more pounds, a few more years, they're ready for motocross.

Men and machine and dirt.

Kidney-shaking bumps.

Grimes and a guy who'll stop at nothing to win.

Or at least beat you out.

Where did it all begin?

Well, in this country we haven't exactly been strangers to the automobile.

Even back when they called them horseless carriages,

all it took was one vehicle, one man behind the wheel

who wouldn't settle for the ordinary,

and a love affair between dirt and driver began.

The movie people are always ready to get in on a good thing.

And they gave us this thrilling tale.

In this early Hollywood saga, we see the story of a young man

out for a quiet spin in the country.

Suddenly, he decided he'd had enough of the ordinary. Off he goes.

Off, looking for adventure.

And danger.

Looks like he found the danger.

When I was a boy, we had our heroes.

Big names like Barney Oldfield, or Eddie Rickenbacker.

They went to work on the cars: strip the body, tore off the fenders,

beefed up the engines. Challenged not only each other,

but the limits of their rigs.

Would you believe you can get up to 14 horsepower in one of these bombs?

These early road racers challenged a strongly held scientific concept.

The experts told us we'd never be able to drive faster than 50 miles an hour.

A human wouldn't be able to breathe going that fast.

Nowadays, progress has come so far, we all breath air like this.

And the cars got faster, the crowds bigger ,

Speeding over 100 miles an hour.

They can only push so far.

Drivers learn to live or die with danger.

And with dirt.

Out of that, came the sprint car.

1600 pounds of handcrafted racer.

O pen cockpit.

The call for constant over steering.

Power sliding turns.

Squanomie falls, Pittsbourough, Ascot.

Just names for you?

Well, 40 or 50 years ago, they were the tracks where men like Rick Furcall,

Jan Opperman, Smokey Snowpack put it all on the line

85 times a year.

To they, the world of dirt is pushed way past

the oval track of a sprint car.

You find all kinds of machines.

Like these dragsters.

Digging into the dirt, these dragsters explode

from a standing starting speed of 120 mph

in three seconds or less.

Well, sir, I got my first taste of the world of dirt

here in the national sand drags in Bakersfield, California.

It's a mighty nice place to be.

And it was here I met Tommy Robertson,

top national drag racing competitor.

Bakersfield's got it all.

I'll tell you, Fred. Here in Bakersfield

we got the best cars running.

We got modified Jeep classic, we got dune buggies,

we got hot dragsters.

We got... Fred?

- Fred? - Yeah?

Did you come here to see the cars or... something else?

Well, I guess I came to see everything.

Well, you came to the right place.

Listen, Fred, here at Bakersfield,

we got just about everything.

Modified class, Jeeps,

Chevy Blazers...

But for my money, the superstars of the fuel-burning dragsters

and those babies are pushed by as much as a thousand horsepower.

And that's a flameout, Fred.

Somebody just kissed $15,000 goodbye.

Tommy sent me on to Pismo Beach, California,

and another kind of sand drag competition.

And I met another inhabitant of this world of dirt: Randy Gardner.

You're not kidding.

I come every day, Pismo Beach is where it's at.

You're going to see it all here.

I mean, we got classes for more kind of buggies

than you can ever believe.

And not just drag races,

but the meanest, baddest dune climbs you ever saw.

A dune climb is like a hill climb in one respect:

you have to make it to the top.

If you say so.

Hey, go get them!

Here at Pismo, they got so many different kinds of machines entering,

they keep inventing new classes.

Sometimes, you just can't keep up with everybody.

That's a buddy of mine on a '46 Ford hood.

He kind of forgot something called the law of friction.

That's called flying by the seat of your pants.

From Labor Day to the 4th of July is 10 months.

And from the ocean due to Pismo beach to the base of Pikes Peak

is 1,300 miles and 5,400 feet of elevation.

Some will tell you that this is the granddaddy of off-road racing.

Since 1916, a Pikes Peak hill climb has taken its toll of cars.

And of motorcycles.

This 14-mile course is still as dangerous and as much of a challenge

to racing driver Rick Meyers.

He and his brother Roger have been daring the tight turns

and sheer drops of the Pikes Peak Hill Climb since 1972.

It's also a family tradition for young Bobby Unser Jr.

The Unser have been putting this one away for the last eight years.

Louis Unser builds engines.

His machines have been some of the fastest on the market.

