Dust to Glory Page #3

He said, "I don't need any guidebook.

I can always find my way."

On the day of the race.

The press was told

the first vehicle would arrive

at San Ignacio, the halfway point,

at around 5 a.m.

Malcolm arrived at 5 p.m.,

a full 12 hours earlier.

and eight hours ahead

of the next vehicle.

As evening settled in,

J.N. began his journey

guided by a weak front headlight

and a unique sense of direction.

I seen this light and I thought

I was going the right direction,

and it was a star,

and I just kept following it.

I said, "There's a checkpoint.

It's gotta be a checkpoint."

Kept going on. I totally went

to the other side of the coast,

which I shouldn't have went to.

Out of gas, J.N. managed to refuel

at a local fishing village.

He then crossed the entire peninsula

one more time,

where he ran out of gas again.

He had traveled hundreds of miles and

hadn't made an inch towards the finish line.

We found him sleeping under a cactus.

He says, "I don't have a clue

where I am. Can I follow you in?"

I think it took him, I don't know,

14 hours or something.

But he slept six of 'em anyway.

I'll tell you what.

I don't remember half of it.

It was the '60s and '70s, wasn't it?

Yeah, the '60s and '70s

were real good to me.

Despite the nocturnal adventure,

J.N. and Malcolm

would be crowned

the inaugural motorcycle champions.

You know, as you go through life,

if you knew you were making history,

you would've paid more attention to it.

If one man legitimized the Baja 1000,

it was Parnelli Jones.

Winner of the 1963 Indy 500,

his presence,

along with fellow competitors

Steve McQueen and James Garner.

gave birth to the Baja mystique.

And over the years, everyone

seems to have raced the Baja.

But there's one notable exception

who's never managed to make it until now...

the greatest race car driver ever,

Mario Andretti.

Great opportunity,

and so happy that I did it

because I got some taste of it.

Sal Fish invited Mario to be

this year's grand marshal.

His mere presence can make

grown men act like schoolchildren.

Mario Andretti could've been

anywhere in the world,

and he was in Ensenada

at the Score Baja 1000.

That, to me, I'll never forget that.

It was a highlight of my career.

Say the name Andretti, and that's speed,

that's auto racing. That's it.

And it's global.

It's a universal word.

He's the best.

I love that guy.

I gotta get the car heated up and my seat

buffed 'cause Mario's coming.

He's gonna sit right there.

For Todd. This culminated

years of hero worship,

a chance to bond with his idol.

Mario's, I think, taken the bait.

He's thinking,

"You know, I can do this."

I want you to drive it slowly,

and I'm gonna sit there...

Yeah, sure.

He took the wheel before

Todd could cry for help.

There's a very good reason the name

Andretti is synonymous with speed...

Because it's synonymous with speed.

Feeling the pre-run truck here,

I could see how you could

all of a sudden find yourself in a ditch

upside down really easy.

All of a sudden he's

pushing the thing pretty hard,

we're on the right-hand side,

stuff's going right by me.

So I said, "Hey, Mario, you gotta slow down.

I think there's some horses coming up."

There weren't horses coming up,

but anything to get this thing slowed down.

What did you think of that?

What did you think of that?

I loved it.

Todd's hyperventilating had stopped.

Unfortunately, so did his truck,

20 miles from civilization.

It's died.

We've got no battery.

Didn't go fast enough.

You didn't go fast enough

to charge the battery.

Eventually a ride pulled up.

The lady in the truck

obviously didn't follow racing,

But she knew a good head

for hats when she saw one.

I'm sorry to do this to you, but...

The husband, on the other hand,

knew instantly

that the man carrying his

dirty laundry was a living legend.

- Chris and Sam, you're my saviors.

- Mario Andretti, it's a pleasure to meet you.

I've heard of you

for years and years.

The couple happily drove

20 miles out of their way,

compensated with a mere autograph.

Pure Baja magic.

Everything goes wrong

and then works out perfectly.

See, you turned out to be

the highlight of our day.

Well, you're the highlight of ours, too.

Mario couldn't get over the potential

in off-road racing.

It's incredible, you know,

what has been developed.

But I keep saying, I mean,

the imagination is the only limit.

These are for the rock stars

of the Baja, the unlimited classes,

the big-money race teams that use

choppers for chase vehicles.

It's the most dynamic thing you can do.

You have everything you want.

You have 800 horsepower,

you've got three feet of suspension,

you got a chromoly cage,

you got a breathing apparatus,

you got a co-rider telling you

you need to do these different things.

If you could look under "macho"

in the dictionary, there'd be a trophy truck.

The racer most identified

with the Baja 1000

is NASCAR driver

Robby Gordon.

I mean, this is his world.

It isn't in NASCAR.

This is where he's the king.

And you can see everybody

defer to him here.

Robby was just a kid

when I took him for a ride

out in Saddleback

in one of the blazers,

and I can remember seeing

his helmet up here.

You know, he just loved it.

Robby became

Baja's boy wonder.

He's gone on to make millions racing

from Daytona to Indy,

but he never forgets his roots.

I left home on Sunday night,

we flew out in a helicopter,

got on a commercial airline,

and flew to L.A.

Left at 5 a.m. To come down here.

We pre-ran Monday and Tuesday.

Did the whole course in two days.

He was a little cocky and, you know,

it probably hurt him in a lot of ways.

I know where everybody's at.

I'm gonna watch every car

go by the wayside.

The car's good enough

that at 75%W, it's as fast

as everybody else.

You know, a lot

of good race drivers are cocky.

Numbers are drawn for starting position.

Robby got the last spot.

While starting at the very front of

the line was Hawaiian Alan Pflueger

in his very first race in a trophy truck.

You can't really describe it.

You've gotta experience it.

And it's awesome.

It's a controlled explosion.

It's like trying to hold a piece of dynamite,

keep the explosion in your hand.

It's driving that fine line where

you get off that line, it gets hairy.

It gets really hairy.

But it's fun.

It's fun on that line.

You need binoculars to drive

'cause you don't look at the bumps.

You just look at, you know,

like an aurora

that you might come off this side

and hit the other side.

You've got the ability to go so fast.

But the challenge is to be smart enough

to go slow enough to finish the race.

'Cause any dummy can go out there

and put their foot down and go fast.

But you gotta know when to lift

and put that brake on.

The highways are open

to all traffic during the race.

Matter of fact, all the roads are.

They have things like speed limits,

but since it's a race

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