Watch Mickey Thompson Crush the Baja 1000 in 1982
Mickey Thompson set out to win the Baja 1000 in 1984.
There were over 200 cars in the race, and after ten hours of intense competition, the rough terrain started to take its toll.
While Mickey was fighting his way through the mountain terrain, Trudy and the pit crew caught up with him at the second pit stop. The crew was 2 and a half minutes behind.
Thompson was pushing ahead of schedule, however this time he could not continue. There were problems with the car, he would have to climb out of it and work on it himself.
The crew finally arrived, delayed by a herd of cattle on the highway. It took the crew 42 minutes to cure the problem. The brakes were severley damaged. And with this loss of racing time, Mickey has fallen well behind the pack. In order to win, Mickey would have to pass them all again.
Adding to that, the car had become increasingly harder to steer, but worse yet, Thompson was near exhaustion and the race was only half over. When Thompson left the pit area, no one knew exactly what position he held in the race.
"When you've been pushing for eighteen hours, sometimes things go crazy. You start hearing strange noises from the car that you have never heard before. I keep looking for other cars, and all I can see is sand." - Mickey Thompson
Eighteen hours and twelve minutes into the race, the finish line was quiet, as radio information was not reliable. Every one knew that a car had passed the last check point, who was driving was unknown. The only thing to do, was wait.
"I didn't know if I had won, but I sure knew that I had finished"
Mickey Thompson completed the Baja 1000 in 19 hours, 40 minutes and 23 seconds. Not only did he win the race he had dreamed of, he also set a new speed record in the process.