Bobby Unser is here today in the unfamiliar role of spectator.

Along with Parnelli Jones.

Rick Meyers and Peter Firestone check out Rick's tires.

They've taken sprint tires and re grooved them

so, the tread can cut through the loose gravel

to grab onto solid ground and find traction.

Well, it's all about cutting it. It's just a step.

- That's right. - By cutting it,

it'll soften it but give it a little more pressure

in the center part of the tire.

That's right.

Make the hold thing hold a little more.

- I guess I'll find out. - I agree.

We'll both find out. It's not gonna hurt you.

There goes Bobby Unser Jr.

It looks like he's making a pretty good time...

The family follows his progress.

We can see him in there, he's really moving.

The crowd is appreciating a good race.

He's on a curve. His tail is moving a little sideways going out of those curves.

Apparently, the road is a little loosy, skating just a little bit.

Bobby Jr.'s time? 12 minutes, 52 seconds.

Something for Rick Mears to beat.

That and 14 miles of switchback road, 156 turns,

and a climb of 9,392 ft.

The sun's your enemy. first it's behind you, then it owns your windshield

on a snaky left-hander.

Now, for a high right-hander,

coming at 100 mph, stand on the break, throw your car sideways.

Then flat-out through the esses.

Now for a blue-sky turn,

nothing for markers but blue sky.

At this speed, Rick turns his wheel right to go left and left to go right.

The racers call this opposite lock.

And the dirt takes all opposite lock.

It's 6,000 ft. down.

A lot less, if you're lucky.

After eight years of Unser domination,

today is a new winner.

Rick Mears puts Bobby Unser on second place

by over 40 seconds.

I got down to earth in a hurry at the Indian Dunes cycle park,

some 40 miles or so north of Los Angeles,

where I took in the national women's motocross championships.

I met a great young gal. Dee Williams, 17.

But when it comes to motocross racing, no longer a novice.

- Hi, Fred. - Dee has been racing competitively

for... three years?

Well, a little more than two and a half. Almost three.

You know, that's really great. A lot of women get into motorcycles

because of their family.

That's my friend Nani Evans over there, with her dad, Walker.

He's part of Parnelli Jones' racing team.

Tell me, Dee, is racing something you can do on a full-time basis?

We're getting there. The prize money is coming along.

This race has prices of over $1000.

Well, that's respectable.

It sure can help.

But when you look at the equipment a racer has to wear,

to say nothing of the cost of, you know, of keeping up a bike,

you take all the help you can get, including tips on strategy.

Just before you turn the side way, go ahead and get in there.

- All right. - All right? Good luck, sweety.

Every year, you see more and more young women

turning up for races here at Indian Dunes

and other tracks along the country.

I like the motocross. It's a short race,

so, a lot of whoop-de-doos and tight turns.

In fact, I think motocross can make you a better driver.

If you're last out the course.

Yeah, that's part of it, too.

Women's motocross, I see, is beginning to make its own name:

Sue Fish, Jan Thornton, Jean Cazar,

and a lot of others, trying to prove their own thing.

Let me tell you, when you weigh 95 pounds

a 175-pound bike can be one big mother.

It's a hell of a big difference

between the beauties of the women's motocross

to the beast's juicy plow on their way to the swamp buggy races

here in Naples, Florida.

Did you come all the way down here to see these races?

Well, we've been down here for a couple months, we just happen to know them.

We heard of them and we decided we'd come and see them.

- All the way back in Indiana you heard them? - Oh, yes.

I see. I'll tell you what, you really enjoy it. This is your fist race, is...

something that's really a sight to behold.

It's like Daytona and Indianapolis all in one.

Driving my swap buggy

You know it is A strange machine

Drive the alligators crazy

'Cause It's the strangest creature That they've seen

Swamp buggy

Swamp buggy boogie

Swamp buggy

Swamp buggy Showing the extreme

Down here, in the Florida, Bayou Country,

they've been running a competition

over the Maples mile of mud for over 30 years.

And a fella that's figured in most of those races

is Swamp Rat Pickering.

Swamp Rat, I got to say that those are funny-looking critters.

Yeah, we build them to get the job done, Fred.

High and tall, and thin wheels

so you work your way through these back waters

and shoals of the Florida Everglades.

Yeah.

We're gonna see seven different classes of races today.

Well, I got to say that's a mighty mean looking course.

