MAG 7 - December 2000

A. Well, let me tell you what Mag 7 Race Team has gone through. We first started talking about the Baja 2000 last year in December, right after the running of the Baja 1000. Just talking about what we would be doing for the year 2000. We were losing our Race Directors of five years, Wayne and Debbie Newell. So first off, we would need to find a new Race Director. I grabbed my good friend, Fred Schubitzke, who had just retired from the NASCAR series after being involved there for the last 30 years. He was new to the off road scene and that is what I felt we needed: new ideas and suggestions.
Now, in the year 2000 Mag 7 was also running in the San Felipe 250, the Baja 500 and the Primm 300 while preparing for the Baja 2000. So in January 2000, I started asking guys who wanted to work as a Pit Captain for the Baja 2000 in November. I assembled an initial group of 10 guys who said they were interested. The last Baja 1000 to run to La Paz in 1998, Mag 7 ran 21 pits, one every 50 miles, with the help of Ron Bishop's Baja Pits crew (not to be confused with the Baja Pits Race Team in TJ). We started checking around and realized quickly that 50 mile pits were impossible to run for this year's race. So we settled with 100 mile pits for this race.
Meanwhile, we sent out our San Felipe 250 applications in March and prepared to run pits for that race. Building up pit boxes after last years Baja 1000, confirming new sponsors and breaking in our new Race Director were the order of the day. Our Board of Directors met during April and May, working out a fee schedule and talking about what would be needed for this race in November. Much of our equipment was old, having served us well for over 20 years.
In April, we traveled to the Baja desert and watched a CODE race with Pro Pits of Baja, a new group formed in December, 1999 by Enrique Ortiz and Alfredo Munoz, both formerly of Baja Pits. Mag 7 wanted to see how well they functioned as a pit crew, with the idea of asking them to join our forces for the Baja 2000.
We liked what we saw and in May asked Pro Pits (not to be confused with the crew Pro Pit in the US) to join up with us for the Baja 2000. In April we also sent out our Baja 500 applications and prepared for that race. My Equipment Director, Reggie Powell, started forming a 'must have' list of new equipment Mag 7 would need for the upcoming Baja 2000. Radios, welding hats, generators, more pit boxes, impact wrenches, air bottles, jacks, welders, 11 gallon and 5 gallon dump cans, Dry Brake dump cans, first aid boxes, antennas and poles. You name it, we had it on our 'wish list.' All the while preparing for the Baja 500 as well.
Then there were more Pit Captains to line up. Pit Crews for those pits. Old and new racers calling in, asking Mag 7 what the plans were for the Baja 2000. This starting in February of 2000. New sponsors lined up and signed on. Off Road Warehouse, IMS Products, DeWalt Tools, Harbor Freight Tools joined our existing sponsors of Valvoline Oils, Juice Designs and Williams Tel-Data. Red-D-Arc Welding came on board in the spring too, here in San Diego. Koala Art came on board in September with our Mag 7 T-shirts that stand out at every race. Bright orange. "Cal-Trans" we are called by many. Maybe so, since we help so many independent racers to finish and win.
In July, we decided to run the Primm 300 race up at Stateline. This would be our first race in the states in three years. Only one team asked us to pit and they backed out the weekend before the race. Mag 7 went anyway, and held out our colors at the race, meeting many racers and making ourselves known. Talking to Sal Fish, CEO of Score Racing since early April about the Baja 2000, we then started talking weekly. Attending the Score Tribute to the Baja 1000 in October was great. It allowed Fred and myself to network Mag 7 for the upcoming Baja 2000. So many contacts came from that single party alone.
The race was getting closer and we both had many things to accomplish to make it happen. Starting in August, our membership began receiving their pit applications for the Baja 2000. Mag 7 had decided on running 75 mile pits after talking to Johnny Campbell of Team Honda. We are the two big groups that run Honda XR 600s and 650s. Of course they are the big guys and we are the little guys, but mileages are still mileages. For this race, Team Honda was lowering its limit on how many racers they would handle, so Mag 7 made itself known through both them and Score.
