B.J. Baldwin, Trophy Truck  #97, "Ballistic" B.J. , second in class and second overall four-wheel vehicle. Baldwin drove the entire race.
I was just getting warmed up and getting ready to make my move on Tavo (Vildosola) and then it (the race) ended. It was definitely a tough day for me. We planned on having Mark Post get in at mile 795 and we got to mile 790 and kept calling on the radio but nobody was answering. Before you knew it we were at mile 820 before we heard from our pit. Our pit ended up being at mile 835.
If I had gotten out, there was going to be no time for me to get back in so I stayed in while we got fuel and tires. We had a couple of mishaps with our pits that cost us quite a bit of time.
One of the fuel fillers was not working right. They had to change that and then on the very last fuel pit we had a similar problem with the fueling system.
It was just stuff that we slipped up on and stuff we need to lace up for next year.
We had a good race and the Trophy Truck ran really good and it was a really good in San Felipe. I got caught slipping at about mile 85 and Bryce (Menzies) got around me. I just took the wrong line.


I screwed up and Bryce got around me. When we got to San Felipe, where all the big bumps were, I drove right around Rob MacCachren and Bryce. That's where we were first car on the road, and we led for most of the day. It was a good race for us but obviously we would have liked to have won.
I didn't have any communication all day and I didn't know where we. Our radio was not working very well. This is my third time getting second at the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 so I'm over this and I'm ready to win it. Maybe next year.

I would like to get a fifth championship in the bag. It would be nice to be a five-time off road champion. (On finishing second three times this year,) it is about the same as going 200 miles and losing a drivetrain. It is that disheartening. It is about as disheartening as getting a DNF.
Tavo's (Vildosola) win today was not a hard fought win. It wasn't a hard fought battle between me and him. He was on point and he drove really well. The fact that I didn't get out when I was supposed to, really wore down on me physically. A thousand miles was easy where as the last 122 miles was the hard part.
I wanted to get out and move my hips and knees and get all the fluid moving in my body, get hydrated, get a sandwich and get intelligence. Intelligence is what wins races.

Content credits: SCORE - Image credits: Toyo Tires