Yeah, we got in front of zero,

figure eight trench, very exact.

The main feature is Sippy's hole.

- Sippy's hole? - -Yeah, named after Sippy Morris.

He never seemed to miss all them bumps he put on that pile of water.

They got extra heavy rear axles and wheels.

Even water filled tractor tires.

They give me the extra traction you need to work your way out of Sippy's hole.

I knew we're gonna get along, Fred.

The ideal swamp buggy has a center of gravity

high enough so you won't sink to the bottom,

but low enough so the sucker don't turn over.

Sometimes, you just can't figure.

Say, cousin.

Thank you, Fred.

Look at them go, Fred.

Swamp buggy

Swamp buggy boogie

Swamp buggy

It's like a spaceship With wheels

Turn and take a look behind me

No, that I don't believe I said

Swamp buggies By the dozen

The swamp got them Just like me

With all that water out there,

you got to coat your power plant

with a whole lot of plastic cement

to seal electric systems. Then, you spray away with a garden hose

and if you don't miss none, you're ready.

This is a good, clean sport.

It really builds character.

And safe. Hell, I can't even remember the last time

we lost a contestant to a water moccasin.

Much less an alligator.

So, you folks don't pay no attention to me.

Y'all come.

You hear?

The swamp buggy people

hid the pitfalls of air race underwater.

There's no such modesty here at riverside raceway

on the edge of the California desert.

This motocross circuit is designed to turn

$10,000 or $12,000 worth of racing car into instant junk.

Today, there are 40,000 spectators at this event,

which tried to jam the perils and rigors of a 100-mile desert race into 1.7 miles.

The winner today was Rick Mears

but this is one race where survival pays off.

Anything goes for jeeps, dune buggies.

It's self-destruction carried into a high art.

If you can finish, you made it to a very select group.

Park City, Utah,

home of Utah's Skyline Snow Rally,

a fierce competition putting man and machine against the side of this hill.

Here's where it happens.

310 feet high on a 58-degree incline.

A large number of people turned out today.

Drawn primarily by their interests in the scientific

and engineering ramifications of this event.

The hill started as a ski jump,

when too many ski jumpers dropped dead,

the Park City people had to find another use for it.

In ski country, no hill ever goes to waste.

And today, certainly not this one.

In the years of the Skyline Rally,

no one has ever made it to the top.

But a lot of them sure try.

All right.

- Up the hill. - Let's have some heat.

Surprising.

All the way.

You got it, Billy!

Good shot.

You know what? You can't tell where you're at.

Almost there, you had it, man,

but all you can see is snow every time it hits.

I would just like to get that hill,

I would love to go over.

Help me make it to the top

Help me make it to the top

Going up, me and you

Spread it out You better give me room

'Cause I'm fuming, zooming Going crazy out of control

Well, I've ridden all this way

For all my friends To be able to say

I saw him reach the top But I had to walk

Help me make it to the top

Help me make it to the top

You still have to go!

The race comes down to a contest between two brothers:

Mike Brown and Randy Brown.

As far as we're concerned , we won the class

because it was light for, to begin with.

There seems to be some sort of disagreement.

Yeah, he's run the same engine.

The machine weighs under 1000 pounds,

I'm way 1140. It just doesn't qualify for the class.

My brother drove the same rail, in the same class last year.

Now he's protesting me for driving it because I beat him.

We got a little family feud between brothers.

Now he's got to run against me, now I can't handle losing.

You gotta be a good loser as long as you've been winner, it's tough.

I know what it weighs.

Where's your weight slip, bigmouth?

I'm about to have fun and not even worry.

If they want to protest, let them protest.

To settle this family feud,

the brothers each get one more run at the hill.

Mike goes first.

Now it's Randy's turn.

The family will be fighting this one up for another year.

Until the next Skyline Snow Rally.

Ever since I first moved into the world of dirt and off-road racing,

I began to hear a few names.

Races like the Parker,

the Mint 400 and always, the Baja 1000.

And when you hear about the Baja,

you also hear the name Parnelli Jones.

I think it was time I looked into the family's race shop

where Parnelli Jones builds his famous Formula 1 race cars,

stock racers, Indy cars and off-road racers.

But when I was there, Parnelli and his chief mechanic, Dick Russell,

were looking to the Mint 400.

And, beyond that, the Baja.

