2003 Baja Rocks, Las Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Finding rocks to play on is nothing- they are nearly everywhere. Finding rocks where the law not only allows rock crawling, but encourages it, is lucky. But finding rocks within 25 miles of one of the worlds most luxurious travel destinations and holding a world-class rock crawling event is only found in fairytales and dreams. The person who dreamed it three years ago was none other than class act driver Mike Palmer. Mike told me in an interview during the 2000 Vernal, Utah ARCA event if he could competitively rockcrawl anywhere in the world, it would be in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico!

Dan "The Man" Brown; with his love for Mexico, made Mike Palmer's dream a reality. With the help of Mexico's El Presidente' Vincente' Fox, local governors, policia and sponsors (Tecate Beer being the largest), Dan worked tirelessly over the last year to bring the sport of competitive rock crawling to Baja, where up to last weekend, had only seen Baja 1000 desert racing.

"Dirty" Dan Brown kicked off the 1st Annual Baja International Rock Crawling Association (BIRCA) competition in Cabo San Lucas. The initial expo and demonstrations have already attracted more than 5000 locals and tourists to come out and see the spectacle known as "Rockcrawling". Questions by locals range from "Que hacen los Gringos locos?" (What are these crazy Americans doing?) to "Puedo manejar?" (Can I drive?)


Jason Paule from Rapid City SD (left), Tracy Jordan (right) and Randy Ellis (center) doing a pre-event demo for the Local residents of Cabo San Lucas at the 1st annual BAJA ROCKS rock crawl.	Neil Lillard signing autographs for the kids of Cabo.	Neil Lillard joins the Pile in his new rig that Neil designed and built himself, look close, this rig features a 18" adjustable wheelbase. Stay tunes for an upcoming feature on this bizarre rig.

The competitors were not many, 19 rigs, but they were still going to battle it out this weekend at Candaleria for over US$150,000 in purse dinero (that's prize money for all you gringos). With $50,000 going to 1st place! John Gilliland, Mike Palmer, Neil Lillard, Tracy Jordan, Eric Bills and many other favorites from USA- RCAA, Prorock, UROC and CalROCS have made the journey to "Lands End" at the tip of Baja California to compete in this event.

The course, built by world famous Farmington, New Mexico resident Phil "master of disaster" Collard, is said to be "The most challenging course ever". The rocks are made from marble and granite, often polished to a "slicker than greased snot" surface that offers only one choice for technique on the vertical climbs: HAMMER DOWN!!

The two-night expo held at the Glorias Hotel the Wednesday and Thursday nights prior to the competition, was a great warm up for the residents and tourists of Cabo. Bands playing Mexican favorites and US covers drew the people in, massive dog piling demonstrations and burn out contests held the interest, then the Tecate beer and tee shirt sales made the promoters and drivers some money to offset the extraordinary travel costs they spent just to get down there.

On Friday, the drivers meeting was held on the actual course, which is located in Candalaria, a sleepy little village 30 miles north of Cabo and ten miles east of the canyon where Phil Collard laid out his insane obstacles. Phil walked all the teams through each stage the afternoon before the event. That night, many a driver went to bed with a tight gut in anticipation of the upcoming competition and the chance at the US$50,000 first place prize money!

Drivers drew names out of a hat for their starting position. Adam "Super Skinny" Lunn drew first for the upper 6 stages. With the first up jitters and lack of sleep in a foreign land, Adam promptly rolled his rig on the first stage.


Hundreds of people came out to see Charlie Copsey powering up the wedge on Stage 1.	Desert racing champion Liz Wayas shows that she can handle a crawler with the best, she was able to reverse back onto all four wheels and nearly finish this stage before time ran out.	Simon Timayo popping back up after a roll.	Tracy Jordan finessing his way through Stage 8.	Neil Lillard trying to keep his rig from going head over heals...

As the day wore on it became pretty clear that Dan and Phil had a severe lack of qualified stage judges; with this, drivers began grading their own "tests" with verifying signatures from other drivers. This system seemed to work well except for a few cases, where the driver was given the benefit of the doubt. Only half of the Mexican judges hired by Dan and Phil seemed to show up. Getting them to count out when a driver stopped in anything less than a whisper was impossible on Day 1. This left other drivers and some spectators to count the UNO-DOS-TRES ALTO! in an attempt to train the locals. By the end of the day they seemed to get the hang of it. Early on during Day one, Travis Wadeson (Jason Paule's spotter) had to visit a Mexican hospital after smashing his pinky finger between two rocks. He will be all right, but he will require plastic surgery once he gets back to South Dakota.


