After covering rockcrawling events throughout the United States for the past few years, you can only imagine our keen interest in an event that allowed us to travel outside the usual rock obstacle venue, let alone an event that brought us to Cabo San Lucas, Baja California, Mexico, situated at the tip of the Baja California Peninsula. Thankfully, event organizer Dan Brown combined his love for rockcrawling with his love for Mexico to create the 1st Annual Baja International Rock Crawling Association (BIRCA) competition.
Before the two days of rockcrawling action got underway at the course located just outside of Cabo, competitors and enthusiasts were treated to a two-night off-road expo held in downtown Cabo San Lucas. The expo featured vehicle displays and offered locals a chance to meet the drivers and see the vehicles close up. Competitors were also allowed the opportunity to sell their own T-shirts to the public, which quickly gathered autographs from the excited drivers.
The Tecate- and Coca-Cola-sponsored competition began the following day in a canyon north of Cabo, near the town of Candalaria. Two series of obstacles consisting of upper and lower courses were designed to test the drivers' skills throughout the two-day event. Each challenging obstacle put its best effort forward in hampering the drivers' performance, resulting in plenty of spectacular rollovers and crunching sheetmetal. When all was said and done, one clear winner was decided: Tracy Jordan, with a massive points spread, harnessed a First Place finish. Next in points was Jason Paule who nabbed Second Place. After these positions, however, scoring deficiencies and other issues clouded the results, leaving the other competitors no indication of where they wound up in the standings. At time of publication, organizers still hadn't reached a resolution.
Despite the scoring problems, the 1st Annual Baja Rocks competition was a big hit for all of those involved. Participants enjoyed the opportunity to explore a new 'wheeling venue and showcase their abilities among an international crowd. Organizers are optimistic that a 2nd Annual event will follow sometime during 2004, but it was too early to tell for sure at time of publication. For more information, contact: Baja International Rock Crawling Association (BIRCA), www.bajarocks.com.