We build a lot of cars. And we've built Indianapolis cars

and we've course built our off-road cars and stuff like that.

And as far as I'm concerned, building cars is like having a baby.

Working on this special Chevy Blazer, they struggle to increase

independent axle travel from eight inches to eighteen.

That'll let the Blazer maintain higher speeds over rougher courses

without bottoming out.

The car is very much a personality, so to speak.

It is enjoyable, building and putting your own ideas into these cars.

Every nut, every bolt in the Blazer has been refined

to make it stronger, lighter, fasters, to meet the challenge of the Nevada desert.

And after that, the Baja.

But first, Las Vegas and the Mint 400.

Three months straight, today has been turned into an off-road version

of Indy's Gasoline Alley, with cars from all over the country

moving in for technical inspection.

Equipment and accessory manufacturers set up on Fremont Street

to display their product.

The new racing car owner can get himself quite a collection of decals.

- Hey, give me a UNI sticker to put it right there. - Oh, sure, man.

Look at that decal.

I'll tell you what, you know, you're just slick.

Well, good luck to you in the race.

- Hey, Dennis, how are you? - Hey!

Oh, I see you switched to Pennzoil.

Well, no, that was my co-driver. At the last race he...

Look, if you've got those big decals? We can cover that up.

But have you got a couple of cases?

- A couple of cases? - Yeah, it's been burning a lot of oil.

Oh, yeah, I got a couple decals

that will cover that decal up real good.

That's good. Thank you, Dennis.

You're welcome, Phil.

Phil, I see you're ready for racing, I see,

but with the wrong spark plugs. Let's get these Champions in this thing.

I've been thinking about Champion, Arnold, you know,

and if I can get some for my tow car...

I think I can just put those decals on here, you know?

I need a few boxes for my tow car.

Let's get these on first and I'll get some pugs for you.

I'll get them right in here.

And then, we'll fix up your truck.

- It's gonna look great, Arnold. - Good enough.

But most, everybody else is here for racing.

To get ready for the Baja.

There were big names.

Parnelli Jones, ready to take his crack at the desert,

to see if this Blazer is ready for the Baja.

It's 400 miles of rugged desert,

sagebrush and hard rock.

Parnelli's new axle travel holds up, the Blazer hits 130 mph

and doesn't bottom out.

Parnelli never did like to use his horn.

Other racers are ready to go on the course.

The team of Rick Mears and Doc Sauers.

That's a big one.

Malcolm Smith, the motorcycle champion,

is moving in on the four-wheelers

Malcolm and his partner, Bud Feldkamp are already thinking past the Mint

to the Baja 1000.

Hollywood stunt driver, Bobby Ferro in his sand master dune buggy.

There are seven checkpoints along the course

and every racer knows he's going to make pit stops.

Hello, boss.

Walker Evans is the other half

of the Parnelli Jones' racing team.

When the dust settles again in the Nevada desert,

there's a new winner: Bobby Ferro.

But the others will have their crack at him again at the Baja 1000.

I had a couple of places I wanted to see before I hit the Baja.

For one, Terre Haute, Indiana,

and the national Tractor Pull contest.

With over a million dollars in prize money every year,

when they aren't plowing, they're pulling.

Everybody knows a tractor is for off-road work.

But if anyone thinks that these farmers in the Midwest

can't be competitive with those big rigs of theirs,

they got to talk to Janice Hoffer here.

You bet they are, Mr. Gordon.

Terre Haute is just one of the number of competitions

we go to every year.

They're not gonna race around the course, are they?

Oh, hardly. The idea is to see who can pull

a predetermined weight the farthest.

Big ideas to get the most traction they can.

Some farmers have ballast to get up to the last ounce of allowable weight

Here's how it works.

A sled is attached to the rear of the tractor.

Then, when the tractor starts up, an artificial weight of 5,000 pounds

is mechanically transported in the rear of the sled to the front,

at full transfer. This builds up to a dead weight of 50,000 pounds.

Some poor man

just burned $15,000 worth of tractor engine.

These machines don't look like any tractors I've ever seen.

Oh, you're right. A lot of invention goes into these tractors.

Some people put thousands and thousands of dollars into their machines.

We don't have too much in this because it came out of a junkyard.

And we did all the work.

I take a lot of the guys take them somewhere.

And some other guys spend $10,000 just to get their engines working.

