Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Booby traps set for Baja 1000 drivers
“You’re not going to have time to decipher between the GPS and the flags.”
El Vigía posted a photo of a 5-to-6 inch red rectangle shaped flag that reads SCORE on it with an arrow pointing to the left.
On October 29, El Vigía, an Ensenada based news outlet, reported that Baja 1000 marker flags that will be guiding the race vehicles in less than two weeks — were compromised. The red SCORE flags were removed, destroyed and re positioned between Ejido Eréndira (60 miles south of Ensenada) down to El Rosario which is an additional 113 miles south.
Yolie Stover (foreground), Diego Gomez (third from left). Gomez: “It is done out of pure malice.”
I direct messaged Diego Gómez, an Ensenada-based off-road reporter for Infernus Media. “[Messing with the SCORE markers] always happens at night or when nobody sees them,” he said, “but if they are caught: they are fined and handed over to the authorities for damages.”
El Vigía posted a photo of a 5-to-6 inch red triangle shaped flag that reads SCORE on it with an arrow pointing to the left; the photo was captioned: “The arrows have been removed or moved, which could confuse the racers.”
Alpine resident Yolie Stover from Off Road Girl Loves Baja, a bi-national fan page devoted to the off-road sport is concerned about the re routed flags. She’s been covering the sport since the 1990s and thinks that some that compromised the arrows might “make booby traps …. they do that sometimes,” she said.
“It is a problem because it is done out of pure malice,” Gómez said.
Some racers of the annual off-road race that begins in Ensenada, goes down the Baja peninsula, then loops back to Ensenada never finished the 1000-plus-mile loop-race due to booby traps.
Red Bull reported in 2015: “Every year, local pranksters dig holes and build Dukes of Hazard-esque jumps out on the course in the hope of catching out the unaware – just what you need in the middle of the night in middle of the desert.”
According to El Vigía, a spokesperson from SCORE, the race’s parent company, corroborated that ditches were found and in the past some runners drove “into ramps that did not exist (before the race) or boards that have caused accidents in the corridors.”
“It’s dangerous for drivers because they don’t know what’s there and they already practiced (the pre-run) the week before, and all of a sudden they’ve put a jump there,” said Richard from Chula Vista. “Racing [Baja 1000] is very dangerous already …. it’s [likely] jail time if they get caught making a booby trap or a jump.”
The changing of the arrows is another problem but racers and fans have said all of the race vehicles are equipped with a GPS system.
“When you are travelling at 50-100 mph and you see tons of flags pointing the wrong way,” said one fan, “you’re not going to have time to decipher between the GPS and the [compromised] flags.”
“People said that some flags were compromised by ranchers who do not like the race event,” Gómez said, “which accounts for two-out-of-three that live in certain areas by the course.”
The 51st SCORE Baja 1000 event will run on November 14-18.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Booby traps set for Baja 1000 drivers
“You’re not going to have time to decipher between the GPS and the flags.”
Booby traps set for Baja 1000 drivers
“You’re not going to have time to decipher between the GPS and the flags.”
El Vigía posted a photo of a 5-to-6 inch red rectangle shaped flag that reads SCORE on it with an arrow pointing to the left.
On October 29, El Vigía, an Ensenada based news outlet, reported that Baja 1000 marker flags that will be guiding the race vehicles in less than two weeks — were compromised. The red SCORE flags were removed, destroyed and re positioned between Ejido Eréndira (60 miles south of Ensenada) down to El Rosario which is an additional 113 miles south.
Yolie Stover (foreground), Diego Gomez (third from left). Gomez: “It is done out of pure malice.”
I direct messaged Diego Gómez, an Ensenada-based off-road reporter for Infernus Media. “[Messing with the SCORE markers] always happens at night or when nobody sees them,” he said, “but if they are caught: they are fined and handed over to the authorities for damages.”
El Vigía posted a photo of a 5-to-6 inch red triangle shaped flag that reads SCORE on it with an arrow pointing to the left; the photo was captioned: “The arrows have been removed or moved, which could confuse the racers.”
Alpine resident Yolie Stover from Off Road Girl Loves Baja, a bi-national fan page devoted to the off-road sport is concerned about the re routed flags. She’s been covering the sport since the 1990s and thinks that some that compromised the arrows might “make booby traps …. they do that sometimes,” she said.
“It is a problem because it is done out of pure malice,” Gómez said.
Some racers of the annual off-road race that begins in Ensenada, goes down the Baja peninsula, then loops back to Ensenada never finished the 1000-plus-mile loop-race due to booby traps.
Red Bull reported in 2015: “Every year, local pranksters dig holes and build Dukes of Hazard-esque jumps out on the course in the hope of catching out the unaware – just what you need in the middle of the night in middle of the desert.”
According to El Vigía, a spokesperson from SCORE, the race’s parent company, corroborated that ditches were found and in the past some runners drove “into ramps that did not exist (before the race) or boards that have caused accidents in the corridors.”
“It’s dangerous for drivers because they don’t know what’s there and they already practiced (the pre-run) the week before, and all of a sudden they’ve put a jump there,” said Richard from Chula Vista. “Racing [Baja 1000] is very dangerous already …. it’s [likely] jail time if they get caught making a booby trap or a jump.”
The changing of the arrows is another problem but racers and fans have said all of the race vehicles are equipped with a GPS system.
“When you are travelling at 50-100 mph and you see tons of flags pointing the wrong way,” said one fan, “you’re not going to have time to decipher between the GPS and the [compromised] flags.”
“People said that some flags were compromised by ranchers who do not like the race event,” Gómez said, “which accounts for two-out-of-three that live in certain areas by the course.”
The 51st SCORE Baja 1000 event will run on November 14-18.
Comments