BAJA RACING HISTORY

You're riding where legends raced

Some of our trails were Baja 1000 courses. Some of our stops fed and fixed the racers. Look up at the walls at dinner: the stickers came from race teams that stopped there.

How the Baja 1000 began

  1. 1962Two Hondas, Tijuana to La PazHonda sends Dave Ekins and Billy Robertson Jr. down the peninsula to prove its bikes. Ekins makes it in just under 40 hours.
  2. 1967The first Mexican 1000NORRA's race starts in Tijuana on Halloween. A Meyers Manx dune buggy wins overall; Malcolm Smith and J.N. Roberts win the motorcycle class on a Husqvarna.
  3. 1968Hollywood shows upABC's Wide World of Sports covers the race. Steve McQueen, James Garner and Parnelli Jones race Baja in the years that follow. Jones wins it overall in 1971 and 1972.
  4. 1974SCORE takes the wheelSCORE International takes over the race, which is called the Baja 1000 from then on. SCORE still runs it today.

Legendary stops on our route

You'll eat, fuel or sleep at places racers and travelers have counted on for decades. One of them is already gone.

[PHOTO: Hotel El Cortez and the San Felipe malecón]
SAT & FRI · SAN FELIPE

Hotel El Cortez

San Felipe is a race town. SCORE runs the San Felipe 250 out of here, and race weeks fill the same hotels we use. El Cortez has been our base camp for years.

[PHOTO: Mike's Sky Ranch, the racing wall]
DAY 1 · SIERRA SAN PEDRO MÁRTIR

Mike's Sky Ranch

Mike Leon built it in 1967, then went racing himself and won the 1984 Baja 1000 for Isuzu. His VW race door and signed posters still hang on the walls, and the Baja 500 still roars past.

[PHOTO: Meling Ranch corrals]
DAY 1 · SIERRA FOOTHILLS

Meling Ranch

A gold miner's ranch burned in the 1911 revolution, rebuilt by Norwegian immigrant Salve Meling and his wife Bertie. Still a working cattle ranch, with a spring-fed pool and some of the darkest skies in Baja.

[PHOTO: Mama Espinoza's, El Rosario]
DAY 3 · EL ROSARIO

Mama Espinoza's

Doña Anita Espinoza sold fuel and cooked for travelers here for decades, and her guest register reads like a who's who of Baja racing. She died in 2016 at about 105. Order the lobster burrito.

[PHOTO: Rancho Santa Inés]
DAY 3 · CATAVIÑA

Rancho Santa Inés

Before Highway 1 was paved in 1973, nearly everyone driving the peninsula stopped here. Josefina Zúñiga Ramos ran it from 1956 and greeted Parnelli Jones in the pits during the 1972 race. It's also your check-in for the Santa María oasis.

[PHOTO: Casa Díaz, Bahía de los Ángeles]
DAYS 4 AND 5 · BAHÍA

Casa Díaz

Antero "Papa" Díaz cleared an airstrip and built cabins here in the 1940s, and Mama Díaz fed the fly-in fishermen. The family still runs the store, rooms and fishing boats.

[PHOTO: The old Coco's Corner site, Day 6]
DAY 6 · ROAD TO GONZAGA

Coco's Corner, then and now

MOSTLY GONE

From 1987, Jorge "Coco" Corral ran a one-man oasis where two lonely dirt roads met: cold drinks, a guest book every traveler signed, and his cartoons drawn next to your name. He lost both legs to diabetes and kept welcoming racers anyway. When the highway was paved, traffic moved away. Coco died in 2022 at 85, and today you can only see where his corner once stood.

[PHOTO: Alfonsina's, Gonzaga Bay]
DAY 6 · GONZAGA BAY

Alfonsina's

A beachfront stop with its own dirt airstrip on the sand spit, where fly-in fishermen and race crews have stopped for a meal for decades. A good lunch on the long run north.

The sticker walls. Most of our hotels are plastered with race-team stickers. Bring a UTMA Baja Norte sticker and leave your mark.

Trail sections that follow current or former SCORE race courses: [Luis and Paul to mark these on the route map].

Watch before you go

The classics, plus a few short videos to get you fired up.

FEATURE FILM · 2005Dust to GloryDana Brown's documentary of the 2003 Baja 1000. The one to watch first.
TRAILER · 1971 CLASSIC · PABLO'S PICKOn Any SundayBruce Brown's motorcycle classic with Malcolm Smith and Steve McQueen. Rent the full film anywhere.
TRAILER · 2017 FILMDust 2 GloryDana Brown returns to the Baja 1000 for a second film.
ARCHIVE FOOTAGE · YOUTUBEThe 1967 raceGrainy film of the very first Mexican 1000.
DOCUMENTARY · YOUTUBEThe NORRA 1000The modern vintage revival of the original race, down the length of the peninsula.
SHORT · YOUTUBEInside Mike's Sky RanchA walk-through of the ranch where Day 1 heads.

And our own: ride videos from past years, including Ruxton Noble's 2024 series and the 2022 West group film.