In 1908, there was an Off-Road Race. Actually it was an off-road, on-road, through sub-zero temps, blizzards, sandstorms and over seas race. It started in New York's Time Square and 169 days later, George Schuster drove his beat up Thomas Flyer across the finish line in Paris taking 1st overall.

The Thomas Flyer's victory was a first for an American made car in international competition. It also proved how an automobile could be a reliable source of transportation. In 1908, horses were considered a safer bet. So the dam broke and American auto sales soared as a result. The race also brought to attention the horrible state of America's roads. So rather than further developing the shock absorber, asphalt was invented in 1910 and Off-Road Racing was put on hold for 60 years.

And so we entered the pavement age, where the tax payers were sold a bill of goods about the beauties of endless ribbons of asphalt stretching as far as the eye could see into distant hill and glade. These hard-road enthusiasts even built a brick oval in Indy about that time, to "test, develop, and improve the breed" of future generations of pavement bound machines. And those beautiful asphalt ribbons stretched endlessly, weaving a noose around the cities as if to strangle all life forces by congestion and lack of respiration.

But, just as in the old dime novels of 60 years ago, things always turn out for the best. For in November of 1967, there was an auto race from Tijuana to La Paz, Baja California, Mexico, that had all the spirit of 1908, and was conducted over the world's worst roads. That's when the silt hit the pan. The longest 832 miles in the world, The Mexican 1000 might have been better called the race of 1000 "ifs". 1967 also brought Del Webb's "Richest Off-Road Race", The Mint 400 in Las Vegas. The duel in the dust was like everything else in Vegas, a gamble. Keno for cars. Broncos galloped for victory with guys like Al and Bobby Unser, Parnelli Jones, and James Garner at the helm. The 1969 Mint welcomed Mickey Thompson to what soon became his legendary career. And in the same year, the first Badlands Off-Road Race was held in snow covered Rapid City, South Dakota.

As the 60's and 70's were bringing so-called enlightenment and liberation to many, the Off-Road enthusiast was no exception. Dune buggies were the fastest growing items since Jack threw his beans out of his mother's window. From Glamis to Pismo, sand fleas were liberally surfing the solid waves, and Parnelli and Co. were enlightening the engineers with their tube chassis Bronco, "Crazy Colt". I guess this is where you can say the rest is history. History that's filled with all the more driver's and all the more stories of the beast. Bringing with it the space shuttles of Off-Road and leaving us asking the same question they asked in '68, "What's next?"

The sport as we know it rolled on through resourcefulness and innovation, two major ingredients for planning a winning effort over the meat grinder of Baja. Contests of this sort bring to bear the full genius of the American man and his pioneering spirit. Add a dash of his Oregon trail fortitude and the bubbling romanticism of a Jules Verne epic of Man and Invention vs. Geography and the Elements and you have before your eyes, a true test track to improve the breed, the greatest race of them all, Just Baja.