Oh, here's a friend of my dad's who built his tractor for under $300.

This guy may have built a $300 tractor,

but those tires, they got to be $1,000 a throw.

That's it!

We took off and went about 30-40 foot.

And... if you run lean on fuel,

it sets the fuel up the intake and boom.

You'll see all kind of propulsion today.

Diesels, dune buggy engines, even blown engines that burn nitromethane

to develop up to 2,000 horsepower.

Recognize that? It's a jet that turns out 10,000 horsepower.

Terre Haute is just one of the many stops in the tractor pull circuit

from Connecticut to Colorado.

From Ontario to Florida.

Today, it's this man with the trophy.

Tomorrow? Well,

tomorrow is another day and another fairground.

For me, tomorrow was Yakima, Washington,

where the Yakima Ridge runners hold their annual Jeep Rodeo.

It's sort of like a private war.

You know, Bob? You could probably consume just as much beer without the race.

But here in the northwest, they go for strong motivation.

They like to spice up that drinking with a little organized mayhem.

- I wouldn't say this is mayhem. - Oh, you wouldn't?

- That's not what I heard. - Okay, it's not mayhem

but it is the meanest, filthiest race you can find on God's green earth.

We race modified carts.

You mean modified engines?

Well, we play a little with the front ends,

turn them into battering rams to eliminate the competition.

When the race starts, you want all the protection you can get.

Most of the course is underwater,

except in the dry season, when it's hip-deep in mud.

When we remember, we run four hits in each of four classes.

You got to be alert and quick up there.

If you ain't, you're gonna know it pretty damn soon enough.

Somebody oughta throw water on them.

We adapt all the tricks in racing:

Stirling Moss called this thing tailgating.

We do it one better.

The only real equipment you need here is a strong stomach

and a real deep streak of meanness.

You know what I mean?

Hey, come on up and show us.

It's almost half a continent from Yakima to Ensenada,

and a whole world of attitudes.

But this was the place where I knew I had to be.

By the time I got there, the impound area

was filling up with over 500 vehicles

ready for inspection before they took off on what many think is

the toughest off-road course in the world.

The last few days, thousands of men and women will be a part of this race

and the vehicles around the course have been pouring into town.

You can't get everybody, much less anybody,

to agree just when this race was first held.

But it was in 1966-67 that of a bunch of the boys

got gassed, decided to dare each other to drive

the length of Baja, from Tijuana to La Paz.

But progress caught up with the racers.

The Mexican government paved the road.

Now, every year they have to follow a different course.

Now,

Now, they start here and they cut over here

and come down through here, through Mike's Sky Ranch,

up through the mountains a first time, down to San Felipe.

And they cut straight up through the desert, swing over here,

come through the mountains a second time before they come back.

If they get back.

Now, the fun and games are over.

You've driven the course for the last time.

There's nothing more you can do to your machine in the impound area.

By nightfall, there are probably 20,000 people

at the various checkpoints spread over a 1000-mile course.

It's a long hard day ahead.

It's a time for contemplation, for quiet, for rest.

And if you're lucky, you can get close enough to the bar

and who songs for some last-minute bench racing.

6:00 a.m.

The motorcycles take off and the Baja is underway.

Now, it's the cars turn.

Bobby Ferro. His win at Las Vegas makes him the man to beat.

The team of Doc Sauers and Rick Mears.

Doc drives the first leg and Rick will pick up halfway through.

Mickey Thompson is driving today with a broken back.

A special air hose to his helmet let's Mickey breathe filtered air.

Parnelli Jones starts 45th.

Walker Evans starts right behind Parnelli.

They leave in one-minute intervals.

Part of the tradition of the Baja is local participation.

Here some Ensenada kids add an extra bump to the course

just beyond a blind right-hand corner.

Parnelli knows the kids, he's driven too many of these races.

S o, he gives them a show.

Around the course are seven checkpoints.

As a driver goes through these positions,

his progress is radioed to race headquarters.

And the data fed into a special computer,

so, they can figure a lapse time.

He's a dog.

- Fred, any news? - Yeah?

Yes, they're the hell down there. God knows when they'll be here.

The information comes down the various checkpoints.

Right now, we're at Tres Hermanas, one of the last checkpoints.

By the time the racing cars get here, there will be fewer of them.

All we can do is to listen for names that we know.

And wonder what it's really like out there

under that hot baking desert sun.