Mike Palmer on course	Jason Paule from Rapid City SD, is leading the scoring on the upper course for the BIRCA 1st annual Rockcrawling event. Jason, owner of TWISTED CUSTOMS 4x4, is giving lessons in "twist".	Charlie Copsey of Provo UT, is getting twisted with his Portal axled 7 thru a section of stage 12.	Mike Palmer signing more autographs for the little crawl fans of Cabo.

After Day 1, the 'unofficial" scores had Tracy Jordan leading with 2 back-ups and 1 reversal for the day, Jason Paule, John Gilliland and Randy Ellis were all tied for 2nd place. Mike Palmer seemingly broke at least one thing on every stage, but because of Dan's rules regarding "no timed breakdowns" (like it should be) Mike was able to keep repairing his rig and continued finishing stages with excellent scores. Simon Tamayo the Mexican ¼ mile drag racer, driving Dan's rock buggy/CJ7, had his share of miscues and cone hits, but managed to keep it greasy side down more than Dan ever could. Liz Wayas, the stunning champion Class 9 desert racer driving the Peterson/Amy Bullock championship rig, drove with remarkable instinct and poise. Although she had her share of rolls and cone hits, she kept lighting up the tires and the spirits of her fellow countrymen.


Liz Wayas showing off the front page of the local newspaper. The featured rig is none other than Randy Ellis' red rockbuggy.	Adam "Skinny" Lunn ended up on his side on this obstacle.	Randy Ellis finished 3rd for the event with the no holds barred driving style he is famous for.	Mike Palmer showing off his impressive driving skills

Many a driver knew by Sunday AM that Tracy Jordan would have to have a bad day or major mechanical failure to be caught, so battling for 2nd place became the realistic goal. Even Jason Paule would be hard pressed to take his Twisted Customs teammate for the title. The judging accuracy was never in question on day two, Kelly Clifford along with all the US judges, were forced to run their stages like drill sergeants due to language barriers. Unlike desert racing where the "danger" zone is clear, the new rock crawling fans of Mexico had to be repeatedly moved back even though it looked very clear to us where danger lay.

As the day wore on, the battles for position were not clear, only Tracy and Jason had firm holds on their turf. After all was said and done the event wound down to the battle for 3rd, 4th, and 5th places. Tracy finished with an unofficial -83 after collecting every bonus point and Jason Paule finished with -13. The next closest finish was Randy Ellis with +23. There was only one problem, the winter sun went to bed leaving the contest unfinished and the remainder of the competitors "in the dark". Unlike some US promoters, Dan Brown set up floodlights so the battle for money positions could be completed, even if that meant continuing the competition into the chilly Baja night.

The stage called "Phil's Revenge" was a massive wall climb 30' up polished marble with a second 8' wall climb and a 10' drop to the end gates. This wall would make Montezuma himself pale. Yet, Adam "Skinny" Lunn with spotter Jared Pugh, and Mike Palmer with spotter Greg Noss, each scaled the 30' wall. They had to use spot lights and vehicle headlights as their guides and head lights alone for the second climb and drop off. Skinny rolled off the final ledge thru the end gates to finish the event in 6th place. Mike Palmer not only made the climb in doing so placed him 4th for the event. Are there extra points for night driving?


The Teams of the 2003 BIRCA Baja Rocks!	Tracy Jordan took home an autographed banner from the first annual Baja Rocks	Alexander's Restaurant on the wharf supported the BIRCA event with superb meals, great service and special event pricing for drivers and support teams.	Liz Wayas delighted the crowd and the other teams with her vivacious personality and "never give up" attitude.

For those looking for the results of the competition, let's just say that until the official "unoffical" results are released, we don't want to post inaccurate or misleading results. There are numerous versions of the results, and with the controversy surrounding the place standings, we're waiting for the results from BIRCA. So please check back and we'll try to have the results posted as soon as BIRCA releases them.