Over the summer of 2021, our team leader, David, reached out on Facebook to various communities of Class 5-1600 racers inquiring about opportunities to volunteer for and learn from teams that had race experience. We were incredibly fortunate to hear back from and subsequently partner with, Jorge Gutierrez of Team BAJAJAG. Jorge and his family have been racing bugs across multiple generations and decades and we couldn’t have hoped for better mentors.
Over the subsequent months, our teams met regularly online and we started to learn what would be involved in supporting Jorge’s team in the 2021 Baja 1000. Then, in early November, with our team’s RZR in two, Team Bajagoats set off for Ensenada to participate in our first race. What started out as a pure support role evolved into an opportunity for a number of our team to actually join Jorge’s drivers in the car as co-pilots and over the course of the following week, a group of almost 20 people across both teams formed 7 chase teams and not only completed but won the class 5-1600 class.
For Jorge and Team BAJAJAG, it was a culmination of years of preparation, effort, and sacrifice to accomplish this feat and Team Bajagoats is honored to have been able to help make it possible. For Team Bajagoats, it was an eye-opening experience into what it takes to succeed in this race and we learned invaluable lessons which will help us plan for and execute our own run in 2022. It also set a high bar for us to learn how it feels to not only finish but win, first hand and now want to achieve that feeling again in our own car.
Now, our 2022 journey begins…