In September, our business really started to heat up. We could see that this would turn into a 24/7 job very quickly. Asking racers to be respectful of your house and not call before or after certain times, is like asking God to have your house spared as it rains all around you. Not likely I say. The faxes started coming in around 4:30-5:00 a.m. and continued until well after midnight. Phone calls around the clock. Message machines hitting new heights with 80-100 messages on them almost everyday. Faxes coming in so quickly that you get blurred looking at them.
New equipment to find, order, pickup and pay for. Sponsors to talk to, order from and pay on time, since you want them to be sponsors next year as well. Racers coming in from England, France, Canada, Japan, Russia, Guam, Baja California and from all over the US. Applications to be faxed out, memberships to be processed, ink jets that run out of ink in the middle of printing. Spending 10-12 hours a day glued to either your phone, computer or the fax machine. But mostly your phone. Late nights planning where your pits will go, who will man them and what happens if someone can't make it at the last minute to pit.
In July, we contacted Bill Markel, the Race Director for FAIR. We also contacted Andrew at Wide Open Baja Adventures. Originally we were to pit 10 of Wide Open's vehicles. In the end, we asked them to help us pit our racers. More headaches as we decide who will pit in certain places and who won't. Meetings held, no shows from certain groups, more meetings held, more no shows. All the time the days are becoming shorter and shorter as the race approaches. Phone calls to you at home. Phone calls to you at work, starting at 7:00 a.m. and going on until 9:30 p.m. (the Fire Captain is starting to dislike off roaders by now).
The Pit Director says he can't do his job. No one wants to be the Secretary. The Equipment Director gets laid off and then re-hired to a 7 day a week, 15 hour a day job, just 45 days before the race. More responsibilities added to the President's job. The Race Director has medical problems that come from out of nowhere. He asked for help with all the mountains of paperwork, but everyone has full time jobs and the calls go unanswered.
Pit Equipment work parties for three weekends in a row in October. The same basic guys come to all three. Exactly 1/12 of our entire team to be exact. You work on equipment from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and still the list goes on forever. Being a Firefighter, I have what seems like a lot of days off. Of course losing my sleep on busy nights at the fire house, coupled with being away from my family and kids and facing a chance of not coming home at all, it seems like a lopsided trade. But having those days off makes others feel as if you should be the errand boy for the team. So you spend all your time running down parts, acquiring new equipment and spending loads of family hours time on the computer and telephone networking with pit captains, racers and sponsors.
In October, I was forced to hire my Race Directors teenage sons, both 10th graders at Hilltop HS. They know the computer better than myself and I need help with typing and letters. Ordering dump cans and Dry Brakes cans from IMS. Picking up electric impact wrenches from De Walt with the greatly appreciated help of Andy Pina. My T-shirts were being handled by Mike Wickersham and his adult son, Terry. Days started at 6:00 a.m. and continue until well after midnight every night. Racer forms get mislaid, mis-numbered or just plain invisible under your nose and then suddenly they reappear. The sign of a confused person?
Driving thru town with a million things on your mind. Not stopping at stop signs because you don't see them. Running thru red lights because you thought they were green. Almost rear ending cars because you didn't see their red stop lights as you were wondering if the fuel order went in on time?
Wondering why you allowed three types of fuel to be run in your pits? For this race, Mag 7 accepted 76 fuels, VP fuels and Turbo Blue. Two octane's of 76, four octane's of VP and one octane of Turbo Blue. At each of the 22 pits! The smallest total fuel amount at any of the 22 pits is 197 gallons at Pit # 1, Shawn Wells of San Diego, Ojos Negros pit. The largest fuel amount was 1,095 gallons at Pit # 10, Steve Meyers of Carlsbad, El Arco pit.