There's a lot of times out there in a race where you say to yourself

"What am I doing? I have holes in my hip.

I mean, this is not fun." But when you're able to hit a stretch

that doesn't have too many rocks and you can swipe the car around

and do a little driving or something, then you get your thrill out of it.

Another racer has his own ideas.

Some guys will tell you the worst is the sun.

For my money, the damn dust.

You just can't tell where you are or what's ahead of you.

You know, you head starts wondering.

You think "Am I on the course?"

Did I miss a marker.

And then, you see somebody broken down and you know you're still on the race.

The rush is when the guy comes up behind and you can't see him

or hear him and he comes crossing into you.

That will shake you up.

We try to listen. It's early but already we know the Baja is taking its toll.

You wonder how many of them will ever get here to use this gas.

You want to know what you do if your tire goes flat or you lose one?

You got no choice. Three wheels is better than two.

Well, I'll tell you what they look like.

About four hours into the race, all those cars

start looking like a bunch of wounded insects.

Oh, I must have been crazed. I mean, well,

I come around the corner and I see my engine is on fire, right?

Well, I get so wild, I forgot completely

I bought this new fire extinguisher. Thing set me back $300.

And I'm out there, on my hands and knees trying to blow out the fire.

Watch it, watch it. Here.

Okay.

We need a carburetor.

Report comes in from Mike's Sky Ranch

Ferro is out in front and pushing hard,

but Parnelli is closing on him fast

You gotta look out for each other out there.

One mechanic, one look out.

You can get yourself wiped out in one big hurry.

There are some guys who just going nuts out there.

The Baja really gets them.

Well, I tell you, you gotta keep going.

I caught a flat, had to scrounge a spare from a guy.

It was the wrong size, but it beats sitting down on that mountain side.

Every now and then, you see something really shakes hit.

Well, it helps to get back where you ought to be.

You really feel great when you hit the dry lake.

I mean you can cook 130-140, flat out.

It was easy to figure.

Guys like Bobby Ferro and Walker Evans

were on the dry lake and making time.

We get the word Parnelli's out.

Then, word flashed along the course.

Bobby Ferro crosses the finish line with a new record.

You had any trouble besides that?

But in the Baja, you race against the clock.

Walker Evans still has a chance to take it all.

Walker is pushing all the way, but it's not good enough by four minutes.

Watch out! Come on!

He settles for a second overall, but first in his class.

How is it going?

A lot of people broken down out there, Walker?

Yeah, just cars everywhere.

Just about four miles or five miles back, I missed a turn.

I don't have a bit of brakes.

My hero!

- It's pretty hot, huh? - Yeah.

Thirty five years old, huh?

Gave me a lot of trouble out there.

Hi there, man!

I told you I'd do it, didn't I?

Didn't I tell you?

- Pretty tired? - Yes!

There are a lot of guys still out on the course.

Still racing. Will be till 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning.

When the sun goes down, it's...

It's pretty easy to get lost down there.

I know most guys are just wandering around,

half of them just looking for the course.

It gets pretty hairy out there.

Well, I tell you I don't like it when it starts getting dark.

Well, there I was, up in the hills.

And it's dark, and it's cold and I'm freezing.

Jesus, it's murder in the dark.

You're so tired, it's painful.

Your eyes ache, your hands are numb around the steering wheel.

But you know you gotta keep going

and if anybody ever asked me why, I'll cold cock them.

All right!

That's Mickey!

Who knows what happened to them.

- I'm so proud of you! - Thank you very much.

- What? - How does it feel?

You have it all over with.

Betcha.

I've never been so glad to get to a place in my whole life.

- Hey, Darryl! You made it! - Hey!

- No top. - Yeah.

- How are you guys? - I'm ahead everybody, I think.

Oh, my God!

You did it! You did it!

Would you do it again?

Oh, for sure.

- Ora! - Thank you!

Gracias.

- My face's dirty? - Just a little.

Well, this is a mudpack. I'm going to be gorgeous tomorrow.

You hang around the finish line until dawn, the second day.

If the driver of a team hasn't made it home by then,

you know another piece of machinery

is gonna be a part of the desert landscape.

Most of these guys will be back next year.

And there'll be some other fellows that try it for the first time.

Whatever the course is, it's still a Baja.

They'll be back, and I'll be back.

Because this is my people.

This is my world.