
Close shave for Rossi at Baja 1000
While Indy 500 champion Alexander Rossi certainly has experienced his share of near misses in open-wheel racing, it’s likely none will match the one he experienced in the first miles of today’s BFGoodrich SCORE Baja 1000.
Behind the wheel of his team’s No.709 Honda Ridgeline Class 7 truck, Rossi was negotiating a high-speed section of the course near Ojos Negros, just 33 miles into the race. Known for fast but blind rolling jumps, the road is technically open to local traffic – as Rossi soon discovered. As the videos clearly show, it was almost lights out for Rossi’s factory Honda effort, never mind a Mexican spectator and their rearview mirror.
Despite the incident and getting stuck in severe silt several miles down the course, Rossi managed to make it to his pit in San Felipe and turn the truck over to team owner Jeff Proctor second in class. The Honda will also be piloted by Baja veteran Pat Dailey and then 11-time Baja 1000 overall champion motorcycle rider Johnny Campbell.
As we often say, each Baja 1000 is a million stories. Now an Indy 500 champ has one of his very own. Viva Baja!
(Note: Videos contain explicit language)
Here is one view...
... and another angle.
Marty Fiolka
A lifelong enthusiast of off road motorsports, Marty Fiolka raced his first Baja 1000 in 1992 and still enjoys getting behind the wheel via his annual BFG Team Rennsport NORRA Mexican 1000 effort. A graduate of University California at Long Beach, he founded The Rennsport Group in 1995 to execute motorsports public relations programs for Nissan, Infinity, Exxon, Mitsubishi, SCORE International and later became the editorial and marketing director for Dirtsports Magazine. Marty is a current contributor to RACER Magazine and RACER.com as well as operating the promotional agency for Crandon International Raceway and annual Red Bull Crandon World Cup. Fiolka was a 2014 Inductee to the Off Road Motorsports Hall of Fame (ORMHOF) and was instrumental in founding the Wide Open Baja adventure business and Ensenada's Horsepower Ranch. He also served as the associate producer of the original Dust to Glory documentary film and author of two books; 1000 Miles to Glory: The Baja 1000 Story and The Big Blue M: The History of McMillin Racing.
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