The largest pit has 37 guys, Pit # 13, Stuart Klien (Locos Mocos), 65 miles south of San Ignacio. The smallest pits with three guys is shared with Pits 5,7,18 and 20. These four pits couldn't find more than 3 guys to run the pits. Pits 7 and 18 are being run by FAIR guys. Pits 5 and 20 are being run by Mag 7 guys, John Venters and Larry Bridgewater respectively. For the Baja 2000 our plans included pitting vehicles and bikes/quads in classes 1, 1-2 1600, 3, 5, 5-1600, 7, 7S, 8, 9, 10, 11, Pro Truck, Trophy Truck, 22, 30, 40, 50, 25 and Sportsman bike and quad. 75 entries altogether.
Mag 7 had 196 barrels of fuel sent to 22 pits. Up until 11/04/00, the bill had been $8,100 for this job of shipping the fuel. We were using a Baja California company. Then on 11/04/00 the price soared to $14,500 for the same job. Mag 7 balked at that price and asked to negotiate. Instead, the Baja company dropped us right there! So with 8 days to go before the race and 10,125 gallons of fuel to move to 22 pit locations, we had no shipping company. Quickly we called Bill Rodriguez of 76 Fuels, Baja. He was shipping fuels to BFG Pits and to Baja Pits Race Team. He agreed to take us on and deliver our fuels. Whew! Thank you God for delivering Bill to us. He was a life saver. C.L. Bryant of 76 Fuels, Bruce Hendell of VP Fuel and Kerry Rauch of Sunoco Race Fuels delivered race fuel to him for delivery. Bill handled all the splitting of the fuels to each pit and shipped out fuel and Pit # 22's pit equipment to Todos Santos on Thursday, November 9th to our pits. Thanks again Bill.
So now, as I write this, it is Friday, November 10th and I think I can rest easy. All of my fires seem to be out. The Pit Pickup on 11/4/00 went fine. Racers were met, bills paid and spares dropped off. A few racers were hot, insisting that Mag 7 had already received their monies when our books showed otherwise (one in particular is lucky he's married to a wonderful woman who was great to deal with over the phone the following Monday. Otherwise I would have dropped his application with us in the round file the next day. I think this Pro Truck driver knows who I'm talking about here). But eventually, all were found to be owing still.
Our first ever tire pool went OK and hopefully will work as planned. There were 260 entries listed on the SCORE web page for this race. Mag 7 Race Team planned to pit 75 of them, or more than 1/4 of the total entries. Reminds me of the 'old days' when Mag 7 had 50-60 entries in the 70's. Fuel, welding and light maintenance, coupled with the reputation of pitting in the middle of no where, is what the Mag 7 Race Team is known for.
Racing at night and coming across one of our one-mile signs means a lot to the racer who is racing all night. I have competed in three Baja 1000s where the race went on all night. Personally, being alone on my bike is the greatest feeling ever at night in Baja! And after riding for what seems like hours, coming across a Mag 7 pit all lit up in the middle of nowhere. I must tell you it brings a certain relief to your sense of being all alone in the desert.
And now, all the preparation seems to be paying off. My Race Director, whom I told back in January that this job would be only a couple hours a week and a few faxes and phone calls still likes me. And even though he has decided to resign from his position, but not from Mag 7, I have to tip my hat to Fred. He is the one person who has stuck alongside me through thick and thin. We have laughed, yelled, cursed and wondered why, why we ever got started in this in the first place in the last three months.
The one reason that comes to mind is between the both of us is we love our racers. And we wanted to bring Mag 7 into the new millennium. To declare to the racing world that Mag 7 is a great team. And that we will be around for another 30 years, or as long as off road racing survives the eco terrorists and the BLM. After this race, Mag 7 will be really known as a Race and Pit Team that truly does pit all classes of vehicles in off road racing!
For this race my thanks go out to my wife Melinda, my three sons Sergiy, Michael and Nicholas. My good friend and Mag 7 Race Director Fred, his wife Terry and two sons Waylon and Wesley. My board of directors, my fellow racers, our sponsors, the guys and gals that I have met in the last 6 months that have proven to be wonderful people. But most of all my wife. For remembering that I too have a purpose in life. And that this race will end one day and that I will be grateful she hung in there. Thank you Melinda.

This page last updated 1 December 2000